How can you grow by being away from the gym!
The best thing that could have happened to you during the COVID19 out break, would be the closing down of your gym . Yeah you heard me right!
In this post you will get to know , why.
If you have managed to stick with, going to the gym for some amount of time,you know what a gym meant.
It was an anchor amidst the daily chaos of life, where we could show up. Irrespective of how our day went, we would always walk out of the gym pumped up and feeling stronger.
The shutting down of gym, has brought an existential crisis in our lives. Going to the gym, was the only thing that was fixed in our lives till now !
And Voila! It has been taken away from us ! Damn you , Corona !
Hey but hold on ! May be the best thing that could have happened to us, amidst the pandemic, was shutting down of our gym.
Let’s know why !
But first, let us flip through the pages of history.
It turns out that dumbbells were introduced during mid 19th century and Barbells were introduced much later.
*Wait ! So you are telling me, that this guy built such an impressive physique naturally, without using dumbbells and barbells ?*
Yeah! But how ?
The answer is : Calisthenics
Calisthenics as an alternative to Weight Lifting
The word Calisthenics, comes from the Greek words, ‘Kalos’ and ‘Sthenos’ meaning ‘Beauty’ and ‘Strength’. It is the art and science of beautiful movement.
Calisthenics are exercises that use a person’s own body weight to make him grow faster,stronger and leaner. Calisthenics is an art of mastering your body.
By practicing Calisthenics you can make your body move in a way, you never thought possible.
Thus, Calisthenics is the art of mastering yourself, through bodily movements.
But how can training away from the gym via Calisthenics, help you grow physically, mentally and financially ?
1. With the gym closed, you can finally start building well rounded physique.
Lets take an example :
Consider two exercises, Hand Stand Push-ups and your body weight equivalent Over Head Barbell Press . Which of these movements would be more difficult for you ?
The answer obviously is, Hand Stand Push-ups . But why ? Even though you are lifting your body weight and both movements primarily target the deltoids.
This is because, when you do Hand Stand Push-ups there are a lot of stabilizer muscles(e.g:scapular muscles, core strength) that need to work in tandem with the primary muscles. Unless all these muscles are strong, the brain wont get a positive sensory feedback from the muscles and hence you won’t be able to perform the movement.
On the other hand, while lifting the bar over your head, you can simply cheat your way through by arching the back and wearing lifting belt.
Thus, the only way to progress in Calisthenics is by building up strength in all the muscles, which is often neglected with weight training.
2. With the gym closed, you can start practicing movements that will help you in real life.
Imagine yourself going on a hike and suddenly your foot slips . Now you are left hanging on the edge of a cliff for you dear life !
No amount of bicep curls can save you, unless you know how to handle your body weight.
Alternatively, consider the scenario where you are in the wild with your girlfriend. Suddenly, a bear appears to spoil, which till that point was turning out to be a perfect date. How can you defend in that case ? By having big biceps or by having strong all round physique?
Well, truth be told, you’ll be at the mercy of the bear in either case but you’d have a greater probability of defending yourself, in the latter case. If nothing works out, you can at least have a better chance of outrunning your girl friend,i.e: if you focused on your physical conditioning. 😉
Calisthenics is about focusing on what your body can do rather than just focusing on how your physique looks like.In calisthenics you can have best of both the worlds . You get a box full of gravity defying movement skills and, an athletic physique.
3. With the gym shutting down, you can rediscover the fun of working out.
Remember when we were young ? In the park, we used to be so happy using the swings,even while falling flat on our faces(okay, not momentarily) . Why was that ?
It was because we were learning new things, we were breaking rules. We weren’t afraid of failing or falling.
However, adulthood set in and we lost the fun of working out. Just repeating the same monotonous exercises again and again, with the belief that it will bring us rewards, in some distant future. In the process, losing all the fun of working out.
With the closure of the gyms, we have got a fantastic opportunity in our hands, to re-evaluate the ways we work out. To not only make workouts help us grow stronger but also a means to have fun. And to rediscover, the fun of falling down and getting back up again !
