Benefits Of Calisthenics | Why It Is Great And Why You Should Do It?

If you’re a beginner eager to start your fitness journey that’s both challenging and rewarding, you’re in the right place.

In this blog post, we’ll unravel the undeniable benefits of calisthenic exercises over conventional weightlifting, and guide you through the first steps of your adventure.

Let’s dive in and discover the benefits of calisthenics and how it can transform not just your physique but your entire approach to fitness!

Table of Contents

What Are the Benefits Of Calisthenics Exercises?

1. Improve your biomechanics

This PubMed article explains “biomechanics plays an important role in the understanding of the fundamental principles of human motion”, and the history of studies so far on human biomechanics tells us that our musculoskeletal system improves with some sort of strength training exercises.

The musculoskeletal system comprises of bones, muscles, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, joints, and other connective tissues that offer support and link tissues and organs together is known as the musculoskeletal system.

Calisthenics being a form of strength training may help us improve our musculoskeletal system.

2. Better Posture

Many calisthenics exercises, such as pushups and squats, require proper alignment and engage the core muscles.

This strengthens the muscles that support good posture, preventing slouching and slumped shoulders.

Over time, calisthenics may help to improve your posture by counteracting the effects of too much sitting.

Good posture not only looks better but reduces strain on the back and neck.

3. Enhanced Balance

Exercises like handstands, lunges, and single-leg exercises challenge your stability and balance.

As small stabilizer muscles get stronger, balance and coordination improve.

This helps prevent falls and injuries in everyday life. Even basic calisthenics moves require balance, building those skills.

4. Increased Flexibility

Calisthenics can help your mobility and flexibility. Some exercises may lengthen tight muscles and extend your range of motion.

Flexibility allows greater freedom of movement for both athletic activities and daily living. Increased mobility keeps the muscles and joints healthy.

5. Builds An Athletic Physique

Calisthenics exercises utilize your body weight resistance to build muscles.

Pull-ups, push-ups, squats and lunges build noticeable tone and definition, especially in the arms, shoulders, back, legs and glutes.

Low body fat allows those sculpted, athletic muscles to show. The physique of gymnasts comes from calisthenics training.

6. Improves Muscle symmetry

With calisthenics, and due to the nature of the exercises, both sides of the body perform the same movements.

Calisthenics may help you develop an aesthetically pleasing, symmetrical physique.

7. Convenient and Accessible

One of the best things about calisthenics is that it requires no gym membership or expensive equipment.

You can get an effective total body workout using just your body weight.

This makes calisthenics extremely convenient – you can train anywhere at any time.

Since calisthenics can be done anywhere, all that is needed is enough space to do the movements.

8. Save Time and Money

With expensive gym memberships and no need to wait around for machines or weights, calisthenics saves you time and money.

You can workout at home or outdoors rather than spending time commuting to the gym.

The money saved can be invested in things other than gym memberships or equipment.

9. Progress At Your Own Pace

Relying on just body weight forces you to develop good form and advance by mastering harder progressions.

Adding extra resistance is as easy as wearing a backpack, weights vest or using a resistance band.

You learn to truly control your own body.

Minimal equipment makes calisthenics simple yet extremely challenging.

10. Improves Mental Health And May Boost Your Confidence

Exercise has been shown to improve mental health and boost confidence for a few key reasons:

Releases endorphins and neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which are associated with positive mood, reduced stress, and improved self-esteem.
Provides a sense of accomplishment from setting and achieving fitness goals.
Favorable body composition changes from exercise can bolster body image and self-confidence.
Social interaction and support during group fitness activities can help reduce anxiety and loneliness.
May improve sleep quality and self-care habits that favor mental health.

11. You Can Build Amazingly Impressive Strength

This article from PubMed shows that one of the most significant benefits of calisthenics is its impressive ability to build strength, muscle and endurance. You might be surprised just how challenging and effective these exercises can be.

These are some great statistics and metrics found from the study:

Subject Information:

Population: 23 moderately trained men
Age: 23 – 45 years
They measured body weight, height, body mass, body fat percentage before and after the study

Strength Assessments (calisthenics vs weight training):

1RM Bench Press: significant increases for both groups post-training
Push-Up Progression: significantly greater improvement for push-up group

Conclusions of the study:

The main finding of this study was that the utilization of progressive push-up variations, also known as progressive overload, increased upper-body strength comparable with the bench press exercise by eliciting the intensity needed to maintain strength training variables.

In simple words: The big takeaway is this study showed you really can build upper body strength just as well using challenging push-up progressions as you can by bench pressing weights!

12. Calisthenics Is Easy On The Joints

The same study also tells us that Calisthenics uses a resistance that is never heavier than the lifter’s own mass.

These exercises require the recruitment of multiple muscle groups for stabilization and balance, which may help these muscles develop proportionally.

Our joints may handle a good amount of volume of calisthenics exercises because they utilize your own body weight resistance rather than external loading – if you wish to not add external weight to your workouts.

This means joints and connective tissues are only subjected to the equivalent of a person’s natural weight, reducing the risk of injury.

