In my last post I shared my views on exercise vs diet. I learned the hard way that diet is key and exercise is the perfect compliment. Anyway I mentioned that my current workout routines are based upon beginner level full body calisthenic exercises. I love it because I can do it anywhere, anytime and its free. The other cool thing is that there are progressive variations of exercises to increase the difficulty and variation of the workouts.

The following Youtube video is one of the many videos that inspired me to do calisthenics but I have to say I’m no where near this guy in regards to progress, this dude’s killing it and he was 60 years old when this was filmed:

Up to this point I’ve talked a lot about my keto journey so I thought I’d share my current exercise routines. At the moment I’ve streamlined it to a 45 minute routine, 3 days a week, with rest days in between. The rest days are to allow the body to recuperate and muscles to rebuild. In between my workout days I try to play basketball for cardio or when I can fit in a yoga session. Yoga is great for refreshing your body and improving flexibility.

Remember, I’m not a doctor or a personal trainer, so if you have any medical conditions and are considering taking up a new exercise program always check with your doctor before you start.

Equipment

If you’re fortunate to live near a public park with exercise equipment you are in luck. They normally always have pull up bars, dip bars, push up/sit up benches and monkey bars all the equipment you need to do calisthenics.

If you aren’t lucky enough to live near an exercise park, the following is a list of the equipment that I use:

• Pull up bar – Need this to do pull ups, chin ups, hanging leg raise exercises. This is a must have, so if you have a pull up bar or a power rack you are in luck. If you don’t, if you got a door you got a gym lol! So my first pull up bar was a door chin up bar from K Mart for $12. Currently I’m using a beam under the house.
• Yoga/exercise mat – Good for doing floor based exercises on and can be picked up at around $10-$20.
• Adjustable barbell/squat stands or Parallel bars – Need for dips, pike knee raises and pike dips. I got a second hand pair of adjustable barbell/squat stands for $75 off Gum Tree. Or you can pick up parallel bars from Kmart for $35.
• Ab wheel – To hammer yourself doing ab wheel rollouts. Kmart sell them for $10.
• Steps – Any steps will do so you can do calf raises on the balls of your feet.
• Bench or chair – To do chair dips on.
• Gloves – If you don’t want calluses on the palms of your hands get some gloves . I’ve used Kmart weight gloves at $5 a pair. They fall apart after a few months but thankfully they’re cheap.

That’s pretty much all the equipment I use. However, once the exercises become easier to punch out I will probably step it up by adding a weighted vest for more resistance.

Exercise Routine

Before I go through my routine I just want to note that with calisthenics the focus is on good form. Good form will provide the right results. That also means no kipping or using momentum to do exercises. Focusing on form will ensure the optimal execution. Even now my form is no where near expert level but I try my best to ensure my form is the best I can do. Also when I first started I struggled with certain exercises. When I started I could barely do a single pull up but over time I got better and the reps increased. So it took time and practise until it felt like I was progressing.

My routines are based on full body exercises where I target and alternate between arms, legs and core exercises. This allows for body areas to rest after each exercise and move to the next target area. This also allows me to substitute exercises for those areas at any time, to allow for progression and variety. For example, if pull ups become too easy I could change it up to around the world pull ups to provide more of a challenge.

To review my progress I keep a record of my reps in Google Sheets. This is a great way to keep track of your progress and change the routine if necessary for a greater challenge.

So here is my current beginners full body workout routine:

Monday

Two rounds with each exercise performed to maximum reps or exhaustion. Rest in between each exercise ready to give it 100% on the next one.

• Warm up
• Pull ups
• Assisted pistol squats
• Dips
• Scissors
• Regular push ups – 2nd set on incline
• Calf raises
• Chin ups
• Pike dip

Wednesday

Two rounds with each exercise performed to maximum reps or exhaustion. Rest in between each exercise ready to give it 100% on the next one.

• Warm up
• Pull ups
• Lunges
• Tricep extension push up
• Elbow to knee crunch
• Diamond push ups
• Calf raises
• Chin ups
• Hanging pike

Friday

Two rounds with each exercise performed to maximum reps or exhaustion. Rest in between each exercise ready to give it 100% on the next one.

• Warm up
• Pull ups
• Squats
• Chair dips
• Parallel bars Knee raises – left, middle, right
• Archer push ups
• Calf raises
• Chin ups
• Ab wheel roll out

Saturday

I mentioned I try to play basketball for cardio in between workout days. However, Saturday afternoon is usually the routine to play basketball at our local court at Shand Street. Shand Street is one of the few outdoor basketball courts in Brisbane with night lights all year round. Shout out to all the boys who rock up at Shand street for some fun pick up games!

That’s pretty much it. As I mentioned earlier, this is a beginner style body weight exercise routine. When I feel the routines become easier to do, I can progress the exercise by changing the exercise to more challenging variations or add more resistance through a weight vest.

My Favourite Sources for Calisthenic Exercises and Tips

My exercise routines were put together based upon researching some really awesome sources from Youtube. The Youtube videos I came across provided some excellent advice and resources to help me build my program but also help to perform those exercises correctly. I have to add that all of them have their own workout programs but cost money to subscribe to. I haven’t subscribed to any of their paid programs but I do watch a lot of their Youtube content.

Anyway the following are links to some of my favourite Youtube and internet sources for calisthenics:

• Fitness FAQs – He’s an Australian and has been tracking his calisthenics progress on Youtube for a long time. He puts together a broad range of exercise videos with great advice.
• Calisthenic Movement – A duo from Germany who are awesome at what they do and put together an excellent range of Youtube videos that really focus on technique.
• Barstarzz – American based group on Youtube which features a huge variety of tips and routines from a number of experts from a exercise parks around America.
• ThenX – Run by Chris Heria in Miami, this guy has been on the scene for some time. Pretty slick production on Youtube videos and a body weight workout beast.
• School of Calisthenics – Keeping it global this duo are from London. Again they have plenty of how-to videos on Youtube to help perform calisthenic exercises.
• MadBarz – When I Googled calisthenic exercises a lot of results were MadBarz exercise routine images. My first routine was their home full body routine. I’m not sure if the images I came across were legally posted but they have plenty of routines out on the internet.

These are some more calisthenic videos I enjoyed and motivated me to push on:

In Summary

Before you say it, I know I am nowhere near these guys in relation to progress or physique but nonetheless they are pretty impressive at how they go about their calisthenic workouts. These guys have been doing it for years and train a lot harder to get where they are at. I only do what I can do with the time that I have available and try to improve through progression.

I enjoy calisthenics because it suits me for time management, flexibility to do it anywhere and anytime and its practically free to do. However, as I said in my last post everyone is different and calisthenics might not be for you, and that is totally fine. This post isn’t to convince you to do calisthenics but merely show you what I chose to do for my exercise routine. So as I’ve said earlier, find an exercise routine that you enjoy and can maintain. Whether that be tennis, swimming, walking your dog, judo, badminton, bike riding, hiking, kayaking or even yoga. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you love doing it this will help motivate you to stick with the routine and enjoy it. So if you don’t want to exercise that’s your choice. If you do want to exercise go for it but do something you love doing!