What can calisthenics do for you? Let me show you.

sistrsprkl

Thank you for posting! You look amazing and strong!
I also do bodyweight exercises (incl monkey bars and yoga and have noticed huge strength gains and muscle definition. Great job :drinker:

oksanatkachuk

First: It's amazing how u look now!! My congrats and all respect.

Secondly: body weight exercise vs calisthenics is very individual. I had a girlfriend who were doing body weight for 4 years and just last year turned to weightlifting and she got really ripped in no time

Besides during body weight workout one will burn more cal than weightlifting. Eating less and lift will prolly give the same faster. IMO..
Great day all

mandymack14

I've just started doing some weights but I am VERY interested to add callisthenics as well. I LOVE the look of the OP's toned body! And I have a bit of an intuitive preference for strengthening activities that use my whole body, not isolating different bits and working them individually. I am keen to give this a go.

I've been reading and watching videos but what I have found is more advanced than I am anywhere near capable of doing. Is there a website you'd recommend for a beginner?

margannmks

I posted several months back about not lifting heavy and having very good muscle definition. I was doing body weight, med weight high rep, at a bootcamp style class. I was very happy with my results and had really good cardio conditioning too. I was told by one of the heavy lifters, thats great if you just want to be lean, took a little offense to that, which is weird cause i should be happy someone thought i was lean. Ive since joined the y and now do more heavy lifting, lower reps and feel like ive skimped on my cardio. I am continuing to get stronger and other than being able to build my legs up more ,havent seen much difference in one way vs the other. I think what makes it work is constantly pushing, challenging yourself and changing it up, not doing the easy routine. My goal is unassisted pull up by my b day. I have 6 weeks and im pretty confident ill do it. You look great thanks for positively inspiring others. Adorable little girl too, mine just turned 31.

Lil40

That is truly inspiring!! Which would be the best beginners book from Al Kavadlo do you think??

fourfiftythree

I am just getting started on my journey to health-just completed a squat challenge-now doing plank (hard for me now) so really happy to see your results-how long do you work out a day?

Sorry, missed your question! My strength and agility workouts range from 25 minutes to 45 minutes.

I can do pushups now but can only do assisted pull-ups from my table with my knees bent lol.

A question please, with your routine do you rest in between and for how long? Also, how much do you eat (do you eat at or below your tdee)?

I did assisted pull ups with a chair for a long time, and sometimes I still use a band if I am sore/tired. No shame in that! They are the hardest move to master for women, I truly believe.

Up until now, I ate TDEE -20% - which is about 1740 calories for me (and aimed for 100-130g of protein per day). Currently I'm eating 2000 calories a day, just to take a break.

Secondly: body weight exercise vs calisthenics is very individual. I had a girlfriend who were doing body weight for 4 years and just last year turned to weightlifting and she got really ripped in no time

Besides during body weight workout one will burn more cal than weightlifting. Eating less and lift will prolly give the same faster. IMO..

Like with any exercise, you only get out of it what you put into it. And just like with weightlifting, you have to load weight progressively to get stronger and see results. In calisthenics this occurs by modifying the exercise to give yourself more bodyweight resistance. My guess is that your friend was not doing a progressive program if she did not see results after such a long period of time.

At the end of the day - I think people should just do what they enjoy. If you love it, you'll stick with it right?


EDIT: Working on more replies, give me a sec. =P

fourfiftythree

I've been reading and watching videos but what I have found is more advanced than I am anywhere near capable of doing. Is there a website you'd recommend for a beginner?

I received a lot of messages asking for some guidance, so I am going to put together a roadmap for beginners (and I'll post it when I'm done) - in the meantime, consider downloading one the books I linked in the OP (they are available in eBook format), or these are good also:

https://www.marklauren.com/
(You are Your Own Gym)

Also, I love this guy's site - lots of good videos on this page (scroll down):
http://ashotofadrenaline.net/body-weight-exercises/

He has a free bodyweight program on there too, I believe.

I was told by one of the heavy lifters, thats great if you just want to be lean, took a little offense to that, which is weird cause i should be happy someone thought i was lean.

Yeah, I understand how you feel! There is definitely a difference in the way a bodybuilders body looks, versus a calisthenics body. A trademark of a body built by calisthenics is the lean, ripply musculature (I need to do more research on why this occurs). That is absolutely the look I desire - so different strokes for different folks, I guess? Good luck with your pull ups!

That is truly inspiring!! Which would be the best beginners book from Al Kavadlo do you think??

I'm sorry, I missed this one!

Pushing the Limits for sure - it has exercises for every fitness level and great progressive instruction.

justdoit1106

In for info.

yuuen

Excellent!!! I really love calisthenics and using one's own body weight and body movements for exercise, so I want to get into it more seriously. It's just really difficult on MFP where, as you said, the standard seems to be weightlifting. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm glad to see you had results this way! Inspiring c:

Going to bookmark this for some reference

girlviernes

Thanks so much for posting this, it's given me inspiration on a bunch of levels!

20Grit

You look great! Excellent job!

AbbyCar

Bump

Autumngolds

Thank you so much for this! My legs are recovering from an injury and I've been looking to switch up my exercise routine when they're better. I have a lot of extra fat (but getting towards quite a low weight) and ideally wanted to start a progressive lifting program, but I don't have the resources - and I much prefer bodyweight routines too. It's much harder to find people who focus on strength or mass building through calisthenics, so it's really encouraging seeing such great results.

grillnchill

Bumping for the research info.

HUGE congrats to your wonderful achievements. You look like you can compete on American Ninja Warrior. ;-)

Calabrisellamia

R u kidding me!!!!! You look amazing ☺

__hannah_

Amazing Results!

losingles

Bumping for research... You look happy and fit! Great work!

mandymack14

Thanks so much for your response and offer to compile some info for beginners. In the meantime I have found this beginners workout which I can do at home. There's a video at the the bottom of the page.

http://tribesports.com/blog/beginner-calisthenics-workout-from-al-kavadlo


And, for those interested, check out what this guy can do with his body! (and what a body it is!)

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

desert_mom

You look amazing! I'm drawn to the idea of body weight exercises because I can do them alone--I don't need heavy weights or a spotter. Thanks for the info and links!

chrisdavey

great thread and great results!

I too love calisthenics. Just like other areas of health and fitness I don't see the need to only do one type. I do typical heavy powerlifting stuff as well as random bar calisthenics (and other stuff). I'd say the main advantage of traditional lifting is the ability to very slowly increment increases and record them quantitatively. I find it quite difficult to guage my progress on things like front lever holds and stuff like that that is TUT based as well. (not to mention the fact that a change in BW changes things drastically). It's all good fun though.

I especially love busting out calisthenics stuff in a normal gym. Bit out of the ordinary

Al Klavadlo is awesome too! Other faves of mine are Mike from Barstarzz Sweden, Hannibal and the guy from chalisthenic kingz. I prefer the strength based guys rather than the full on momentum style ones.

p.s having heavy legs does not help for this :laugh: