Calisthenics

What they are?

            A calisthenics exercise is one that uses the natural weight of the body to bring stress on a muscle. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and pull-ups are all forms of calisthenics. There are three primary differences in doing calisthenics or weightlifting:

1)     When you weightlift you isolate muscles and promote individual growth. When you do a calisthenic exercise you exercise groups of muscles at one time.

2)     Because you are lifting your bodies weight you cannot over build muscle and look thick and beefy.

3)     When you do calisthenics, your muscles respond by a process called” hypertrophy”. That is to say that muscle fibers spread like pancake batter being pored into a frying pan. When you weightlift you put stress on a muscle through a process called “protein synthesis”. That is to say that you tear the muscle down so that when it regrows it grows back with more fibers, which produces bulk.

How do they impact the body?

            Calisthenics works “fast twitch” muscles. They are the muscles responsible for speed, and endurance. People who do calisthenics usually have bodies that are athletically build and cosmetically attractive, but the real benefits of calisthenics is that they create muscles that process oxygen productively and burn calories even while you sleep.