Calisthenics is great to build up an athletic body, increase the strength get more mobile and improve your coordination,
stability and body perception
Instead of only showing you exercises and movements like push-ups, pull-ups and dips
Which you can see in every beginner video this video will show you a comprehensive overview of
Exercises which will prepare your whole body in different areas
This is not only about improving strength or building muscle; these exercises will also work on your mobility
Which is important for skills like the handstand, the l-sit, pistol squats and many others
They will also allow you to build a well prepared tendons ligaments and joints
This is important to stay free of injuries especially when you progress to advanced movements later
The first kind of movement we take an eye on are supporting exercises
Supporting can be done in many different positions. It's everything where you are above the place you rest on
You can support yourself in a dip support position, in
a handstand position, in a bridge position, in a push-up support position or in a side plank position
They all have one thing in common
You have to stabilize your body against the gravity because the center of gravity is above the point where you rest on
This is really important because if you don't activate your muscles to stabilize yourself
You have to deal with unnecessary pressure when the joints get compressed under the load
The different support positions will activate different muscles and have different benefits in
A push-up support position you will activate your whole anterior chain by pushing your arms into the ground
Move your shoulder blades forward tilt your pelvis backwards rounding your spine and keep your legs straight
From this position you can easily move into the side plank
the concept remains the same
Just stabilizing your body against the gravity
Now your body will activate other muscles that support this lateral position
The opposite of the push-up support position in terms of muscle activation and of course spine
Shoulder leg and arm movement is the bridge position
You will now work on your whole posterior chain while stretching the anterior one
In this position you extend your spine and your legs
Your arms are extended and behind your body
The goal is to raise your body as high as possible
while bringing your shoulder blades together
You can do this movement with bent or extended legs while the extended version is the harder one
The next position is to dip support hold
Here you push your shoulder blades down keep your body on the tension and extend your arms without resting in your joints
The last basic position is the handstand support
For a beginner we suggest to do the pike stand because it's much easier
And you don't have to deal with the high pressure of your whole body weight and the difficulty of balancing
Here you push your shoulder blades upwards and aim for a vertical upper body and open shoulders
For the most people it's very hard to open up their shoulders because of their lack in shoulder mobility and stability in this position
in
Addition to these exercises we suggest you to push up and hip support hold on rings
Now you might think that rings are not for beginners, but you would be surprised
How quick you will improve when it comes to stabilizing yourself in those positions
Doing your support holds on rings will increase your inter muscular coordination and joint stabilization a lot
This is really great for all upcoming tasks your body has to deal with when doing calisthenics
So start as early as possible with it
If you get used to these positions on rings you can also add an external rotation
This looks quite easy, but it's really hard
the external position will work on your biceps
Strengthen all ligaments around your elbows and will activate your rotator cuff, which is really great for a strong and stable shoulder
All those positions focus on straight arms and it's important to learn them first before you start with movements like push-ups or dips
But of course you can also support yourself with bent arms
Later when you progress you will see that there are many options for supporting positions
All right, that's it for the supporting positions now we move on to the next important movement which is hanging
Hanging is not only important if you want to do a pull-up. It will also improve your grip strength
Decompress the spine help correcting the posture
increase core stability
open up the shoulders while stretching the pecs and the lats in the passive hang and
Strengthen your back when doing the active hang
Before you start with an active hang you should be able to do the passive version first
We recommend to achieve about 20 seconds passive hang before you should start working on the active version
Instead of the support hold where the passive version has a negative impact on your joints the passive hang is no problem for the joints
it's even the opposite a
Passive hang will lead to joint traction and this can be positive if you have shoulder and mobility problems
When it comes to the passive hang you should aim for a hollow body position
This means you tilt your pelvis backwards, engage your abs, flex the spine as much as possible and open your shoulders
This position is very good to work on your shoulder flexibility by stretching your lats and pecs
But it also requires that you can let your latissimus loose while contracting the ABS which might need some practice in
In the active version you do the opposite this means you pull the shoulder blades down and together
while extending your spine and your lower body
This will activate your whole posterior chain
The active hang is very important because this is the first movement you should do when you learn the pull-up
Without the active hang you won't be able to stabilize your shoulder and produce enough strength at the bottom of the movement
Later when you progress you can also try one arm passive and activate hangs
This is really great because with this unilateral exercise you can work on imbalances
and you can increase the intensity of the exercise if
The one arm active hang is still too hard you can shift from pulling with both shoulder blades
To pulling with one shoulder blade in the active hang
Therefore you need to place your hands a bit further apart
The last movement is about the lower body, and it's no surprise that we recommend the squat a
Deep squat hold offers many benefits like improving ankle and hip mobility
Working on your body alignment especially in the spine keeping your knees healthy and increasing back stability
Most people struggle with the flexibility when it comes to the deep squat they compensate the lack of flexibility and mobility
By lifting their heel from the ground
By bending their bodies forward
By rounding their backs
And by rotating the knees inwards
There are a lot of exercises which will help you to get the necessary flexibility to be able to do the deep squat
But the simplest in our mind best exercise is the deep squat position itself while you hold yourself onto an object
The object allows you to get into the position without falling backwards
So grab a bar a beam or something else and go as deep as possible while holding the tension
extend your spine and aim for an external rotation of your legs your
Feet are evenly placed on the ground and your knees travel slightly forward
The deep squat position is important to train if you want to continue with Archer or pistol squat training some day
But even if you don't have this goal you should include it into your workouts as
a beginner start with the exercises of this video until you created a solid foundation of your strength
And then you can move on
If you now ask yourself how to continue after your preparation with how many sets and reps and how much rest time
You should take a look into our workout programs from level 1 to 5
Train with them for up to one and a half years and improve yourself step by step with the right progressions methods and rest
If you have further questions on the topic, please leave a comment. Thanks Alex