What Happens If You Only Trained Calisthenics

For the most part, consistently exercising in one arena you enjoy will bring various health benefits that benefit your long-term well-being. 

By only training calisthenics, the nature of each exercise allows exceptional muscle development and improves relative strength. Moreover, the high intensity of calisthenics means lots of calories are burnt throughout the session, reducing the build of bad colostral within the body, and rising to a healthy lifestyle. 

Some athletes are concerned that if they only exercise in calisthenics, they are restricting their physical ability. This is dependent on your reason for training:

• If you want to get bigger, only training calisthenics will be restricting;
• if you want to improve in gymnastics, solely training calisthenics won’t hold you back. 

What Happens to Your Body When You Exclusively Exercise Calisthenics

What happens muscle growth training calisthenic exclusively

You can build muscle by only training calisthenics; all exercises use body weight as resistance which is to be counteracted by your muscles’ force (strength). As a result of this, your body goes through hypertrophy, leading to muscles becoming larger and stronger (just like if you were to weight train). 

Calisthenics builds muscle, and you’ll initially have a high rate of muscle growth. 

Though there is a limitation, once your muscles have sufficient power to comfortably and repetitively lift your body weight,  the rate of hypertrophy reduces as your muscles don’t require any more strength. A calisthenic athlete can’t instantly add 10kg to their body and then let their muscles undergo high hypertrophy again.

From this point, if you don’t change anything, you will start to see an increase in muscle endurance rather than bigger muscles. 

Although there is a solution! Some athletes use weighted vests to increase resistance, therefore, giving muscles a better opportunity to get stronger and larger. However, there are debates if using a weighted vest is technically calisthenics because you are using your body weight + extra weight.

Do you burn fat exclusively training calisthenics

Only training calisthenics is a great way to burn calories and reduce your body fat percentage. This is because calisthenics uses compound exercises that require lots of movement. This needs lots of energy which burns calories. The more calories burnt, the more fat your body will burn, resulting in a lower body fat percentage.

Exclusively training calisthenics won’t limit the fat your body burns, as calisthenics is one of the most effective training methods to lose weight.

Will You Get Stronger Legs From Training Calisthenics Alone

While less common, it’s entirely possible to build a strong set of legs by only training calisthenics too. As you don’t use weights, focusing on repetition and isolation will be the most effective way to ensure your legs are worked. Some basic calisthenic leg exercises include:

• Squats.
• Calf raises.
• Lunges.
• Archer Squat.

Legs become toned and proportionate to the rest of your body through calisthenics.

What Is The Social Impact Of Exclusively Training Calisthenics 

Consistently training calisthenics opens your knowledge, skill level, and terminology in body weight fitness. Enabling you to share your interest with the rest of the calisthenic community.

Whether it may be online groups, exercise partners, or calisthenic classes, getting involved with the community is great for well-being and makes exercise more enjoyable. This is much more likely when exclusively training calisthenics because you recognize frequent faces and have exposure to the social aspect. 

However, the social benefits rely on you training calisthenics in a public area such as a gym, park, or studio. If you were to fully exercise at home, which is possible with calisthenics, you would unlikely see any social benefits. While it can occasionally be beneficial, try to meet the community and leave your house as frequently as possible. 

What Happens To Your Health If You Only Train Calisthenics

Calisthenics has numerous health benefits, which is why lots of athletes train it and nothing else. Examples include:

• Improving the component of fitness.
• speeding metabolism.
• improving mental health.
• reducing testing heart rate.

How exclusively training calisthenics improves the components of fitness

Firstly, an athlete who focuses their training only on calisthenics will see improvements in their components of fitness. Mainly:

• Cardiovascular Endurance – Due to the high intensity, your body improves its ability to transport oxygenated blood around the body. This helps reduces the chances of any cardiovascular-related diseases. 

• Strength – Muscle fibers become stronger by repairing damaged muscle fibers from the resistance of your body weight.  In calisthenic-only training, there will be an initial boost in strength where your muscles adapt to your body weight. However, once they have adapted, your muscles will be strong enough not to tear from your body weight, thus resulting in no strength increase.

• Muscular endurance – Once your muscles can comfortably lift your body weight, additional repetitions will begin improving your muscular endurance. This is the ability to contract against any force repeatedly. 

• Flexibility – The unique moves and holds associated with calisthenics require full mobility from the joints; therefore, they are always active. As a result, a long-term commitment to calisthenics allows for greater flexibility. 

How exclusively training calisthenics improves Metabolism

In addition, wholly exercising calisthenics will impact your metabolism rate, particularly making it faster. A fast metabolism lets calories burnt rapidly, resulting in less fat stored. This results in two schools of thought:

1. A benefit because you can eat as much as you like, and your metabolism will quickly burn through the calories. 
2. A drawback as you struggle to add mass which may affect your body goals and targets. 

