Calisthenics is the workout that a person does, but it involves no equipment at all. None but the person’s own body weight. It might sound like it’s so easy, how can the weight of your own body be enough to help you get fit?
This skepticism is what has led to the myths that a man cannot build muscles and get bulky with the help of calisthenics.
However, let me clarify this thing right now – This myth is nothing but a myth. In reality, your body’s weight is actually enough to help you build muscles. Not just that, but C listen ics can help you build muscles even better.
It is not costly, does not require a gym membership or buying a whole lot of weights, and it can help you get strong, built-in muscles!
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How Can Calisthenics Help Build Muscles?
How Calisthenics might just seem like a cool workout. But, force yourself to ask this question; why does it seem this way?
It is because everyone thinks that the workout is the time when the muscles build. So it might seem more than obvious that the more weights and equipment you use, the better your muscles will be.
However, I’m here to tell you the actual reason for muscle building.
The muscles do not build up during the workout – they do during the rest periods. Those small rest periods you have during exercises.
When your muscles get the time to repair themselves and build themselves up stronger than before after you’ve caused micro-injuries on them during your workout.
That is why when you’re on a diet and taking in more proteins and carbohydrates, your muscles will add in bulk along with patching your muscles up.
So for this growth, the workout acts as a stimulator. It is because to trigger this growth, the muscles need to be strained under a weight for an extended period of time, and that is what your workout does.
Now calisthenics can offer this strain perfectly, and this is why the intensity and duration of your workout matter.
The more you’ll work out, the more strain it will cause. Thus, the more your muscles are going to build up.
Now, you know Calisthenics works. But one thing to take note of over here is that it won’t work fast, surely calisthenics won’t be the best thing for those who need to build mass as fast as possible.
But if you want to make it a routine, and keep doing it in the long run, then calisthenics would be the best for you!
To Start Off
It is really best if you give your body time to adjust. Only go as far as your body is allowing you to go, and don’t push too hard. That can lead to your losing motivation quickly. Learn to feel it, and enjoy it first.
Especially when it comes to calisthenics, there is no need to hurry ahead at all. It would be perfectly fine, even better, if you’re going slowly and surely.
Some simple terms you should be able aware of before going off are Concentric and Eccentric. Concentration is the movement when you go up during a push-up, and this motion is when your muscle retracts and strains under a load.
The eccentric is the next movement when you go down. This motion is the movement when the muscle lengthens under a load. Together, these movements happen alternatively for an extended while to put a strain on your muscles and help them build up and grow.
Calisthenics Explained
Calisthenics Muscle Building Techniques
To say the least, with no exaggeration at all, Calisthenics all but depends on the techniques. Without the techniques, it is safe to say that your workout will remain useless.
These techniques are what makes body-weight workout different from the usual workouts, and they work efficiently in getting you to muscle up as soon as possible. Following are the three, life-saving techniques which you need to know more than anything else!
Slow It Down
It might seem silly. You must think that the faster you do an exercise, the more rounds you can do, and obviously, then it’ll be more effective. However, this is wrong as well.
Every exercise you do, calisthenics demands you to do it slowly. Concentric and Eccentric are the movements which put the strain on your muscles, and the longer you pull them, the better it is going to be for you.
Stretch the movement out, going down as slowly as you can in the case of a push-up. In the same way, come up just as slowly as you went down.
It will significantly increase the strain, and you’ll feel it too. It takes much more effort to pull an exercise longer than doing it faster.
Another advantage of slowing a movement is that you’ll be able to do it much more accurately, focusing on your form and doing it just as it is supposed to be done. In short, you can monitor yourself.
If you thought that more push-ups done faster are better than lesser ones done slower, then you are wrong. Even if you do lesser push-ups and try to put all of your effort, strength, time, and determination into those few, they are going to prove to be much more beneficial.
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Angles Can Add On To The Intensity
Now, if the previous calisthenics exercises do not cause the strain they used to some time ago, it probably means your muscles have become used to it. It is at this moment that you have to decide to turn the intensity of your exercises up a notch or two.
There are so many ways to add to the intensity of a calisthenics exercise, but the best way is to do it by changing the angles. As an example, we can take wall push-ups.
