With spring just around the corner I felt this reader had an excellent question for fitness training. One reader asked how to transition from calisthenics to weightlifting. Let’s consider a few things before jumping into that.
Exercise, be it body weight or external weights as resistance, is an excellent ectivity for your body. It improves flexibility, muscle tone, cardiovascular health, morale and mental outlook among many other benefits.
Calisthenics is an exercise protocol of using one’s own weight as the resistance for the exercises. This has many benefits. One being that you can take your routine almost anywhere to complete it. I used a local playground as the tools needed for my calisthenics routine for years. Pull-ups, dips, squats, jumping, dips and more were all done using the equipment at the playground. It is also near a running track so I also added cardio.
I was able to maintain my weight at 220 to 230 pounds during these years. I train to be larger than average. Your goals may differ. Still, if there is a park or playground with monkey bars you have all you need.
Think about how the military trains its personnel. Everyone begins calisthenics in boot camp. While on active duty many units do daily physical training or PT. This PT is mainly body weight based or employs equipment that all participants have.
Consider weight lifting for a moment. In this one uses weights external ti the body to increase load and tension on the muscles. One can work every part of their body with weights. The difference in outcomes for lifting comes down to your goals and the necessary training methods.
Calisthenics will certainly improve your fitness levels as well as strength and stamina. Using your body and simple equipment you can hone your body into an exercise machine. When in the military I’d do sets of pushups yo surpass 100, sit-ups and crunches, squats and lunges for legs, and then running for overall cardio. Calisthenics were more than adequate for fitness.
Weightlifting can take you past the point at which calisthenics stops. You can continue to overload your muscles with greater amounts of weight as your strength grows.
Now, transitioning between the two. All it takes is a gym membership or some equipment at home to make the switch. How to start is a point to understand.
When I switched I focused on the core lifts which are called compound exercises. A compound exercise uses multiple joints and multiple muscles to perform. These include benchpress, squat, deadlift, bent or seated row, lat pull down or pull-ups, upright row, and shoulder press. There are more, but this should make it clear.
By building a routine around compound movements you can efficiently work your entire body in a shorter period of time. For instance, a basic full body routine would include squats, bench press, bent row, and either upright row or shoulder press. These exercises done properly will work your entire body including your core.
This type of routine is typically started at three sets of 10 repetitions each set. A set is the number of repetitions completed. Three sets is conventionally considered enough to fully work the targeted muscle group.
After achieving some level of experience with weights there are intensity techniques you can add to make the workout more effective. You can add sets or change the repetition numbers to achieve different goals.
Optimally, you can combine the two training styles and tailor your routine to include both calisthenics and weights. Many consider this optimal. At my gym it is a regular thing for somebody to do pull-ups and pushups as part of their lifting routine. Another excellent body weight exercise seen is dips. This is considered the squat for the upper body. Years ago, I would benchpress, isolate my triceps, and then do dips. The results were outstanding. My physical power and stamina were beyond my contemporaries.
As to which exercise style is better comes down to your goals and how you best like to train. I am not going to tell you that weights are better as I’ve used both techniques. Each method fills and filled a specific need at that time.
Selecting the load you use is entirely based on you. Use a weight that makes you do just less than the number of repetitions you are aiming for. Keep at it until you can perform the number of repetitions you have selected. That is, try to pick a weight that will allow you to get close to three sets of 10 reps. When you can complete 10 reps across all sets then increase the weight by 10%.
A balanced routine is one that will work your body completely and keep push muscles worked as equally well as pull muscles. Such a program or routine will ideally include the following five areas:
Aerobic Futness
Strength Training
Core Exercises
Balance Training
Flexibility and Stretching
Schedule your workouts so that you have enough time to fully recover before lifting again. Not recovering between sessions can lead to a condition called over training. This is when you are breaking muscle tissue faster than your body can recover and rebuild. Signs of this include:
Increased Muscle Pain
Injuries
Getting Weaker not Stronger
If you find your fitness levels decreasing improve your diet with more protein and carbohydrates or increase the off days between exercising.
Warming up your muscles is always advised. Take some time to get the blood pumping prior to undertaking the full workload. By doing a target exercise with light weights you increase joint lunrication. This, of course, protects your joints from excess wear and tear. This will also get blood moving through the target muscles. It primes them for the heavy excertion you are planning.
Use proper equipment for your safety and health. Form is the actual movement you perform the exercise in. Many lifts seem simple, almost elementary. There are, however, details that you must be aware of. Going through the proper form for all of the exercises you may use woul be chapters in a book. Thankfully, there are a plethora of quick videos and articles available for free that will give you all the details you need. I have also detailed the squat in the piece linked here (https://famfitfun.blogspot.com/2020/07/squats-and-knees-training-legs-is.html?m=1).
Before you begin any new routine endure that you are capable of withstanding the stresses involved. Talk to your doctor about what you’re planning. It is better to know where your overall health line is than to push your luck.
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