Hey guys what will be an excellent routine just using my own body weight in a form of calisthenics. Lets just say for an example i have a routine like this:
Pushups: 3x15
Diamond Pushups: 3x15
Crunch: 3x30
reverse crunch: 3x30
Now would i go one set of push ups, then to diamonds, then crunches, reverse crunches and go through all it until all my sets are done or what im confused i need help
If you’re choosing bodyweight exercises because your equipment is limited, this is a good program for such circumstances.
Thats a good start, but you should add some work for the legs abd back. Regular bodyweight squats or hindu squats are great. You can also do bodyweight rows on a door with a towel wrapped around the knobs. Animal movements are also great ways to increase strength with any extra equipment. You could even give handstand pushups a try, start with your feet against a wall.
What are your goals?
[quote]Jersey5150 wrote:
What are your goals?
[/quote]
My goals in using Calisthenics is being able to have strength and free range of flexibility because i’ve weighlifted before and didnt enjoy losing some range of my flexibility and i felt to tight.
[quote]Nightwing1 wrote:
My goals in using Calisthenics is being able to have strength and free range of flexibility because i’ve weighlifted before and didnt enjoy losing some range of my flexibility and i felt to tight.[/quote]
Then you weren’t weight training right. Using a proper load, and a full range of motion on all exercises, especially compound movements, is one of the easiest ways to increase your functional flexibility. In other words, don’t blame the weights, blame the weight lifter.
With that said, if you want to stick to bodyweight exercises, I’d recommend having some kind of squat, some kind of press, some kind of pull, and something for the abs each workout (gee, kinda sounds like a well-planned weight training routine, huh? That’s not a coincidence.)
So a workout could look like: Squat or lunge variation, some push-up variation, any kind of pull-up or chin-up, and 1 (maybe 2) ab moves.
The biggest drawback with calisthenics is the fixed load (your bodyweight), and if you’re looking for strength, you won’t find the gains you want if you can do more than 10 or so reps of a given movement. Use exercises which challenge you enough to keep the reps to below 6, and you should be golden.
I know that Mike Mahler had a bodyweight routine on here a long while back, and you may want to check out Shugart’s interview with Coach Sommer here: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=512003
It discusses gymnastic moves, which would be a great addition to a bodyweight program.
[quote]Nightwing1 wrote:
My goals in using Calisthenics is being able to have strength and free range of flexibility because i’ve weighlifted before and didnt enjoy losing some range of my flexibility and i felt to tight.[/quote]
Do pistols,one arm push-ups with your legs pretty close AND elevated, one arm chin-ups, muscle-ups, levers(seriously, they are great for your back, chest and abd), L-sits, etc. Oh, you mean doing a one arm chin up is EQUAL to doing a chin-up with a weight equal to your body weight hanging on you, or a pistol is a back squat with bodyweight (I calculated this)? Too bad
BTW, I am now more flexible than EVER. I always use a full ROM (dips included), and now started stretching for deads.
Good luck, Thorn
As has been already said you where training incorrectly. There are huge body builders that can do full splits.
At any rate if you want to be a weenie and keep to BW excersises the do yourself a favor and Check out Pavel’s Naked Warrior. It talks about low rep strength training with body weight excersises.
I was kidding about the weenie part, Fuck it bro best advice we can give you is, learn how to do it correctly, then Go pick up something heavy, repeat.
Good luck.
If after a while, bodyweight exerises start to get to easy, those big exercise balls are great for manipulating your weight to provide more of a challenge. You can use it to create leverage for pushups, crunches, prone and supine leg raises, etc. You can also use it for back extensions, as a stabilizer for wall squats and wall lunges, and as an aid in stretching.
I recommend getting a book about ball exercises or searching for them on the internet. There are a bunch, and they can enable you to get a decent total body workout using only your body weight.