Calisthenics Training Guide
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- How to progress in calisthenics without beginner mistakes -
BY
CALISTHENICS FAMILY
This eBook is available at https: / / calisthenics - family.com
E- book design: Yannick Woerdman
Photography: Calisthenics Family
© Calisthenics Family V.O.F. Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Copyrights
This ebook: The Calisthenics Training Guide is the property of Calisthenics Family V.O.F. All images, information, layout and
designs belong to Calisthenics Family V.O.F. No part of this publication may be shared, reproduced, distributed, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, other electronic methods, without the prior
written permission of Calisthenics Family V.O. F.
Disclaimer
This disclaimer governs the use of this eBook. By using this eBook, you accept this disclaimer in full. We will ask you to
agree to this disclaimer before you can access the eBook. The advice of a medical professional should be sought before
participating in any physical activity or exercise program. Participation in physical exercise or training activities outlined in
this eBook, you do so entirely at your own risk. The author and publisher shall inno event be held liable to any party for any
direct, indirect, punitive special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this
material, which is provided as is and without warranties.
Physical exercise can be strenuous and subject to risk of serious injury ( including but not limited to musculoskeletal injury,
spinal injuries, abnormal blood pressures, and rare instances heart attack or death) it is urged thatyou obtain physical
examination from a doctor before using ant exercise equipment or participating in any exercise activity. Any recommendation
for changes in diet including the use of food supplements are your responsibility and you should consult a physician prior to
undergoing dietary or food supplement changes. Results will vary. Exercise and proper diet are necessary to achieve and
maintain weight loss and muscle definition.
The author and publisher of this eBook and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this eBook.
The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness or
completeness of the contents of this eBook. The information contained in this eBook is strictly for educational purposes.
Therefore, if you wish you apply ideas contained in this eBook, you are taking full responsibility for your actions. The author
and publisher disclaim any warranties ( express or implied ), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purposes. No part
of this eBook may be copied, shared, or changed in any format, sold or used in any way under any circumstances.
CONTENTS
I. Introduction
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2 About Calisthenics Family
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3 W h a t is Calisthenics
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4 W h y Calisthenics
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5 Training M e t h o d Explained
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6 E x a m p l e Training Routines
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7. 10 Crucial Training Principles
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8 Calisthenics M y t h s & The A n s w e r s
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9 Nutrition & Calisthenics
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10 . Workout P r o g r a m s
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I I . Equipment & A p p a r e l
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12 . Words o f E n c o u r a g e m e n t
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Calisthenics Family
We are glad that you are willing to start the best sport on earth.
A lot of people have already joined the Calisthenics Family by starting their journey! Now it’s time
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for you to start as well With this “ Calisthenics Training Guide" we want to give you all the necessary
information that you need before starting Calisthenics.
Why are we giving this information for free?
Well, we often hear that people find it difficult to start with Calisthenics. Finding a well- structured
program with calisthenics seems to be quite difficult because there are so many different skills to
train and exercises to do. It can be very frustrating if you ’re willing to put in the work but don 't
know how to start ( we have experienced this as well). Some skills seems impossible to achieve,
think about the Human Flag. You are asking your body to move in directions and angles that it has
never done before and therefore it seems impossible. But it' s not!
We as former “ fitnessers” also found it difficult, we didn't know how to start when we switched to
calisthenics training only. It took us a lot of unnecessary time, trial and errors in the first years to
create a training method that works. With this guide we want to prevent wasting your time so you
can get started the right way from the first day!
We are confident that we can support anyone in achieving their calisthenics or fitness goals! If you
apply what we are going to teach you in this guide, you will achieve great calisthenics skills, a nice
physique and full body control!
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ABOUT CALISTHENICS FAMILY
Calisthenics Family was founded in 2017 by the brothers Michael & Yannick. However, their passion
for fitness and calisthenics began years ago. In the first few years the focus was mainly
bodybuilding and weight lifting. During this period they have gained a lot of knowledge and
experience about fitness, nutrition and the functions of the body. At the beginning of 2016 their
passion for calisthenics started and they switched from fitness to the sport calisthenics.
