What is Calisthenics?

What is Calisthenics? In this article, we will discuss the different forms of calisthenics such as street fitness, the different exercises, workouts, and places where you can perform calisthenics.

Calisthenics can be translated as 'beautiful power'. The word comes from the Greek words kallos (κάλλος), meaning 'beautiful' or 'beauty', and sthenos (σθένος), 'strength'.

In practice, the term calisthenics can be used for many different exercises and training forms. This can vary from exercises that mainly require a lot of strength to exercises that mainly train endurance. In terms of difficulty, it can range from a simple pushup to acrobatic arts that wouldn't be out of place in a circus.

The most important characteristic of calisthenics is that in all these exercises (mainly) your own body weight forms the resistance.

Calisthenics exercises

As mentioned, the type of exercises you can do with body weight as resistance can vary widely. The name calisthenics itself does not really say much about the type of training that you have to envision.

It can therefore be useful to make a classification for this. For example, you can divide exercises into:

Difficulty Level
Goal (cardio, muscle strength, muscle condition, flexibility)
Material required

But that classification can also differ from person to person.

Let's take the push up as an example. The push up is perhaps one of the best-known examples of an exercise in which the body weight forms the resistance. For many this will technically offer a low level of difficulty as an exercise while some will have difficulty with a single push up. If you can do a maximum of 10 push ups, this exercise will mainly train muscle strength. However, if you can do 100 push ups, this mainly develops muscle condition. Due to the difference in relative resistance, the same exercise may require different energy systems and muscle fibers in different people.

Why calisthenics?

Calisthenics has some pros and cons over both cardio and weight training.

The most obvious advantage is that you don't need any, or not much, material. After all, the resistance is formed by the body weight. You don't need a gym subscription and no extra room with all kinds of teleshopping equipment.

That can also be the biggest drawback. You can only adjust the resistance by adjusting the exercises yourself and even then there are limits.

The push ups are a good example: Suppose, for example, that you want to train the chest muscles. You could bench press at the gym . You could also adjust the weight to your goal. If muscle mass is your goal, you could choose a weight that allows you to do anywhere between 6 and 10 reps. Your body weight may be too light for this rep range. As mentioned, you are mainly training muscle condition when you only get tired with a push up or 50. So you will not get a bigger chest. You may be getting closer to 6 to 10 reps when you do the push ups on one arm. However, this also changes the exercise technically and, for example, more emphasis can be placed on the triceps and less on the chest.

Allround vs specializing

Calisthenics exercises are also almost always compound exercises that involve multiple muscle groups. This puts more emphasis on the coordination of these muscles. You could also call this functional training because it prepares your body for a wider range of actions that you may need to perform in everyday life. This is different from, for example, isolation exercises in strength training that mainly strengthen a single muscle group.

In summary, you could say that calisthenics train you all-round. You train your body as a team that prepares for every possible opponent. Weight training focuses more on improving the individual players in your team and preparing for a specific opponent. For example, your chest becomes very strong in the bench press, but a push up on one arm does not work because you have never trained the neurological connections for this.

Calisthenics for beginners

“How do you start with calisthenics?”.

It's a frequently asked question. Because you can interpret the term 'calisthenics' in many different ways, there is no single answer to this. Moreover, the level of difficulty of the same exercise differs too much from person to person.

For example, some will already have trouble with pull ups. For example, an 'Australian pull up' will be a good exercise for them. We already showed this exercise in the article “learning to pull up”. In these exercises you hang diagonally and the feet remain on the floor. This means you don't have to pull your entire body weight straight up.

For others starting out with calisthenics, a normal pull up can be very easy. For example, it may be more interesting for them to learn a muscle up. The power is probably already there. Now, however, the technique and coordination still have to be learned.