If you push your feet farther away from the wall and place them at a greater distance than you usually do, then it is going to put much more weight and strain on your arms, thus forcing your arms to work harder than usual to keep up the movement.
It explains that in every single calisthenics exercise, the more challenging your angles will be, the more strain you’ll put on your muscles. In this way, the more muscles you’ll be able to gain from it.
Resistance And Body Weight Distribution
Both of these things are known to magically join together and present you with something so much more hard and effective. Imagine that you’re doing a push-up, and are in a neutral position. Either up or down. It is when your body weight is evenly distributed amongst the two of your arms, and both of your arms are resisting.
However, what if we turn it up a notch?
If you put all your body weight on one arm, instead of you, your arm will have to work for the same amount of time, for the same duration. However, due to the increased weight that particular arm has to resist, it will, of course, have to work harder than it did before.
This is how; body weight and resistance will perfectly go together if you switch from one arm to the other arm, keeping it a single arm at a time. And voila, you’ll feel the burn like crazy, but it is going to definitely be worth the results you’ll get!
Food in Exchange for Muscles
Yes well, this one was pretty obvious for me. Of course, your body won’t be able to build up new material out of thin air.
Think of it as a factory. Of course, needs raw materials to produce new goods.
The muscles are exactly this way. You provide nutrition to your body, and your body uses that up to build muscles.
When we talk about nutrition, however, we are particularly talking about proteins.
I studied this particular thing back in high school that proteins are the building blocks of cells. Just like this, protein is what helps patch up the muscles and build them up, grow them too. Without proteins, you really might not be able to build them up.
The amount of protein intake you require depends on your goals. The more bulk you want, the more protein you need inside your body. More extreme goals push people into taking protein supplements, which just further aids in the building of muscles.
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Energy To Work out
Now, it’s not possible that you do not have any energy in your body, and you’ll still be able to work out. It is true that being energetic is so much important when it comes to being able to work out to the fullest.
This is where the carbohydrates come in. While you’re working out, respiration is occurring. This is when the oxygen you inhale helps your break the carbohydrates in your body, and convert that into energy that you then use during the workout.
But when there would be no carbohydrates, there would be no energy. So carbohydrates are just as important when it comes to working out.
Apart from that, sleep is another thing which can fuel you adequately to work out. You’ll never be able to work out to your fullest without having had enough sleep, as your body won’t be well-rested.
Drinking water is another essential thing you need to bring into your routine. The more water you drink, definitely the more hydrated you’ll stay. This way, you’ll be able to feel much better every day, and much more active with plenty of energy to do the calisthenics every day!
How to Get More Energy During Workout
Periodization Matters
Periodization means, not doing the same thing over and over again. If you make a specific routine and keep doing it every day, your muscles will get used to it no matter how intense your routine is. Because of this, periodization matters.
What it includes, is switching between different workout routines every once in a while, on a weekly or daily basis even.
Doing varying workouts with varying intensities will keep it different for your muscles. In this way, your muscles can never get used to one particular routine, and you’ll always be able to feel that burn, no matter what, and your muscles will never cease to grow.
Get Your Training Personalized
It is true that you’ll find several different routines out there, specified under beginner, intermediate and advanced level. Most of the time, you are expected to fit into one of these categories and go with the workouts which are under that.
Most of the time, if we generalize, those exercises do work out to be great for many people under that category, but there can always be exceptions.
Maybe, some of the exercises under a category which is for beginners turn out to be hard for you, but maybe some are so easy that you’re all but wasting your time on them. In this case, your ready-made workout routine will not be fair to you.
It is why every routine will not work out for everyone under a specific category. That is why personalization is pretty much preferred by the people who can afford it.
You can get a couch, or join a calisthenics academy, where they can observe you and assign you a workout routine that is perfect for your potential. You can then turn it up with time, intensify it more and more as time goes.
Conclusions:
Fighting off the myth that calisthenics will prove to be useless if you want muscles are just fading away. It is true that with calisthenics, you can get muscles that will stay like that for longer than they’ll do with equipment and weights.
When your body works, all by itself in getting those muscles, of course, your muscles are going to be better than ever, and you’re going to be able to enjoy having those muscles too, knowing the effort you put into them.
Calisthenics is also the healthiest and the cheapest way of getting muscles, which is why calisthenics should be your top preference all the time!
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