4. With closing of gym, you have an opportunity to grow mentally sharper.
“Once you stop learning, you start dying”- Albert Einstein
Our brain is the strongest muscle we have. However, the only way to make it grow sharper is by constantly making it learn new skills.
A research study on cognition had older people spend 15 hours a week for three weeks on learning a variety of new skills. Only the people who learned new skills through a cognitively demanding process had significant gains in memory, which were maintained even a year later.
What greater an opportunity can we have now, to grow mentally sharper, than by changing the way we are used to working out.
Although, it will be quite uncomfortable initially, to start over and see our ego fall smack on its face but let’s face it:
Calisthenics can be much more fun than the plain old weightlifting, where all we can have for change is, altering the weights we are lifting.
In calisthenics, there are lot more cool moves that you can have fun practicing.
5. With the shutting down of gyms you can save tons of money(…and focus more on the diet) !
It’s a no-brainer that even if you wish to access a semi-decent gym you have to pay a hefty membership fee. Also if you are a beginner you have to pay a personal trainer who can help you perfect your form. With gym fees burning a large hole in our pockets , we find ourselves with little money to no left, to spend on our diet.
However, its a well established fact that:
Muscle building comprises 80 % percent diet and recovery, and 20 % exercise. Isn’t it stupid for us to spend so much on our gym membership fees and too little on our diet ?
The gym shut down has provided us with a great opportunity to help us save our hefty fees and divert the funds to our diet and even better, diverting the remaining funds to the well being of others.
6. …And avoid injuries !
The chances of you getting injured while weightlifting are much greater than, when you are practicing calisthenics.
While progressing in our lifts, we often neglect the secondary muscles that we need to build up, in order to unlock the heavier lifts. This is common, specially when you are working out, without the guidance of a well qualified fitness trainer.
During lighter lifts you can easily cheat your way up, by using poor form and using belts,straps,etc. However, when you progress to heavier weights, your body breaks down.
All this is because, you had not built a strong foundation. You ignored the secondary muscles, the building blocks, along the way.
However, with calisthenics you can not cheat your way up. The only way you can progress from doing simple push-ups to hand stand push-ups, is by building stronger primary and secondary muscles.
7. It will help you get stronger in your lifts.
If you practice Calisthenics, one thing is guaranteed, as remarked by USA Olympic Gymnastics Team Coach Chris Sommer :
Doing calisthenics has a greater carryover to weightlifting than weightlifting does to calisthenics. This is particularly true of upper body training.
If you asked someone who was comfortable doing freestanding handstand press ups to perform her body weight equivalent of overhead barbell press. She would have no problem, even if she never did any barbell lifting before.
The skills and strength are transferable, but only one way
Also she is guaranteed to have a strong and well toned core !
8. And yeah, you can perform some nifty party tricks to impress others !
Come on lets face it, imagine your self doing this
and this :
Who won’t be impressed ? 😉
In the world of Calisthenics no body movement is impossible, you just need adequate strength !
With that being said, weight training has its benefits. Irrespective of the path, you decide to take, to train yourself, the important thing is to enjoy the process. However, learning different ways to train can only help you grow. Being away from the gym can help accelerate your personal growth, if you approach it with the right mind set.
If you are struggling with motivation to start working out again, find out how to unleash the beast in you .
Wishing that you are staying safe along with your family, I would like to know how are you dealing with life during the Corona outbreak, in the comments below. 🙂
Nice article sir
I also agree that these body weight exercises require more body strength but they are tough to carry out on a regular basis for long duration .
And I have one question though do these body weight exercises help us to gain muscle or they are only meant for gaining a lean physique .
Hello Devansh !
I hope everything is fine with you and your family during the current pandemic outbreak.
As far as body weight exercises go, I agree that they may seem monotonous if you keep on repeating the same exercises again and again. But that can be true for weight lifting as well. So, its better that we keep on mixing things up, so that we can continue having fun, while working out !
Also Body Weight Exercises can help you gain muscle mass no problem,specially when it comes to upper body . For reference, you can check out the gymnasts . They are quite big,shredded and super strong !
Again, to get big, right diet is very important !
I hope it helps ! 🙂
Nice writing skills, perfect explanation. Well done.
Thank you for the kind words. Hope it helped 🙂