When Calisthenics Is Better Than Weight Lifting

From an efficiency standpoint, I will always say weight lifting is better for building a more muscular physique as opposed to calisthenics (bodyweight training). This is because progress is easily measured in weightlifting. If you curl 10-pound dumbbells this month and next month your curling 20-pound dumbbells, you are undoubted increasing intensity and energy expenditure following the principle of progressive overload needed for muscle/strength gain. Another pro is you can easily modify how much effort you wish to train at based on what weight you choose during your lifts. In comparison, in calisthenics, you can only work with how much you currently weigh and adjust the difficulty of exercises by varying the angles and tempo of the actual movements you perform. This is not optimal for hypertrophy (increasing the size of tissue aka muscle). This "flaw" can be remedied by increasing the time(per day) you spend doing calisthenics, notice how gymnastic athletes are ripped and huge at the same time.

Well, they train for several hours daily and that is a crap load of time under tension, which is a key component for gaining muscle size.

For us average people with day jobs and a life outside fitness, we have an hour maybe two hours max for our fitness sessions. Weightlifting in the gym will get the same job done in 30-45 minutes flat.

So when is calisthenics better than weight lifting? the answer is: it depends.

If you are a self-proclaimed gym rat, then calisthenics is better for fixing muscle and strength imbalances rather than using the free weights and machines that created them.

If you hate the gym and the commute to the gym. Doing calisthenics at home is better because there is no excuse to not workout when you can do it in the one place you're guaranteed to return to everyday. You can start immediately at anytime of day. Minus the creepers at the gym staring at you. Or if your so inclined, you can step outside and hit the local park with pull up/dip/monkey bars.

Calisthenics is also more in tuned to your natural range of motions. This makes it better than weight lifting if you want to push yourself with "less" risk for injury (I say this cautiously because there are those out there, who are "stupid" and train recklessly, don't be one of them). It is also advised to start any fitness program with calisthenics before advancing into weight training. It builds the foundation of strength required to safely and effectively use free weights.

And obviously, calisthenics is a better choice if you don't have a gym membership because free is better than not free.

For me I use calisthenics for the days I dread the commute to the gym, when I feel like exercising outside at the park or indoors at home. When I'm recovering from a gym injury. Or simply because advanced moves you see gymnastic pros do look bad-ass, and to be able to perfom such a feat is a cool parlor trick.

If you want to start a calisthenic program check out the book Accelerated Beginner's Guide to Calisthenics and Strength.

I highly recommend it since it has good progression schemes in it, and has useful information on dieting and the basics if starting from scratch and have no clue what they need to do.

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#calisthenics #bodybuilding #fitness