Calisthenics Explained - Are Bodyweight Exercises Good For Building Muscle?

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Should you do calisthenics workout to build muscle? What's better, calithenics or lifting weights? Is your bodyweight good enough to get stronger?

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[hashhpt]

man, if pushups are easy, try one arm pushups. do them on both sides and see how much your chest grows. there is a lot more to calisthenics than just push ups and pull ups. if pull ups get easy, do muscle ups or one arm pull ups. of course there will be a limit eventually, but it really isnt as early as everyone tends to think

[kevinhernandez]

To build muscle with calisthenics the best thing to do is " Time under tension"
Slower reps and isometric holds will really help you build muscles.

[BazzeGaming]

3:06 I don't understand how people think the right picture looks better than the left one

[catvalentine]

Well, ask someone who "moved on to weights because it got too easy" to do a human flag xD ;)

[emilyboyer]

Building muscle as usable strength instead of bulk is much more important in my opinion, but that’s just what I think as a former gymnast

[goatninja]

I've been doing calisthenics for a while now and from my experience I can say that yes you will hit a wall when regular pushups, pullups, get easier...what I do is choose a harder progression and rep it out like you see guys in New York city parks they look like body builders and they mostly only do bodywieght excersises.

[Life_Bot]

Underated part of calisthenics is it's functional, where as weights is usually purely strength. Each have benefits, and my personal preference is a mix. I really like an work in calisthenics especially.

[ankurroy]

People lifting their own body is always better than people lifting weights and roids ... Extreme fitness doesn't look like a big cloud of muscles ... It looks more like a sharp blade of katana!

[zanest.andrejackson]

Here's what this video fails to take into account: there are MANY different variations of every basic calisthenics move. Take a pullup: you have the standard pullup, the archer, the typewriter, the uneven, the one arm pullup, and TONS of other variations. And if you're doing one arm pullups for reps, you're not going to have little arms. Same goes for pushups, squats, etc. Frank Medrano and many others are living proof of this. Now, ultimately, to be truly HUUUGE you WILL eventually hit a wall where calisthenics exercises don't target an individual muscle (i.e. the bicep or tricep), and if your goal is to have realy massive arms/legs/chest etc. then yeah, use weights. But I would say that someone who does pure calisthenics along with a healthy dose of cardio is going to be an all-around fitter person than a weightlifter,  as all of their muscles (whether they know it or not) are being used in ome way if they utilize all the elements of calisthenics.This isn't to say I'm opposed to weightlifting. Do whatever you want, obviously! Weights are great for targeting underused muscles, and if you want to really get big, then there's no question: use weights! I use weights myself to supplement my calisthenics, both for appearance purposes and for the strength aspect. For example, I use bicep curls to supplement my one arm pullup/chinup training.Also, weighted calisthenics is great too for building muscle. In fact, I'd say weighted calisthenics is the perfect medium between calisthenics and weight training. It's still using your own body in a natural way to do the exercise, but is also amping up the intensity, which then stimulates more muscle growth, without you being forced to target one specific muscle at a time, which is often the case with weight training.Ultimately, it all comes down to what your goal or passion is. If your goal is to build those epically large biceps like Arnold Schwartzenegger,  and calisthenics doesn't interest you, then yeah! weight training all the way! If your goal is to look ripped/cut, like Zach Efron, then it depends on your interest. It's totally achievable by calisthenics, weighted or not. But It's also achievable through weight training, with cardio of course. If you want to master control over your own body, then calisthenics is the answer of course. It's really about what interests you. Which do you enjoy? If you enjoy weights, do that, of course! If you enjoy calisthenics, do that! That's where I fall. I want to have a good physique, but I know that being consistent is key. And if I don't like what I'm doing, and I don't feel invigorated after doing it... I'll just end up not doing it, and it was worthless to pursue in the first place.. So find your passion, and go for it!

