So I'm sure you've noticed the steady rise of the names of certain athletes who are doing tremendous things with their bodies. Well as hot as the topic of body weight calisthenics may be right now, the truth of the matter is that it has gained such a massive resurgence due to the marketing it has received.
And make no mistake, the body weight evangelists who are out in full force do have a true message. The point I'm trying to make is that it is not something new, not in the least. In fact body weight training came along way before weight training did and the only reason it lost popularity the way it did is because we were all in awe of the massive bodies built by the greats like Arnold and so on.
So why all this hype about it now? What's changed and why has it become so mainstream? My personal opinion: superb marketing. In the days of our old iron kings those cats didn't have access to YouTube or blogs etc whereas today we do.
And YouTube has been blowing up with videos of everyone everywhere showing their physical prowess on playgrounds all over the world. This is great of course because it encourages people to get up off the couch and get active and I am all for people being active.
But before you ask me if I am going to jump on the band wagon and say that we should never lift weights, I'm going to say this: whatever you do must be done in moderation and it must be done safely. So while body weight calisthenics is the "in" thing now, the truth is that it has been around since we realized we could move our bodies.
Anyways, the reason I'm writing this article is to provide you with knowledge so that you can be empowered to know which exercise discipline is for you and whether you could and should blend the various methods.
The voices for body weight calisthenics say there is no need to lift weights because the exercises can be changed and angled to constantly force new muscle growth. I must say that I have seen some amazing physiques on body weight practitioners but those guys are rather the exception to the rule.
This is what you need to remember when starting an exercise programme, get this right and you won't be fooled. In order to build muscle you must overload the muscles. That's it. If you are not doing enough work to tear microfibers you will not grow new muscle. That's it.
Here's the thing though, you don't need to do 500 push ups a day to grow new muscle but I can bet you that if you saw someone who did do 500 push ups a day you wouldn't have any misconceptions about whether they had muscular bodies or not, you would see it as plain as day.
So to wrap this up, let's not limit ourselves by joining one side and fighting against the other, instead let's take the best of both worlds and apply it to our lives to build stronger, healthier bodies and lives.
Train hard. Train smart. Until next time.
