An age-old question asked by many is whether weightlifting is better than bodyweight training. Each has its benefits but to conclude this debate once and for all. Weight lifting is better than calisthenics when trying to increase muscle size quickly. Calisthenics is better than weight lifting when trying to increase overall body strength.
What Are Calisthenics?
Calisthenics is a type of strength training that uses only your body weight as resistance and gravity to strengthen your muscles. This kind of training is commonly referred to as bodyweight training and is constantly compared with weight lifting.
How Are Muscles Built?
your body repairs or replaces damaged muscle fibers through a cellular process where muscle fibers are fused to form new muscle protein strands or myofibrils. The repaired myofibrils increase in thickness and number to create muscle hypertrophy (growth), as perfectly explained by BuiltLean. Learn more on building muscle here.
Can You Build Muscle With Calisthenics?
Calisthenics is amazing for building functional muscle, although it does have a limit to how big you can get. The solution to this would be to move on to weight lifting.
Tips For Muscle Building With Calisthenics
Before you go on to weightlifting, you need to make sure you've gotten all you can get out of calisthenics. Here are some tips, to ensure that you have milked calisthenics to the very last drop.
Give Yourself Challenges
Throughout your journey with calisthenics, a common mistake many people make is keeping their set and rep ranges constant and never changing them up. When your muscles do not experience challenges, they do not grow. It would be in your best interest to keep your workouts fresh. Learn how here.
Master The Form
Another common mistake many tend to make is not focusing on the form. People increase their reps and sets but don't give any attention to their form. Down the line, they will experience an injury or no hypertrophy. The mastering form allows the muscle to experience the most possible resistance, which results in growth.
Switch It Up
Just like changing your set and rep range, it is equally important to switch up which variations of exercises you do. Constantly doing a specific set of exercises will strengthen only those muscle groups. Some muscles will be left out and result in you having weaknesses. Make sure you switch up your exercises to strengthen every muscle group.
When Can I See The Results?
It is believed that you will start seeing results in 4 weeks. Of course, different factors play into this but use 4 weeks as a general target.
Advantages of Calisthenics
You Don't Need Equipment
Seeing as calisthenics is mostly dependent on the weight of your body, no weights are needed. You have the option to use weights for more difficulty, but it is by no means necessary. If you're not in a good financial situation, this may be the kind of training for you.
It Can Be Done Anywhere
At any time. This is one of the best advantages of calisthenics. The freedom to do it anywhere sounds like a dream to those who travel a lot. Doing it at any time is also amazing, being able to work out immediately after waking up or right before sounds unreal to busy folk.
Maximum Exercise Efficiency
This means that you can accomplish a lot in little time with calisthenics. Unlike weight training where you need to use one piece of equipment after the next, with calisthenics you can quickly go from one exercise to the next.
Disadvantages of Calisthenics
Small Muscle Groups
it is believed that one cannot train small muscle groups efficiently with calisthenics. This can be a make or break for those who intend to leave no stone unturned.
Lack of Muscular Gain
It isn't the best way to go if muscle gain is what you're looking for because it requires more calories to be burnt. So it's a good way to get endurance and a general physique, but not that good for strength and muscle gain.
It's not easy
Due to this, many people give up within the first 2 months of calisthenics training. If you intend on doing calisthenics, do it with enough motivation to not quit.
Takeaway
Calisthenics and weight training are two different training methods. Weight training is better for muscle gain and Calisthenics for overall body strength. It's safe to say that calisthenics is easier to access. Weight training targets every muscle group. So which is better?
"I Guess We'll Never Know"
- Kanye West
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