Calisthenics - the Ancient yet revolutionary fitness regime
Calisthenics represent body weight exercises that use practioner's own bodyweight as resistance. As most daily acitivities like walking, running, jumping, standing up are bodyweight exercises, the method of using one's bodyweight to develop strength is innate to both humans and animals.
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Calisthenics has a long and honorable history in fitness. The term Calisthenics derived from the Greek words 'Kalos' which means beauty and 'Sthenos' that means strength. One of the earliest mention of calisthenics can be found in the chronicles of Herodotus on the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). Needless to say, in every civilization in the world has some form of bodyweight calisthenics. Originated from India, the practice of yoga, a discipline initially practiced exclusively by the warrior class, now is widely practiced. The Shaolin monks of China also employ bodyweight calisthenics extensively to develop strength, agility and balance.
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From the second half of the twentieth century until today, weight training using barbells, dumbbells and machines almost totally replaced bodyweight calisthenics as the preferred method of strength training. As the representation of fitness in the modern days has slowly became ambiguous, the needs and wants of fitness practitioners have changed. Ever since, fitness industry has constantly innovated new and more efficient fitness regimes. Despite their each specialty, the quest of maintaining good cardiorespiratory health and muscular strength remains.
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Today, there is a revived interest in bodyweight calisthenics and there are so many reasons for it. 1.Anyone can do Calisthenics, from an athlete to a complete novice. From having the simplest workouts like knee push ups, squats to complex advanced calisthenics moves like handstands, planche, calisthenics serves to be the fitness discipline that is for everybody looking to improve overall muscular strength. 2.You can do Calisthenics anywhere, with only needing your body as resistance, you only need your body to workout. No matter where you are at, home, park, hotel room, on holiday, there are literally no excuses you couldn't do it, is 24/7 accessible to you. The fact that you need little to no equipment is what is so good about its adaptability to be able to train anywhere. 3.Calisthenics builds great fitness foundation, Having all types of movement from push, pull, twist, bend, squat and lunge, Calisthenics covers not only the prime mover muscles in exerting force, it also strengthen the supporting muscles and ligaments around the joints to help stabilize the body during any movements. This leads to improved balance, coordination and self-awareness which would be useful to translate to any sports and weighted exercises you may move on to.
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4.Calisthenics promotes mobility, flexibility and overall functional strength. You don’t have to want to become an athlete through calisthenics training as it is something that will help people in everyday life. It will help with mobility and prevent muscle strain from improper use of muscle or bad movement posture. Some Calisthenics also demand a certain amount of flexibility, overtime improved flexibility will be achieved by practicing the moves consistently. 5.Increase in relative strength. This is due to the fact that Calisthenics incorporate the usage of various muscles in every move, recruiting more muscles at one time. By performing these multi-joints movements over a long period of time, force generation will improved. Calisthenics may not give you super huge muscles but it will certainly give you a considerable boost in strength. 6.An Aesthetically lean muscular athletic physique, With most movements are compound workouts and core engagement is key to keeping good form in Calisthenics, Calisthenics burns tremendous amount of calories while perform correctly. Moving towards a more advanced calisthenics skill moves, it requires your body to engage as many muscles as your body possibly could to perform. This lead to lean muscular physique in all advanced calisthenics athletes.
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Essentially everyone has different fitness goals. It may be increased in strength endurance, improved in speed & movement, building massive size, etc. If building for mass is not your main fitness goal, Calisthenics may just be the one you looking for to be a stronger and healthier well being. Being one of the most natural, convenient and low to no cost fitness discipline to practice, Calisthenics has becoming the revolutionary fitness regime everybody loves.
If you would love to try out Calisthenics to find out these benefits on your own, sign up for our Calisthenics group classes or 12 weeks Introduction to Calisthenics Personal Coaching to get you started on learning how to master bodyweight Calisthenics to achieve your fitness goals!
