Why Pros Sneak Cardio And Calisthenics Into Their Training (And How You Can Too)
Have you ever wondered how some calisthenics athletes achieve ultra shredded physiques and can easily bust out skills like muscle-ups, planks, and handstands?
So, you thought calisthenics alone would get you lean and strong?
Well, I will tell you a little secret today: It’s not all just calisthenics.
Many of the top performers are secretly incorporating cardio into their training routines too.
The truth is adding the right dose of cardio provides some key benefits that calisthenics alone often misses.
If you want a ripped, athletic physique, you need the calisthenics and cardio combo.
Read on to learn the method to this madness straight from the experts!
Table of Contents
➡️ Do You Need Cardio If You Do Calisthenics?
Let’s discuss both types of exercises so that you can make an informed decision.
Calisthenics Vs. Cardio
To understand the difference, we need to define what each means.
✏️ Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, involves rhythmic, aerobic activities that increase your heart rate and breathing.
✏️ Cardio improves heart function and increases efficiency in transporting and utilizing oxygen in your body.
Common forms of cardio include running, cycling, swimming, and brisk walking.
Benefits of Cardio
1️⃣ Enhances Heart Health: Strengthens the heart muscle, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
2️⃣ Burns Calories: Effective for weight loss and management.
3️⃣ Boosts Lung Capacity: Improves respiratory efficiency.
4️⃣ Increases Stamina: Enhances overall endurance and energy levels.
5️⃣ Reduces Stress: Triggers endorphin release, improving mood and mental well-being.
This article on Cardiovascular Effects and Benefits of Exercise discusses the widespread health benefits and significantly lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with regular exercise and physical activity.
Calisthenics involves using your body weight for resistance to build strength and muscle.
It includes exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and lunges. This exercise focuses on natural movements and can be performed with minimal equipment.
Benefits of Calisthenics:
1️⃣ Builds Functional Strength: Improves strength applicable to everyday activities.
2️⃣ Enhances Flexibility and Mobility: Promotes a full range of motion in joints.
3️⃣ Improves Body Composition: Increasing muscle tone and definition.
4️⃣ Scalable Difficulty: Suitable for all fitness levels, with progressions for each exercise.
5️⃣ Minimal Equipment Required: Can be done almost anywhere, making it highly accessible.
✏️ This complete article on the benefits of calisthenics goes deep into the topic.
Cardio Exercises
✅ Walking or hiking: getting extra steps in is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to add cardio to your routine. Walk anytime, anywhere, in short bursts or longer hikes.
✅ Running: if running is OK for your joints, consider adding one or two short (3-5 mile) runs into your week and enjoy the fresh air.
✅ Jump rope: skipping is a great cardio workout that delivers many benefits in a short time.
✅ HIIT or intervals: if you prefer your cardio short and sharp, do HIIT workouts, intervals, or circuit style cardio.
✅ Swimming: swimming is a great partner to calisthenics because – like calisthenics – it builds joint health and is a full-body workout.
➡️ 5 Benefits Of Doing Cardio And Calisthenics
Calisthenics and cardio complement each other effectively, creating a well-rounded fitness regimen.
Here’s how they work together:
1️⃣ Enhanced Overall Fitness: Calisthenics builds strength and muscle, while cardio improves endurance and cardiovascular health. Together, they ensure a balanced approach to fitness, enhancing both muscular and cardiovascular systems.
2️⃣ Improved Fat Loss: Cardio exercises are great for burning calories and fat. When combined with calisthenics, which builds muscle, the body’s resting metabolic rate increases, leading to more efficient fat burning, even at rest. Which means you’ll be more likely to show off those six-pack abs.
3️⃣ Increased Endurance for Strength Training: Regular cardio improves endurance and stamina, which can help you perform better during calisthenics workouts, allowing for longer sessions or more intense exercises before you run out of breath.
4️⃣ Muscle Recovery and Balance: Cardio, especially low-intensity forms, can aid in muscle recovery after intense strength training sessions by promoting blood flow. This helps in reducing muscle soreness and improving overall recovery.
5️⃣ Flexibility and Mobility Gains: Some calisthenics exercises include movements that enhance flexibility and mobility, improving overall movement quality and reducing injury risk.
In summary, combining calisthenics and cardio leads to a more holistic approach to fitness, addressing multiple aspects of health and physical capability, and can lead to more balanced and sustainable fitness results.
➡️ Is There Such Thing As Cardio Calisthenics?
In my opinion, there is no such thing as Cardio Calisthenics. As explained previously, each activity has different purposes.
