Are you looking to add some variety to your fitness routine?
Or are you just beginning your journey to better health, and are you unsure of where to start?
If either of these descriptions sounds like you, then calisthenics exercises and starting a full body calisthenics workout may be the perfect choice for you.
Full Body Calisthenics workouts consist of a series of body weight exercises that engage all the major muscle groups in your body. This can provide a great full body workout, regardless of your level of fitness or experience.
In this blog post
I will outline five easy calisthenics exercises that you can use in your next workout. Let’s get started!
- Why did I select the activities on this list?
- top bodyweight exercises to know
- Conclusion
- Continue your adventure
Why did I select the activities on this list?
Allow me to add this disclaimer first.
This is not supposed to be the be all end all list of best exercises ever. Maybe your favourite exercise didn’t make the cut and you are wondering why.
The main reason I have selected these exercises is because I have done and incorporated all of them in my own workout routines. Not only do I find them fun to do, I have also seen drastic improvements in my own muscular endurance.
Outside of having personal experience and seeing good results, I believe these could be very beneficial for you too. These are the criteria I used to judge:
- the exercise needs to be very easy to learn
- the exercise needs to be straightforward to perform with correct form to prevent injury
- the exercise does not require expensive machines
- the exercise works a variety of muscle groups
- the exercise can be done at home, outside or in a gym
- the exercise can be modified to make it more challenging as your fitness level improves (progressive overload)
- the exercise can be combined into a very effective workout routine
Top bodyweight exercises to know
The following classic calisthenics exercises are a staple in many classes and routines. I’m convinced that there are no new things here. But that doesn’t make it less exciting.
These are 100% evergreen body weight exercises that have stood the test of time and still are going strong.
The reason why for me personally these 5 are the best overall, is because you can build a tremendous amount of strength and endurance with these alone.
They are very scalable toward the level you are at in your fitness journey.
They are easy to measure and to perform. You can start in the comfort of your home, in a playground or in a gym. They can be performed anywhere, really.
Basic body weight exercises are easy to learn and last but not least, require no fancy fitness equipment to get you going.
#1 Push up
The humble push up is a classic exercise.
Even if you are not a fitness enthusiast, there are not many people that have not done a push in their lifetime.
No matter if you like them or not, the push up should not be overlooked when creating your workout program.
A properly executed bicep push up trains practically the entire upper body. Biceps, triceps, pectorals and back muscles. Yes, everyone is invited to this party.
Push ups also strengthen the wrist, stabilise the shoulder and engage your core. More advanced push up variations require extreme levels of strength and are a great goal to train for.
As with any type of training, getting to these advanced levels takes lots of time, patience and practice. But who doesn’t want to be able to do a handstand push up
And as a cherry on top, there are countless variations that can be done to make this exercise a challenge for every fitness level.
#2 Plank
The upper body takes away most of the attention for some. But the real power house is your core. These muscles stabilise the spine and form the link between upper and lower body.
Crunches, sit-ups and other movements are traditionally used because of their ability to be measured in repetitions. Implementing these core exercises are great, but require some explanation, technique and practice to master. And doing a bunch of crunches doesn’t necessarily mean that you are developing a strong core!
When it comes to building strength, we need to increase the resistance over time.
Once you master good form, the plank is a great example of an exercise that is easy to perform, and can be scaled up by holding the plank position longer.
If you are looking to bring more variation into your plank exercises, the side plank, or extended plan are great alternatives to add in your routine.
Because of this simplicity it is by far my favourite core exercise.
The plank challenge is a great way to increase your ability to hold a plank
#3 step Lunges
Let’s be honest, the lower body is not easy to train when it comes to body weight movement only. Our legs are equipped with the larger muscle groups (Quadriceps, gluts or gluteus (your butt) and hamstrings (back of the upper leg) muscles) in our body.
When it comes to building muscle and strength there are other exercises better suited to do this than pure body weight exercises.
Even done with no additional weight, lunges are a great exercise to add into a pure body weight based routine.
The reason I’m going for the lunge instead of the squat is because (in my opinion) the squat is a technically more complex exercise.
I understand that some will disagree here because the lunge involves core and hip stability. And can be more challenging for balance as one leg will be more stressed doing the exercise.
#4 Burpees
Burpees fall under the conditioning side of training. With conditioning, we are trying to combine a cardiovascular aspect into our program. Improving your condition means you can train longer and make workouts easier.
There are multiple examples of conditioning exercises that can be used to mix things up.
To be 100% honest with you, I don’t love doing burpees. But I love the way I feel after doing burpees. And that’s why it earned its spot in my best overall list
Doing a burpee uses the entire body. It should be done as fast as possible and you combine two directions at once. Going back, forward, up and down. Making it by far the most challenging and exhausting of all conditioning exercises.
To give you an example of a very easy full body workout routine try the following:
Set 1:
10 burpees
10 push ups
Set 2:
9 burpees
1 min plank
Set 3:
8 burpees
10 push ups
Repeat and switch plank and push ups until you are at 1 burpee.
To make this more challenging
Increase the number of Burpees to 20 and go down by 2 every set
If you hit the end of the sets, reverse and go up.
#5 Pull up
The mighty pull up is the counterpart of our push up. As all the other exercises in this list it has been used for years as a measure of strength.
With so many variations, the pull is a relatively simple exercise to learn and do. Training a multitude of muscles and muscle groups it’s just a great tool in our toolbox to build superhuman strength.
One arm pull up anybody?
The reason that this exercise comes in the 5th spot and not the second is that it actually requires some sort of equipment aka pull up bar.
No matter where you are in your journey, it’s easy to incorporate a form of pull up into your routine and slowly graduate to the next level.
So don’t worry if you have never been able to do a pull up. Start with adding body rows into your routine.
To do a body row, put a solid round wooden stick or metal bar on two chairs. This bar needs to support your body weight, so make sure it is solid and can at least support your weight.
Lay underneath the bar and grip the bar or stick shoulder width apart. The bar should be somewhere over the mid chest. Just under or over the nipples is a good starting point.
Pull your upper body towards the bar, legs stay straight. Ankles resting on the ground. Try to be as stiff as possible and make sure you lift your butt of the ground.
This exercise is not a full pull up but it use the same muscle groups and are a great way to train your strength.
After this you can slowly work your way up to chin-ups (knuckles facing towards you) and pull ups (knuckle facing away from you) and eventually venture into muscle up land.
With so many combinations and variations there are so many exciting ways to go when training pull ups.
A word of caution. Doing many pull ups is a great ego boost, and can be a great goal to aim for. Believe me, I get it.
But the fastest way to destroy your confidence and ability to train is trying to move up too fast and getting injured.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this roundup of my favorite bodyweight exercises!
These moves are classics for a reason; they work! If you’re looking to create your own workout routine, try incorporating these exercises into a circuit training program. You can do them all back-to-back with little rest in between, or alternate between two or three different exercises each time you work out.
And don’t forget – always consult with a doctor before starting any new exercise program.
Are there any particular bodyweight exercises that you love? Let me know [email protected]!
Until next time and be well.
Continue your fitness adventure
If you enjoyed this article, you might want to have a look at how to improve your muscular endurance in my ultimate guide
Or if you are looking to do more than just calisthenics, I’m sure you will enjoy the most effective activities to improve muscular endurance