There is no heavy supplementary loading placing undue pressure on joint structures.

13. May Help You Build Muscle

You may build a lot of muscle with bodyweight exercises if you follow these basic principles:

– Progressive Overload

Like weight training or any other type of exercise, calisthenics relies on progressively increasing resistance over time to promote muscle growth.

As you master easier movements, you advance to more difficult exercises.

This constant challenge signals your muscles to grow bigger and stronger and improve your fitness level at the same time.

– Time Under Tension

Many calisthenics moves may involve isometric holds, negatives, and eccentric motions that keep your muscles under tension for longer periods.

This metabolic stress triggers the release of growth hormones and adapts your muscles for size gains.

– Compound, Multi-Joint Movements

Exercises like pull-ups, dips, and push-ups recruit multiple large muscle groups simultaneously.

Targeting muscles in this holistic way leads to better overall development compared to isolation exercises.

– Metabolic Demands

Exercising elevates your heart rate and boosts your metabolic rate.

14. The Aesthetic Appeal Of Calisthenics

Calisthenics is considered attractive for a variety of reasons.

A lot of the mid to advanced-level movements in calisthenics are visually impressive and can grab attention when executed.

15. Calisthenics Plus Cardio Benefits

Calisthenics and cardio workout work really well when paired together.

While calisthenics build strength through resistance training, dedicating time to cardio develops your endurance, vitality, heart health, and burns extra calories.

Running, cycling, or swimming a few times a week provides cardiovascular benefits that calisthenics alone may lack.

The increased respiration, circulation, and stamina from cardio allow you to work harder and longer during calisthenics training.

Boosting overall conditioning this way means faster results in your physique and performance.

16. Calisthenics May Benefit Your Functional Strength

Functional strength refers to having the necessary muscle power, coordination, balance, and control to successfully and efficiently perform activities you encounter in everyday life and sports.

Many gym-based exercises with machines or even weights train muscle groups in isolation. But in calisthenics we use our bodies dynamically through wide ranges of movements.

A major benefit calisthenics actually provides is developing real-world functional strength suitable for daily life and exercise.

What About The Disadvantages Of Calisthenics?

Here are some potential disadvantages I found in calisthenics training:

1. Limited potential for maximum muscular hypertrophy

Bodyweight alone may not provide enough progressive overload for those solely seeking to build maximal muscle size at an advanced level.

2. Strength plateaus

Reaching the highest progressions of advanced skills limits further strength gains, requiring alternative loading methods.

3. Injury risk if poor form

Relative technical complexity introduces injury potential when performing any type of calisthenics exercises.

4. Weather constraints for outdoor training –

Environmental factors like rain or extreme temperatures may interfere with calisthenics performed outdoors.

FAQ

1. What Is Calisthenics?

Calisthenics is a type of exercise (strength training) that involves using your body weight as resistance and it may help you build muscle.

The word originates from the Greek words “Kallos,” which means beauty, and “Stenos,” which translates to strength.

This style of workout emphasizes the mastering of body movements rather than focusing on a specific muscle group, as is often the case in weight training.

It includes various fundamental moves like push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and many others – often with progressions to more advanced versions.

Calisthenics can be done with minimal equipment, making it a perfect choice for those who prefer to exercise at home or outdoors. In fact, you can find many outdoor fitness parks designed specifically for calisthenics workouts.

2. What Are Some Of The Most Common Calisthenics Exercises?

I put together this article, which a huge list of calisthenics exercises The Ultimate Calisthenics Exercise List I Wish I Had (Beginner to Advanced).

3. How Many Calories Do Calisthenics Burn?

This webmd.com article states that you may burn between 135 and 355 calories in a 30-minute calisthenics workout.

Factors like the intensity of the workout routine and your weight will determine how many calories you actually burn.

4. Can I Get A 6-Pack With Calisthenics?

You bet!

This article will provide you with a bunch of exercises to target your abs and core area: The Best Bodyweight Calisthenics Abs Workout: A Comprehensive List For A Killer Core.

5. Okay, I’m, Then How Do I Start Calisthenics?

I am glad you asked. In my article How to start? Calisthenics For Beginners With Program I explain exactly what you need to do to kick off your new fitness venture.

Conclusion

Calisthenics clearly offers more than just physical rewards.

The research shows exercises like calisthenics can help build impressive strength when done consistently and progressively.

Calisthenics can match weight training exercises for muscle and performance adaptation while requiring little to no equipment.

That makes calisthenics extremely accessible and convenient for most people to obtain considerable gains.

Beyond strength increases validated by science, the mental health and mood improvements associated with regular exercise apply too.

Setting and hitting goals boosts self-confidence. Endorphins release positive feelings, and body composition slowly transforms. Combining these factors leads to an undeniable boost of confidence.

So whether you’re looking for bigger biceps, a perkier mood, or heightened assurance in your abilities, a thoughtfully structured calisthenics regimen delivers on all fronts.

The capacity to efficiently sculpt your physique AND improve emotional health on your own terms makes committing to calisthenics tremendously worthwhile.

Now that you are familiar with the benefits, make sure to understand the disadvantages of calisthenics.