One of the advantages of calisthenics is that because no equipment is needed, you can do calisthenics anywhere.
You might have some spare time in the evening after a day of traveling, and you can do squats and pushups in your hotel room. During a break in your work office, you can do some planking to help give you the energy to sustain yourself for the day.
Discussed below are the top three spots to do calisthenics.
At Home
You can do a complete full-body workout at home without any equipment. You also don’t need much space. On your exercise mat, you can do leg raises, crunches, v-ups, flutter kicks, donkey kicks, mountain climbers, and pushups. From a standing position, you can perform squats, lunges, lateral leg kicks, kickbacks, and front leg raises. Put your hands on a chair for triceps dips or incline pushups. Use a wall for a wall sit. You’ll need a bit more space for movement exercises such as walking lunges and high-knee jogging.
Calisthenics at home is convenient. With our busy schedules, it often isn’t easy to get to the gym. At home, you can space out your workouts. For example, suppose you have a busy day with work and family commitments, but you have 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon, and 20 minutes in the evening that you can dedicate to exercising to add up to one hour. It isn’t convenient to go to the gym for short workouts three times a day. At home, you can work out at the times that suit your schedule. You’ll also save money by avoiding transportation costs and gym fees.
You can do calisthenics at home while doing other things. You can put a dish in the oven, do some more exercises, and then check on your dish a bit later. You can’t do that when you go to the gym. Some people enjoy working out at home while they are watching a TV show or a movie, and calisthenics is perfect for that. Some exercise machines make a lot of noise so you would need to crank up the volume on your TV, or your machine might be located in a different room in your house and it’s too heavy to move. Using machines can be time-consuming. A 20-minute run on the treadmill may be beneficial, but it may not leave much time for strength-training exercises if you are on a tight schedule.
Doing calisthenics at home can be motivating for family members. Someone in your household might need a push to work out. If they see you exercising, they might want to join in. Calisthenics is great for people of all ages, so involve your family members as much as you can. For example, a teenager should start with bodyweight exercises to develop a solid foundation before adding weights and machines to their workout plan.
You can create a quiet space at home with no distractions for your calisthenics workout. If you’re in the middle of your workout and you need a tip for a certain exercise, you can find a YouTube video for the exercise on your phone or computer. You can even follow along to a calisthenics-at-home workout video. Having proper form for calisthenics exercises such as squats and lunges is crucial since these exercises improve your balance and posture, and they help to form a strong base for your exercise program. It can be intimidating for some people to go to a gym and perform exercises without feeling totally confident they are doing them correctly. Working out at home alleviates that stress, and having easy access to online videos helps to learn proper techniques.
Many people have resistance bands at home, and bands can be added to many of your calisthenics exercises. You can put a band around your legs for squats with abduction (pushing your legs out at the bottom position), or around your wrists for a high plank walk.
Parks and Playgrounds
Exercising outdoors is a great way to get fresh air, connect with nature, and spend quality time with friends. You can enjoy a full-body calisthenics workout at a park or playground. Find a bar for pullups or chin-ups. These two exercises are great for strengthening your upper body and core, and they are time-efficient (it is difficult to do many reps at once).
Tone your leg muscles by doing step-ups on a bench or walking lunges up a hill. Use the bars on a playground structure to perform dips. Find an elevated step for box jumps (landing in a squat position). Put one foot on a bench for Bulgarian split squats. Elevate your feet on a tree for a plank. Your park may even have exercise stations that allow you to perform climbing, agility, balance, and strength-training activities.
Parks offer plenty of space for your workouts. Do rotational ball throws with a friend to work your abs. Go as far as you can across a field doing a lateral squat walk. Improve your explosive power with the long jump exercise.
At the Gym
Even though you don’t need any equipment for calisthenics, you can add equipment such as dumbbells, kettlebells, and balance boards to calisthenics exercises. The gym is the perfect place to add variety to your bodyweight exercises. You can do squats while holding dumbbells, a side plank row on a cable machine, or pushups on a BOSU Balance Trainer.
Gyms have certain equipment for calisthenics exercises that you may not have at home, such as bars for pullups and dips, plyo boxes for box jumps, and ropes for skipping rope. Many people complement calisthenics with weight training or training on machines, and the gym is a perfect place to do all of those.
You might start your workout with calisthenics exercises, followed by lifting weights (such as doing bicep curls and shoulder presses), and then finish your workout with cardio on a machine (such as a StairMaster or elliptical). The gym is convenient in that you can do all phases of your workout in one spot.