Callisthenics may sound like a fancy and complicated word but in reality, most of us are already doing it as a part of our workout routines. In short, callisthenics is a workout type oriented at working with your own bodyweight.
The name has Greek origins, where “Kàlos” means beauty and “Sthénos” means strength. Many callisthenics lovers suggest that this sport is the pure art of movement or the most natural exercise.
Callisthenics incorporates the elements of gymnastics but is mainly performed outdoors. It focuses on what your body can do rather than how it looks and the result – fit shape, defined muscles and a couple of gymnastic exercises you would never think you can do on top of that.
If you ever found yourself saying “I would never be able to perform a handstand”, callisthenics might prove you wrong. This exercise routine is mainly based on helping you achieve your wildest fantasies about what your body can do.
PHYSICAL BENEFITS
Let’s take a handstand as an example. This exercise engages arms, shoulders, the core and glutes aka. the most wanted muscle groups!
Callisthenics teaches you to use your body as an integrated unit, instead of just viewing it as groups of isolated muscles. Being able to balance the weight from hands to legs requires not only strength, but also coordination and balance.
A study looked at the benefits of callisthenics on male participants over an 8 week period. The posture, strength and body composition accessed and measured through the before/after comparison of the participants’ abilities. In the end, the men demonstrated a significant body weight loss and posture improvement. They were also better at doing push-ups and pull-ups which indicated the increase in general body strengths.
MENTAL BENEFITS
Many people judge the success of their workout routine by their appearance, but as we already mentioned, callisthenics is not about that. Instead of having to look at your abs after every workout, you test your abilities with each exercise. For example, can you make the push-up better today compared to how you performed yesterday.
This kind of tracking can bring lots of fulfillment and motivation to work harder. And as soon as you master that handstand for the first time, you will get that enormous feeling of joy and would not want to stop for a second.
To sum up, callisthenics is a captivating art of working with your own body, feeling it and taking care of it. This workout teaches you patience, resilience and love for who you are.
With Dan you get a 50% discount on your first callisthenics session! Try it out, and you will not want to stop.