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In the first year they had to learn and discover about the sport calisthenics After many trials, errors
and trying out different training methods, they have managed to create a good structure to learn
calisthenics properly and systematically. After achieving various calisthenics skills on their own
such as the muscle - up, the handstand, the backlever and the human flag, they have decided to help
and coach other people in achieving these goals as well. This is how "Calisthenics Family " is
founded.
2.1 The Mission of Calisthenics Family
Our mission is to show all the benefits of calisthenics to as many people as possible, and make
them part of the family where progressing together is the main objective.
Calisthenics Family expresses its mission specifically on two aspects; learning impressive
calisthenics skills WHILE getting a muscular athletic physique. Why ? Without a muscular / athletic
body, a skill looks much less " impressive"! It is the combination of a proper muscled athletic body
and the capacity to perform a nice set of skills that makes Michael & Yannick unique and also
everyone connected to the Calisthenics Family. If you cannot find yourself in this mission, that is
totally fine, but it' s a waste of time to read any further. If you do want to learn skills while becoming
muscular, then keep on reading.
2.2
How Calisthenics Family Realizes Its Mission
To accomplish this mission, Michael & Yannick first gained additional knowledge by following a
specific calisthenics trainer course at the Calisthenics Training Institute ( “ hetCOI ” ), based in
Amsterdam. During this course they have learned the most important aspects of training and
coaching specifically in the field of calisthenics. They have learned about the anatomy and
physiology of the body, the principles of training and adaption of the body such as progressive
overload, reversibility, didactic training approaches of the physical capacity, the principles of
teaching and coaching, injury prevention and the importance of nutrition in combination with
calisthenics.
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After extensive experience in training, coaching and giving weekly group training sessions,
Calisthenics Family now organizes workshops throughout the country and provides online coaching
that has already helped over hundreds of people around the world by achieving their calisthenics
goals.
Our Passion
Helping people to achieve the things that often seem impossible is what Michael & Yannick are
passionate about and gives them new energy every day. Calisthenics Family is based on the
principle that everyone can achieve their calisthenics goals by applying the right training method
and the mind - set that fits within this sport. Therefore, they have developed an unique training
method that you will learn about in this training guide. This will help you to start from scratch all
the way to becoming a master of your own bodyweight.
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WHAT IS CALISTHENICS?
Before we dive deeper into the training method, we think it ' s important that you first know what
Calisthenics is and where it comes from.
3.1 The origins of Calisthenics
The sport has its origins in Greece. Here the name " Calisthenics" was formed from the Greek words
" Kalos" meaning " beauty " and "Sthenos " meaning " power ". So calisthenics stands for " Beautiful
power "!
Calisthenics contains any form of strength training where you mainly use your own bodyweight and
is often referred to “ bodyweight training”. The main goal with calisthenics is to control your own
body and create beautiful power ( like the name says). However, we do not see calisthenics just as
beautiful power, but as a great personal adventure in which you can discover yourself. It is so much
more than just strength training like gym exercises. Calisthenics challenge you both mentally and
physically to get the best out of yourself.
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For a long period, calisthenics was only referred to basic exercises such as push ups and pull ups
This has changed considerably in recent times. Nowadays basic exercises, also known as basics, are
one of the three training aspects within calisthenics. The powermoves, also called skills and
freestyle are two other aspects that can no longer be ignored when speaking about calisthenics.
3.2
Basics
With the basics we mean the exercises as push ups, pull ups, dips and squats. Before you start with
calisthenics, it is essential that you get the basics well under control. Even if you have more
experience with calisthenics, the basics always remain an important element of your training.
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3.3
Powermoves
/ Skills
Powermoves or skills are mostly exercises where you hold the body in a certain angle for a certain
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amount of time You can think of the handstand, the frontlever, the backlever, the human flag or the
planche. These exercises are also called ' holds' and therefore require a lot of static power. This
means that the body is held at an anglewhere the body does not move but has to provide a lot of
force to counteract gravity. These skills can be learned through training a number of steps and
progressions until the final progression is reached, which is the skill itself.
