How to Get Strong With Old-School Calisthenics

If it feels like you’ve been noticing more body-weight workout content on your social feeds—the kinds of exercises your grandfather might have done in gym class—you’re not imagining things. Fitness, like fashion, is cyclical. As sure as skinny jeans will be cool again, you can bet that training styles like calisthenics will always come back around. But this isn’t about nostalgia. Whether we’re talking about bringing back your grandfather’s workout or his gym shorts, it has to hold up in the present day. And in the case of calisthenics, it totally makes sense why this is happening right now.

“I see calisthenics trending upwards, and I think some of that has to do with what's happened the last five years or so,” says Dogpound founder and celebrity trainer Kirk Myers, referring to the surge of connected fitness and smart home gyms brought on by the pandemic. The pendulum, it seems, is swinging the other way.

“I feel like because technology is such a large part of our lifestyle now, people are trying to get back to basics a little bit,” says Danielle Coleman, director of training at Pvolve. “In this age of access, people are looking for quick and convenient, and I think that's one of the things that calisthenics training does for people.”

Calisthenics are simply exercises that utilize your body weight for resistance. Think: pushups, pullups, squats, and planks. But while the concept might seem basic at first glance, calisthenics can be scaled up (or down) to meet you wherever you are—literally—and take your fitness to the next level. Here’s why this timeless technique might be just what your workouts need.

You can do calisthenics anytime, anywhere

When it comes to keeping a fitness routine alive, you really can’t overstate the importance of removing the things that get in between you and your workouts—whether that be a commute, a gym membership, or a general unwillingness to leave your living room.

“Those challenges can end up being barriers to exercise. And that's why I’m a big advocate of calisthenics,” says John Mercer, PhD, professor of kinesiology at University of Nevada Las Vegas. “Being able to incorporate exercise into regular daily life is really important, because it’s sustainable; it allows you to make gains over a long period of time, as opposed to short-term gains that may go away if there are too many barriers.”

Accessibility is one of the top reasons why Myers relies on calisthenics when creating training plans for his jet-setting clientele, which includes perpetually fit A-listers Jacob Elordi, Tom Holland, and Taylor Swift. “Whenever I train people who have to travel a lot, I prefer things that are more minimalist, that they can not only use when they come into the gym but also when they travel, and a lot of that is calisthenics,” he says. “With calisthenics, it’s like, if you're traveling and you're in a hotel, you can do it. If you're at home, you can do it. If you're outside in a park, you can do it. You can kind of do it everywhere.”

Side note: Taking your workouts outside is a major advantage. “There's actually a lot of research on the benefits of doing exercise in nature versus indoors,” says Dr. Mercer. Studies have found that exercising outdoors can not only lower your perceived exertion while training but also help reduce stress, improve mood, and increase self-esteem in your daily life.

Progression is possible without equipment

If you’re like most people, progression in the gym usually means picking up a heavier dumbbell. Calisthenics challenge you to get more creative than that. It may not be as simple as adding another plate to the bar, but the payoff is additional benefits beyond just linear strength progression, such as improved stability and more holistic muscle development.

Even though you’re just working with your body weight, there are other effective ways to scale an exercise to align with your fitness level and goals. “One variable I love to play with is tempo,” says Coleman. “If you're thinking about a pushup, instead of just going down and up, you could try an eccentric tempo, taking like 3–4 seconds to lower your body. Or you could work on power and do explosive clap pushups. You can really fire up the muscle fibers through different tempos.”

Another variable would be form. “Like any other workout, your body's gonna get used to an exercise unless you step it up, and you have different ways within calisthenics to do that,” says Keoni Hudoba, legacy trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp and creator of The COREntine+ Virtual Experience. “If you're doing that same pushup every day, try a variation. There's a diamond-grip pushup, there's a reverse-grip pushup, there's a plyometric pushup. There are different ways of doing those pushups so that your body doesn't get so used to the movement.”

“Or you could take away one of your body parts, so you have only one leg touching the floor,” adds Coleman. On the flip side, making a pushup easier is as simple as doing it from your knees, says Myers.

Researchers have found that, for muscle growth, heavy weight doesn't matter as much as approaching failure, the point at which you can't do another rep. The same principle can apply with body weight.

Calisthenics can boost your other workouts

While calisthenics alone can get you in top shape, chances are you’ll be mixing them in with other kinds of training that you enjoy, like weightlifting or running. This is actually ideal, as calisthenics can elevate your game across the board.

“It’s a skill set that honestly translates to any other style of training you're going to do, because of the functionality of it,” says Coleman. “Technically, calisthenics are a functional style of training, which basically means you're doing compound movements that use a lot of different muscle groups at the same time. It can help build your stability and your mobility, in addition to your strength.”

The other reason calisthenics translate so well across a range of training styles and sports is that your core is active pretty much all the time. “For all of these movements your core has to be intact or you're going to be wavering all over the place,” says Hudoba, who has personally witnessed how calisthenics have improved his running. “I run hills in Central Park a few times a week, and when I first started I was dying,” he says. “Now it’s something I look forward to, because I feel I’ve gotten so much stronger in my core.”

And calisthenics can be a form of cross-training, not your main workout. “A lot of endurance athletes do calisthenics as part of their training program for marathons and Ironman events,” says Mercer. “It's really got an additive type of effect. It’s not something you necessarily need to replace your regular training with, but it's easy to add on calisthenics in a way that ends up enhancing the other kinds of training that you're doing, whether it's endurance or strength.”