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Intro
Calisthenics is a magnificent way of getting into the best shape. Anybody can achieve a nice-looking body by just using body weight as resistance. You can exercise anywhere or at home without going to a gym. The body is its gym if you follow basic principles of natural bodyweight mechanics. But then there comes a time when you want to level up the difficulty of a bodyweight exercise. You’ll eventually feel this because you’ve become more robust than when you started. Say that you can do 30 pullups but want to make it harder to perform. So, what do you do? How do you make calisthenics training more difficult? You add weights to your exercises. Wearing weight causes the body to tire out by performing 8 to 12 reps. Thus, it becomes weighted calisthenics.
What is weighted calisthenics?
Weighted calisthenics involves adding weight to your body so you can perform in a more challenging way. Wearing and using handheld weights is excellent for adding variety to the body’s exercises. Wearing a weighted vest allows more tension to perform basic compound or isolation exercises. Movements like the push-up or nordic curl become more strenuous. Wearing the vest makes it harder to fight gravity, making you only capable of performing fewer reps. Handheld weights can be a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells. If you use these tools while standing, they can be great for lower body exercise. Or, it can be great for the core and upper body if used while sitting or lying on a bench.
The whole point of weighted calisthenics is to add more resistance. Enabling the muscles to reach fatigue quicker than body weight. With body weight, you can’t reach hypertrophy in an 8 to 12-rep range. You must perform from 20 to 30 reps to reach hypertrophy. But when you use weights, the body will only do fewer reps because of the extra load. This enables the traditional rep range from 8 to 12 to reach hypertrophy with weights when you do a pushup. The result of using weights is developing explosive power, performing more reps with your body weight, and growing the muscles.
Best-weighted calisthenics equipment
Nothing is more straightforward than going to the basics and performing with weight added to the body. An excellent apparatus for doing weighted calisthenics is wearing a weighted vest. The vest allows better mobility without restricting yourself to staying in one place like a barbell. While wearing the vest, you’ll feel extra resistance performing every upper and lower body movement. Another addition to adding weight to the body without constriction is ankle weights. The ankle weights are excellent for core, upper body, and plyometric exercises. These are my preferences for the best-weighted calisthenics equipment.
Wearing weights vs. Handheld weights
The commonality with the weighted vest and ankle weights is mobility in free open spaces. You can’t move freely in open areas like you would wearing weights. The fluid movements while wearing these apparatuses are much better than your traditional handheld weights. I’m not trying to say handheld weights are wrong. You can perform compound and isolation exercises with handheld weights and get excellent results. My argument is there’s a constriction in how handheld weights won’t allow fluid motion in open spaces to occur. Transitional fluidity to run, jump, and perform different pushing and pulling variations while wearing weights is better. That’s why I prefer the vest and ankle weights instead of handheld weights.
What are the best-weighted calisthenics exercises?
The best exercises are often compound based, but isolation also has its place. It’s much more natural and easier to perform compound. You use two joints and multiple muscles to perform compound movements that significantly affect the torso and limbs. Isolation uses only one joint to affect only a single body area. Let me show you great exercises with a weighted vest and ankle weights. If you are a beginner, try out ankle weights between two and five pounds and a twenty-pound vest. The ankle weights are well-suited for vertical pushing, pulling, and core and hip exercises. The vest is a robust apparatus for vertical and horizontal pushing and pulling. You can also benefit from doing core and lower body exercises.
Look at an article on static stretching before engaging in any physical activity. This article is to show you stretches to prevent you from underperforming and avoid tightness in the muscles.
Neck Extensions
There’s one exception to my preference for using weights in my calisthenics practice besides a vest or ankle weights. That exception is wearing a neck harness with weighted plates and remaining stationary. The neck muscles are often forgotten in calisthenics. We can only exercise the torso and limbs with the weight of our own body to see significant changes. You also can’t get a great workout done with just the weight of the skull. The neck is accustomed to the weight of the entire head. You need extra weight to receive new stimuli on the neck to develop. Doing neck extensions strengthens the back neck muscles and develops good posture. That’s why this is the only exception I accept of myself while remaining stationary with weights.
