BEGINNER
CALISTHENICS
WRITTEN BY
MALCOLM A
BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Copyright © ZERO MEDIA LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this
document may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means
electronic, mechanical, or otherwithout
prior written permission of ZERO MEDIA
LLC.
Disclaimer
This is for informational purposes only.
Consult a physician before performing
this or any exercise program. I am not a
personal trainer, If you choose to work
with the forthcoming advice, you are
agreeing to accept full responsibility for
your actions.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Table Of Contents
Starting out ....................................................... 3
Gaining & Losing weight .................................. 4
Training at home .............................................. 5
Beginner routine ............................................... 6 - 8
Negatives ........................................................... 9
Compound exercises ........................................10
ROM ....................................................................11
Progressive overload ........................................12
Rest/Recovery & Deloading...............................13
Setting a goal .....................................................14
Reps and sets .....................................................15
Beginner/Intermidate exercises ......................16
Beginner Skills ....................................................17
Crafting a skill focused routine.........................18
Contact me .........................................................19
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Starting Out
Firstly I want to congratulate you on taking the first step to changing
your life for the better, calisthenics isn't just a work out, its a lifestyle
that will stay with you for the rest of your life. The skills you learn
won't only impress others but better yourself, the discipline you will
develop from training consistently will help you in every aspect of
your life, and I'm so proud that you decided to be more than average
and take control of your life. This is just the beginning for you :)
Now then, when starting calisthenics it is important to first condition
your body by mastering the basics, this means being able to perform
clean form, full ROM (Range of motion) reps for exercises like pull-
ups, and pushups.
You want to build this foundational basic strength before trying to
move on to more advanced skills. Skipping steps and trying to jump
ahead will often limit what you can do and is the main reason most
people plateau. Also If you are overweight it will be important to first
lose the excess weight as this is considered dead weight and will only
make exercises more difficult. (This is elaborated on in the next page)
For those with no prior fitness experience or training I recommend
spending time conditioning your body by doing the beginner workout
at least 3 times a week with a day in between to rest, the rest days can
be used to work on mobility, flexibility or cardio.
Being able to control your speed at any point in a movement is what
true control/ mastery looks like, which is why it's so important that
you don't skip steps, only when you train through the entire ROM of a
movement is when you will master every aspect of it.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Gaining & Losing Weight
The key to gaining weight as a skinny person is simple, EAT
MORE and train consistently, I'm sure you're saying to yourself
"but I already eat a lot" I promise you, it is not enough, you
need to be eating enough to be in a calorie surplus. A calorie
surplus being eating more calories than your body burns.
There is no secret or special hack, consume more calories, train
hard, and results will come. You can find out how many calories
you need via an online calculator, this can be found in helpful
resources in the discord, Link is in my Instagram bio.
Now on the other side, losing weight is also very simple, its not
easy but its as straight forward as being in a calorie deficit and
training consistently. As long as your are consuming less
calories than your body needs you will lose weight. Also
increasing your water intake and reducing your sugar
consumption will help tremendously. This combined with
consistent training and a proper diet will accelerate the
process.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Training At Home
The wonderful thing about calisthenics is that it does not require a gym
membership, all you need is yourself and minimal equipment, here’s a
list of recommended equipment that will be beneficial in your journey.
Wrist wraps - These help take pressure off your wrists and protect
them from Injury. (highly recommended)
Chalk - This will help with your grip, and stop you from slipping while
on the pull-up bar, cheap but effective. (highly recommended)
Parallettes - These are the parallel bars you have most likely seen me
use in most of my videos, they're portable, lightweight, and help with
shoulder stability, balance, control, and provide elevation off the floor,
making skills like the L sit much easier. (highly recommended)
Gymnastic rings - In case there is no access to a pull-up bar, these are
a great alternative, they can be hung from stable beams and provide
the same functions as a pull-up bar, with the added benefit of allowing
you to move through a wider range of motion. The instability of the
rings also helps build shoulder stability since your body is working
harder to keep you stable. (Not mandatory but can be beneficial)
*Note*
Calisthenics Equipment now available at Malkymalk.com
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Beginner Routine
If you are a complete beginner refer to the first workout schedule and
perform the conditioning circuit. If you are a bit further along then
choose from the pushing and pulling table on page 16 to build your
training schedule. For the weekends, you can choose to continue the
every other day schedule or rest. I personally use the weekends as a
chance to give my body some extra time to recover.
Calisthenics skills can be split up into pushing and pulling skills. For
example the hanging L sit and pulling portion of the muscle up can be
trained on pull days. The pushing portion of the muscle up can be
trained on push days. I personally follow schedule 1 where I do both
pushing and pulling on the same day.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Complete Beginner
Conditioning workout Circuit *Note* If unable to
10 pullups complete a full rep of a
20 pushups pullup or pushup refer
1 minute plank to the next page
10 bodyweight squats
Rest needed varies, but for complete beginners 2-5 minutes
should be more than enough
3-5 sets
Going through all exercises one after the other with minimal rest in-
between is most beneficial. It's important to keep your heart rate up,
so try not to take too long between exercises. Going through all
exercises counts as 1 set.
