There are 4 main categories of calisthenics:
- weighted
- endurance
- static
- freestyle
These aren’t all independent of one another. No matter which route you want to pursue, having a strong base of foundational strength is crucial before trying to learn advanced moves. Not taking these seriously can lead to injury and stagnated progression.
Most movements are divided between vertical pushing / vertical pulling and horizontal pushing / horizontal pulling.
Stretching and Warmup
Before any time of exercise it is important to stretch and warmup. There are important categories of stretches for calisthenics.
Wrist holds
1 second holds in the position for 10-15 reps. Sit on the ground like the “cat” position in the cat/cow position in yoga. Holds:
- turn your fingers facing towards you with palms flat on the ground. lean back for 1 second at a time.
- fingers facing away from you
- fingers facing towards each other and away from each other, rolling forward and back
Goal: maintain 90 degrees of wrist extension comfortably since it plays a major role in most calisthenics exercises.
Shoulder Dislocates
Using a stick or a band, lock out your arms. Keeping your core and chest tight bring the band over your head and behind you. Then reverse the movement. 5 to 8 seconds per rep. Wider over time.
Useful for:
- handstand and back lever.
Standing hamstring stretch
Keep your back straight, feet together. Exhale air from your stomach then bend forward maintaning a straight back.
Progressional warmup exercises
- knee pushups if push day, etc. should not make you feel tired.
Foundational exercises
pushups
- hands shoulder width apart and go into plank position.
- core and glutes should be activated to prevent hips from sagging.
- as you lower yourself make sure your elbow does not flare out and aim to get chest as close to floor as possible.
- scapula protraction and retraction; always be mindful of it.
- This becomes helpful for planche skill
Progression:
- knee pushups
- incline pushups
- standard pushups
- diamond pushups - more chest and triceps
- pseudo planche pushup - keeping wrists closer to waist level will favor interior deltoids.
You can adjust the parameters and intensity of the pushup by increasing the time of the negative and implementing isometric holds.
Explosive pushups can help with developing explosive strength but remember to always control the negative.
Archer pushups are good for increasing the load of the pushup or fixing imbalances.
Decline pushups as well.
Dips
Beginning level push exercise where you’re supporting your entire body weight with your upper body. Keep your core tight, fully extend your arms. Make sure your shoulders are depressed - they should be as far away from your ears as possible. Slowly lower yourself until your arms are at a 90 degree angle and then go back up. With good shoulder mobility you can go slightly lower than 90 degrees. Control the negative portion of it before exploding back up. This helps build fast twitch muscle fibers which will increase explosive power over time.
GOAL: 100 dips a day when I’m at home. 10 dips in a row with clean form.
Pike pushups
This helps train our vertical pushing in the upward position. This is an early progression of the handstand pushup. Get into a standard pushup position. Then bring your legs as close to your arms as possible. Keep your scapula elevated. Push up as explosively as possible.
Progression:
- bring legs closer
- decline pike pushup
- parallettes for extra range of motion.
By keeping your form consistent it prevents you from accidentally doing harder or easier variations of the movement, helping you better gauge your progress.
Pullups
Start from a dead hang with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width. pull up as explosively as possible. Make sure to depress your scapula the whole time.
Dead hangs, scapula shrugs. Pullup negative and banded pullup. Pullup isometric hold at the top.
Inverted row
Horizontal version of the pulling movement. Hands shoulder width apart on a parallel bar from the bottom. Extend legs until they are inline with your body. Engage your core to prevent any swinging. When you pull up make sure to retract your scapula and imagine that you are pulling your elbows back, not your arms.
Inverted rows on rings will allow you to transition between grips during reps and reduce strain on wrists.
Inverted rows with elevated legs is harder.
Inverted rows with supinated grip (like chin ups) will similarly put focus on your biceps. Pronated grip will be lats and forearms.
Core movements
Intensive core training is not necessary when you’re doing calisthenics. This is because most calisthenics is compound exercises which use your core anyway.
90 percent of your abs’ definition comes down to your body fat. Being able to maintain an L-sit hold is a solid goal to have. Will then have the core strength and requisite skills for planche, handstand pushup, and front lever.
