Full Body Home Workout

I have written this post because I want to share with all of you the workout that I am recommending the most lately. It is designed for beginners who want to start working out at home with the minimum equipment necessary, although it is very similar to the one I would recommend to someone who starts going to the gym but with some exercise modifications.

The problem with most home workouts

To maximise success in creating a new habit it should be as simple and feasible as possible but not more. In our case, which is creating the habit of training and strengthening our bodies, we don’t want to sacrifice results, balance or health for convenience or comfort. This implies we are going to train the full body in order to avoid imbalances, including the back, which means we will have to incorporate an upper body pull into the routine. I am specifically talking about this because most home workouts are done without any equipment and almost always fail to include pulling exercises, which creates muscle imbalances.

This problem can be easily solved by buying an adjustable dumbbell for one arm dumbbell rows or a suspension trainer that can be secured to the door in order to perform australian pull ups (APU). Note that though this may be good enough to start training, in this last case you will only be able to progress to a point since the door limits how much you can move your feet forward, which is the main way to progress in APU besides switching to one arm APU. When possible, what I recommend is finding a place to hang the suspension trainer, preferably gymnastic rings, near your place if not at home. Read this post to get some ideas about where to hang your suspension trainer or rings from.

Now that we have already solved this issue, let’s start talking about creating the habit to work out and the actual routine you’ll be doing.

Strength & Mass for Athletes

Every time I walk into the weight room in my school, I meet a lot of good friends from my rugby team. They like going to the gym, they train together, don’t miss a workout, and are committed. They want to get big, strong, and look good! And why not, if this also helps them in the field, even better.

But, because of the way I am, I can’t help but notice that they are doing some exercises that fuck their shoulders, like bench pressing bodybuilding style with weights they can’t control and doing forced reps. Then they tell me that their shoulder hurts, and it doesn’t surprise me at all.

Other things they do is super wide pull ups, which apart of not being the best thing you can do for your shoulders, especially when you play rugby and use them to tackle day in and day out, don’t allow them to pass their chin over the bar, or load themselves with any significant weight. When I ask them why they do it this way, they’ll tell me it is because “it hits the back”. Doesn’t regular pull ups hit the back, on top of having a much larger ROM (Range Of Motion)? I can tell you that when I do heavy chin ups, the next day my lats are sore as hell.

Of course, as any beginner, they’ll squat bringing their knee forward and putting them at risk of injury, and doing quarter reps. Actually, they do half reps in every exercise they do, because to start, their hand placement or hip/knee break isn’t correct.

But because I love these guys, I want them to succeed, and to avoid wasting years of training, effort, and getting injured on the way. That’s the reason why I promised them to make a routine to help them get big, strong, get a nice looking body, and avoid getting injured in the process.

I recommend this routine to any beginner. It is a classic A/B, training 3 times a week the whole body, with lots of basic compound exercises, progressive overload being the focus, and also with some curls at the end of the workouts, optional of course, just to make them happy.

Calisthenic Beginner Routine

Many people want to start training with their own bodyweight, because they wanna try something new, or because they have no time to go to the gym. But the problem is that they don't know how to start. That's why I'm going to share with you a good routine you can follow, based on the most basic exercises for beginners, i.e., squats, Australian pull ups, push ups and leg raises, and how you can adapt it to your goals and life.

Bodyweight Routine for Beginners

1A) Australian Pull Ups 2-5 x 20

1B) Push Ups 2-5 x 20

1C) Bodyweight Squats 2-5 x 20

2) Leg Raises 1-2 x 15

Calisthenics, why use them & beginner routine

            Calisthenics are the exercises, or movements, done without any external load, using our own bodyweight as the only resistance. The most known are the classic push ups, pull ups, squats and crunches.

            The word Calisthenics comes from the ancient Greek kallos, which means beauty, and sthénos meaning strength. It is the art of using your own body weight and qualities of inertia as a means to develop your physique.

            The legend tells that in a horribly cold day the god Kallisto decided to wrestle hand to hand with his friend the god Yemo (not sure if this is his name in English) to get warmed up. The thing is Yemo hated secretly Kallisto, so they begun a fight to death. Kallisto, horrified and about to die because Yemo was very strong, asked for help to the demigod Heracles. This one did not ignore his pleas and gave him the skill to move his muscles harmoniously so he could defend himself with grace. The legend ends with Yemo sent into exile to the barbarian islands.

           

           

            Talking about Greeks, how do you think that the Spartans became so strong and feared? It was clearly by the continuous and intense practice of calisthenics.