What is Calisthenics?

Geschatte leestijd: 7 minuten What is Calisthenics? In this article, we will discuss the various forms of calisthenics such as street fitness, the different exercises, workouts, and places where you can perform calisthenics.

What is Calisthenics?

Calisthenics can be translated as ‘beautiful strength’. The word is derived from the Greek words kallos (κάλλος), meaning ‘beautiful’ or ‘beauty’, and sthenos (σθένος), ‘strength’. In practice, the term calisthenics can be used for many different exercises and training forms. This can vary from exercises that require a lot of strength to exercises that mainly train endurance. The difficulty level can range from a simple pushup to acrobatic feats that would not be out of place in a circus. The main feature of calisthenics is that in all these exercises, (primarily) the own body weight forms the resistance. The ancient Greeks already used bodyweight exercises as resistance to work on their bodies. The Spartans, who apparently did a lot of push-ups and chin-ups to keep a few hundred thousand Persians at bay with 300 men. In the absence of Persians, you can make a good start at home with the right pull-up bar:

Calisthenics Exercises

As mentioned, the type of exercises you can do with body weight as resistance can vary widely. The name calisthenics itself doesn’t really say much about the type of training you should envision. It can therefore be useful to make a classification. You can categorize exercises based on:

• Difficulty level
• Goal (cardio, muscle strength, muscle condition, flexibility)
• Required equipment

But even that classification can differ from person to person. Let’s take the push-up as an example. The push-up is perhaps one of the most famous examples of an exercise where body weight forms the resistance. For many, this exercise will technically have a low difficulty level while others may struggle with a single push-up. If you can do a maximum of 10 push-ups, then this exercise will mainly train muscle strength. However, if you can do 100 push-ups, then it mainly develops muscle condition. Due to the difference in relative resistance, the same exercise can require different energy systems and muscle fibers in different people.

Why Calisthenics?

Calisthenics has several advantages and disadvantages compared to both cardio and weight training with weights. The most obvious advantage is that you need no, or not much, equipment. The resistance is formed by the body weight. You don’t need a gym membership and no extra room with various devices from teleshopping. That can also be the biggest disadvantage. You can only adjust the resistance by modifying the exercises themselves, and even then there are limits. The push-ups are a good example: Suppose you want to train the chest muscles. In the gym, you could bench press. There, you could adjust the weight to your goal. If muscle mass is your goal, then you could choose a weight with which you can do between 6 and 10 repetitions. It’s possible that your body weight is too light for this range of repetitions. As said, you’re mainly training muscle condition when you only get tired after 50 push-ups. So, you won’t get a bigger chest from that. Maybe you come closer to 6 to 10 repetitions when performing the push-ups on one arm. However, the exercise also changes technically and might, for example, put more emphasis on the triceps and less on the chest.

All-Round vs Specializing

Calisthenics exercises are also almost always compound exercises that involve multiple muscle groups. This puts more emphasis on the inter-muscular coordination. You could also call this functional training because you’re preparing your body for a greater number of different actions you might have to perform in daily life. This is different from, for example, isolation exercises in weight training that mainly make a single muscle group stronger. In summary, you could say that calisthenics trains you all-round. You train your body as a team that’s preparing for any possible opponent. With weight training, you focus more on improving the individual players in your team and prepare for a specific opponent. For example, your chest becomes mega strong in bench pressing, but a one-arm push-up won’t work because you’ve never trained the neurological connections for it.

Calisthenics for Beginners

“How do you start with calisthenics?” It’s a frequently asked question. Since you can interpret the term ‘calisthenics’ in many different ways, there’s not a single answer to this question. Moreover, the difficulty level of the same exercise varies too much per person. Some, for example, may struggle with pull-ups. For them, an ‘Australian pull-up’ might be a good exercise. This exercise was already shown in the article “learning to pull up”. In this exercise, you hang at an angle and keep your feet on the ground. This way, you don’t have to pull your full body weight straight up. For others starting with calisthenics, a normal pull-up might be very easy. For them, it might be more interesting to learn a muscle-up. The strength is probably already there. Now, however, the technique and coordination must still be learned.

