Hi guys.

Been wanting to start to get in shape. So I came across this calisthenic street workout kind of training and feel like want to try it.
Anyone here do calisthenic workout? Can share your experience here? How is it in terms of effectiveness in getting in shape?

Thanks!!

calisthenic is what? i normally do Hiit as it combines cardio + weighlifting in one go.

calisthenic more like endurance

Combined with a proper diet, I think calisthenics can provide results. Just youtube calisthenics workouts and you can see that those people are pretty lean (and strong as they are able to easily lift and hold their own bodyweight). Another plus of doing calisthenics is that it is free. Just go to the park/playground and use the equipments there

I've been doing calisthenics for almost two years. Most people who do calisthenics usually do the basics and mostly do it to get the fitness levels up. I'll tell you this; not many people have the knowledge to do advance calisthenics and the learning curve can be quite steep. I had to do lots of reading + trial and error to train in more advance moves.

Sure it's hard cause there isn't as much literature as there is on weightlifting but if you're willing to learn then it can be pretty rewarding.

Calisthenics is a big waste of time. Go gym can get same result 10x faster with simple progressive overload.

What kinda of results would that be? Strength? Mass? General fitness?

Endurance but they can't build bigger muscle without weights.

So you're saying that hypertrophy doesn't happen when you do calisthenics? Well if you train endurance in calisthenics obviously you won't grow big. BTW what's your definition of bigger muscles? A body builder like Arnold (when he was still Mr. Olympia that is not the Arnold now)?

Lol you didn't read my earlier post is it? Do you even know what progressive overload is?

LoL. So you're saying that you can't apply progressive overload to calisthenics?

You're really noob

Perhaps i am, but it would be nice of you to explain why hypertrophy doesn't happen in calisthenics. Please (i'm asking nicely )

LOL i just make it simple. Can you build chest with just push ups? Yes you can but you're building more endurance it means eventually your body will adapt to it.
So in order to build muscle or hypertrophy you need to load up the weights that's when you stimulate the muscle.

Terima kasih for your explanation though simple one, i can finally understand why you say that. From your statement you assume that by doing push up you won't get progressive overload a because as you say your body will adapt to it. The principle of strength of course that to be stronger you need to apply more resistance which is what you implied, which is true. Before i take things further lets explore the concepts of strength:

Strength can be defined as the ability to create force to counter act/overwhelm an opposing force or resistance. Simple. So to have more strength you would need to increase either; Intesity, volume or frequency. That's the basic concept of it... so lets try an experiment:

Hold out your fist straight out in front of you at shoulder height and hold it there (the concept of equilibrium) . Not to hard is it, so let's apply the principle of Intensity, volume & frequency. Grab a light dumbell say 4kgs... nothing to hard and hold it back out in front of you. Obviously it'll harder to hold then before. This shows that by adding volume this gets harder, as you say progressive overload.

Let's try something else; with the same dumbell take out the weights of one side and put attach it to one end. So the dumbell will have both 2kg plates on one side of the dumb bell then hold the dumb bell by the empty side and lift it up shoulder length again, you'll notice that the intensity has changed even though you're still holding the same 4kg weights. What has happened is that the leverage for the dumb bell has changed making it harder hence more strength is needed.

Now because of the nature of body weight training, where the weight of the trainee remain fixed the only way to increase intensity is to... LEVERAGE ON YOUR BODY! So obviously working the same move will not provide an increase of strength, as you said. So how does one make things harder? By leveraging your body to make things harder hence a progression. (Also, did you know there are harder variations of the push up? For example; diamond push ups, uneven push ups... )

I would love to explain more but i'm running late... hope it helps.

Wao really good explanation into the concept of body weight training. Thanks so much. Also thanks for @degraw1993 input.
Mr. @dharmabums, I have a question. For example me currently hardly even do one pull up. Im really down because of this.
Can you help suggest how to slowly train to be able to do pull up? Thanks very much

Hi degraw1993, not to be rude calling people noon here but before you understand anything well, don't jump into conclusion that what you know is the best option yet. Basically if you are telling me push up don't build mass in the chest and things are gotten into the endurance side of the story, then youre wrong and you so not have enough knowledge in this.

Calisthenics is somewhat basic from the surface but did you look into advance calisthenics? If you are talking about mass, calisthenics can give you mass depend on how you train it. Don't jump into your own theory saying that calisthenics = rep maniac. We do rep and set but at the same times we do skill works and body balance. Which is a whole body control kinda workout.

Maybe I should ask you a question, do you have any idea what is with the word "muscle"? How do you define muscle? So what you mean is Dwayne Johnson have muscle while Bruce Lee have no muscle? For your information, Bruce Lee don't lift weights and he perform only body weight training. His quote " be water" is not asking you to be water. Is asking you to adapt on whatever environment we put you in. So both Dwayne Johnson and bruce Lee have muscle but diff category. Yet if we back to the Rome era. The Greek. Do you think they have weight to make them get ripped like that?

So next time if you giving your 20 cent here, try to understand and read more before giving people your "final" answer.

Just for your readings...
http://ashotofadrenaline.net/the-5-irrefut...uscle-building/

Hi there, thanks for explaining things in such a detail write up. I like your explanation and I 100% agree on what you say. In conventional gym, people apply progressive overload vastly, if not overwhelmingly. So they don't get the idea of LEVERAGE OF BODYWEIGHT.

Maybe another example is by taking a skill works in calisthenics. Let's just take planche as an example. When we performing planche, we basically use up all our muscle and joint on our body. The progression is at first, we do the TUCK PLANCHE. Then after that we improve progression by leveraging the angle of the force of our joint and the gravity, we next move into STRADDLE PLANCHE, and finally we have the complete FULL PLANCHE. all this progression is what we refer to LEVERAGING OF BODY.

Just in case if someone else so not understand the theory. Search it out before flaming into bad conclusion. have a nice day and get fit dude!

Both can build muscle but calisthenics is slower and to certain limit.

Let's say barbell bench press, you start with empty bar and progress with better exercise form and weights. Almost anyone can do it. You simply add more weights to hit your chest.

As for calisthenics, there are stages. You have to learn a certain skill to get to the next one. Each and every stage hits different part of your body. Example normal push up - more on chest & diamond push up - more on triceps.

I love both of them, reason being :-
calisthenics - fun, skills, swag, but need lots of time to learn skill
weight lifting - boring but its easy and i can do it once a week

For calisthenics, the lighter you are, the easier it is to perform. Therefore they don't bother their weights. They do look very lean with good endurance.
Weight lifting is the opposite, they want to get bigger to move bigger weights.

This post has been edited by Amedion: Apr 15 2015, 05:54 PM