We often hear about the different types of exercises and workouts such as HIIT, strength training etc. Today, we will be focusing on calisthenics. Calisthenics is a form of exercise that involves large muscle groups and performing a variety of movements
Calisthenics is usually performed with minimal equipment and mainly focused on body weight exercises. It involves movements such as pulling, pushing, jumping, swinging etc and making use of one's body weight as resistance. It is intended to increase strength, fitness and flexibility of the individual. Through such exercises, it conditions the body to have better psychomotor skills such as balance, agility and coordination.
Workouts
Some of the common calisthenics workout includes:
Push ups (And the different variations)
Squats
Pull ups
Burpees
Dips
L sit
Planche
Planks
Muscle up
Pistol squats
Equipment
For calisthenics, depending on the type of workout that you do, some of which may require a bar to practice on and most, just an empty space would be sufficient.
Some of the common equipment that you might require would be a pull up bar, monkey bars, parallel bars and even boxes for your box jumps.
Usually these facilities are readily available around your neighbourhood parks
Benefits
So what are some of the benefits for one to engage in calisthenics?
Increase muscle & tone
Calisthenics is one of the exercises that allows us to utilise our body weight and train using it. The effect that this has on our muscles is that it allows our muscle growth to be more natural and it would develop in a lean way, making us lean instead of growing in mass/size (As compared to using weights at the gym).
Weight Loss
Calisthenics tackle the problem of burning excess calories in two ways.
First, strength training builds muscle mass and tone all over your body. Increased muscle mass raises your resting metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more calories at rest.
Next, continuous calisthenics causes your heart rate to rise. It constitutes aerobic exercise, one of the most effective ways possible to burn off calories.
Endurance
Circuit training calisthenics requires you to do as many reps of an exercise as possible, without rest, until fatigued. When you perform these exercises on a daily/frequent basis, and letting your muscles heal overnight, your endurance increases over time. Soon, you will be able to perform even more reps. When performed evenly within all muscle groups, the result is increased endurance throughout every part of the body, including the cardio-vascular system.
Calisthenics can improve multiple aspects of your physicality. It is an excellent exercise for overall fitness and health. Doesn't matter what your fitness goals are, calisthenics would definitely be worth considering.
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