Calisthenics: Building a better body with your body...

Right now, at this moment in time, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you could do some exercise. Just look around you, there is a whole world waiting for you…

What is calisthenics?

Calisthenics is gymnastic type exercise used to develop muscle, physical health & fitness, and grace of movement, usually with little or no apparatus.

All you really need is you! Push, pull, twist, turn, lift, lower, bend, straighten, swing, balance. Just move your body. It’s that simple! Think of anything imaginable you can do with your body, put your mind to it, combine the two and the rewards will by far surpass your expectations. It truly is amazing what your body can do when you focus your mind on it…

The journey

I can’t tell you enough how much I love lifting myself up and down, swinging myself around bars or balancing upside down on my hands. Every single day I look forward to another training session and love the progress that comes with it. I don’t do any isolation exercises, no weight training, no direct abdominal work and no additional cardio exercise. Calisthenics allows you to work your body in its entirety which helps keep me fit, healthy, in shape and makes working out fun whilst learning new skills.

I used to lift weights. I used to run. I got to a considerable size and level of fitness which I was more than pleased with. I guess I enjoyed the weights but I never really enjoyed running. I ran because I thought I should, not because I necessarily wanted to, or needed to. I always found it a chore.

But I always had an interest in gymnastics. I used to watch gymnasts move their amazing physiques with such strength and grace, making it look so easy to defy gravity. I was in awe of everything they did and wished that one day, I could look and move like them. If I’m honest, I’m still in awe…

I started training calisthenics when I went travelling aged 19. I was away for 7 years and wasn’t always able to use gyms and couldn’t really afford to use them. I still wanted to keep in shape so I started lifting my bodyweight whenever I could. You can find out more about me and how I first got into calisthenics in my previous blog here: Who am i? The real me…

Calisthenics v Gymnastics

Lets get one thing straight, I’m not a gymnast and I have no desire to become a gymnast. Many people get confused that calisthenics and gymnastics is one and the same thing. It’s not. Far from it. You see, a gymnast trains for something specific. A specific skill, discipline, event. They will train many hours each day for many years to become the best in the world. For many, it is their lives. They dedicate every moment they can into what they are trying to achieve.

Calisthenics is different. It’s more about taking some of the aspects of gymnastics and putting it into a healthy lifestyle and training plan. Using gymnastic type exercises in order to improve your body, mobility, flexibility, movement, fitness & overall health. Some people don’t like, or can’t afford to use gyms but still want to move their body. In which case, calisthenics is a great option.

Bodyweight exercise

There is no right or wrong way to train calisthenics. Technique, of course is a major factor and progressing through the pre-requisite exercises before progressing to a harder exercise is so important. Many people want to perform a certain skill or exercise and go straight into it without working through the early progressions. Some skills look so cool that people just want to attempt it straight away. This can cause injuries and major set backs which, in turn, may cause slower progress.

It’s like anything. If you have never run before, you are not just going to get up and run a marathon. You may start with a mile and build up your distance. If you have never lifted weights before, you don’t just go into the weights room and lift the heaviest weight you can with poor technique. (Well, some fools do). Ideally, you would work on your form with a lower weight and gradually increase as you get stronger.

Calisthenics is the same. You see a skill, you think it looks cool and you want to do it. But you have to be patient. You have to work through the early stages of that particular skill, gradually build up your strength and slowly progress through each stage. It takes time, patience and plenty of practice. You’re not going to get it right away and you may get frustrated at times but believe me, once you nail that particular skill you have been working on for weeks, months or even years, you’ll get a real sense of self satisfaction and achievement that you have worked so hard for and finally mastered what you set out to achieve.

It’s not the only way

Just because I choose to train and coach only calisthenics doesn’t mean that I am against any other forms of exercise. If you enjoy weight training, go and lift some weights. If you enjoy running, put on some running shoes and run. If you enjoy playing a particular sport, join a club or a team. Any exercise, as long as it’s done with correct technique can be good and beneficial. Even just straight cardio or Zumba etc. has some health benefits, although I wouldn’t recommend these alone. But if that’s all you have time for, and that’s what you enjoy, then go for it. Moving your body in some way, shape or form is better than not moving it all.

