Calisthenics Exercises
Calisthenics exercises, here are some that you can do at the gym or at home to get in a full body workout that will make you stronger and burn fat.
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Calisthenics are a great way to get warmed up before your run or finish off a great run. You can also do these on your days off from running to get in a great cross training and strength training workout.
Calisthenic Workouts To Do At Home
Here are some great calisthenic workouts that you can do at home with little or no equipment.
Calisthenics Exercises at the Gym
Equipment needed for this workout:
- 1-2 sets of free weights
- Vertical Knee Raise Machine (found in the free weights / abs sections of most gyms.
- Chair or Bench
- Mat
- Towel (because you'll be sweating)
This workout includes knee raises to workout the abs and obliques, crunches, bicycle crunches, pushups, tricep dips, bench presses, squats and lunges. I will go through all 10 steps three times without stopping to take a break in between. Then get in a good stretch when you're done.
- Start with knee raises. I usually do about 30-60 of these. 10-20 centered and 10-20 on each side.
- Jump right onto the mat and do 10-20 pushups.
- Get into crunch position and do 10-20 crunches with your feet on the ground, then 10-20 in the table top position, then 10-20 with your feet in the air at a 90 degree angle. To really get in a great workout, stay in that position and pump your arms 50-100 times like you're doing the pilates 100.
- Sit on the edge of the chair and do 10-20 tricep dips.
- Do 10-20 bicycle crunches.
- While you're on the ground, get in 10-20 arm presses, or you can do bench presses.
- Keep holding onto those weights, do 10-20 squats. With each squat bring your arm up into a military press.
- Still holding your weights, stand with your feet together and your arms straight out in front of you, then bring them together like you're on a loaded pec machine, only you're going through the movement with free weights. Do 10-20 reps.
- Now it's lunge time. While you're doing your 20 lunges (10 on each side), do add in a basic curl.
- End with a plank. The first round you can do a basic plank. The second round you can do a side plank and the third round you can do a reverse plank.
- You're not done yet! ;-) Don't forget to go through steps 1-10 two more times.
- End with a good stretch.
Some more calisthenics exercises to throw in there are shoulder raises, jumping jacks, jump rope, or the much feared and respected burpee exercise.
You can find illustrations of many of these exercises in this article on weight training for runners.
You will get the feel for it the more you practice. You can get more ideas from watchind exercise DVDs, going to exericse classes at your gym and just watching what other people do.
Afer a while, you will get a feel for what callisthenics exercises will get you breaking a sweat, working out your whole body and that you won't have to stop and think about too much.
You can find more ideas for calisthenics exercises here.
