The Fundamentals of Calisthenics

I used calisthenics as my primary form of exercise when I lost 20 pounds over 6 months. It helped me a lot when I was trying to lose weight in the pandemic, and I had no access to the gym. For a heavy guy, difficult calisthenics exercises take a toll on the tendons and ligaments. So, it is important to build muscle mass with fundamental exercises before trying hard calisthenics exercises.

Calisthenics is a type of exercise, very similar to gymnastics, which consists of bodyweight exercises. It gives you extraordinary control of your body. I believe it’s the best form of exercise for beginners. It is very easy to reduce or increase the load of the exercise with calisthenics. Calisthenics actually gets far more complex as you progress. Before you achieve complex skills like the planche, muscle up, front lever, back lever, handstands, handstand press, etc, you first need to strengthen the basics.

3 Fundamental Exercises To Master Calisthenics:

(I have attached links below. By clicking on these links, you can see videos on how to perform exercises and their variations with strict form.)

1) Push-ups

This was the exercise that helped me the most. When starting out with push-ups, I would recommend first just doing regular push-ups. If you can’t do regular push-ups you can always do knee push-ups. I usually did as many push-ups as possible and then reduced the load by doing knee push-ups to failure. This really helped me increase the tension. Also, while doing push-ups, form is really important, especially having a straight posture and your core engaged. Once you can do 10 push-ups, you can do more variations to not only increase the difficulty but also train different parts of your upper body.

Variations (links):

2) Squats

This is a good exercise for your legs, especially for your quad muscles. This exercise also improves joint mobility in the ankles and hips. It is imperative that you have good form for this exercise as it could hurt you if you don’t. Also, if you can’t do a squat, there are easier variations. You can keep a chair behind you. As you go down instead do squatting fully you can sit on the chair. Slowly you can reduce the height of the object or platform below you as you progress. This is also known as a bodyweight box squat. Now to make it more difficult you can do pause squats where you pause at the bottom for 2 seconds which increases the tension. You can also add jump squats which add explosiveness to the traditional squat. After some time as you get better, you can try the pistol squat. This is a difficult exercise where you do a squat on one leg. Additionally, you don’t have to go the traditional calisthenic way and you can do weighted squats by holding a kettlebell while doing the squat. Mastering the squat will strengthen your legs significantly.

Variations (links):

3) Pull-ups

This is one of the best exercises for your back. This exercise helped me tremendously with scapula protraction and retraction. It also unlocks more movement in your back. Pull-ups are a difficult exercise but with practice, you can achieve it. I would first advise you to practice hanging on a pull-up bar for 60 seconds. Once you can do that, you should try doing pullups with resistance bands for support. After achieving that, try actual pull-ups. Once you can do 7-8 good pull-ups with strict form(very important), you can try variations. You can also do weighted pull-ups which really build your back.

Variations (links):

Conclusion:

The 3 fundamental exercises: Push-ups, Pull-ups, and Squats are all you need to start your calisthenics journey. As you progress you can think of purchasing equipment like gymnastics rings and parallette bars, but always remember you only need a floor to start. I truly enjoy calisthenics as it shows you all the different movements you can accomplish with your body and determination. The skills you accomplish are purely based on strength, skill, and determination and not on luck and other resources. Hopefully, this post helped you understand more about calisthenics and cultivated some interest in it.

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
Jim Rohn

On to the next.

-Akash Gaonkar-

This site does not contain medical/health advice. The medical/health information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of medical/health advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.