25 Best Exercises to Master Calisthenics

This is one of the 25 best exercises that you should do to master calisthenics.

And in this video, we'll share every single one of them,

including the best ways to achieve each of the 25 moves

based on over ten years of training experience.

So after watching this video, you know what exercises you should do

at your current level and when to move on to the next progression.

All right.

We'll start with the ultra

beginner exercises, also known as the Calisthenics Basics.

The first one is the bodyweight row.

One of the basics that everyone starting calisthenics should master.

This horizontal pulling exercise develops the back and the biceps.

And for those who can't do a chin up or a pull up yet,

this is a must do exercise to build a good pulling foundation.

But what's the most important thing

a beginner should know when starting this exercise?

Well, to get the most out of this exercise, you should always

first engage your scapula muscles before initiating the pulling movement.

So complete beginners can start with the standing row as an easier variation

by performing the movement in a more upright position.

And if the regular row is too easy,

you can challenge yourself by doing elevated Australian ups.

The goal for each progression is 15 clean, just to bar reps.

All right. The next one is the bodyweight squat.

Of course, you should never skip your legs,

but a lot of people don't train their legs right.

Well a lot of them don't.

But your legs are half the size of your body, which can’t be neglected.

So the bodyweight squat is the fundamental lower body exercise.

Every beginner should master.

Although most people can perform a bodyweight squat without practice,

doing a lot of reps or throwing in

some holds can still be challenging and leaves your muscles very sore.

For beginners watching, if you struggle with the bodyweight squat,

you can do a assisted squat where you hold on to a stable support

or use resistance bands to help you with balance and stability.

If you can do 15 bodyweight squats, you can challenge yourself

by doing deep squats,

which already prepares you for a pistol squat

in a later stage of your calisthenics journey.

We can't miss out on the pushup.

It is the classic bodyweight exercise

that strengthens the chest, the shoulders, the triceps, and the core.

Although this is a very important horizontal pushing exercise, I won't say

it's the most important basic push exercise to master calisthenics.

All right, but which one is then?

That's another one that I will dive into soon.

So every beginner into calisthenics should master good form pushups first,

meaning a straight body and full range of motion.

Not these! Ultra beginners can start with knee pushups,

and once you've reached 15

regular pushups, you should not simply add weights on your back to make it harder,

but increase the range of motion by doing deep push ups.

This is much more effective for unlocking more advanced exercises in a later stage.

Now that we have the first exercises covered, let me highlight

a special equipment giveaway that we will do somewhere in this video.

So make sure to keep watching to make it chance of winning this epic prize.

All right, are you ready to get a six pack?

The leg race is one of the most fundamental core exercises

in calisthenics.

Next to strengthening the core and targeting the lower,

you will also train your grip strength, which is key in calisthenics.

One key tip with this exercise is to control the movement on the way

down, making sure you always have eyes on your toes.

This prevents you from swaying all over the place like Crossfitters

doing their leg raises,

but complete beginners usually cannot hang on the bar for too long, right?

True.

That's why they can start with knee raises using parallel bars or leg

raises on the floor.

With this exercise, always aim for ten controlled reps before

attempting the next progression, which is the toe to bar.

This requires

some core compression strength which you will soon learn with the L-sit.

Now that we have covered the ultra beginner exercises from the first phase,

let's move on to the second phase, which are the beginner exercises

but also stay tuned for the final stage which showcases epic skills.

Let's make the basics a little bit harder.

Introducing the parallel bar dip a compound upper body exercise

that strengthens and grows the triceps, the chest, and the shoulders.

But most beginners that start can’t do bodyweight dips, right?

Yeah, I know it can be a struggle to learn them, but although you might

already have the strength, it's often performed incorrectly.

So therefore we always recommend starting with band assisted

dips to learn the proper technique and to improve mind muscle connection.

So once you feel comfortable with bands and can do about ten

good reps, you can move on to bodyweight dips.

And from our experience, you can never train the basics enough.

So once you can do about 15 parallel bar dips, start incorporating weighted dips,

which will significantly increase your relative strength

and make your bodyweight feel like featherweight.

Next are the chin ups.

These are your gateway to your first stage of vertical pulling.

Wait for our beginners watching.

What is vertical pooling?

Well, it's when you pull yourself up in a straight line like this.

They gap the bridge between bodyweight rows and pull ups.

Okay, so chin ups are easier than pull ups. Yes.

That's because the underhand grip position engages the biceps more

and allows for stronger contraction, making it easier to lift your body up.

So when learning your first chin up,

you should use bends in order to learn the right technique

and the negatives to get used to holding your own bodyweight.

Once mastered your first chin up, work up to ten reps.

Always make sure your chin clears the bar

with each rep and fully extend your arms on the way down.

Once you reach a ten rep mark, you can start with weighted chin ups.

Do you want to get the strongest core in the room?

Then start doing the hollow body hold.

This core exercise was a game changer for us.

It emphasizes full body tension and teaches you to right core

activation for almost all calisthenics skills such as the handstand,

the backlever, and the frontlever which we will dive in really soon.

But you know,

this exercise is done wrong so many times, so what cue should beginners remember?

Well, you should always keep your lower back in contact with the floor.

So when you notice that you arch your lower back,

you should start with the tucked

hollow body hold and slowly progress by extending 1 or 2 legs.

So with each progression, work up to a 60 second hold.

And do you want to bring your core strength to the next level.

Then start using ankle weights.

Let's make it really strong.

The so-called skin the cat is a valuable exercise every beginner should master.

