A lot of people nowadays often make excuses to miss working out for lack of free time. The rigidity and stress we undergo in the office saps our energy, and all we ever do when we reach home is to relax, watch TV, or simply do nothing. Sometimes even with a bit of free time to scrounge within a busy schedule, we often get delayed in traffic, and end up not getting a proper workout and some wasted time.
Why you should start with calisthenics
Usually people do not realize that the best workout regimes can be done in small areas, even in regular apartments, and in a very short time. It would not be difficult to squeeze in some calisthenics exercises even in a tight schedule. Believe me, a few minutes of body weight exercises will do. It won’t take the same number of hours people spend in the gym lifting weights. You get to save a lot of time traveling to and from gym. It could only take less than half an hour, or even less, with high intensity and short intervals in between exercises.
The problems with weightlifting for beginners
Many people go to the gym to lift weights, or spend hours to train in distance running. Most of these exercises if not performed perfectly expose us to injuries due to high resistance, or high repetition in the case of runners with the high repetition of the same muscle types. Most runners suffer from knee joint pains. These are due to the overuse of the same parts of our bodies, common for marathoners.
On the other hand, lifting weights cause a high impact on our bodies due to its high resistance in lifting additional weights. This means, that apart from the pressure caused from carrying your own body weight, you get so much more from an external source (weights). Sometimes people end up lifting more than what is ideal. For those who start weightlifting at a very young age, this could lead to a stunted growth.
When an average person comes to the gym and performs squats with additional weights on their shoulders this could cause high impacts on points of their lower body. Or when lying down, lifting a barbell with heavy discs could cause injuries, back pains, or stiffness around the shoulder area.
Benefits of calisthenics and bodyweight exercises
Calisthenics exercises are safe in the sense that you are only carrying your own weight, no more, no less. It is as if the body is doing something it is designed to be able to do. I realized, it was exactly what I was looking for. I wrote in About Me page how I found calisthenics for myself.
Apart from this, calisthenics are not hard to perform; in fact most of us know this since childhood. This is also one of the reasons why calisthenics exercises have been neglected by most health buffs. They think it is too basic to perform, too simple to do, so much that it could not possibly be as beneficial when compared to other exercises out there.
On the contrary, calisthenics is considered to be a more effective and intense workout that involves the whole body. Unlike other exercises that focus merely on certain areas of the body, calisthenics involves both mind and body. It is not one dimensional. It is not boring since sessions would not last unnecessarily long, and the exercises could vary.
Calisthenics has less impact and one gets to perform it with a synchronized movement of the body and mind. This way, one gets to exercise the mind through hand and eye coordination, since calisthenics regimes are generally rhythmic. And the results do not lie too, as those who practice it are found to have an evenly developed body structure.
Some of the common calisthenics exercises are push ups, pull ups, dips, leg raises, and squats. These regimens hit every muscle group of your upper or lower body with an emphasis on certain parts. This is easy to do, but could be challenging once done in shorter time intervals and at a specific time frame. Best part of it? You could do this anytime at home for free. In case you are starting from the beginning, read more about basics here.