Complete Calisthenics

The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Exercise, Second Edition

Ashley Kalym

• Publisher: Lotus Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 97819053667962
• eBook ISBN: 9781623174125

The ultimate guide to bodyweight exercises for anyone interested in taking their workouts to the next level without the use of weights, machines, or expensive gym memberships. Complete Calisthenics is an essential guide for anyone interested in losing weight, building core strength, and taking their workouts to the next level. Author and trainer Ashley Kalym has designed a comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide to calisthenics using only one's own bodyweight for resistance. Readers will learn how to execute a wide range of exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, core development movements, and lower body routines. Also included are easy-to-follow instructions for the planche, the front and back lever, handstands, handstand push-ups, leg training, and other key exercises. Complete Calisthenics includes essential information on workout preparation, simple props, nutrition, and an assortment of diverse training routines. New to the second edition are enhanced muscle-building exercises, instructions for optimal rest and recovery, and an assortment of original recipes. Kalym also includes samples from his personal food diary. With over 500 instructional photos, Complete Calisthenics takes readers on a path to creating physical endurance, agility, and power. The book is suitable for every level of athlete, from beginner to experienced.

Part I

Introduction

1

What Is Calisthenics?

Firstly, it is worth taking a look at exactly what calisthenics is, and what it isn’t, so that we know why certain exercises are included or excluded.

The word “calisthenics” comes from the ancient Greek kallos, which means “beauty,” and sthenos, which means “strength.” It can be thought of as the art of using your own body weight and qualities of inertia as a means to develop your physique. Wikipedia defines calisthenics as follows:

Calisthenics is a form of exercise consisting of a variety of gross motor movements—running, standing, grasping, pushing, etc.—often performed rhythmically and with minimal equipment, as bodyweight exercises. They are intended to increase strength, fitness and flexibility, through movements such as pulling, pushing, bending, jumping, or swinging, using one’s bodyweight for resistance. Calisthenics can provide the benefits of muscular and aerobic conditioning, in addition to improving psychomotor skills such as balance, agility and coordination.

Sports teams and military units often perform leader-directed group calisthenics as a form of synchronized physical training (often including a customized “call and response” routine) to increase group cohesion and discipline. Calisthenics are also popular as a component of physical education in primary and secondary schools over much of the globe.*

The history of calisthenics stretches back to the dawn of human evolution. In the prehistoric world, the human species walked, ran, jumped, lunged, climbed, pushed, and pulled as part of people’s everyday activity and the struggle to survive. Modern weights and machines that are found in commercial gyms are light-years away from the kind of activity that we humans have been engaged in for millennia, and this is why, in my opinion at least, calisthenics is the most natural and comfortable type of exercise and movement for us to perform. Our cousins, the great apes, make use of this to develop huge strength in the upper body, as is evident when watching chimpanzees climb trees and swing from branch to branch with ease.

In the ancient world, calisthenics was used as the main source of physical preparation for the military, as it was easy to organize, easy to learn, and had the biggest transfer to the actual skills and movements that soldiers would need. There is also something spiritual about being in tune with one’s own body, and being able to move it through space with no limits or barriers. Technology also limited what was possible, as barbells, specific weights, and weighted movements were not understood. Then, as now, physical strength was revered and admired, as the legends of Milo, Atlas, and Hercules attest. These famous and mythical figures were known for one key attribute—their strength, and ability to exert force using their muscles.

Today’s pinnacle of calisthenic-type movement is without doubt the elite gymnast. If there are other athletes who are pound for pound stronger, more agile, more powerful, more flexible, or more mobile, then I have yet to hear of them. The interesting thing about gymnasts is that their strength can almost be thought of as a by-product, as they normally train exclusively for their event or discipline, and not for the ability to be strong. Even though this is the case, most gymnastic training takes place behind closed doors, and many train upwards of thirty to forty hours per week, which for many people is simply not possible with the lives that they lead. In addition, much of gymnastic training is traditionally done with the aim of eventual progress in and perfection of specific disciplines that a particular gymnast will compete in. For the person who just wants to be able to perform one-arm pull-ups, or a front lever, the majority of gymnastic training might be unnecessary, and not everyone can commit or have the discipline to train as a gymnast does.

In recent years calisthenics has really seen a huge leap forward, in terms of its popularity and the movements being performed. Anyone reading this who is familiar with YouTube will no doubt have seen many amazing videos where ordinary people display acts of inhuman strength and muscular control, using equipment no more advanced than a pull-up bar. This is the essence of calisthenics: using the body to perform feats of strength that are rarely seen in other training disciplines.

