Calisthenics Workout: Benefits & Mistakes – Living.Fit
5 Benefits of Bodyweight Workouts
- Your Body is Your Fitness Equipment
- Bodyweight Workouts Can Be Done Anywhere & Anytime
- Bodyweight Workouts Teach Body Awareness
- It is Incredible for De-load Weeks
- Bodyweight Workouts Help us Become Brilliant at the Basics
5 Mistakes in Bodyweight Workouts
- Too Much Too Quick
- We Forget to Use Progressive Overload
- We Only See Bodyweight Training as Endurance Training
- We Forget to Include Speed and Explosive Training in our Bodyweight Workouts
- We Don’t Get The Full Benefits from Each Bodyweight Exercises
We are about to release another incredible 30 day program, and this time it is a bodyweight program, which everyone can benefit from. I wanted to talk through 5 biggest benefits and the 5 biggest mistakes that I have seen training thousands of people over the last two decades.
Benefit #1 - Your Body is Your Fitness Equipment
Whether you are stuck in a quarantine or you are traveling, it is nice to be able to continue to build power, strength, endurance and mobility with just your bodyweight. A calisthenics workout is precisely what we are providing with the Minimum Space Athlete - A 30 day bodyweight training program. Whether you check out this new program on Thursday, October 27, 2020, or you are enjoying our short 5 minute bodyweight workouts, or you are doing your own thing...isn’t it awesome that just our body, gravity, and the ground is all we need?
Benefit #2 - Bodyweight Workouts Can Be Done Anywhere & Anytime
Just like we said above, “all you need is your body, gravity, and the ground,” and you can do these workouts in your room, hotel, beach, gym, or garage. A calisthenics workout routine can be done wherever gravity is working.
Benefit #3 - Bodyweight Workouts Teach Body Awareness
If you are looking to improve balance, coordination, reacting and timing, it is safer and more effective to improve it with just your bodyweight before moving to a heavy battle rope, kettlebell, or dumbbell. We love all of our fitness equipment and we use each tool often, but if we are learning new movements or testing range of motion, we always start with bodyweight first.
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Benefit #4 - It is Incredible for De-load Weeks
If you lift heavy and lift often, it is important to perform a de-load week every 4 to 12 weeks of that program. We love performing bodyweight workouts and using bodyweight programs in that de-load week, because they are still fun and engaging, without as much volume, intensity, and load that happens in kettlebell, battle rope, dumbbell, and barbell programs.
Benefit #5 - Bodyweight Workouts Help us Become Brilliant at the Basics
Mastering the basics is something that all masters always come back to. It is important to reinforce quality movement patterns and work on eliminating bad habits. Performing a solid bodyweight program will help you become brilliant at the basics in movements, training, programming, and bodyweight coordination.
There are many other benefits to bodyweight workouts and programs, and we talk about many of them, while also delivering a top-notch program in this upcoming Minimum Space Athlete.
Mistake #1 - Too Much Too Quick
Often, because it is just your bodyweight, we can often bite off more than we can chew. We get started, feel great, and think, “it is just bodyweight more will be fine”...and then the next day we can’t get out of bed, or we find that we injured ourselves. I highly recommend using the tortoise approach, and the slow and steady workouts will lead to continued success while minimizing injuries.
Mistake #2 - We forget to use Progressive Overload
I cannot tell you how many times I have had someone tell me I do 20 push-ups per day, and have been doing it for years. (Which is Awesome!) However, she will not get stronger, more mobile, build endurance, or any other adaptations. Our bodies need progressive overload in order to create specific adaptations to imposed demands. It is in our physiology and biology. Without adding more reps, sets, intensity, speed, or load, the person above will continue to stay the same. If you want to get stronger, lose fat, improve energy, or increase mobility, you need to have progression.
Mistake #3 - We Only See Bodyweight Training as Endurance Training
Very similar to the consistency of the person above, we often think we can only build endurance from bodyweight training. However, we would be missing out on all the other training you can do with bodyweight workouts, like strength training, power training, speed training, agility training, and the list goes on. Following a good program will help you see all of the benefits and ways to improve through just bodyweight. Because our bodies, and limbs and joints are mechanical in a sense, we can learn all sorts of cool ways to make the movements more challenging, and train more than just endurance.
Mistake #4 - We Forget to Include Speed and Explosive Training in our Bodyweight Workouts
Just like the person that makes the mistake of seeing bodyweight as only endurance training, they often forget the anti-fragile and injury-proof training that comes from Speed and Explosive Power Training that we can do with a solid bodyweight program.
Mistake #5 - We Don’t Get The Full Benefits from Each Bodyweight Exercises
Lastly, we often miss out on the best part of bodyweight training, which is squeezing every ounce of benefit from each repetition and each exercise. I highly recommend listening to the coaching, cueing, and movement adjustments that are voiced over during the Minimum Space Athlete, as it helps you to get the most out of each movement, which will help your full body take advantage of the best bodyweight calisthenics workout.
If you are looking for a great workout with little to no equipment, check out Minimum Space Athlete today:
By: Aaron Guyett