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However, not all skills are holds and statics Some skills consists out the the movement from a
certain postition into another postition. Take for example the L- sit to Handstand. These are 2 holds
that overflow in each other through a dynamic movement. More examples are the Muscle Up,
dynamics'.
Handstand Push ups and the Impossible Dip. Such skills are often called ‘
3.4
Freestyle
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Freestyle is a free form of exercising all kinds of calisthenics exercises You can see this as an
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act / choreochraphy where everything is allowed Freestyle is often where calisthenics competitions
are based on. Within a few minutes you need to show your coolest set of skills. One aspect that
makes freestyle unique are the explosive dynamic movements in combination with the static
exercises. Examples of real eal freestyle exercises are the 360 Muscle up, the Shrimpflip and the
Switschblade.
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WHY CALISTHENICS?
There are many benefits why you should start with calisthenics. In this paragraph we explain the 5
most important reasons in our opinion.
4.1
Learn Impressive Skills
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One of the coolest things about calisthenics is that you can learn epic skills This is due to the fact
that you train with your own body weight. Therefore, instead of addingextra weights, like people do
in the gym, you have to play with gravity to increase the load of the exercise. This ultimately results,
for example, in a frontlever, a backlever or even a human flag!
4.2
Develop Real Functional Strength
With calisthenics you build real power. Why are we talking about real power? This is because with
calisthenics you will learn to control your own bodyweight first before you start training with extra
weights. In comparison with the gym, it’s the complete opposite. In the gym you often you see
big / muscular guys pushing a lot of weights but if you ask them to make a muscle up or do an
exercise with their own bodyweight, they often have troubles doing that. Note that we don’t have
anything against this, in fact, that is how we started as well. But when we noticed the difference, it
seemed more logical to us: first bodyweight, then extra weight.
In addition to this, with calisthenics you stimulate every small muscle fibres with all the compound
bodyweight exercises, such as a handstand push up. As a result, your muscles will not become stiff
due to isolated exercises, but they get super functional.
4.3
Get a Sixpack Fast
Like we said before, by doing calisthenics you are
constantly doing compound exercises. With these
exercises there is a lot of coordination involved
that requires a large capacity of your core. Think
about a handstand or other static exercises like
the front lever. Even with basic exercises like a
push up you need to tighten your abs to stay in
the right horizontal position. Therefore, with
calisthenics the core is the most important part
of your body. Without realizing it, you always train
your abdominal muscles. A nice advantage of this
is that you'll get a sixpack relatively quick without
specifically training for it!
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4.4
Get a Lean & Athletic Physique
By doing calisthenics you develop a lean ( low fat)
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and athletic body, also known as a " beach body".
This is because you are constantly moving and
never really sit on a bench like gym machines. In
addition, you work multiple muscle groups at the
same time because of the compound movements.
These two aspects provide a high intensity of the
training. And the higher the intensity, the more
fat will be burned, so the leaner you will become.
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Calisthenics also has many different types of
training, such as static training, dynamic training,
explosive training and circuit training for
endurance. By applying all these different types
of training, the muscles get loaded in different
ways which stimulates muscle growth. People
often think that you can 't get muscular by training
with your own bodyweight. That is a myth and
complete nonsense!
4.5
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Get Super Flexible
By doing calisthenics you will become a lot more
flexible. At the beginner stage of calisthenics, a
high level of flexibility is not required for the
basic exercises such as the push up or pull up.
However, when time passes and you become more
advanced, you will need strive for full body
control. Think about a straight handstand, an L- sit
to handstand or a straddle backlever ( a backlever
with spread legs). These exercises require a lot of
flexibility in your legs to straighten or spread
them. Stretching helps to get stronger and
healthier muscles. It is very important to stretch
your muscles regularly to create a greater
capacity of movement. If you do not stretch your
muscles, they will become tense which makes it
difficult to use them completely.
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