I’m a strong believer in making sure that exercise is fun. Exercise should never be a chore. If you are training for a specific sport or competition then yes, it can sometimes become a little boring or tedious but you have the end result of winning something to drive and motivate you forward. If you are a professional athlete that is getting paid then that is another form of motivation. If you are training for aesthetics then looking in the mirror is going to be your best motivation on the days where it feels like it’s the last thing you want to do.

Your goals, your choice

My goal used to be aesthetics. This changed when I became a father for the very first time. I wanted to be able to get down on the floor with my kids, crawl around and move without feeling stiff or tight. So now my goals are to simply move my body, stay fit & healthy, to master my own bodyweight and gain complete control over my body whilst having fun and enjoying what I do. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to look good and luckily enough, calisthenics keeps me in pretty good shape which takes care of aesthetics without me even thinking about it.

The first thing you need to do is realise your true goals and figure out what you want from exercise. Put aside the goals that society has created for us and think about what you actually want, not just from your body, but from your life. We all want to be happy and have fun right? There are enough chores in life without exercise being one of them. You may have to try out a few different forms of exercise before you find some that are enjoyable. Whatever you end up choosing, make sure that it’s fun and you are far more likely to stick with it then if you are doing something you hate. And if you enjoy it, you are more likely to stay consistent. And being consistent is what will get you to where you want go.

Enjoy the journey and the process, and the rest will look after itself…

Now, take another look around you, get up and go move your body…

- Denny

Twitter: @Bodyweight_PT

Blog: http://twelvetoes.roon.io/

Catherine's story

I had always had an issue with my weight since my early teens I guess, described as sturdy, stocky etc. I had my first son at only 15 years old and when I was 17 I lived on my own with him, I guess this is where my comfort eating habits started. I met my now ex husband when I was 18 and had 4 children by the time I was 27, I got bigger with each baby and had terrible eating habits, comfort eating and binging being main issues. 

By the time I was 33 I was nearly 20 stone and a UK size 28, my health was suffering and I needed a knee replacement and a hysterectomy. I suffered from panic attacks had no confidence and felt dreadful most of the time but put on a brave face, but one night I had a bad panic attack and was genuinely scared I was having a heart attack. I think for a lot of people they need something to kick them up the backside and for me that was what it took and I'm actually thankful for it. 

Within a week I joined slimming world which is all about healthy eating and promotes an active lifestyle, no magic pills or potions just a good diet and even though it took a lot of changes for me and willpower, I loved it and threw myself into it. I was determined to get healthy for my family, I started exercising at home and built it up from walking, wii board fitness games to a bike, Zumba classes and exercise DVDs, I didn't join a gym at all. The exercise helped hugely with inch loss and fat reduction. The weight came off steadily at an average of a few pounds a week but that resulted in 8 stone coming off in a year and I lost 9 stone 12 in all dropping to a size 8/10.

I can't even tell people what a difference it has made to my life, I don't need a new knee or a hysterectomy now and am very healthy, but I feel I released the real me.

I became a slimming world consultant which I love as I can help others to get healthy and change their lives and I feel amazing knowing I am healthy and did it the right way and can show others it is possible. I have had challenges along the way which could of thrown me off course but I always had to just remind myself why I started and how far I'd come. I have had bad days, bad weeks, weight gains, I still have issues with emotional eating and binging which just shows you're never really cured. I think if you have had an issue with your weight you will always have to try really hard. Some people assume it's easy once the weights gone but it's not, I work hard every day to keep in shape but I love my healthy lifestyle and setting my children a good example.

I only joined a gym in February this year and since then have seen my body shape really change and I'm loving challenging myself and getting strong. I was running every day before and was a lot leaner but now I'm training in the gym I much prefer my toned shape, I'm proud of my muscles, I've worked hard for them. I'm probably about 10/12 lb heavier but I'm the same dress size but look a lot better. 

