Simply put, exercises that don’t depend on anything other than your bodyweight fall under Calisthenics. However, since a person is only supposed to use his/her bodyweight, a majority of the people develop false notions regarding a bodyweight-only or calisthenics program. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding calisthenics workout and in this post, we are going to expose some common ones.
- You cannot gain muscle on a calisthenics workout
This is perhaps one of the most common misconceptions regarding calisthenics workout that you can’t build muscle using your bodyweight. You know that your muscles require progressive overload and metabolic exhaustion to develop and grow. You achieve so in calisthenics by increasing reps or resistance forcing your muscles to adapt and grow. The muscles simply don’t care whether you are activating them using bodyweight or iron-weights.
- Calisthenics only involve upper body training
Squats and deadlifts are great exercises to build lower body strength. However, you can build great legs using calisthenics as well. Performing high-intensity bodyweight workouts and high-repetitions involving your legs or lower body can be highly challenging and stimulate your leg muscles to develop, and become stronger.
- Higher levels of Calisthenics are not safe
This is also one of the most common myths regarding calisthenics that performing an advanced calisthenics workout is not safe or is dangerous. However, this is not true. If you are not advanced or strong enough to handle something, then anything is dangerous. If you try to do a 500+ pounds of squats when your body is not strong enough to handle that, of course, it is dangerous. The same holds for calisthenics as well. If you try to enter into an advanced calisthenics program too quickly, you ran into risks of getting an injury.
- Calisthenics workout doesn’t increase strength
This is simply not true. In calisthenics, you are utilizing your body weight to increase endurance. As an example, if you are doing bodyweight squats or push ups, you might do 10-20 for the first time. However, over time, you will reach the numbers 40-50. That’s increase in strength and endurance for you. Slowly, over time, you increase reps in your calisthenics workout regimen to build endurance.
- It is difficult to add resistance in a calisthenics workout
Again, this is an utter misconception that it is very troublesome or difficult to add resistance in a calisthenics workout. You can change angles, add more reps, increase your tempo or speed, involving high-intensity workouts, and explosive movements are some of the best ways to add more resistance in calisthenics.
Conclusion
So, we have busted 5 of the most common misconceptions that people have regarding a calisthenics workout. Please note that in bodyweight training as well, you need rest days. Your muscles need time to recover, develop, and grow. So, whatever type of workout you are indulging yourself in, a healthy diet, good sleep, and active recovery days are a must.
