Calisthenics is a great form of exercise for beginners as it requires minimal equipment. In this article, you will get to know a calisthenics workout for beginners. 

Calisthenics is a form of workout that relies on your body weight. It contains movements that exercise large muscle groups. These are performed with minimal equipment. Calisthenics workout increases strength, fitness, and flexibility through movements like pushing, pulling, jumping, bending, etc. 

It can provide muscular and aerobic benefits along with better balance and coordination. 

It is great to build up an athletic body, increase strength, get more mobile, and improve your coordination, stability, and body perception. So, it does everything that the gym does plus some other things too.

Calisthenics Workout For Beginners

This calisthenics workout for beginners is not only about improving strength or building muscle; these exercises will also work on your mobility. Which is important for skills like the handstand, the l-sit, pistol squats, and many others. 

They will also allow you to build well-prepared tendon ligaments and joints. This is important to stay free of injuries especially when you progress to advanced movements later. 

Supporting exercises (one of the best calisthenics workout for beginners)

The first kind of movement for a calisthenics workout for beginners is supporting exercises. Supporting can be done in many different positions. It is about you being above the place you rest on. 

You can support yourself

• in a dip support position,
• in a handstand position, 
• in a bridge position, 
• in a push-up support position, 
• or in a side plank position. 

They all have one thing in common. You have to stabilize your body against gravity because the center of gravity is above the point where you rest. 

This is really important because if you don’t activate your muscles to stabilize yourself. You have to deal with unnecessary pressure when the joints get compressed under the load. The different support positions will activate different muscles and have different benefits.

Push-up support position- 

A push-up support position will activate your whole anterior chain. 

How to do it?

• Get into a push up position. 
• Push your arms into the ground. 
• Move your shoulder blades forward.
• Tilt your pelvis backward rounding your spine.
• Keep your legs straight. 

The main muscles included are;

• Abdominal muscles
• Serratus anterior
• Front deltoids
• Hip flexors
• Quads

From this position you can easily move into the side plank. 

Side plank-

 The concept remains the same. Just stabilize your body against gravity in a side plank position. 

The main muscles included are;

• Abdominal muscles
• Serratus anterior
• Hip abductors
• Deltoids
• Glutes

Bridge support position-

Now, your body will activate other muscles that support this lateral position. The bridge support position is the opposite of the push-up support position in terms of muscle activation. 

• You will now work on your whole posterior chain while stretching the anterior one.
• Extend your spine and your legs. 
• Your arms are extended and behind your body. 
• The goal is to raise your body as high as possible while bringing your shoulder blades together. 

NOTE- You can do this movement with bent or extended legs while the extended version is the harder one

The main muscles included are;

• Traps
• Erector spinae
• Hamstrings
• Rhomboids
• Rear deltoids
• Glutes

 Dip support hold. 

• Get into a dip position. 
• Push your shoulder blades down.
• Keep your body on the tension and extend your arms without resting in your joints. 

So, here also your resting points are your hands and you are resisting and stabilizing your body against the gravity. 

The main muscles included are;

• Traps
• Abdominal muscles
• Triceps
• Chest
• Lats

This is it about your supporting exercises and you get your basic routine for a calisthenics workout for beginners. 

All right, that’s it for the supporting positions now we move on to the next important movement in a calisthenics workout for beginners and also in general, which is hanging.

Hanging exercises (The next step to calisthenics workout for beginners.)

Hanging is not only important if you want to do a pull-up. 

It will also improve your grip strength, decompress the spine, help in correcting the posture, increase core stability, open up the shoulders while stretching the pecs and the lats in the passive hang and strengthen your back when doing the active hang. 

Before you start with an active hang you should be able to do the passive version first. We recommend achieving about 20 seconds passive hang before you should start working on the active version. 

Passive hang

When it comes to the passive hang you should aim for a hollow body position. 

This means,

• Tilt your pelvis backward, 
• engage your abs,
•  flex the spine as much as possible, and 
• open your shoulders. 

This position is very good to work on your shoulder flexibility by stretching your lats and pecs. 

It also has other benefits like like;

• Increases grip strength
• Stretches lats and chest
• Decompress spine
• Improves posture and
• Activates abs. 

As a beginner you should know the correct posture to hang. With wrong postures and zero knowledge, even this calisthenics workout for beginners will seem difficult for you. 

Active hang

In the active version you do the opposite.

This means,

• Pull the shoulder blades down and together
• Extending your spine and your lower body.

This will activate your whole posterior chain. The active hang is very important because this is the first movement you should do when you learn the pull-up. Without the active hang, you won’t be able to stabilize your shoulder and produce enough strength at the bottom of the movement. 

It has other benefits like;

• Increase grip strength
• Activate traps
• Activate abs
• Activates hams, glutes, erector spinae

The last movement in this calisthenics workout for beginners is about the lower body, and it’s no surprise that we recommend the squat.  

A Deep squat hold offers many benefits like improving ankle and hip mobility.

Deep squat (A must do exercises in a calisthenics workout for beginners.)

Working on your body alignment, especially in the spine, keeping your knees healthy and increasing back stability. 

Most people struggle with flexibility when it comes to the deep squat they compensate for the lack of flexibility and mobility. By lifting their heel from the ground. By bending their bodies forward. By rounding their backs. And, by rotating the knees inwards.

There are a lot of exercises that will help you to get the necessary flexibility to be able to do the deep squat. But the simplest exercise is the deep squat position itself while you hold yourself onto an object. 

The object allows you to get into the position without falling backward. 

• So, grab a bar, a beam, or something else and go as deep as possible while holding the tension, extend your spine, and aim for external rotation of your legs. 
• Feet are evenly placed on the ground and your knees travel slightly forward.

The deep squat position is important to train if you want to continue with Archer or pistol squat training someday. But, even if you don’t have this goal you should include it into your workouts as a beginner start with the exercises of this video until you create a solid foundation of your strength. 

Other benefits of deep squat are;

• Improves ankle and hip mobility
• Improves body alignment and posture
• Improve knee stability
• Activate a lot of muscles in your lower and upper body. 

So, this was a calisthenics workout for beginners. 

You can also try the 5 basic exercises or this Body weight workout routine to start your calisthenics workouts. 

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