Pushups
A pushup can be done vertically or horizontally. These pushing variations will target multiple muscles during the concentric and eccentric movements. The triceps, anterior deltoids, pecs, serratus anterior, and core work together to accomplish this exercise. Remember that full range of motion, angle, and posture is far more critical than quickly doing a bunch of repetitions. Doing fast reps will make you do discombobulated pushups. Why? Because elbows will flare out instead of being lateral to the torso, and the back will arch while performing horizontal pushups. The last issue with fast reps is doing a partial range of motion to finish a set. This isn’t good. The correct way is elbows are lateral to the torso, the back is straight, and performing a full range of motion.
The vertical pushup requires the upper half of the torso to lean forward at a 45-degree angle. The slight change of angle allows for engagement on the pecs, along with the abs and triceps. If you try and perform quick reps, the motion will eventually lead to performing with bad posture. That includes elbows flared out and losing that 45-degree angle by leaning back at a 90-degree angle. It’s far better to do mid-tempo to slow repetitions than fast ones to perform correctly on parallel bars.
Pullups
The pull-up can be done in a horizontal or vertical motion by targeting multiple muscles on the arms and back. Another benefit to performing the pull-up is using three different types of grips. The pronated, supinated and neutral grip. Each of these grips slightly benefits the arms differently, but the same results occur for the back muscles. The pronated grip mainly affects the brachioradialis. The supinated grip affects the biceps. The neutral grip affects both muscles. As for the rest of the forearms, it does involve the flexors and extensors, no matter what grip you choose. The back muscles exercised are the posterior deltoids, traps, rotator cuffs, and lats.
To perform the vertical and horizontal pull-ups correctly, you must expand your chest. The slight change in chest position allows for more back engagement when you pull vertically or horizontally. During the horizontal pull, the tugged elbow position allows better engagement on the back when the elbow crosses the rib cage. A wider pronated grip placement allows better engagement for the lats. Crossing the feet over each other and flexing the knees allows a better motion during the pull.
Sit-up/Back Extension
A significant benefit to wearing the vest while performing a situp and back extension is the vest doesn’t constrict. There’s no constriction to performing either of these movements because the vest is relatively small. The vest covers the upper part of the chest and crosses the navel. Extension and flexion of the spine are guaranteed without feeling immobile. A better way to perform these exercises is on an exercise ball. The ball allows far more mobility to flex and extend the spine while wearing the vest. Another option is to hold the vest and lay it on the torso while flexing or extending the spine.
Knee/Leg Raises
The ankle weights do well for performing these exercises for the lower abdominals and hip flexors. It doesn’t matter which of these exercises you do; the ankle weights will add extra effort to perform. Both knee and leg raises use the same body mechanics to perform hip flexion. The most difficult of the two is leg raises. Extending the knees, the extra weight of the lower leg makes the core exercise harder. The knee raise is much easier because the lower leg’s added weight isn’t present. You can raise your knees a little higher, which allows for greater hip flexion. But the exercise becomes a little challenging when you do isometrics.
To make the workout even more challenging, try and perform an L-sit. This isometric exercise will challenge the hip flexors and abs to stabilize. Of course, if you can’t do an L-sit, do a knee raise hold. This is much easier since the extra weight of the lower leg isn’t present when performing a knee extension.
Hips
Exercising the hips requires isolation movements. Isolation means only moving a single joint that affects one area. Three exercises work well: hip flexion, extension, and abduction. The ankle weights accomplish giving the hip muscles extra tension. To perform each of these movements correctly, follow the direction of the muscle fibers. Also, when doing reps, apply an isometric hold at the end of a set. As you gradually do longer holds, progress toward holding even longer. Another element in doing these isolation exercises well is positioning your body correctly.
