When it comes to training calisthenics many people assume that this style of training is only for tricks and freestyle and not something that can be used to achieve great strength or physique. And this can’t be further from the truth. I have been doing calisthenics for 7 years and I have been in the personal training field for a while, and I can tell you from my experience the main reason why my clients and I get results is proper programming. To build muscle and strength there are certain stimulus that you need to let the muscle go through. It doesn’t matter what tool, your muscle won’t know if you are using a barbell or a dumbbell or if you are doing a bicep curl or a ring curl, it just knows resistance… It all goes back to giving the muscle a certain load that lets it go through the stimulus desired for the goal. Programming is what allows us to structure the plan to reach our goals in a specific time frame. We see a lot of knowledge and info given on programming and its principles, and most people apply it to lifting. But the big question is why would it be any different for calisthenics? Why cant we program in Calisthenics as well and use the same principles?
We can absolutely use the same programming principles for calisthenics but with a little modifications on some things. When it comes to programming in calisthenics we need to consider three things.

First is to be aware of the role of CNS (central nervous system). The CNS doesn’t get as taxed in body-weight exercises as much as training with weights. Body-weight exercises are the least taxing exercises your body can do. Look at gymnasts for example they do the same movements everyday for long hours without breaking down.

Things like push-ups and pull-ups are body-weight compound movements that don’t tax the nervous system as much as other movements that involve a barbell or added weights. What this means is that if we want to set up a calisthenics program that would get us results we need to add more volume and frequency, so we use different volume and frequency principles than the lifting world. We can’t forget that each person’s experience and fitness level plays a role, some people can handle more volume than others but usually the load is not as heavy on the body as the barbell, dumbbells or
being in a fixed position that requires more attention to technique and muscle isolation.

With that being said when it comes to calisthenics you need to be aware of this if you want to get results, because if you train with the standard volume measures you would be under-training. What would be considered a high volume session for training with weights can be a moderate volume session training with body-weight movements and even sometimes light.

The second thing is periodization and progressive overload principles. And this is also a very neglected aspect in the calisthenics world. If you are someone that wants to apply the progressive overload principle in calisthenics which happens simply by adding more weight to your movements you need to know how to periodize your training. You have
to know when to go heavy and when to go light and consider the recovery aspect. There are lots of periodization methods that you can learn about and program according to them. The progressive overload principle will allow you to get stronger because you will have access to the stimulus needed for strength, but won’t work unless its periodized properly.

Bodyweight training is not just high reps and endurance, it can also be a great style to achieve strength. In a proper calisthenics program we need to add weighted calisthenics and periodize it right to reach full potential.

The third and the final point is the training split. When it comes to programming, the training split plays a crucial role, because its the outline that we draw to fit in all the things I mentioned from manipulating volume and frequency, to periodization and recovery. If you can only be in the gym for three days you shouldn’t be splitting your routines based on someone who can train 5-7 days a week, and vice versa. You need to split your routines properly, and according to your goals. Try to spread the work
evenly, don’t neglect static work and don’t over work endurance and strength, find a split that can include all of your focuses and goals accordingly with consideration to recovery and what days you need to go light or rest. As I mentioned earlier in the first point when it comes to body-weight training frequency can be manipulated because the CNS taxation is not high, we have the room to add more frequency to our program. So things like the bro split is not something you want to do if you do calisthenics. You can’t be training the muscle once a week. You have to train it more than that if you want to reach your full potential.

In summary to really stop plateauing and to truly reach your performance and aesthetic potential while only doing calisthenics, consider adding more volume because your body can handle it, add the progressive overload principle and periodize it to get stronger, and split your training days smart with moderate to high frequency.

I hope you got a little insight on how you should program your training if you do calisthenics and I hope that these tips helped. My goal is nothing but to educate people more about body-weight training and how to use it to achieve great results.

‍