I am excited about the future and where both my career, family and lifestyle will take me now. I always tell people you shouldn't let your past dictate your future because you don't know what you can achieve if you just believe in yourself, if I can do it anyone can do it!

- Catherine

Twitter: @Fit_Me4life 

The confusing world of Strength training.

Before I start I just want to say that its a pleasure and an honour to be asked to contribute to #Fitember, especially considering some of the other people who will be contributing too; people I have a lot of time and respect for. I think this is an inspired idea. There are so many international months of this or national weeks of that, but fitness is something that doesn't really have its own devoted place in the calendar. Maybe this is because fitness should realistically fill the entire calendar and be a daily part of everyone's life to some extent. But with the constant bombardment from the media of this 30 day celebrity workout plan, that 30 second abs routine, people can be forgiven for believing that there is a quick fix to being overweight or getting in shape.

Well sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but there is no quick fix, no easy way to reverse years of neglecting your health and fitness. It takes hard work and dedication. I realise that the purpose of #Fitember is to inspire and motivate people and I sincerely hope I can do that. But in order to be credible I need you all to know I wont sugar coat things. I will be honest and upfront.

My remit will be to write about strength training, do's, don'ts, give general advice and information and Ill be posting some training schedules. Videos covering technique and anything else I believe will be beneficial. I will do my best to separate the wheat from the chaff.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty.

I'll be dealing with resistance training. Resistance training is just a fancy way of saying weight training. Allegedly it was first recorded in ancient Greece. Milo of Croton picked up a calf on his shoulders every day from the day it was born through to it becoming a fully grown bull. Technically that is progressive resistance training. Steadily increasing the loads lifted over a period of time and thereby getting stronger. Whether this is true or just legend, it forms one of the basic principles of weight training.

As time has progressed and people have learned more and more about how the body responds to various training stimuli a whole host of different training methods and systems have been born. Now you will hear many different people making claims that this system is better than that system, or another system trumps all others. I just want to be clear here. If someone says a system is the best, what they are really saying is that the system they are singing the praises of, is the one they have found is the best FOR THEM!! There is no such thing as the ultimate training system. If there was, don't you think everyone in the world would be using it?

The truth is that everyone is an individual, and you have to find what works best for YOU! one undeniable truth is that when you are starting out, practically any system you use will bring you some improvements. Many people though have been brainwashed into the mistaken belief that weight training will make you big and bulky and is no good for fat loss. Apparently many of these so called celeb trainers promote the very mistaken belief that Cardio is king. False!! Cardio has its place but in terms of getting you lean and fit, it is, in my view. not the most efficient method. Runners will tell you differently, all I will say is that it has its place, but there are better ways to reach your goals. I would recommend a mixture of resistance training, bodyweight movements and high intensity interval training. There are better people than me to discuss calisthenics and HIIT.

Sadly, many people are intimidated about entering the weights room for the first time especially women. I can understand this. You look through the glass in the door from the safety of the cardio section and see a load of rough looking guys "pumping iron" grunting, groaning, slamming weights down after that "killer" set. Well I am here to tell you that those guys are NOT proper lifters. Those guys are the beach lifters, the ones who want to look good in a vest while they pose down the beach. The real, serious lifters have manners, they will be willing to help and welcome you to the weights room. They do not lift with ego but with form. Its easy for me to say "just get in there and lift" but that would be callous. Why not go in with a friend? Or maybe ask the gym staff to show you round that section. The important thing is that the weights section is not hell, its not going to chew you up and spit you out. Those beachlifters may look intimidating but those guys don't train legs, so you're going to be bossing that room in no time.

So what should you be doing when you make that first trip into the weights area? Well the first thing to do is leave your ego at the door. If you go in there and try to lift more than you are capable of not only will you become discouraged, you will likely look a bit silly and more than likely do yourself an injury. Lifting is a skill you have to learn. Each movement has a specific technique and these should be mastered before you even think about loading up the bar to go for that heavy single. When I first set foot in a gym almost 25 years ago, my then coach made me lift with only the bar for the first 3 months. This may seem excessive, and maybe it is but what it did was to ensure that good form was ingrained before I started the real lifting. It also completely destroyed any chance my teenage ego may have had to flourish there. Form is key. FORM FORM FORM. That should be your mantra. In this modern age of technology you have access to a whole world of information and assistance. Youtube can be invaluable there are literally thousands of technique videos at the click of a button.

Initially the main lifts you should focus on in my view are what I will refer to as "The Big 3". They are all compound lifts. This means they are working more than just one or two muscle groups, in fact they work a lot more than you might think. The big 3 are the fundamentals, if you do not have these in your training regimen, then you are in my honest view just not doing it right. I will go into more detail regarding the technical aspects in my next post but for now.... The big 3 are as follows:

Squat. Widely regarded as the king of the lifts. It is the basis from which all programs should be built. The squat (when done correctly) will work almost every muscle group in the body. And for the small number of parts it doesn't, there are variations that will hit more. This movement is often very badly performed and taught, and even more often it is totally missing from programmes. Yes it is hard work, you will often hear people who are serious about training bemoaning "leg day" and with good reason. A solid leg day can leave your legs a little shaky and unsteady for a while. But the whole body benefits of performing squats is more than worth it. Some variations include front squat, goblet squat, hack squat, split squat, olympic squat, high bar, low bar, overhead etc etc

Bench Press. For such an apparently simple movement, it can be pretty tough to master. You will no doubt see the beachlifters loading the bar up with way more than they can reasonably lift, and their mate will do half of the lift for them. They will shout and scream while they do it too. Also you will see them bouncing the bar off their chest (if they even lower it that far). These are the guys whose first question to assess your strength will be "Whats ya bench"? Ignore all of that. The bench press if done correctly will strengthen almost the entire upper body and even utilises the muscles of the legs and ass. Again there are a huge number of variations, all of which will work you in a slightly different way. Variations include close grip, wide grip, incline, decline, bumbell press, floor press, block press and more

Deadlift. If squat is the king of the lifts, in my view, deadlift is the Emperor. This is a lift you will see performed even less often than the squat. It involves pulling the bar from the floor, standing up straight and lowering it again. Sounds simple enough. It is theoretically, but once again technique is key. The deadlift is very heavy on the back and the posterior chain group of muscles. It will test your grip too. I recommend using chalk for this. As with the other lifts in the big 3 there are again many variations with this in terms of grip width, stance, straight leg, deficit, rack pull and so on.

So if you have never lifted weights, dont you think its about time you introduced some into your schedule? You are only going to benefit. They will make you stronger, have been shown to improve bone strength too. They burn a lot of calories and the increased muscle will further increase this. And as for the old myth that they make you big and bulky (often a concern for women). Well as post more information I will go into more detail about different types of weight training designed specifically for building muscle or strength or a mixture of both. What i will say at this point is that, girls, you are NOT going to get huge manly physiques. Unless you are about to start hammering the steroids, that just isn't possible. Women have roughly 16-20 times less testosterone in their bodies than even a teenage boy. So on that basis if a guy was training 6 times a week for an hour at a time, basic mathematics tells you that a woman would have to train for 16 hours a day to get the same results. I know that is oversimplifying things and is not strictly true (as well as not physically possible) but you get the idea. I think the pictures below nicely dispel the myth that women will get huge by lifting weights. The first 2 pictures are of Julia Rohde, she is a German Olymplic lifter she has a best clean and jerk of 108kg and snatch of 89kg and all of that from a clearly enormous and manly looking 53kg bodyweight.

So make your own judgement. Hope you enjoyed reading.