Warmup
It's important to warmup before training, warming up dilates your blood
vessels, making sure your muscles are supplied with oxygen. It also
"warms you up" making your muscles more flexible and efficient. You're
most prone to injury if you just jump into an exercise without proper
prep, don't neglect the warmup.
For a wrist warmup/strengthening exercises, check the program videos
folder
Injuries
Its important to treat injuries with a high priority, if something doesn't
feel right or a muscle is pulled, stop training and give yourself time to
recover. Ignoring minor injuries can result in more serious injuries in
the future. Don't get sucked into trying to make progress as fast as
possible, remember that this is a lifestyle, you will have plenty of time
to train, don't sacrifice long term success for short term gains.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Exercises to build strength
for pushups and pullups
Pull-ups
Active Hangs (10 -30 secs / 3-5 sets)
Scapula Shrugs (10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Australian/Horizontal pull-ups (10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Negative pull-ups (5-10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Band assisted pull-ups (5-10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Pushups
Pushup support hold (30 secs / 3-5 sets)
Negative pushups (5-10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Incline Pushups (5-10 reps / 3-5 sets)
Visual representations of these exercises can be
found in the program videos folder
*Note* what's a negative? check the next page
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Negatives
Negatives are a very effective way to build up strength
to an exercise that is too difficult, they are the reverse
of the exercise, also known as the eccentric. The
golden rule of calisthenics is that doing the negative
will always bring you the positive.
Take the pull-up for example, if you are not strong
enough to do a full pull-up what you would do instead
is start from the top position and lower yourself back
down slowly to the starting position. Repeat this until
you've gained enough strength to be able to do a full
pull-up.
Remember this for the future, it will be very important
in developing strength for much harder skills.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Compound Exercises
One of the reasons why calisthenics exercises are
so effective at burning calories and gaining mass is
because most exercises are compound exercises.
Compound exercises are exercises that work
multiple parts of your body at the same time, good
examples of these are L-sit pull-ups and pushups.
L-sit pull-ups target your back, arms, engage your
core and pushups target your chest, triceps and
shoulders.
Isolated exercises have their place but for gaining
overall muscle mass, saving time and burning
calories these are more effective and will be the
main type of exercises used in this program.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Range Of Motion (ROM)
We often hear the term full ROM thrown around, but
what is it and why is it so important? Using full ROM
in an exercise is crucial for building strength. Half
reps and isolated movements have their place, but
not going through the entire ROM can hurt your
progress going forward.
The reason why we see so many people plateau is
because of their lack in strength, either at the
beginning or at the end of a movement. This is due to
not going through the entire ROM during training.
Slow and controlled repetitions with good form
through the full ROM will build the most strength.
Fast uncontrolled half reps are not as beneficial for
building strength.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Progressive Overload
An important term to be familiar with is Progressive
overload. This is the increase in stress placed on the
body over time. If you continue to perform the same
exercises without increasing the difficulty or adding
different variations you will plateau and stop seeing
progress. This is why its important to keep track of
your progress so you can know when it might be time
to move on to harder variations.
This can be done by either increasing the number of
reps per set, increasing the number of sets or by
progressing to a more difficult variation of an
exercise.
(Ex. Pullup *Easy* -> Weighed Pullup *Harder* )
As a beginner when you start you'll be seeing
progress relatively quickly. As we progress we need
more stimulation to keep the growth going.
Progressively overloading our muscles will force
them to adapt and get stronger.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Rest/Recovery
Resting is more important than training, let me elaborate.
You don't get stronger when you leave the gym. Strength
only develops when you give your body the chance to
recover. It's important to take your rest days seriously,
neglecting rest can negatively impact your performance.
Make sure you're getting proper sleep and take a break
when needed, take care of your body.
Deloading
Deloading is an important term to know, think of it as a vacation for
your body. All the wear and tear your body goes through while you
are training cannot be fully recovered from a single day of rest. Over
time, this wear will build up, and you will not feel fully recovered.
Exercises that used to be easy will now be difficult for you. For every
3-4 weeks of training you should take a full week off.
Some prefer to do light training during this week (Ex. 2 sets of each
exercise with reduced intensity). I personally prefer to rest for the
week but the decision is yours, just make sure that if you do train, its
at a much lighter intensity than normal.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Setting A Goal
Once you've completed your beginner conditioning its time
to decide what it is you want to do. Do you want to focus on
skill training? Or are you just looking to build body mass?
If you are interested in learning calisthenics skills, you will be
focused on low reps and skill progressions. If you are
interested in just putting on size, you will be focused on high
reps and different variations to sculpt your body the way you
want.