Another fascinating and admirable characteristic of modern calisthenics is that most of the people who are involved in this type of training do not pay for a gym membership, do not have access to expensive equipment, and do not have people telling them exactly what to do. In principle, they train in parks and basements, on pull-up bars and dip bars that they may have constructed themselves; yet they have more strength than the majority of muscle heads who populate many commercial gyms. As a result of this, it is no surprise to see that calisthenics also has a large place in parkour, or free-running, culture. These men and women perform feats of strength and daring as they run, jump, climb, push, and pull themselves over, under, and through street obstacles using grace and athleticism. Nearly all of these people are very well versed in calisthenics and bodyweight strength movements as well, which makes this book ideal for those who are beginning free running or parkour. In the last few years, specialist workout competitions have become popular, where very strong men and women compete against one another on a street workout course. Some of the movements displayed here would not be out of place in an international gymnastic arena, such is the level of strength and athleticism shown.

Finally, calisthenics is also used as a strength-building tool for other sports, as it serves to build a foundation that is not really achievable anywhere else. Even athletes like Olympic weightlifters perform rudimentary calisthenic movements to build a base level of strength before diverging and performing sport-specific examples. The name that most comes to mind is that of the 77 kg World and Olympic champion weightlifter Lu Xiaojun. This is a man who can snatch 176 kg and clean and jerk 204 kg, but for whom calisthenic and bodyweight exercise is a regular staple in his training routine. He can be seen in many videos and pictures performing handstand push-ups, human flags, weighted dips, and other movements that would not look out of place in a street workout.

Advantages of Calisthenics

Now that we have seen exactly what calisthenics is, it is time to look at the advantages of this method of training.

Everyone can do calisthenics

Firstly, everybody is somewhat accustomed to performing bodyweight exercise, as we have been moving our own body weight through space since the day we were born. In addition, the resistance is tailor-made for each individual, as each person’s own bodyweight is used as the resistance. I have found that many people easily take to training with calisthenics when compared with handling dumbbells and barbells for the first time. This is good because it increases confidence and motivation. I cannot tell you how many times I have informed clients that we will be working with push-ups, only for them to tell me that they cannot do them. Five minutes later, after I teach them exactly how to perform a simplified variation, their faces light up as they realize that they are perfectly capable of performing calisthenics, even if it is at a beginner level.

A safe form of exercise

Secondly, compared with many other forms of exercise, it is not easy to injure yourself performing calisthenics, for the simple reason that to increase resistance requires the leverage or range of motion to be manipulated. This is not true with dumbbell and barbell exercises, however, where even complete novices can add extremely large amounts of weight, resulting in a greatly increased risk of injury. In addition, a lot of the more difficult exercises in calisthenics simply cannot be performed unless they are worked up to over a period of months and years, before they can be attempted and trained regularly. Compare this to weighted movements, where even a beginner can put 100 kg or 200 lb. on a bar and attempt to squat with it.

Exercise difficulty is scalable

Thirdly, the difficulty of each calisthenic exercise can be made more challenging by altering the leverage that can be brought to bear on the movement. At first this concept can be hard to understand. To increase the resistance in nearly all other forms of exercise, you simply add more weight to the bar or pick up and move a heavier weight. But as we are using calisthenics we cannot simply add more body weight. To increase the resistance we have to make it more difficult for the muscles to apply force. To illustrate this point, think about holding a heavy dumbbell or similar object in your hand, with the weight hanging by your side. The weight in question lies directly under your shoulder musculature, making it very easy to hold the position. Now imagine slowly raising the weight out to the side, keeping your elbow locked. This position would become increasingly difficult to hold, until the exercise reached its most difficult to hold with the arm horizontal. At this point the ability of the shoulder muscles to exert force on the weight is reduced, which results in more strength being needed to hold the position. This makes the muscle stronger over time, even though the actual weight lifted has not changed. This concept of manipulating leverage of an exercise is used extensively in this book, especially for the more demanding movements. As you progress through the book you will notice that exercises like the front lever, back lever, pseudo-planche push-up, and many others, all rely on this method of manipulating leverage to increase the difficulty of the exercise.

Transferable strength

Fourthly, the strength built using calisthenics is transferable to a wide range of sports and athletic pursuits. There are many theories that attempt to explain this, and all may be equally valid. My own personal opinion is that nearly all calisthenic movements, and especially the more advanced ones, teach the body how to work as a complete unit. If we take the planche as an example, this exercise requires all of the muscles in the body to act as one, with complete tension required in order for the movement to be performed. This is especially useful because weighted exercises and barbell and dumbbell movements are not suitable for some people, especially the young and undertrained. Using calisthenics enables anyone to develop a solid foundation of strength from which to progress.

