Calisthenics question
StargazerB
Posts: 425 Member
This is purely out of curiosity. Could one gain muscle following a calisthenics/bodyweight routine? Assuming this person's nutrition is on point for bulking.
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I am by no means a pro in this area, but based on what I've seen here before... Yes, if you can find a way to make it progressive (ie increase the resistance as you get stronger). I don't believe it's a very efficient way, and it's probably more useful for a strength training newbie. Hopefully more experienced folks will be around shortly to chime in!4
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I will agree with @kimny72. A beginner can definitely get away with it, but over time it can become harder and harder to add adequate resistance and increase it in a progressive manner. Of course someone can still achieve results, no doubt, will it be better than using weights, maybe not. But ultimately it depends on the overall goal of the person.3
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Definitely for upper body. As a female, it's almost near impossible for us to run out of progressions. Lower body......eh, probably not anything substantial.0
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I agree w/ Mangos.... I think for upper body you could probably never run out of ways to progress with bodyweight exercises only. I follow a bodyweight fitness subreddit and it's very inspiring. There are a lot of challenging lower body bodyweight exercises (like single legged squats/pistol squats) but it's probably a lot sooner that you could run into a wall.0
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MommyLifts3 wrote: »This is purely out of curiosity. Could one gain muscle following a calisthenics/bodyweight routine? Assuming this person's nutrition is on point for bulking.
The difficulty here is progressive overload. Banging out more and more reps has a point of diminishing returns when you're talking about actually building muscle. You will have to ultimately do more difficult variations of the movements to keep progressing.
You can build a good physique with bodyweight...it's just not as efficient.0 -
You can try Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade for a good program of progressive body weight exercises.3
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born_of_fire74 wrote: »You can try Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade for a good program of progressive body weight exercises.
That is a good one. I'm getting GMB's parallette series for Christmas from my hubby and my kids are making me a set of parallettes.1 -
Thanks everyone, this is basically what I expected. Right now I use both calisthenics and weights. I really want to develop the skills that go along with bodyweight fitness so I'll likely stick to using both.1
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mom23mangos wrote: »Definitely for upper body. As a female, it's almost near impossible for us to run out of progressions. Lower body......eh, probably not anything substantial.
What programs have you used?0 -
I agree w/ Mangos.... I think for upper body you could probably never run out of ways to progress with bodyweight exercises only. I follow a bodyweight fitness subreddit and it's very inspiring. There are a lot of challenging lower body bodyweight exercises (like single legged squats/pistol squats) but it's probably a lot sooner that you could run into a wall.
I follow this subreddit as well. It's good stuff.0 -
MommyLifts3 wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »Definitely for upper body. As a female, it's almost near impossible for us to run out of progressions. Lower body......eh, probably not anything substantial.
What programs have you used?
I've poked around with You Are Your Own Gym and Convict Conditioning, but never did the whole program. I was beta-ing a new app for Calisthenics Academy for a while, but the app needed a lot of work and it did not have logical progressions. Then I did Gymnastics Bodies Foundation One. Instead of going straight into Foundation Two, I'm going to do the parallette series first. And maybe the handstand one. My handstands have progressed a lot this past year, but my form needs a lot of work.
I like how GMB builds in flexibility/mobility, strength and skill work at the same time into their programs. Because it's the flexibility/mobility that's holding me back from a lot of the bodyweight progressions.1 -
Im currently doing the gmb rings programme and I love it. I found weight lifting boring as hell, everyone doing the same stuff Mon,wed,Fri..
Haven't tired the parallette programme myself but Im quite handy on them anyway
So practise them on cool down days with handstands so basically skill days ...0 -
garyggriffin wrote: »Im currently doing the gmb rings programme and I love it. I found weight lifting boring as hell, everyone doing the same stuff Mon,wed,Fri..
Haven't tired the parallette programme myself but Im quite handy on them anyway
So practise them on cool down days with handstands so basically skill days ...
Does this program include lower body? And are you bulking?0 -
Lower body yes but it's just body weight squats, lunges, roller up squats etc etc and no not bulking... just getting stronger and toned... gaining stupid amount of muscle never appealed to me...0
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But I've gained more muscle toning up then I did on a bulk, but i used to do alot of bar work so maybe switching from bar to rings has helped alot
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Don't forget that having more mass makes calisthenics all the harder. If you look at most of the people who are really good at it, they are on the smaller side and very lean.4
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mom23mangos wrote: »Don't forget that having more mass makes calisthenics all the harder. If you look at most of the people who are really good at it, they are on the smaller side and very lean.
