An introduction to… Calisthenics!

Did you know… some people are convinced that calisthenics is the way the ancient Greeks prepared themselves for war? The word ‘calisthenics’ also derives from the ancient Greek words kalós and sthenos, meaning ‘beautiful’ and ‘strength’. By the way… when doing calisthenics you’re only using your body weight to work out!

Clumsy army shoes
Calisthenics has become more and more familiar over the last couple of years, and isn’t just an Ancient Greek kind of thing anymore. For example in Japan, a special kind of calisthenics has been really popular since the 20th century: radio calisthenics. These kind of musical exercises are quite similar to morning gymnastics, that we’ve probably all done before at school camp once in our lives…😉

Although the most common kind of calisthenics you may know from Instagram videos like this. Where US Marines are working out like crazy, making it look like there’s no such thing as gravity at all! And they’re even wearing those clumsy army shoes while doing it.

Freezing hands
Almost everyone can do a calisthenics exercise. Because when you’re doing a series of push-ups or squats, you’re already doing it. Although there are endless possibilities – up onto flying though the air at the Olympics!

If you start looking around, you’ll notice how popular it really is. The calisthenics parks spring up like mushrooms all over town. They seem like the new basketball courts and skate parks. And during a corona-ravaged spring, it even turned out to be a blessing in the sky: you could keep working out when the gyms were closed.

But during winter time, all the outdoor calisthenics parks were a little less pleasing: holding on to the rack with freezing hands – let alone pulling yourself up. Luckily, we can now all train indoors again and defy gravity in the USC gym.

Are you excited to try out calisthenics, but you don’t really know how to get started? We also have a beginners course you can sign up for! The course registration starts on Monday 9 August 12.00h.