[antoniosarosi]

the only way to make more difficult a push up is not only doing them declined, you can do Clap push Ups, back Clap push Ups super man push and tons more, if they get easy well you have one arm push Ups, which again you can complicate doing them explosively, etc etc etc, you can do that with all exercices

[magnusstilling]

Dont compare, naturel Frank medrano to a bodybuilder on steroids. It wont get your point through

[BullHorn]

It greatly depends on your goals though. I personally wouldn't want to look like a bodybuilder but I would love to have their strength - This is where calisthenics (and more specifically gymnastics) comes in. Gymnasts don't stop at decline pushups (in fact they probably never even do them), because their goals are achieving high skill within the gymnastics elements (aka static holds like the planche, maltese, iron cross, victorian, manna, etc). The strength and mobility necessary to perform these moves is often on par or higher than what many bodybuilders do, without making you eventually look like an immobile lump of muscle.

Most gymnasts use weights as a supplement to their gymnastics work. The main reason is the difficulty to cause progressive overload, where with weights you can slowly add 1kg plates, in calisthenics you have to bridge gaps between moves (for example the Planche --> starts with normal pushups --> diamond pushups --> ring pushups or pseudo-planche pushups ---> here you reach a limit where skill/mobility limits you so you have to work on wrist mobility via planche leans and balance skills like crow and later crane pose --> tuck planche --> advanced tuck planche ---> here you probably reach a strength limit again, requiring to add weight or bridge with accessory moves, etc etc).

So are calisthenics moves good for building muscle? Depending on the 'calisthenics' you're doing. If you're going for a pseudo-gymnastics regimen, it's VERY good and you won't look like a bodybuilder. Do you want to look like a bodybuilder? Sorry, calisthenics is probably not good enough for that...

[janhoffmann]

No you are wrong. You clearly did not study calisthenics well enough. I've been training with only bodyweight for 2 years and put on 15 kg of muscle mass and I'm still gaining. It is all about progressive overload and knowing which exercises to use. There are a lot more variations than regular and elevated pushups to target your pushing muscles. Take the rings for example: You apply progressive overload by adjusting the ring height, body position and rep speed without changing the targeted muscles. The result is increased intensitiy over time just like you would do with weight training by adding plates.

[jayblade]

When i feel like im hitting a wall. I just turn around and go in the opposite direction

[HexxedOfficial]

I have 3 years of experience in Bodybuilding, already have a nice asthetic physic, boulder shoulders, huge chest, broad back you name it... however seeing the main appeal of calisthenics (bodyweight resistance and core managment) i started to realise how awesome the training is. Never got into it for real, but with my developed muscles im sure that my strength will skyrocket. I remember when before even going to the gym for bodybuilding, i'd just be doing push ups daily and BOY did that give me a HUGE boost when i picked up the weights at the gym, hell i never did dips and when i gave it a go i felt so light and bouncy. I'm all for calisthenics and i will give it a go.

[KungFuChopstick]

You only need to find harder variations.. Try one arm pull ups

'to struggle to even do ten' my brother in christ i can not do two 💀

[miloradvlaovic]

This is all fine and peachy, If we assume human beings don't gain weight, and that when muscle fibers get torn and then "rebuild" muscles aren't getting heavier themselves.

Hence, calisthenic-gains alone won't really reach a plateau which would mean they simply will not move/progress no matter what, but they will slow down greatly at certain point.

Also it's important to stress out, that excessive weight, even if in muscles is neither appealing nor healthy. If your weight exceeds your BMI ( which happens to bodybuilders a lot ) you are overweight even if your body fat is let's say 3%. It's highly unlikely but illustrative. The point is; calisthenics will build your body pretty much they way it's meant to look ideally, according to your genetic makeup and laws of symmetry, that is they will build as much muscle as needed.

[chrish]

I like how you incorporate some physiology in these videos, for example, by talking about the different types of muscle fibers, etc. Could you do a video on metabolism and how the body uses stored enwgry (carbs and fat)? Thanks.

[TheShortyne]

the key of keep boosting your chest when you reach 20, 25 or 30 push ups its throw push ups away from your workouts and focus on more challenging things. Thats the way one should progress on strength training rather than keep adding sets and reps.