“Street Fitness”

Urban calisthenics, also known as ‘Street Fitness’, is characterized by the high difficulty level of the exercises and the frequent use of bars. Think of bars to pull yourself up. Street fitness has a high show element. Many practitioners mainly aim to learn certain exercises with a higher degree of difficulty. Think of muscle-ups, flag stands, and even more difficult variants. There are also street fitness championships where the emphasis is also on the show element and a high level of difficulty. This places calisthenics in a certain “urban culture” where the lines between calisthenics, breakdancing, and parkour are increasingly blurring.

https://youtu.be/0-EGAuVGffk

Calisthenics Apparatuses and Exercises

In street fitness, as mentioned, we see a lot of use of racks and bars. Here, the number of possible exercises is limited only by the skills and creativity of the practitioner.

Examples of calisthenics exercises using a horizontal bar:

• pull-ups (close grip, wide grip, cliffhanger, headbanger, typewriter, with a slap)
• chin-ups
• muscle-ups
• dips
• leg raises
• knee raises
• around the world
• skin the cat
• windshield wipers
• ice cream makers
• chin rows
• straight bar dips
• front lever pulls

Calisthenics Workout for Home

On the other hand, there are calisthenics exercises that don’t require any equipment. Exercises that you can do almost anywhere. For example, think of:

• push-ups (various variations such as with a clap, superman pushup, pike push-up one arm, etc.)
• sit-ups/curls
• jumping jacks
• squats
• squat jumps
• lunges (side lunge, walking lunge, jumping lunges)
• planks/side planks
• burpees
• mountain climbers
• lying leg raises
• superman hold
• wall sit
• knee lifts

Calisthenics Schedule

A calisthenics schedule is best created by yourself. After all, you know your own goal, how strong you are, and which exercises best fit. However, we can give some examples. Someone who mainly wants to work on cardiovascular condition could, for example, choose a schedule like:

• 3 x 45 seconds of jumping jacks with 30 seconds rest in between
• 20 squat jumps
• 2 x 10 jumping lunges
• 3 x 1 minute of mountain climbers
• 3 x 30 seconds of knee lifts
• 30 burpees

For muscle condition, you could choose a schedule like:

• 3 x as many push-ups as possible (provided you can do at least 20)
• 2 x 20 pull-ups
• 3 x 1 minute planks
• 2 x 1 minute wall sit
• 3 x 20 squats
• 3 x 20 knee/leg raises

In terms of schedule, you can also differentiate between schedules with exercises that you can perform anywhere and schedules with exercises that require equipment. A ‘bar workout’, for example, could consist of the following exercises:

• 2 x 5 muscle-ups
• 20 pull-ups
• 20 leg raises
• 3 x 5 typewriter pull-ups
• straight bar dips

Calisthenics Park

Fortunately, there are more and more outdoor locations where pull-up bars and other bars are placed for calisthenics. A good and logical development. Municipalities are often looking for ways to get people moving. Moreover, outdoor sports have always been popular. The typical devices in a gym, however, are often not easily translated to an outdoor gym without supervision. Bars for pull-ups and other exercises are much simpler to realize. That’s why there are more and more ‘calisthenics parks’ to be found in the Netherlands.

Calisthenics in the Netherlands

Here you will find several outdoor locations where you can go for calisthenics in the Netherlands, using pull-up bars. We could not find an address for all locations. If you know any missing locations or addresses, we would of course love to hear about them

Amsterdam

• Calisthenics Park Kattenburg
• Calisthenics Park Bijlmer-Centrum
• Street Work Out Park Middenmeer
• Calisthenics Park Meidoornplein
• Outdoor Exercise Gym Rijnbuurt

Rotterdam

• Outdoor Exercise Park – Prinsenpark
• Calisthenics Exercise Stations – Lodewijk Pincoffsweg
• Outdoor Gym – Park De Twee Heuvels
• Calisthenics Equipment – Hoogvliet
• Parkour Park – Hoogvliet

Utrecht

• Park Hogeweide
• Calisthenics Transwijk-Zuid
• Calisthenics Park Eastern Railway Park
• Outdoor Fitness Trail – Voorveldsepolder

