If you’ve ever seen a ripped dude holding himself in a push up position while levitating off the ground, or a girl pulling her body weight over a vertical bar from a hanging position using raw strength—that’s calisthenics. Mouvements de Calisthenics is a form of fitness that uses only your body weight for resistance, and it’s incredibly beneficial for building overall strength and improving balance, endurance, and posture. It’s also an excellent alternative to the gym if you’re looking for a way to get a full-body workout without having to buy any expensive equipment.

Some of the most popular calisthenics movements include push ups, planks, and handstands. Almost all of these exercises are multi-joint compound movements that target numerous muscles, and they’re much more effective than any machine in a gym at targeting the chest, core, shoulders, and arms. For example, a standard push up targets the shoulders and triceps, while a more advanced version of the exercise—the hollow body hold or “dish”—targets even more muscles in the core.

Calisthenics : Les Fondamentaux des Mouvements Corporels pour un Entraînement Sans Équipement

Most calisthenics exercises can be modified to make them easier or more challenging by changing the stance, tempo, or difficulty. Depending on your goals, you might want to focus on the basic versions of the exercises—or the progressions that help you build up to more advanced moves. The Ultimate Guide to Calisthenics and Convict Conditioning both offer step-by-step progressions for many of the basic calisthenics exercises. These are important because beginners who don’t follow the proper progressions are more likely to experience injuries (4).