Why Calisthenics Will Get You Ripped Faster

Posted on January 28 2019

Why Calisthenics Will Get You Ripped Faster

Some of the most common questions received about Calisthenics include; “will I lose fat using this training style? If so, how?”. A lot of people also ask; “how come people who do calisthenics are usually more on the leaner side?”. I'm going to try to explain the best way I can on how calisthenics gets you ripped faster in comparison to weightlifting.

Of course, your diet is going to play a huge role when it comes to staying ripped and getting ripped. However, I have noticed a few things with calisthenics that I didn't see back when I was weightlifting a long time ago.

*Quick story time* Back when I was weight lifting, I would always have these two- my two upper abs, but I could never get my bottom abs to show. Now, if you follow me on social media, you can see that they're there! Truthfully, I really didn't get my full ab set until I started doing calisthenics. So what made calisthenics finally let me lose that last percentage of body fat? Here are some of my conclusions. First off, when you're doing calisthenics you simply burn more calories than you would if you were weightlifting. So let's compare a bench press with explosive pushups and muscle ups. With a lat pulldown, like in your workouts, you're going to be burning a higher percentage of calories. With that being said, if you burn more calories, then eventually over time you will notice more weight loss.

How do I know this is true? It’s because I've never used the sweat during my workouts back when I would do weightlifting workouts or any type of gym workout unless I'm squatting. But when I started doing calisthenics, whether it'd be lower body or upper body, I always noticed that I was sweating, I was tired and my heart rate shot up. Actually, I believe this is what led to me losing a higher percentage of body fat. Let me also mention that calisthenics exercises usually all involve multiple muscle groups; also known as compound exercises.

With weightlifting, usually, a lot of people target certain muscles but in calisthenics, you can't do that. So I think that contributes to why we burn more calories when we do calisthenics exercises in comparison to weightlifting, such as bicep curls, lat pull downs, and tricep extensions.

I believe calisthenics will get you ripped because in order to be good at calisthenics and be efficient at it; being over 10 percent body fat is really going to limit you in regards to your skills and actually progressing in calisthenics. Don't get me wrong! You can be overweight and start calisthenics and work your way up, but if you're trying to bulk with calisthenics, that is possible, however, don't expect to see any major strength gains. It's almost like the body knows that you're doing bodyweight training & that you can't gain too much weight. That's why you usually stay the same weight or you lose it.

So to answer your question, will calisthenics get you ripped? Short answer, YES. As I said, it is all according to your diet. However, if you compare weightlifting to calisthenics, you pretty much have a better chance of getting ripped.

1 comment

  • Jørgen: February 08, 2019

    I have been overweight nearly all my life. Until I turned 14 I didn’t work out at all, and I ate anything. But then I came across your vids (about 1 year ago). It motivated me to start training and dieting, and I have not stopped since. Love your vids dude, keep it up!

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