Building unique types of strength

Finally, calisthenics makes ample use of isometric exercises. Isometric exercises are those where the muscles are under tension without becoming shorter or longer. Pushing against a locked door or solid wall would be a real-world example of an isometric contraction. This is unlike concentric contractions, where the muscles become shorter under tension, or eccentric contractions, where the muscles become longer under tension. Isometric exercises are different to normal exercises because repetitions are not counted, and instead the exercise is held for a set amount of time. There is no real way to replicate isometric calisthenic exercises with weights, and the type of strength that can be built with these locked, static positions is unique. This is because for all of the isometric exercises, the body has to contract all of the muscles as hard as possible at the same time. This means more muscle is involved in the exercise, which means more strength can be built. An example is the half lever, which is on page 13.

Disadvantages of Calisthenics

Even though there are many benefits to performing calisthenics, there are a few drawbacks as well, and it is worth considering these before we progress.

• Since no weights are used it can be difficult to build massive strength in the lower body using just your own body weight as the resistance. The lower body is home to the biggest and most powerful muscle groups in the body, such as the quadriceps and glutes. This means that they need to contract against a lot of resistance to elicit any strength gains. Unfortunately there are not a great number of calisthenic exercises that we can use to provide enough resistance to build huge lower-body strength. Bodyweight squats, single-leg squats, lunges, and hamstring curls are some of the exercises we will look at later in the book, and although these build huge amounts of strength, I personally found that when starting to train with Olympic weightlifting and back and front squats, my legs were far behind the rest of my body. This is only a concern, of course, if lower-body strength or the specific ability to squat large loads is important to you.
• The second disadvantage is that because of the way the lower body is constructed, it is hard to design exercises that incorporate decreased leverage principles. The upper body is home to many exercises that rely on this concept to increase strength gains, such as the planche, the front and back levers, and many others. There is no way around this fact, which is why on nearly every calisthenics video, the person either will look as though he or she doesn’t train legs, or will not perform any lower-body exercises. This is a pity in my opinion, because training the lower body can help enormously in muscle building and strength gains in the rest of the body.
• The third drawback is that as weight cannot be added to increase resistance, except in the case of weighted pull-ups, for example, we have to rely on the method of decreasing the amount of leverage to make the movement more difficult. While this is an extremely effective way of making an exercise more challenging, it is not the same as increasing the load on a barbell by a few kilograms or pounds every few weeks. For example, if we were doing the bench press, we could quite accurately keep track of exactly how much weight we were lifting and how much it was increasing by each week or month. For calisthenics we cannot do this. We can, of course, keep a record of the number of repetitions, by how much our range of motion has changed, and how long we held certain positions, but calisthenic training is a lot less accurate in terms of recording progress.
• The fourth drawback is disputed by some people but nevertheless remains a popular opinion, which is that performing calisthenics cannot build lots of muscle. I do not think this is true, simply because of the size of some people I have seen performing calisthenic movements. A quick look on YouTube will demonstrate that there are some seriously built individuals doing nothing apart from bodyweight exercise. It is true that there is probably a limit to the muscle size that calisthenics can give you, but if you want bodybuilder size then it would make sense for you to just do bodybuilding. If you want serious, inhuman strength, as well as good size and amazing muscle tone, then calisthenics is the way forward.

Unique Aspects of Calisthenics

As calisthenics is a unique form of training and exercise, it has its own unique benefits and traits, and I would like to spend some time now taking a look at them. These aspects are related to the way in which calisthenic exercises use the muscles of the body, as well as the equipment, or lack of it, that is used. This means that calisthenics can be used to develop types of strength and athleticism that cannot be developed elsewhere or using other methods.

Hand strength

The first unique aspect of calisthenics is that the hands are involved in almost every single movement that we will look at. Pushing, pulling, and core exercises all use the hands to a large degree and, because calisthenics puts an emphasis on complete control and allover body strength, aids like straps and hooks are not used at all. This is in contrast to bodybuilding and other weighted forms of exercise, where straps are used to help people hang onto pull-up bars, and hooks are used to help hold the barbell when dead lifting. No doubt you will have seen this being done in gyms by nearly everybody who is trying to become strong. For the bodybuilder, using hooks and straps is part and p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Nutrition, Rest, and Recovery
• Part III: Physical Preparation
• Part IV: The Exercises
• Part V: Training Programs
• Final Word
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Resources