Hanging knee raises are great for building core strength.
- Use a supinated grip that is comfortable for you.
- Lift your legs up in a controlled manner until you feel your abs contract. Then slowly drop down to starting position.
- Don’t cheat yourself by leaning backwards.
- Always maintain core activation.
Progression:
- knee raises
- leg raise with one leg
- knee raise with extended legs
- isometric versions of these
Seated pike lifts - will increase your compression power.
- major component of L sit.
- make sure you’re powering the movement with your hips.
- legs locked out the whole time.
- do hamstring stretches in between sets.
- easier by moving hands back, harder by moving them forward.
Hollow body hold. Will help with static skills like levers and handstands. Will increase overall core stability. Engage your abs while maintaining a flat lower back. Extend arms behind you and think of pressing your lower back against the flow while keeping your arms and legs off of the ground.
Difficulty of the hollow body hold can be adjusted by shortening the leverage of your legs. Can also keep hands to the side of you instead of behind you. Hollow body hold with arm circles.
legs
Harder part to train since our legs are already accustomed to our body weight. Either train them unilaterally or utilize leverages.
Quads: pistol squats.
Progression:
- single leg box step ups
- pistol squat with wall assistance
- pistol squat with opposite leg unlocked
Hamstring: Nordic curl. Only focus on the negative portion.
Progression:
- bend at the hips
Sliding hamstring curls.
Calves: single leg calf raise
Eventually add weights.
Programming and Templates
5-6 days of exercise. Each exercise focuses on only one category.
Others: full body split. skill split.
For strength:
- harder exercises with high intensity
- longer rest, less reps per set.
- 1 - 5 reps per set, 3-5 minutes rest in between
For hypertrophy:
- training to build muscle efficiently / increase muscular endurance
- 8-12 rep sets, 1-3 minutes between
- pure hypertrophy training will not help gain muscle strength efficiently.
Beginners should have a mix of both training styles.
Routine Building
Each workout should have all categories of movements represented.
Push Day
2 x 3-5 challenging pike pushup progression 3 x 5-8 pike push progression
2 x 3-5 challenging dip progression 3 x 5-8 dip progression
2 x 3-5 challenging horizontal pushing progression 3 x 5-8 horizontal pushing progression
2-3 sets of isometric holds, accessory work as needed
Pull Day
2 x 3-5 challenging vertical pull progression 3 x 5-8 vertical pull progression
2 x 3-5 challenging horizontal pull progression 3 x 5-8 horizontal pull progression
2-3 sets isometric holds/accessory work as needed
Leg Day
2 x 3-5 challenging pistol squat progression 3 x 5-8 pistol squat progression
2 x 3-5 challenging nordic curl/sliding curl progression 3 x 5-8 challenging nordic curl/sliding curl progression
3 x max calf raise progression to failure
2-3 sets of isometric holds/accessory work as needed
Core workout
2 x 3-5 challenging seated pike lift progression 3 x 5-8 seated pike lift progression
2 x 3-5 challenging leg raise progression 3 x 5-8 leg raise progression
3 x max hollow body hold progression
2-3 sets of isometric holds/accessory work as needed
Beginner Template Explained
- Start with higher intensity exercise
- More energy and strength
- Push harder compared to if you did them after the the higher volume sets
- Follow up the strength sets with higher volume sets to stimulate hypertrophy
- Finish with accessory work to help fix imbalances, improve specific weaknesses
Rest between 3-5 minutes for the challenging sets, and between 1-3 minutes for the volume sets.
Progressive Overload in Calisthenics
- prevents plateaus in strength and muscle gain
- progressive overload in calisthenics is achieved by increasing the difficulty of the exercises and/or increasing the rep range.
- once you can reach 10-12 reps of an exercise, replace it with a harder progression.
Try to record sets and workouts especially when starting a new skill or exercise.
Goal as a Beginner
- Aim to perform all basic exercises with perfect form
Before starting skill training, you should be be able to comfortable perform at least:
- 20 pushups,
- 12 pullups,
- 15 Dips