The reason calisthenics will increase metabolism speed is it requires significant movement, and it’s very intense. Your body needs a high amount of energy to facilitate this, which it gets from your fat stores. Therefore, fat is burnt throughout the workout leading to a reduction in weight. 

how training calisthenics benefits mental health

Thirdly, only training calisthenics can have long-term benefits on your mental health. The social element associated with calisthenics is an excellent opportunity to meet friends, chat and feel a part of a team.

The calisthenics community is small compared to other training methods, making it all the most friendly and warm-hearted.

To add, any form of exercise releases endorphins, which also make the brain ‘feel good.’

why calisthenics lowers resting heart rate

A long-term calisthenic commitment will lower your resting heart rate.

A low resting heart rate suggests excellent physical fitness and reduces your likeliness of heart-related diseases.

Calisthenics will lower the resting heart rate because activity strengthens the heart, allowing it to pump greater blood volume within each heartbeat. Therefore, it needs to pump fewer times each minute to circulate oxygenated blood around the body.

What Are The Drawbacks Of Exclusively Training Calisthenics

The drawbacks of exclusively training calisthenics include:

• Limits Strength.
• Makes It Difficult To Put On Size.
• Exposes You To Fewer People.
• Damage To Joints.

How Training Calisthenics Alone Limits Absolute strength

Absolute strength is the total amount of weight your body can lift. Due to the nature of calisthenics, you will have high relative strength, but your absolute strength will be low if you aren’t incorporating any other training methods.

Compared to weight training, your muscles go through less tear and repair because they won’t lift any extra weight other than your body. Therefore, their growth will be restricted.

Why Calisthenics Training Will Limit Mass Growth

Due to the constant calorie burn, you may struggle to put on significant size (increase mass).

If you train calisthenics consistently, most calories you consume won’t be stored but instead burnt for energy.

Your targets and goals will determine whether this is a disadvantage. For example, if you want to lose 5kg in a month, it’s a significant advantage; however, if you want to put on 5kg, it’s a drawback.

Therefore ensure you find the main reason you wish to exercise before participating in calisthenics full-time. 

Why Calisthenics Alone Exposes You To Less People

An athlete only participating in calisthenics will be exposured to fewer people than if you were joining in multiple training methods.

As mentioned, the calisthenic community is great, but it is also relatively small. This is because calisthenics has only recently increased in popularity, and while it is growing, it’s nowhere near as popular as weight training (as an example).

Therefore, there are less people to engage with and a reduced variety of people to meet. 

What Are The Physical Drawbacks Of Exclusively Training Calisthenics

Albeit it is uncommon, we thought it would be best to mention it. If you don’t train safely, you can put your joints at risk of injury. 

For example, without thorough warm-ups, adequate rest, or correct technique, your joints become vulnerable and can cause irreversible damage.

However, if you train safely (which the majority of athletes do), only exercising calisthenics can actually become healthy for your joints!

Why Do Some Individuals Solely Exercise Calisthenics

It is common for an individual to focus on body weight exercises, in fact, a lot of professional sports players do. These sports include: 

• Gymnastics.
• Rock climbing.
• Mixed martial art.

These sports will use a bodyweight training program but can also include different methods such as HIIT, weight, or cardiovascular endurance, depending on the requirement of the sport. Athletes will use a calisthenics-focused training program when their sport requires a high strength-to-mass ratio. 

Nonetheless, people who exclusively exercise calisthenics aren’t limited to professional athletes; many choose to do so for numerous reasons. For example, they want to look ripped, they enjoy the activity, or they want to exercise at home and don’t have access to equipment. 

Summary Of Only Training Calisthenics

Overall, what will happen if you only train calisthenics? Your physique improves, your organs become healthier, and your relative strength will come close to the peak. Though many of the drawbacks can be mitigated, you can limit yourself socially, risk the safety of your joints and struggle to put on weight. 

Everyone’s circumstances will be different, depending on whether you train in a gym or at home, if you want to lose or gain weight, and if you are safely training. The primary consideration should be what do you want to achieve from exercise? 

Once you have recognized a motivation, you can judge whether calisthenics only is a good choice or not. For example, calisthenics is excellent if you want to:

• Lose weight.
• Improve at rock climbing.
• Become more toned.
• Exercise anywhere.

However, it is not so good if you want to:

• Gain weight.
• Lift as heavy as possible.
• Experiment with weights.

Despite our love for calisthenics, we still recommend incorporating another training method to add more variety and physical benefits to each session. Whatever training method(s) you choose depends on yourself and what you want to gain from exercise.

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