What is calisthenics?
What is calisthenics?
Calisthenics, or body weight training are a form of
training. With help of calisthenics you can
exercise your body without any dumbbells, barbells or a gym membership. Old School bodybuilding originates from it as I wrote before in my post on “Muscle Beach”. Later more and more weights where involved. Especially after bodybuilding became hot after the legendary movie “Pumping Iron” with Arnold and Louie.
There is a big difference between Calisthenics, Bodybuilding and Weight lifting. Bodybuilding is just for looks and has very little to do with strength or functional muscle. As far as the differences between just bodyweight and
weights, I think both are good and you should do both. You must be able to handle your body weight, but you also must be able to handle more. In the beginning sportsmen like football players where discouraged to do weighttraining, “because all those muscle would make them stiff and slow” and it wasn’t functional muscle just “blown-up muscle”. All professional sportsmen and women know better by now. Many disciplines in training do not have to push one another away, they can exist together and even done together, just like in the days of Arnold. You can join a gym and also join a group of people that train Calisthenics in the open air. It will broaden your vision.
When the barbells and machines began to really take over in the second half of the twentieth century, all of the hard-earned, ancient knowledge regarding bodyweight training became considered redundant. Immaterial to the modern age. Dazzled by the new gadgets and the methods associated with them, fewer and fewer people continued using these ancient old school methods and they began to die out.
Today, bodyweight strength training has been almost totally replaced by weight-training with machines, barbells, and dumbbells. Bodyweight training is seen as the feeble sibling of these newer approaches, and has been relegated to the sidelines. The old school skills and systems dwindled through disuse and became lost. All that survived was the basic minimum. Today, when people - even so called strength “experts” - talk about bodyweight training, they only really know the beginners’ movements - pushups, deep knee-bends, etc. To this they add a few useless and pathetic modern exercises, like ab crunches. These exercises are given to school children, weaklings, or are done as warm ups or to develop light endurance. Compared to the traditional, strength-based attitude, this approach could be called new school calisthenics. Old school calisthenics - which involved bodyweight systems designed to progressively develop inhuman power and strength - have almost died out. Almost. Some hardcore gyms preserved their old dips and chins and had some old fashion weights like chains and weightbelts lying around to increase bodyweight. Also the military still used calisthenics for the military work out, mostly they used backpacks to make it even harder. And of course the…
Prisons
There was one place that the old school calisthenics never died out; a place where the older systems were perfectly preserved, like an ancient insect trapped in amber - in prisons.
The reason for this is obvious. The massive revolution in training technology, which killed off old school calisthenics on the outside, never occurred in prisons. Either that, or it occurred very late. The barbell and dumbbell-based gyms that became the rage in the fifties and sixties? Not in prisons. Very primitive weight pits didn’t start appearing until the late seventies. The “indispensable” strength training machines upon which most gyms became built in the
seventies and eighties are still largely absent from prison gyms.
In effect, this means that - while the rest of the strength training world was undergoing a huge “modernization” during the twentieth century - prisons were like a bubble. The traditions that were being killed off in gymnasiums up and down the country stayed alive in prisons, because they weren’t choked to death by technology and the money associated with novelty gimmicks. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the guys who got incarcerated and knew how to do true bodyweight training based on strength - the gymnasts, acrobats, circus performers and strongmen - passed their knowledge on to other inmates. This knowledge - old school calisthenics - was gold in prisons, where no exercise equipment at all was to be found, with the exception of the bars overhead and the floor below. And being physically strong as well as agile was essential - those days were tough.
Life in prisons today is harsh, but going back a century or so, things were even harder. Beatings and cruel treatment were a part of the expected daily grind, and inmates killed and seriously wounded each other as a matter of routine. The handful of guys who trained for strength in their cells did so to literally stay alive. They trained furiously and with enormous seriousness - being powerful was a life or death matter! In this sense, those inmates from our past were no different from the Spartans led by Leonidas sixty-eight centuries ago. They all depended on their power to survive, and in order to develop that power they trained in traditional calisthenics. Kali Muscle shows how he did biceps without weights in prison
Going Back to the Basics With Calisthenics
Back in the days before Spandex and aerobics, when there were no health clubs or high-tech exercise machines, people who wanted to get fit did calisthenics. Staples of the military, sports teams and gym classes, these basic conditioning exercises, push-ups and pull-ups and the like, were considered the best way to get strong and fit. In fact, the popularity of the Royal Canadian.
Air Force's calisthenics program in the late 1950s helped launch the modern fitness movement.
Now, after decades devoted to an explosion of diverse fitness options, these low-tech, low- or no- cost basic training tools are back. Calisthenics are the mainstay of "boot camp workouts," one of the hottest classes at
trendy fitness clubs. New books and videos feature military-style shape-up routines, and there's a boom in outdoor programs led by drill-sergeant-inspired instructors who bark their "maggot" charges through basic training regimens.
