September and October are the months of new beginnings: going back to do exercise, slim downquit smoking, eat healthier, organize yourself better at work, spend more free time with your family… Whatever your desire, it’s good that you go for it and start now, because Christmas is coming soon and when you want to realize you are already in summer.
If your objective is framed in the exerciseyou are in luck, because today en THE OBJECTIVE we are going to talk to you about calisthenics, a low-resistance workout where you use your own body weight. It is very fashionable lately and has many benefits, it also does not require investment or the need to go to the gym.
what is calisthenics
As we said, it is a training in which the person’s own body weight is used. It does not require any equipment to practice it and it works the main muscle groups, so it is a very complete exercise.
In addition, it is suitable for all audiences, since as only your own body weight is used, you can adjust the intensity level by increasing the number of repetitions, doing the exercise faster or slower, using only one hand or leg, or combining exercises, etc. That is, it can be adapted to the needs and requirements of each person.
What are the most common exercises
Some of the most recommended and followed calisthenic exercises around the world are:
1) Squats
They are the queens of training lower body. We do not need to go down with our butts to the ground nor do we need to ballast them. In fact, there are very nice options to work them. The easiest is to do it against the wall. To do this, just support your back and lower slowly, without forcing, until we reach our top.
2) Sit-ups
Es one of the most complicated areas when we want to lose weight and tone the body, but that does not mean that it is impossible to achieve a flat stomach. For abdominal exercises, there are various techniques. One of the most followed is leg lift. To do it, we lie on our back, with our back and head fully supported on the floor, and then we raise our legs and pelvis towards the ceiling, focusing all our effort on the abdomen.
3) Glute Bridge
This exercise is a reinforcement for the pelvic floor, so its performance is also indicated to improve sexual quality. In any case, it is a very kind practice that only requires Lie on your back on a mat and raise your hips.
The key is to contract your buttocks and lift your hips off the ground, looking for a straight line from shoulders to knees. Holding the pose for a couple of seconds and then lowering in a controlled manner will suffice. So in a series of between eight and ten repetitions.
4) Burpees
For a few years they have become one of the totemic exercises of the crossfit and calisthenics because they put a lots of muscles at the same time in action. Its greatest difficulty is having the correct technique that allows us to do many of them in a row, but step by step we can achieve it.
The mechanics are simple, since we mix two jumps, a squat and a push-up. The most complex part is the recovery of the push-up after the jump, since it does not consist in letting yourself fall, but in putting your arms with enough force to do the next push-up.
5) Planks or push-ups
Baptized as “planks” more or less recently, we really refer to the push-ups of a lifetime. It is a basic exercise to strengthen the upper body, especially arms, an area in which biceps and triceps have a lot to saybut also to work the pectoral muscles in some depth.
Why is calisthenics so famous and recommended?
Once we have seen the most famous exercises, let’s go on to detail the benefits of practicing calisthenics, among which the following stand out:
- Improves resistance and has a similar effect to cardiovascular training, promoting better heart health.
- Lose weight: Like any other type of exercise, calisthenics adds to your total energy expenditure, which promotes weight loss. And since this type of training engages numerous muscle groups, it typically burns more calories than regular cardio training. It is estimated that practicing calisthenic exercises for half an hour consumes about 140 calories.
- Work the whole body: Although calisthenics can be divided into exercises for the upper body and for the lower body, many of them involve, although not to the same extent, the entire body as a whole.
- It has a low impact on the jointscompared to weight training or other cardio, so it is recommended for all ages.
- Build muscle strength: Calisthenics is extremely efficient in building muscle, especially for beginners.
- Increases flexibility who does it.