You will gain mass and strength regardless of which way you
decide to go.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Reps & Sets
For strength training
General rep range 3-8 reps
Longer rest times (3-5 minutes)
For hypertrophy training
General rep range 10-15 reps
Shorter rest times (1-2 minutes)
Rather than give a static number of reps or sets for each exercise, I
want you to be able to determine how many you should do on your
own. I always give the Guideline of 3-5-10 reps and 3-5 sets because
that is the typical range for strength training. However that number
can change depending on how difficult an exercise is. For example
pushups, a relatively easy exercise can easily be 10-20 reps for 5
sets. Something like the handstand pushup which is significantly
harder would warrant something like 2-3 reps for 5 sets. The reps
and sets will change Depending on how difficult an exercise is.
Play around with this number and find the best range. Don't be
afraid to experiment, remember this is a lifestyle, take your time and
learn along the way.
When training to gain body mass, its important to train with enough
volume to overload your muscles. Progressively increasing the
number and difficulty of reps will yield the best results.
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Beginner -> Intermediate
Exercises
Pushing
*Beginner Regular Pushups (Targets chest, triceps)
*Intermediate Explosive Pushups(For fast twitch muscle fibers)
*Intermediate Diamond Pushups (More emphasis on triceps)
*Intermediate Wide Pushups (Targets chest, shoulders, up arms)
*Beginner Regular Dips(Targets chest, triceps, shoulders, upper
back, lower back)
*Intermediate Weighted Dips(Same as dips)
*Beginner Pike pushups(Targets shoulders and triceps)
*Intermediate Wall HSPU (Targets shoulders and triceps, Face to
wall more difficult than back to wall)
Pulling
*Beginner Regular Pull-ups (Targets most back)
*Beginner Australian/Horizontal Pull-ups (Targets back)
*Beginner Chin ups (Targets biceps and back)
*Intermediate Explosive pull-ups (To chest)
*Intermediate Weighted pullups(Same as pull-ups)
*Intermediate Muscle ups (Breakdown on skills page)
*Intermediate High Pull-ups
*Intermediate L-sit pullups (Back and Core)
Core
*Beginner Knee raises
*Beginner Half Leg raises
*Beginner Hollow body holds
*Intermediate Full leg raise (toes to bar)
*Intermediate L sit progressions/ hold
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Beginner Skills
L sit
The L sit is a fundamental calisthenics skill, helping you develop the
necessary core strength to move on to more difficult exercises like the L
sit pullup and the dragon flag, follow the progressions below to develop
the strength to hold an L-sit
Progressions
*Easiest Hanging knee raise hold (30 sec / 3-5 sets)
Alternating 1 leg hold (20 sec/ 3-5 sets)
Hanging L sit hold (10 sec / 3-5 sets)
*Hardest Floor L sit hold (5-10 sec/ 3-5 sets)
*Note visual representation
of muscle in program videos
Muscle up folder
The muscle up can be broken down into 3 parts: Pulling, Pushing, and
the Technique.
For the pulling portion, you need to develop enough explosive pulling
strength to get high enough to reach the transition point. To develop
this you need to start training for high pullups, try to pull to your waist,
at first you wont get very high but over time you will be able to pull
higher.
For the pushing portion you need to develop enough strength to push
through once you've gone through the transition. This can be
developed via slow and controlled reps of straight bar dips , these will
help you develop the strength to push out once your on top of the bar.
Lastly the technique. The most common mistake people make is
pulling straight up, which puts the bar directly in your way, The proper
technique is to go around the bar in an arc when pulling up.
Muscle up training
Explosive pullups (3-5 full power reps 3-5 sets)
Straight bar dips (5-10 slow controlled straight bar dips 3-5 sets)
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Crafting a skill focused
routine
If your main focus is to develop strength for calisthenics skills, then your
routine is going to be focused around that.
Its important to start with your most difficult exercise first. Then go from
hardest to easiest, you want to be fresh and have all your strength for
the main skills. Also be sure not to spread yourself thin working on too
many things at once. You will exhaust yourself trying to learn 5 skills at
once. Picking 2 or 3 skills is more optimal and will yield better results.
Routine breakdown
Current Level progression(12 sec hold 3-5 sets)
Dynamic progression before current level (5-10 second
Accessory Exercise 1
Accessory Exercise 2 (optional)
Routine breakdown example
L sit alternating leg hold (Main)
Hanging knee raises (dynamic)
Leg raises (Accessory)
Hollow body hold (Accessory 2)
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BEGINNER CALISTHENICS
Contact Me
I'd appreciate any feedback on your experience with
this program, if things were unclear or if you would
like more information on a topic send me a message.
If you've purchased this program reach out to me on
Discord or Instagram so I can give you the role in my
server.
Thankyou for your support and I hope to see your
improvement, be sure to drop your progress in the
#progress-updates channel.
Tiktok: @Malky_malk
Instagram: @Malky_malk
Youtube: @Malky_malk
Email: zeromediaxy@gmail.com
Discord: Linked in Instagram Bio
Website: Malkymalk.com
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