The reason? Any time you stick to the basics, it's going to work and you'll get results. Calisthenics use your own body weight to provide resistance needed to strengthen muscles. And you don't need fancy equipment or lots of money to get in top physical condition. Plus, calisthenics can provide an aerobic workout. Try doing a series of exercises called a pyramid, where you start by doing one pull-up, two push-ups and three crunches, then do two pull-ups, four push-ups and six crunches and keep progressing until you're doing 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups
and 30 crunches, then work your way back down. You get your heart rate up.
But calisthenics only work if you discipline yourself to do them regularly, which is one reason for the popularity of the "drop and give me 20" motivation offered by the new boot camps. These are early-morning workouts at sites, mostly parks and playgrounds. It's like personal training for a group, where you’re pushed harder than you'd push yourself.
Lots of people don't want to go to gyms. Basic training, offers an appealing fresh-air alternative to the noise, mirrors, intimidating equipment and hard-body clientele at many gyms.
In addition to shaping up the body, military-style workouts also pay off in mental fitness. The unbelievable amount of confidence you will gain in your abilities will change your life. Your boss, friends and co-workers will see a lean, fit, self-assured person who has the attitude that anything can be accomplished.
“Functional” muscle and strength
Several years ago, back in the 90s several of the pioneers of today’s calisthenics scene were just getting their start in the game. Prominent names like Giant (Bartendaz), Lord Vital (Beastmode) just to name a few of the prominent calisthenics figures. This new modern form of calisthenics is hot it is spread via “social media” and YouTube. Groups of
people like “Barstarzz” and “Bar Kingz” inspire more and more people. Does that mean that Fitness, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting etc etc will eventually go away? I don’t think so. I think it will combine eventually. Just like many gyms now offer bootcamp lessons.
Today, extreme calisthenics goes by many names:
• Ghetto Workout • Extreme Calisthenics • Street Workout • Bar Workout
Most styles also organize competitions that are amazing to look at.
However, this calisthenics approach to working out actually is a rediscovery of what was used for strength in the old days. These days before creatine, protein powders, barbells and fancy memberships at gyms are so expensive that they might as well be country clubs. Well actually, some of today’s gyms are actually country clubs. That being said, there is a movement taking place around the world. In countries like the former Soviet Union, Ukraine, Japan, Canada, the United States, Israel, South Africa and every place in between, extreme calisthenics is taking over. Why?
Lots of especially young people are sick of fitness gimmicks, paleo diets, protein drinks and other crap that does not allow you to build functional muscle. Not only that, but many of these, flavor of the month, exercise fads just do not give people the results that they are looking for.
This form of calisthenics exercises does not limit anyone from doing it and it has no limits in how it can help you. It can increase your strength, your strength as a unit (core, body as a whole), flexibility, muscle size, power, speed, balance, coordination, tendon/ligament strength and most likely even more. It will give you “functional” muscle and strength.
If you know what you are doing - this kind of training can be much, much more effective than weight training.
Keep in mind that because you are not in a gym and use resistance exercises without weights means it is easier to meet and work out together with your friends. After all it is free to start and any one of your friends can begin no matter their age.
Start Slowly to Avoid Injury
People who have been sedentary need to start any exercise program slowly and progress gradually. If you're out of shape, try modified versions of some exercises to avoid injury. For example, when doing a jumping jack, you don't need to bring your arms all the way over your head. Just bend your elbows and raise your arms up as far as is comfortable. Instead of jumping out and back, you can simply raise and lower alternate knees.
In general, avoid exercises that involve standing with your knees locked and bending over, such as "toe touches" or "windmills." And if you have back problems, substitute bent-leg bent crunches for straight-leg sit-ups.
Kali Muscle, on the pic doing the “human Flag”, inspiring and funny
Be sure to warm up first, by walking or jogging lightly, then stretch gently before starting the exercises.
* Classic Push-Up: Position your body at about a 45 45-degree degree angle to the floor, with your weight supported only by your palms and toes. Keep your feet together, your palms a little wider than your shoulders and your back straight. Look forward, focus your gaze on a spot about four feet in front of you, bend your elbows and slowly lower yourself until your chest touches the ground, then push back up.
Don't cheat by arching hing your back or lifting your butt up and down. Keep your legs, back and neck in a straight line, and go all the way up and all the way down by bending and straightening your elbows. Inhale going down, exhale pushing up. Move at a smooth, controlled pace without rushing. The slower you go, the more difficult the push-up.
* Modified Push-Up: Use the same movements while keeping your knees on the floor. This reduces the amount of body weight you're lifting, so it's easier. But it can be just as effective, particularly for people who lack the upper-body strength to do classic push-ups.
* Novice Note: Those unable to do either classic or modified push-ups can start in the "up" position, with weight on palms and knees or toes. Then slowly lower yourself down to a count of five. Relax, then repeat.
Kali Muscle