Welcome to our beginner’s Calisthenics workout program. Are you ready for the ultimate training method, which simply uses your body-weight and gravity for resistance? No more expensive gym memberships or gimmicky equipment, it’s time to experience the purist form of strength training.
We strongly suggest two pieces of equipment so you can workout anywhere. These are not required for this program, but they will expand your workout program to hundreds of different exercises: 1) gymnastic rings and 2) parallette bars. Both can be ordered from our online store.
HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS PROGRAM?
- Learn the fundamentals of calisthenics
- Develop muscular endurance
- Improve your muscular tone and size
- Realise the potential of calisthenics
GOALS
Before you start the program, it’s important to set yourself some measurable goals (we recommend at least 2-3), this way you’ll be able to see your progress throughout the program. Set specific, measurable, achievable and realistic goals. Have a time-frame within which you want to hit your goals.
So an ideal goal would be: “I want to do 3 bar muscle-ups within 3 months” This type of goal allows you to monitor your progress, and also breakdown the goal, to make it less overwhelming.
Another good idea before you get started, is to sign up for our free quick-guide on “The 10 Laws of Ridiculous Bodyweight Strength and Muscle Mass”. This provides extra foundation knowledge, giving you the edge in your journey towards a stronger, leaner, tougher body.
It’s free and it’ll really help! Enter your email at the bottom of this page.
WARM UP
Every workout always starts with a good, specific warm-up. The purpose, is to fire up your cardiovascular system, as well as warming your muscles ready for exercise. Never skip the warm-up!
A good warm-up improves your athletic performance, and it also helps reduce injuries and increase mobility.
Here’s the key structure to follow for every warm-up:
1. Raise your heart rate, with some legs-based body-weight exercises.
Choose between:
- 30 Alternating Lunges + 20 Squats + 10 burpees
- 30 star jumps/jumping jacks + 30 Mountain Climbers
- 3-5 mins of fast skipping with a good speed rope
- 10 x 50 meter sprint reps with 10 seconds rest between each rep
- 20 squat jumps + 20 burpees + 20 Squat Thrusts
2. Mobilise your joints
Now your heart rate is elevated, start mobilising your joints ready for exercise. The key is, focus on specific exercises for the workout you’ll be doing. For example, if you are going to be focus on upper body or arms, mobilise the shoulder joint. If you are working the whole body, mobilise the hips, back and shoulders.
Spend at least 3-5 minutes performing several mobilisation exercises, and aim for around a minute on each exercise.
SHOULDER MOBILISATION EXERCISES
- Shoulder Dislocations
- Chest Openers
- Arm Circles
BACK MOBILISATION EXERCISES
- Back Extensions
- Cat Stretch
- Trunk Twists
- Bridges
HIP MOBILISATION EXERCISES
- Deep Walking Lunges
- Side to side Leg Swings
- Back to front Leg Swings
With the warm up done, it’s time to start your workout. As you’re new to calisthenics, we would suggest breaking your training down into 3 sections:
SKILLS PROGRESSION WORK
These skills help develop the strength and proprioception you’ll need, to progress onto the more advanced calisthenics exercises. They are perfect progression exercises, any beginner should be able to do. As they replicate certain parts of the more advanced moves, which may be impossible initially.
Dedicate at least 10-15 minutes of your workout to these skills. You don’t have to perform all of them in every session. In fact, we would actually recommend focusing on one or two per session, based on your overall goals.
They are also best performed before the strength fundamentals section of your workout, when your body is still fresh, and you can fully focus on performing the techniques properly.
HANDSTAND PROGRESSIONS
- Handstand Kick Ups – Help you gain confidence, establishing a good handstand entry.
- Handstand Wall Holds – Train your balance, but mainly wrist and shoulder strength and flexibility.
- Frog Stands – Develop your balance and wrist strength and flexibility.
MUSCLE-UP PROGRESSIONS
- Low Bar transition work – Reinforces the motion of a muscle up, to ensure the transition from below to above the bar, is smooth and efficient.
- Jumping Muscle Ups – Give you the feel of a bar muscle up, whilst allowing you to develop your strength.
PLANCHE PROGRESSION
- Pseudo Planche – Allows you to develop the wrist and shoulder strength and flexibility needed for a planche, without needing the extreme core strength for a full planche.