You can follow me on 

twitter @Mjolnir1974

Instagram Mjolnir1974

Youtube bigscottyt74

blogger http://invictus1974.blogspot.co.uk 

 

Lady in iron

A few years ago I was quite overweight and decided to go to a bootcamp, which was awesome! Jordon Groves ran it (@JGFatbuster) and I slimmed down nicely. I then met @tjharrop who introduced me to Powerlifting, and last year I competed at a strong athlete competition, completed my first marathon and competed at national level trampolining!

I met Scott (@Mjolnir1974) this year who told me the weights I could lift would be enough to qualify for nationals... I told my old PT Jordon and he said he would be disappointed if I didn't try. Now I'm very competitive and I hate disappointing people I respect. I trained under Scott for a bit then found my coach Dom who is awesome (@DJSKinsey), I swear at him in training a lot but he has improved my form and confidence so much!

I entered my first competition under the BDFPA and loved it :) I've qualified bench, deadlift and squat each in their own right for single lift nationals. I also qualified full power nationals where you do all 3 lifts to get a total score in the competition, I even got PB (personal best) of 132,5kg for my deadlift...not bad for a 69kg girl ;)

I've emailed the Irish federation and they've said I can go to the Irish nationals too! So my goals are now British and Irish nationals with the ultimate aim of qualifying for world championships! I've quit trampolining now; which, after 15 years of training is a bit of a shock to the system, but it's the right choice.

I love Powerlifiting and I can't wait to one day represent Ireland and call myself a world champion!

- Clare

Exercise

Well I'm going to get the ball rolling! There is always some form of exercise one can do regardless of most physical walls. First things first, what are your goals? Fat loss? Strength? Hypertrophy? They all come down to four simple things: resistance training, conditioning, mobility and nutrition.

I'm not going to promote any one system or bash any other. Exercise, working out, training, whatever you want to call it will always come down to preference. But one thing I do dislike to see is exercise that is built purely around cardio, whether it be walking, jogging, gym classes, etc. Aerobic and anaerobic cardio is great to do to develop overall health, but it's not going to help you build overall muscle development and health that can greatly improve fat loss and the physical demands of life; such as the simple joy of picking up your child.

I constantly hear "something is better than nothing" when it comes to just doing cardio, and yes it's great that people aren't living a sedentary lifestyle, but to me it's an excuse to not do resistance training. Our bodies were built to lift things, develop muscle and be strong. This doesn't mean that you're going to end up looking like a bodybuilder either, that takes years of specific training, nutrition and dedication.

Resistance training comes in many forms: barbells, dumbbells, bodyweight, resistance bands, machines, sand bags, kettlebells, etc! I encourage you to play around with the different tools and find something you like or even a mixture.

They can be performed in many ways: circuits, sets, super-sets, drop-sets, many of the Crossfit methods such as 'on the minute' are good to use as well.

You can progress on an exercise in many ways: increasing the reps, sets, weight, time under tension, decreasing the rest. Depending on your goals certain methods will be better than others, but we'll cover those in a later blog post.

A lot of people also talk about not having time; it's recommended that one should spend about an hour exercising, in my opinion, if you only have 10 minutes a day, use it. Grab something heavy and perform a circuit for 10 minutes, that way you're using resistance and developing your cardiovascular system. If you can make more time to exercise then do it, try and get into a routine, set days and times if you can.

So remember to find that balance between cardio and resistance training, come out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.

- Adam

Welcome to #Fitember!

Hiya folks!

I hear people all the time wanting to make a difference to their body, yet they lack the motivation or get lost in the vast amount of information on the internet and in magazines - articles plugged by advertisements and trends. So I thought of #Fitember, a month long event to get people motivated and clued up on what actually works to get fit and healthy. I didn't want to do this journey alone though; there are so many routes to fitness I wanted a collaboration of minds, and hopefully that's what Fitember will bring you.

We'll provide you with motivation, knowledge and throughout the month of September a daily workout. We hope you'll join the movement!

You can follow us on twitter @HashtagFitember, let's do this!

- Adam