The Hague

• Calisthenics Park – Mien van Breepad
• Outdoor Exercise Station – Tedingerbroek

Harderwijk

• Calisthenics Park – Strandeiland Harderwijk
• Outdoor Fitness Trail – Forest

Maastricht

• Dousberg-Hazendans
• De Geusselt
• Calisthenics Park – Mariaberg
• Outdoor gym – Edisonstraat
• Street Workout Park – City Park

Roermond

• Monkey Bar – Gebroek
• Outdoor Exercise Gym – Donderberg
• Outdoor fitness park – Roertunnel

Heerlen

• Calisthenics Park – The Magic Circle
• Street Workout Park – Station de Kissel

Kerkrade

• Castle Erenstein
• Honéestraat

Uden

• Liberation Park
• Outdoor Exercise Station – De Keien Athletics
• Outdoor Pull Up Bars – Boekelsedijk

Other Cities

• Aalten – Exercise Park
• Alkmaar – Park Oosterhout
• Amersfoort – Nieuwland
• Brunssum – Vijverpark
• Capelle aan den IJssel – Outdoor Fitness Equipment – Schilderspad
• Delft – Buitenhof
• Den Bosch – Youth Center De Poort
• Dordrecht – Leerpark
• Drachten – Outdoor Exercise Gym – Bewegingscentrum
• Dronten – Street Workout Park – Agripark
• Echt – Sport park de bandert
• Eindhoven – Outdoor Calisthenics Station
• Exloo – Calisthenics Park
• Geldrop – IJzeren Man
• Geldrop-Mierlo – Street Workout Park
• Goes – Geldeloozepad
• Groningen – Stadspark
• Haarlem – Calisthenics Bar Brothers Park – Reinaldapark
• Hardenberg – Hospital
• Hengelo – Groot Driene
• Hilversum – Bonnikestraat/stephensonlaan
• Houten – Kristalwater 32
• Julianadorp – Calisthenics Park
• Kijkduin – Calisthenics Equipment – Kijkduin Beach
• Kockengen – Sportweg
• Meppel – City & Esch & Lyceum
• Nieuwegein – Oudegein
• Nuenen – Heavenly Path
• Oirschot – Outdoor Gym – Memorial Park
• Pijnacker – peak storage Oude Polder
• Purmerend – Grotenhuysweg
• Putten – Street Workout Park
• Rijswijk – Calisthenics Workout Park – Patrijsweg
• Sittard-Geleen – Calisthenics Park
• Tilburg – Outdoor Fitness Trail – The Old Warande
• Veenendaal – City Park
• Veldhoven – Calisthenics Park
• Venlo – Molenbossen
• Voerendaal – Strijthagenstraat
• Waalwijk – Calisthenics Park
• Weert – Calisthenics & Street Workout Park – Molenaker
• Zaandijk – Morning Star Street
• Zandvoort – Outdoor Fitness Course – Kuck Fitness
• Zoetermeer – Street Workout Park
• Zwolle – Calisthenics Station – Aa- Landen

Buying a Pull-up Bar

Now, it’s possible that despite all these locations, you still have to travel too far for a calisthenics park near you. Or you prefer to train in the privacy of your own home or garden. What equipment can you then best purchase to be able to do pull-ups at home? Infamous are the telescopic bars that you can clamp in the door frame. “Infamous” in the sense that you can’t find a fitness fail compilation on Youtube without footage of people falling on their butts due to such a bar coming loose. Therefore, start with good material, such as a TRX Pack:

Pull Up Mate

Watching these kinds of fail videos prevents any need to explain why you should use reliable equipment. When it comes to simple pull-ups, then any sturdy surface that you can pull yourself up on will suffice. As a child, I always pulled myself up on the window frame at the top of the door frame, but I shouldn’t try that with my current weight. If it’s about more difficult exercises then you need the grip of a bar and enough room to move. You can also opt for specially made pull-up bars for indoors or the garden. Think, for example, of the ‘pull-up mate’. Here, you don’t place the bar in an existing construction, but you use a whole device that is designed for this. No more silly fail videos, then.