- Frog Stands – Frog Stands also help develop the wrist strength and flexibility needed for the planche.
- Tuck Planche – A progression on from frog stands.This can be further developed into the straddle planche.
L-SIT PROGRESSION
- Seated L-sits – Reduces the resistance, so you develop core strength, with just the weight of your legs.
- Tucked leg Bar L-sits – The next progression, as you have to hold your whole bodyweight, but it’s easier than a full L-sit.
- Hanging leg raise holds– Takes advantage of the hanging leg raise momentum to get into the L-sit position. Holding the return for a few seconds, develops static core strength.
STRENGTH FUNDAMENTALS
These are the foundation of a good calisthenics workout. The key exercises that develop your body, and get you ready for some of the more advanced exercises. It’s really important to focus on correct technique, which ensures maximum results as you develop.
As a beginner it’s key to work the whole body in each workout, rather than split your workouts into specific muscle groups. This provides the greatest chance of anatomical adaption and also ensures you aren’t missing any muscle groups. A rest period of 3 minutes between sets is a good rule of thumb.
Once comfortable at these reps, use a weighted vest to keep your rep range to around 3-8 reps, for maximum strength gains.
WORKOUT A
- 20 Squats
- 10 Pull-ups
- 10 Standard Push-ups
- 10 Hanging leg raises
- 10 Burpees
- 10 Bench Dips
- 1 minute rest
Repeat this cycle 6 times
WORKOUT B
- 8 Diamond Push-ups
- 10 Biceps Pull-ups
- 12 Inverted Rows
- 20 Jumping Lunges
- 30 second Plank
- 1 minute rest
Repeat this cycle 5 Times
WORKOUT C
- 5 Pistol Squats on each leg
- 5 Incline Push-ups
- 5 Clap Push-ups
- 5 Narrow Grip Pull-ups
- 20 Burpees
- 30 seconds rest
Repeat this cycle 5 Times
WORKOUT D
- 15 Squat Jumps
- 15 Wide Arm Push-ups
- 15 Parallel Bar or Ring Dips
- 15 Leg Raises
- 10 Windshield Wipers
- 30 seconds side plank on each side
- 1 minute rest
Repeat this cycle 4 Times
WORKOUT E
- 50 meter Duck Walk
- 15 Box/Bench Jumps
- 10 Push-ups
- 10 Inverted Rows
- 10 Pull-ups
- 15 Leg Raises
- 50 second Plank
- 1 minute rest
Repeat this cycle 4 times
STRETCHING
Stretch the muscles you have worked, after every session. If you skip this, you’ll not only regret it the next day, but you’ll also hinder your progress. Flexibility is key in most body-weight movements. Check out this video for a great guide to the best stretches for calisthenics.
This plan provides enough variety, to build a 6 week program using these daily workouts. Aim for 2-5 sessions per week, depending on your existing level of fitness.
Simply pick your warm up and mobilisation exercises; select a couple of skills based on your personal goals; move on to one of the strength fundamentals workouts; and then finish with stretches.
This is designed to be a high intensity program, so perform all of the strength fundamentals as quickly as possible, only resting in the dedicated rest intervals. Take your time with the skills and stretching, as these sections are not about intensity.
You’ll probably find your body hurts, as a result of the new stimulus, this is normal. There are a few common pains beginners experience, due to calisthenics workouts. These can be dealt with. Here are a few, and our tips on how to control them:
- Sore hands/ calluses from bar work – We recommend a good set of pull-up leather gloves to reduce friction on the hands.
- Muscle aching in legs – Can really be helped by a session on a good quality foam roller. Not only does the foam roller reduce tension, but it can flush out lactic acid and other exercise bi-products.
- Wrist aches – Many of the above movements place a lot of pressure on the wrists, and until they are stronger, they may ache. Regular wrist stretches and mobility work help, as well as a good set of wrist wraps.
Remember:
Fuel your body correctly with a clean diet, good hydration (minimum 2 litres of water a day) and plenty of quality sleep (aim for 8 hours) for optimal recovery.
As someone doing calisthenics, we strongly suggest two pieces of equipment so you can workout anywhere: 1) gymnastic rings and 2) parallette bars. These two pieces of equipment will let you expand your workout program a lot more to do hundreds of different exercises. Both can be ordered from our online store:
