Strength or body weight training for calisthenics? Both?

Grey_1

Hi,

My workout is a little of both at the moment, quite frankly it's more all over the place. About an even split between the two. I stumbled across this video of Frank Medrano, and the combination of strength and coordination is incredible. Taking my age into account (57) I would like to at least work towards that. As it is, 10 chin ups is awfully tough for me, but I figure I can at least try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvJHw64fxgQ

Any suggestions? Should I just stick with body weight and calisthenics training?

Thanks folks

amusedmonkey

I've been interested in calisthenics lately, and from what I've read, you basically have specific "goal movements" and start by strengthening the muscles that help you achieve them, which can be done with body weight and/or with lifting, but once you are strong enough to work towards the movement itself the focus shifts more heavily to body weight working up to doing the movement you wish to do.

rileysowner

Whatever works for you. Using weights has the advantage of being very straightforward in terms of increasing resistance. However, it can be done with bodyweight if you work at increasing your knowledge. Personally I like bodyweight training from the convenience aspect, that is, you can do it anywhere. I don't think most people push bodyweight training even close to the limits of what it can achieve. As I said at the start, pick what works for you.

Grey_1

amusedmonkey wrote: »

I've been interested in calisthenics lately, and from what I've read, you basically have specific "goal movements" and start by strengthening the muscles that help you achieve them, which can be done with body weight and/or with lifting, but once you are strong enough to work towards the movement itself the focus shifts more heavily to body weight working up to doing the movement you wish to do.

I never thought of "goal movements" and this is something I've been wanting to start going after for some time now. I'll get busy reading up on that, thank you.

rileysowner wrote: »

Whatever works for you. Using weights has the advantage of being very straightforward in terms of increasing resistance. However, it can be done with bodyweight if you work at increasing your knowledge. Personally I like bodyweight training from the convenience aspect, that is, you can do it anywhere. I don't think most people push bodyweight training even close to the limits of what it can achieve. As I said at the start, pick what works for you.

Based on what I'm beginning to see, I agree with you on pushing the bodyweight training, and the convenience is a huge plus.

This is going to be a good opportunity to really hone my workout program as well, something I've been neglecting for a while. Thanks

cwolfman13

My programming includes both weights and body weight/calisthenics...best of both worlds IMO...

Grey_1

cwolfman13 wrote: »

My programming includes both weights and body weight/calisthenics...best of both worlds IMO...

Mine does as well, but after spending a bit of time with google and reading more info on the forums here, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not conflating a couple of different issues/ideas here.

The question marks began with searching for reasons why I'm not seeing gains faster, which led of course to specific types of training and so on, which is fine I think, but I think I was equating how much strength I would gain with each type of exercise, if that makes any sense. I mean, weight is weight, and working certain muscles properly and consistently should see gains for those muscles.

What I think I am neglecting is how the muscles are being fueled - I also ran across discussions about how much protein is required etc, went back over my logs and realized my protein intake is fairly low a lot of days, so now there's a big fat ?? there as well lol.

I hope all that makes sense, there's a very good possibility I'm over complicating the heck out of it all too....

rybo

WAY overthinking. They aren't mutually exclusive and most programs should include both, if that is one's preference. Most calisthenics only guys do it not because it's "better" but because they like it and it's the ideology that fits them.

Grey_1

@rybo - Thank you lol - I think maybe that's what I needed to hear the most. I'm new to ALL of this, and there's so much info out there it was easy to jump in and just spin my wheels.

Cheers

sgt1372

I'm 66 and have been doing a strength and calisthenics routine of my own design for the past 3 months with continuing success in terms of increasing strength.

It involves doing the 4 main compound lifts in a linear progression program lifting 5 days/wk and doing decline pushups, dips and neutral grip pullups (almost) every day.

The pushups, pullups and dips have significantly enhanced my upper body and arm strength and assisted in improving my BP and OHP performance. I am currently doing 100 pushups, 65 dips and 40 pullups in 5 sets each workout and try to increase the reps whenever I think I'm ready to do so.

The only problem I'm having is that at my advanced age, the calisthenics are wreaking havoc on my elbows and I sometimes have to put off doing them for a few days until the tenodinitis subsides. On those days, I just concentrate on doing DLs and SQTs and, if I need to burn a few more cals, doing some rowing.