What’s the deal with calisthenics? 

This video is very well informed. Calisthenics can also be good for people who are not able not hold weights, I know some elderly folks who prefer to train this way. It’s also great to break a plateau. I love this channel because she talks about health as a whole, it doesn’t have to be just one form of exercise, I’ve found that incorporating Pilates, cardio and strength training keeps my training interesting, enjoyable, functional and stops me from plateauing in terms of muscle and strength gain.

I'm so happy to read how much money you made thanks to that single pilates video! Obviously I'd like for you to be the richest online fitness educator ever because your work truly deserves to get recognized and respected, but still, it's great, Justina! Wishing you tons of success! Calisthenics is super cool, in my opinion, and can potentially give you an amazing, balanced and strong-looking physique if you're consistent and take it slow (just go check elite gymnasts, they basically "just" do a lot of advanced calisthenics), but I never truly considered it as a separate entity from more conventional resistance training. I need to start incorporating more walking lunges in my workouts, it's been ages since my last one for some reason when they are SO fun!

Hi, great video! You can explain things very cleary. Lucy Lismore is all about calestenics. She is also very no-nonsense, but in a polite Britisch version.😂 maybe you would enjoy some of her videos as well. Thanks for all your great videos!

Your hair is ON POINT in this vid. Love your vids as always!

When I think of callisthenics, I always think of pistol squats and handstand type push up variations and just stuff that’s way beyond my level. Good to know I already incorporate some of the basic stuff. Also, lol loved the self plug and mentioning you’re hoping to make a ton of money on this video. I studied social research and there was a lot of “actually nobody’s objective and we should just acknowledge our biases and account for them.” The fact that you’re actually transparent about where you’re coming from, rather than pretending you have this special ultimate truth that nobody else has, makes you so much more trustworthy to me - and helps us to think more critically when consuming other fitness content. Tldr: thanks!

Hi, I first learnt about calisthenics in the late 1960s, from a book that was already old back then. Some aspects of callisthenics seem to have been forgotten, such as full capacity loading. Very simple examples would be pressing your hands against each other, monkey grip pulling against each other, or a mix such as palm-to-palm with one arm in a bicep curl position and the other opposing it. All of these can exceed body weight, & they have the advantage of force loading at different angles or positions that you talked about in your Functional Fitness video. I think calisthenics started to get forgotten from the 1970s onwards as gyms gained in popularity.

Another awesome video! Thanks for your great content.

I love a mixture of training...I love lifting heavy and then breaking that up with some body weight moves! Always a fantastic explanation!!!

Yessss! Get that coin, babe! I have a feeling you're absolutely right about calisthenics because I have seen it popping up on my ig and youtube feeds lately and I hope your bank account gets the meal that it deserves v soon 😏💰

Justina - “a moderate mix of everything “ - how many other fitness influencers have the confidence to say this? (Not many!👍👍👍). Callisthenics are quite interesting - they can be quite simple (BW squat) but also very challenging (pistol squat or sissy squat!🙀).Plus it’s about as low cost a form of training you can find. Even this form of training can pack on muscle - Olympic gymnasts don’t spend much (if any!) time using weights and those guys are pretty stacked. ( I always find it amusing how it’s super impressive to see some do a muscle up in the gym but for a male Olympic gymnast that’s the basic move they do just to get into position on the rings!😂)

One of the biggest reasons calisthenics is getting popular is longevity. Calisthenics comes with less injury than weights. Better for joints vs. strength training. Those who do calisthenics for prolonged periods of time tend to be more functional over the years and just better off all around versus shoulder joints that are shot, blown discs in back, tears, bad knees, etc. With strength training it's not if you get hurt, it's when; versus calisthenics that preserves and is much safer and just as effective.

If calisthenics is "in" again its probably because someone heard the word for the first time and thought it sounded new and fancy lol

Both calisthenics and weight training are forms of "strength" training... i.e. increasing the capacity of your muscles via progressive resistance training. The difference is weight training achieves this by making your muscles work against weighted external loads (barbells, dumbbells, machines, strapping weighted plates to yourself, etc.)... while calisthenics achieves this by using pure gravity as resistance and manipulating that gravity though various "leverage" techniques. Despite both achieving the same goal of increased strength, there are some key differences in the implications of performance (on the more extreme ends) that makes them dissimilar in many regards. For instance, every serious lifter knows that achieving a really big bench press (for example) is going to require attaining a certain size and body weight in order to be in a better position to move such a big load (and to withstand the stress associated with that load on your skeleton)... what this essentially means is anyone trying to increase their "lifts" past a certain point will require them to increase calories to gain extra body weight in order to achieve them. It's no coincidence that the "strongest" lifters aren't exactly lean with beach bodies - many would appear outright overweight at first glance. Calisthenics is the opposite... because you are essentially moving "yourself" though space, any extra bodyweight actually *hinders* your performance, rather than helping it. It's perfectly possible to be well above a certain body fat level and do a weight training exercise with a challenging weight just fine... but it's impossible to be overweight and be able to do perfect, high reps of push-ups or something more advanced such as ring dips. So in that sense, both weight training and calisthenics makes one stronger over time, but in different contexts and one sort of "pushes" you to become heavier to some degree while the other pushes you to become leaner over time as you progress.

Awesome video 👍 I have been practicing calisthenics for years. It's highly effective if you do not have access to weights. However, it's not special. It's just resistance training with bodyweight. Hopefully influencers do not market it as something unique as you predict. Calisthenics has existed for a long time. Way before gyms. Pushups, pullups, squats have always been the staple. There's nothing unique here.

Would love to hear your thoughts on wall pilates. Been seeing the ads everywhere, litterally can't seem to escape them and I'm interested on what you think.

I really enjoy @FitnessFAQs and @Summerfunfitness for the hybrid training approach and would love to hear some of your thoughts if you're keen on it (:

I really had to watch out doing side planks. My heart rate basically went way too high after being in a good range the rest of the workout. I follow Sydney Cummings and decided to just rest a little longer than she does, so it wasn't already so high going in. I can mostly keep up, and when my heart needs a breather, that's okay. Love that you made this video because I'm seeing so much calisthenics content from the algorithm and needed this very feedback.

Please Justina talk about something related to dance! like strength training for dancer or hiper mobility or something more snarky like I always remember that in my old studio the dance teacher make do me and my fellow boys in the ballet class do push ups and the girls are over there doing calf raises cause they don’t “need strong arms” I think that there a lot to talk and u with your dance background and pt can make a great video! I hope o understand what I write?! lol

This made me realize that I need to work on my squat form.

Back in the 70s I was in elem school and our phys ed teacher had us do jumping jacks to 'warm up' and he called that calisthenics. It wasnt until I was much older that I found out that it was more than that.

What’s your thoughts on Burpee’s? I think they’re effective but if people don’t do them right, they could jack up their back, maybe knees too. How do you instruct these in a group fitness setting?

Well, this was informative! I guess I thought calisthenics was cardio only, like jumping jacks.

I’d love to hear your take on Animal Flow.

Is calisthenics enough resistance to promote bone density increase? I agree we should do all types of training to reap all the benefits, but i was just curious

I agree with your definitions in the beginning. But here the term "strength training" that you are using to differentiate from Calisthenics would actually be hypertrophy training? 🤔 Or any training with weights? 😅 Because conceptually, Calisthenics is much more "strength training" than weight training/hypertrophy (as you also said in the beginning)

The more diverce movement styles the better chance for a balanced body🤷‍♀️

So is yoga a form of Calisthenics?

LOVE @HybridCalisthenics! He’s awesome; not only is he encouraging and positive, he works with where people are at any given time and shows the progression. 🤍