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Every day it is more common to find facilities and areas where you can practice calisthenics in parks and in the urban landscape. Groups of young people, and sometimes not so young, concentrate to raise their body between bars while they do pirouettes and figures. Calisthenics is a word that comes from the Greek Kallos, beauty, and sthenos, strength. It is an exercise system based on the body’s own weight and that works large muscle groups to achieve the beauty of the body in movement.
Taking into account its own definition we can ensure that the calistenia It is an ancient training formula and we can also imagine ancient warriors preparing for war with push-ups, dips, or sit-ups.
Within the training with the own body there are different modalities. From the gymnastics which is the most technical and rigorous until the «Street Workout», a term in English, which defines the street training practiced in parks, bars and parallel bars. It is usually confused with Freestyle, which is the modality that could be considered as street sports gymnastics in which the static movements with dynamic ones and that is usually the one that attracts the most young people. To these different types we must add weighted calisthenics, as its name indicates it is about adding a ballast to the weight of the body.
The most common exercises of this type of training are the elbow curls, the dominated, the dips, known as bottoms, the squats or the abdominals. Once these exercises are controlled, progress is made with turns, jumps and figures such as the human flag or the plates.
Although it can be considered that by working only with your own body weight the risk of injury decreases, this is not the case, so a good warm-up is always essential before starting to train. During the exercises it is important not to force the range of the joints or the postures, to do the Stretching of no more than eight seconds and perform the movements slowly until the technique is controlled. Respect the body’s recovery times and do not train with muscular fatigue they are also essential tips to avoid injuries.
Benefits
- Increase muscular endurance
- Improve posture
- Increases muscle mass and power
- Improves explosiveness
- Strengthens the joints
- Improves the cardiovascular system
Historical curiosities
- The Chronicles of Heródoto of the Battle of the Thermopylae of year 480 a. C. can be considered the first historical reference of calisthenics.