You’re either good at calisthenics or you’re not. Bodyweight is not a factor.
Whether 135lbs or 270lbs, you must be good at calisthenics.
You’d do well to place more faith in them, after all, if you take internet lore to be true, it’s how prisoners are getting jacked in spite of everything you’ve read that’s a rule.
At 20/21 realizing I could always do calisthenics, I put my heart and soul into what most look at as just a “it travels well better than nothing” write off workout.
I tell you the more you get into calisthenics the more you get out of them.
Go do a million pushups, by a million you’ll swear to do them forever more.
It’s amazing just how much more useful an exercise done for forever becomes after a period.
That skinny teen is not getting as much out of 20 pushups as I am, and the heavier you are the more effective calisthenics become.
A single push up at a 300lb bodyweight is equivalent to a bench rep at about 195lbs.
Frequently I’m surprised by just how strong I am. It’s higher than when I was using a barbell.
Why?
No excuses.
You approach calisthenics right and you’ll have zero excuses.
At the baseline level of my training I’ll be doing so many mantra pushups that big and strong is guaranteed.
Pushups and bodyweight squats can be done anywhere.
Some spots where I’ve done pushups have been downright comical.
Chin ups require something to hang from. Make like a monkey, trees are everywhere.
Handstand pushups, wall sits, require a piece of wall.
Headstands, and bridging, need a towel or a pillow…or grass.
Obviously there are more movements.
A cool effect of calisthenic exercises is that the body naturally fires the muscles hard.
You get stronger mind-muscle connection than with weights, especially when you’ve done the movement a million times.
Yet another day where I trained nearly equipment free.
It’s slightly funny to go to the gym to almost only hit calisthenics.
For the first time other than myself I saw handstand pushups in person, a small dude, late 20s maybe 5’6″ 135lbs, a few sets of around 10, a couple of sets wearing a (8lbs, we talked briefly) weight vest. Dude brought a weight vest and pushup bars with him to the gym for extra range of motion.
Craziest thing I’ve seen on this gym floor though was back in December, a taller, slightly curvy, but fit 40 something light skinned latina (she had the recent immigrant accent) doing sets and reps (~5×5-8) of standing ab wheel. She said she just liked the idea of doing them, so started practicing, and stayed consistent. Again aside from myself I’ve seen her, and a dude who plays pro hockey in Europe do them in person.
The last few sessions I’ve noticed that good chin up work feeds into stronger handstand pushups.
I’m getting consistent at the movement. I sense a lot of potential for me with them, reps, greater rom, freestanding.
-J