Calisthenics is a term that identifies a set of physical exercise’s bodyweight, alternatives to the classic gym. The word comes from two Greek words ” kalos ” which mean beauty and ” sthenos ” or strength. Sometimes you will also find the terms and calisthenic callisthenic which actually identify the same concept. The calisthenics has spread worldwide and has taken different forms. For example, Australia has suffered contamination with dancing and music, taking a strong artistic.
In other sports, such as boxing, is often used to indicate the training and bodyweight as a synonym for conditioning (conditioning). It may also happen that the individual exercises vary greatly depending on the ” school ” that follows. In general, it can be said that almost all do not use any tools, because they intend to strengthen the physical counter the sheer force of your body weight.
The term beauty (kalos) refers to the fact that this exercise would develop even the elegance of posture and movements. Not surprisingly, the United States was the basis of a calisthenics workout program designed for young women in the nineteenth century.
The calisthenics exercises are very simple and are based on a few basic movements that can be made to turn involving the legs, arms, abdominals and back. Even the classic exercise of jumping rope is considered by some (albeit using a tool) an exercise in calisthenics, which you can implement many variations (jump with feet together, alternating, crossing his arms, etc …). Let’s see what are the basic exercise’s bodyweight.
Abdominal exercises.
The basic exercises are sit-ups and crunches, well-known in many fitness programs. The starting position is always the same, lying on the floor on your back with your legs bent. The difference is that in the sit-up is the trunk door, lifting, as close as possible to the legs, while in the crunch, movement has fewer excursions and is sufficient to lift only the trunk floor. Other fewer well-known exercises are described below.
- With the aid of a chair – Sitting on a chair, resting only the buttocks (not the back), lift your legs and collect them in a flexed position. To maintain balance, with his hands bound to the edge of the seat. Bend the legs by stretching them forward while maintaining the balance with the help of the hands. For the less experienced, the exercise is easier if you stretched one leg at a time.
- For the more experienced – More difficult to perform, it is part of your back, but with the torso raised square (90 degrees) and hands stretched forward. You try to raise your legs, keeping the team in a position by placing only the buttocks, eventually bringing back the back to balance the upward movement of the legs.
Exercises for your quadriceps.
- Pushups with momentum – It starts standing with hands stretched forward, his legs a little disunited and feet slightly apart. So there squats by bending your legs and slightly raising your heels. From this starting position, it stands a vertical jump trying to get as high as possible and then you land back in the starting position with the legs flexed. This exercise is traumatic enough so you might introduce it in the working plane with a certain gradation, commented by measuring the effort with their fitness. To facilitate the execution, you can simplify the landing and get to his feet, and then gradually descend to the starting position very slowing the movement of squatting.
- Pushups on one leg – From the squatting position on her heels with her legs bent and arms forward, stretches one leg forward and performing push-ups on one leg. Although this exercise is not easy to perform, so we should start, if it was too difficult with the classic push-ups on both legs.
- With the help of a cut – simpler to perform, but, which also involves the feet, the soleus muscle and the Achilles tendon, can be the following year. Standing, putting one foot in an upward (a perfect step, the foot must be placed only with the tip, approximately two-fifths of the plant), the other leg raised and brought back so as to bind the foot on the calf of the leg support. From this starting position, there is raised as much as possible above the line of the step, remaining on the tip of the support foot; then down as much as possible by bringing the heel of the support foot below the line of the step. It keeps the balance with one arm holding a handrail or a chair positioned on the side.
Exercises for the back.
From the prone position with arms outstretched and palms forward looking down trying to raise as much as possible, and at the same time, the trunk and legs, staying in the up to position for a few seconds. To vary the difficulty of the exercise you can vary the position of the arms parallel to the sides or pick them up or lay them sideways.
Arms and shoulders.
Not easy to perform, this exercise requires the use of two chairs placed opposite one another. The athlete stands in the middle, placing the palms of your hands to chairs with arms flexed, and legs are on the ground stretched forward. So you raise your legs parallel to the floor and, from this starting position, there is raised and lowered above the starting level by leveraging on the arms.
Even the classic push-ups on the ground are considered, in many variations, exercises of calisthenics: a leg stretched out, legs bent at the knees on a floor (very easy), with one arm (very difficult) or with your feet resting on an increase (a chair or a stool).
Conclusions.
The number of repetitions per exercise depends largely on the degree of training and physical condition of the athlete. In general, with a view to strengthen overall physical conditioning, it is much more important to the continuity of the training program: a program has better effects than half an hour a day instead of 2:00 to 3:00 grueling sessions a week.