But, after doing some research online, it looks like Cardio Calisthenics is a thing, and it is defined as:
✏️ A concept that blends the principles of calisthenics, which is strength training using body weight, with cardiovascular exercise to create a workout that simultaneously builds strength and improves cardiovascular health.
Nature of Cardio Calisthenics:
✅ High-Intensity, Low Rest: These workouts often involve performing calisthenics exercises at a high intensity with minimal rest between sets, keeping the heart rate elevated throughout the session.
✅ Dynamic Movements: Exercises are chosen for their dynamic nature, often involving multiple muscle groups and requiring a significant amount of energy, thereby boosting cardiovascular endurance.
✅ Circuit Format: Cardio calisthenics is commonly structured in a circuit format, where you move quickly from one exercise to another, maintaining a higher heart rate than traditional strength training.
✅ Promises Improved Cardiovascular Health: Enhances heart and lung function, similar to traditional cardio exercises.
✅ Builds Muscle Endurance through bodyweight exercises.
✅ Calorie Burning: High-intensity nature leads to calorie burn, aiding in weight loss and body composition goals.
Examples of Cardio Calisthenics Exercises:
- Burpees
- Jumping lunges
- Mountain climbers
- High knees
- Jump squats
❌ Again, I don’t fully agree with this concept, but it is something that is out there and worth mentioning to provide a well-rounded opinion on this topic.
➡️ Top Cardio Exercises for Calisthenics Practitioners
1️⃣ Walking/Hiking is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to incorporate cardio. This can be done anywhere and anytime, whether in brief sessions or on longer trails. It has an incredible calorie-burning effect, helping you to lose fat.
2️⃣ Swimming: It not only promotes joint health but also provides a comprehensive full-body workout.
3️⃣ Bike Ryding Low-Impact Exercise: Cycling is an excellent cardio exercise for calisthenics practitioners, offering significant benefits, particularly as a low-impact (gentle on the joints, which may keep you injury-free) exercise and a fat-burning activity, which is crucial to maintain a lean physique.
4️⃣ Jump Rope: A fantastic and efficient cardio exercise, jump roping can have your heart pumping in a relatively short time frame, and you might burn fat faster.
5️⃣ HIIT/Interval Training: If you prefer quick, intense workouts, consider high-intensity interval training (HIIT), interval sessions, or circuit-style cardio workouts for a rapid cardio session. It has superb benefits for endurance and helps with fat burning.
6️⃣ Running: For those without joint issues, adding a couple of short runs to your weekly routine can be beneficial. It’s a great way to enjoy the outdoors and promote your cardio fitness.
➡️ How To Incorporate Cardio Into Calisthenics
A well-designed Calisthenics program should have days off.
✏️ I call days off = active recovery days.
✏️ Incorporate a cardio session during the active recovery days (or your days off calisthenics).
A typical Calisthenics Split might look like this:
- 💪Day 1: Pull Day
- 💪Day 2: Push Day
- 🦵Day 3: Leg Day
- 🤸Day 4: Active Recovery – this is your opportunity to incorporate cardio!
- 🔁 Repeat
Healthline, in their article: How Often Should You Do Cardio Exercise?, recommends that we should do cardio at least 150 minutes per week.
Huberman also recommends 150 – 200 minutes of cardio per week.
➡️ How To Improve Your Endurance When Calisthenics Is Based On Building Muscle Strength?
✏️ You can increase your calisthenics endurance by following the Progressive Overload principle.
I created an entire article on this principle. Make sure you read it.
✏️ Are You Not Using The Milo Of Croton Progressive Overload Method In Calisthenics?
➡️ Conclusion
There are compelling reasons for calisthenics athletes to incorporate cardio into their training routines.
✏️ While calisthenics builds impressive functional strength and muscle definition, adding cardio provides complementary benefits like:
✅ Enhanced endurance, stamina, and workout capacity
✅ Increased calorie burn and accelerated fat loss
✅ Better recovery between intense sessions
✅ Reduced risk of injury with improved joint health
✅ More holistic, well-rounded physical development
Effective ways to add cardio include low-impact activities like walking, swimming, cycling, and jump rope. More intense options are HIIT circuits, jogging, and intervals.
Aim for 1-3 cardio sessions per week for around 20-40 mins.
✏️ The combo of cardio and calisthenics leads to well-developed muscular and cardiovascular systems.
It saves training time, prevents fitness plateauing, and enables a shredded, athletic physique.
✏️ So don’t neglect cardio if you love calisthenics!
Utilize active recovery days to incorporate cardio for enhanced endurance, faster fat burning, and to look better than ever!!!!