Stand straight while lifting the leg horizontally aligned with the hips during hip flexion. The quads will be the primary muscle exercised. You must lean forward at a 60-degree angle to engage the glutes well. Then you extend the leg towards the direction of the muscle fiber. During hip abduction, lay your hand on something to keep you balanced. Lift the leg away from the centerline towards a 45-degree angle to engage the gluteus medius, minimus, and tensor fascia lata.
Reverse Back Extension
The movement is the opposite of a regular back extension. The posterior chain is exercised by targeting the hamstrings, glutes, and erector spinae. How is this done? The legs are involved, and you raise the legs by extending the hips while your knees are extended. The upper torso stays in a flat, fixed position, and the hip region is on an exercise ball. Wear ankle weights to add more tension to make this exercise a little more challenging. The last part of making the exercise more challenging is doing isometrics. Hold that position as long as you can when you extend your hips by raising your legs. You will feel your posterior chain getting a great workout done.
Squats
Performing bodyweight squats becomes easy once you can do thirty reps in a set. The bodyweight squat is easy because the quads support the upper body’s weight when walking or running. It’s logical to think, “why not just do more reps past thirty and perform a squat hold.” Sure, that is possible to make the bodyweight squat a lot harder. But wearing a weighted vest makes it more challenging because of the extra load on the quads during a squat. Performing more reps and doing a squat hold while wearing the weighted vest is the best option. Another muscle that contributes to the squad is the glutes. The glutes are responsible for the hip extension when bringing the body back up. The squat is a great compound exercise.
Nordic Curls
Of all the hamstring exercises, the nordic curl is the most challenging to execute, especially wearing a weighted vest. This exercise is eccentric, isometric, and concentric, and you must anchor your feet so you won’t fall on your face. The purpose of this exercise is to resist your torso going down to the floor before giving out. The second part of the exercise is bringing the torso up with the hamstrings and performing a reverse hamstring curl. How can this be done? I’ll explain
Eccentric and Isometric
You must slowly elongate and hold to execute this exercise’s eccentric and isometric parts. While elongating the lower half, the upper half needs to perform a hold as the torso’s weight is leaning forward. In a second, the lower half of the muscles start to tighten when you reach your limit. That limit is the angle you can hold before your hamstrings give out. Nordic isometrics is the best hamstring hold for the muscles’ upper and lower half. You will feel the entire muscle activate.
Concentric
The most challenging part is the reverse curl facing the floor at a 20-degree angle. Every single muscle fiber must fully contract and bring the torso up. This isn’t easy to do, and it will take time to perform. There are tools to support you when doing a reverse hamstring curl. Using the resistance band door anchor and loop resistance bands is your best option. When you lean the body closer to the floor, the resistance band helps to relieve some tension when leaning forward. As you reach the bottom, focus on activating the hamstrings to lift the torso’s weight. Keep your back straight and your hips extended.
Another way to make the reverse curl easier is to curl back at a 45-degree angle instead of a 20-degree angle. Use the assisted equipment to help ease the motion. As time passes, you’ll want to incorporate a weighted vest to make it even harder. You’ll make this one of your workouts’ most robust weighted calisthenics practices.
Calve Raises
Like the quads, the calve muscles carry the weight of the upper half of the legs and up. When you can perform one hundred calve raises, you need more tension. To add more load, wear the weighted vest and perform more than a hundred until failure. Another way to make this exercise harder is to do calve raises on stairs. Why? Because the heel of the foot allows you to bring down the heel below the stair line. This allows the calves more range of motion to lift the heels by doing plantar flexion. To perform the movement, you use the balls of your feet to stabilize and press up the calve. The added range of motion is better than the standard calve raise on a straight floor.
Conclusion
Weighted calisthenics is a great training regimen to increase tension for muscles to strengthen and grow. The added load certainly requires more effort, but the results will surprise you when you can do more. After weight training, doing more reps and having shorter rest periods between each set is a plus for bodyweight training. You will strengthen and grow your muscles faster with an extra load and be athletic while wearing weight.
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