Yes, that makes sense. It's so hard to choose when you want it all 😂1 -
I find with calisthenics, it helps flexibility and its working so many muscles aswell...
I'm no pro but I'm getting people asking how do i do this and that... never had that when I was lifting weights probably cos I sucked at it haha..
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garyggriffin wrote: »I find with calisthenics, it helps flexibility and its working so many muscles aswell...
I'm no pro but I'm getting people asking how do i do this and that... never had that when I was lifting weights probably cos I sucked at it haha..
When I finish bulking I may go the full calisthenic route. We'll see.2 -
I am doing calisthenics right now. My goals are more for strength, fitness and skill rather than bulk. I’m a dancer, so keeping my core challenged is helpful. I get bored easily, and calisthenics is fun for me, though I do a whole lot more than “just” calisthenics. Right now I’m working through the Kavadlo brothers’ “Get Strong”. (I also run, hike, swim, bike, etc, and am super excited for my first Krav Maga class this week!)4
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Regularly incorporate some type of calisthenic movements along with weight training (I find calisthenics challenging & a great way to work on both balance & stabilizer/accessory muscles).
Main challenge is in progressing movements; there is a big spike in difficulty vs. weights (ex) going from bodyweight glute-ham raises (GHRs) to "prisoner" style GHRs involves much more balance whereas with weights, you can just throw on a few lbs and not have to change balance)
This guy has some good youtube calisthenics videos (been looking more into leg movements):
https://www.youtube.com/user/RedDeltaproject
Definitely possible to gain muscle even with leg calisthenic movements (often a myth/criticism)2 -
Keto_Vampire wrote: »Regularly incorporate some type of calisthenic movements along with weight training (I find calisthenics challenging & a great way to work on both balance & stabilizer/accessory muscles).
Main challenge is in progressing movements; there is a big spike in difficulty vs. weights (ex) going from bodyweight glute-ham raises (GHRs) to "prisoner" style GHRs involves much more balance whereas with weights, you can just throw on a few lbs and not have to change balance)
This guy has some good youtube calisthenics videos (been looking more into leg movements):
https://www.youtube.com/user/RedDeltaproject
Definitely possible to gain muscle even with leg calisthenic movements (often a myth/criticism)
I was just looking on the redDelta webpage this morning, it does look like good stuff.0 -
wanderingarcher wrote: »I am doing calisthenics right now. My goals are more for strength, fitness and skill rather than bulk. I’m a dancer, so keeping my core challenged is helpful. I get bored easily, and calisthenics is fun for me, though I do a whole lot more than “just” calisthenics. Right now I’m working through the Kavadlo brothers’ “Get Strong”. (I also run, hike, swim, bike, etc, and am super excited for my first Krav Maga class this week!)
You will love Krav Maga. I learned a lot, but had to stop taking it due to monetary and time constraints. Now that the finances aren't an issue anymore I'd love to go back, but I just can't justify the expense when I could only make 1 class a week and the place by me gouges you on a monthly price for "unlimited classes".1 -
Short answer.. Yes you can. Calisthenics uses different muscles to conventional weight training routines and it uses them differently. Try handstands, gripping the bar and keeping yourself up for extended periods, muscle-up related movements.. I did these everyday for a while and saw gains quickly because I had never done them before.. But you soon plateau.0
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MommyLifts3 wrote: »This is purely out of curiosity. Could one gain muscle following a calisthenics/bodyweight routine? Assuming this person's nutrition is on point for bulking.
Absolutely!
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I have been doing so much research on calisthenics this past week. I'm going to get myself a pair of gymnastics rings for Christmas!!!7
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Nice one... you won't regret it. Your upper body strength goes through the roof ... I'm nearly at a stage where im doing handstands on the rings...3
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garyggriffin wrote: »Nice one... you won't regret it. Your upper body strength goes through the roof ... I'm nearly at a stage where im doing handstands on the rings...
Wow, that's awesome. I'm not at a free standing handstand yet, but I'm working on it.2 -
learn how to press your fingers into the ground like pulsing action.. keep everything tight and practise 10mins every time you workout... in time it will all come together for a free standing handstand...
I practised with a wall (back against wall) and I learnt how to pulse with my fingers so that I would fall into my feet on purpose to get the feel of it, maybe done about 10 reps. over weeks maybe months, managed to hover just off the wall and then braved a free standing, fell loadssssss of times.. worth it in now1 -
My gymnastics rings came in! I don't have a dip station, could I go straight from bench dips to ring dips?0
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