It improves shoulder mobility, strength, and flexibility.

It engages the core a lot and develops grip strength and coordination.

Okay, but why is this cat named exercises so important?

Because this exercise is a must in calisthenics, as it is a

foundational movement for advanced skills like frontlevers, first and backlevers.

We know that it can be quite uncomfortable to start with this move,

so you can always start on a lower bar and do half skin the cats,

once you get more comfortable, progress to a higher bar, and do full rotations.

At first, you can bend your arms to get yourself up and finally try

to do this move with completely straight arms and zero swinging.

Aiming for full body control.

The pull up can’t be missed.

Out on this list is the classic upper body exercise that targets the back,

the biceps, and the shoulders and ultimately is the foundation

for all pulling movements in calisthenics.

A common question should a beginner use bands?

Yes for sure.

So for learning the right technique, you should actually already learn to chin up.

At this stage, we encourage you to mainly work with your own bodyweight.

So master the scapula, pull up the negative pull ups and train

the regular pull up

work up to 12

reps minimum to get yourself ready for the next stage in calisthenics.

But before moving on to the next stage, did you know that in our calisthenics app,

we have incorporated all these exercises with its individual progressions?

In our app, you can also find over 50 different workout plans

for all training levels and various goals.

And the best part?

You can start for free from an ultra beginner level, so click the link

in the description to download the app in the Google Play or App Store right now.

All right, now that we've covered the fundamentals and phase one and two,

let's make things a bit more exciting.

In the intermediate phase, we'll start with the straight bar dip.

This is a variation of the regular dip performed on a straight bar.

It mainly works the shoulders and triceps, and is an important exercise to master.

And this exercise also the second half of the muscle up right?

Yes, exactly.

It is THE foundational

move for this iconic exercise, which we will get into later.

When learning this exercise, you can do straight bar jumps using your legs

as an assistance.

Furthermore, you can do assisted straight bar dips with a resistance band.

Your goal is to progress through various bands for eight reps

until you can perform them, which are bodyweight only when you master

this exercise, you can even add weights, which is a go to progression

for people trying to unlock and improve the muscle up.

Here we are.

We finally come to the most fundamental push exercise in calisthenics

the Pike push up.

This exercise is essential for moves such as the wall handstand push up

and ultimately the handstand push up, which we will cover later in this video.

And this exercise is an overhead push movement.

Wait. What? Overhead?

Yeah.

So you push overhead just like with the shoulder press.

But then with your own bodyweight, it's probably the most important

exercise to having a program to strengthen your shoulders.

And since we've seen that this exercise can already be a challenge for beginners,

you can start with half pike pushups or negative pike pushups, and from there,

work your way up to the regular pike pushup progressions include the elevated

pike pushup and the pike push up so you can increase the intensity

by using a higher elevation or performing them deeper, or even both.

So aim for ten reps on each progression to move on to the next one,

which is the frog stand.

This is an extremely important exercise to master before you try to learn

any other balancing requiring exercise, such as the handstand,

which isn't hard to learn more about a handstand in a bit.

The frog stand improves balance and wrist strength,

and even works the same muscle groups as the handstand itself.

That's why we're telling all of our members

to practice this exercise at an early stage.

But one thing that I've noticed is that a lot of people

get pain in the wrist when trying this exercise.

Yes, correct.

That's why you can start with frog stand taps to get your wrist used to this move.

Why don't you feel comfortable?

You can try to balance unassisted, and if you can hold it

for 45 seconds, you can progress to the advanced frog.

Stand where your knees are on your elbows and your hips are in a higher position.

Next up is the wall handstand push up.

This is probably the exercise that we’ve practice the most out

of all exercises after mastering the pike pushup.

Since we both have the ultimate goal, the free standing handstand push up.

the wall handstand pushup is so important since it's the first progression

that enables you to push your complete bodyweight,

which is a hard requirement for the free standing

handstand push up, so when first starting with this exercise, you should do

back to wall handstand push ups and do a partial range of motion.

And the next step is to do a full range of motions.

And where you can do six reps of the wall handstand push ups,

you should move on to belly to wall handstand push ups using the same progressions.

Next is the L-sit, the L-sit

is a crucial move to unlock during your calisthenics journey.

No, not just because it looks cool.

It also works on key areas that you will thank yourself later for.

The first area is isometric core strength,

which is necessary for all static calisthenics skills.

Wait, let's explain the static calisthenics skills a little bit better.

For all the beginners watching. Yes, certainly.

Static skills are also known as holds because you try to hold a certain

position.

For example, the dragon flag, the human flag, or the frontlever,

which we will all discuss later in this video.

The second work area with the l-sit

is scapular depression strength which will work all the downward pushing

movements ranging from dips to the mighty planche.

To get started with the L-sit as a beginner you can perform them

with tuck knees or with alternating straight legs, for each progression

aim for a 20 second hold.

Once you master the l-sit holds

you can even practice for the v-sit.

Number 15 is the pistol squat.

This is an exercise that everyone should have on their goal list

after mastering the regular squat.

So besides that, it's an impressive move to unlock.

It has many benefits because it's a unilateral way of leg training,

which enables you to increase your training load by two.

But wait, why is it called a pistol squat?

Well, because you look like a pistol when performing the move.

A so furthermore, it improves balance,

coordination, hip and ankle mobility, and overall leg flexibility.

So to get started with this move, as a beginner

we tell people to start with bar assisted pistol squats,

then band assistant pistol squats, then elevated pistol squat.

And once you can do eight reps of each progression,

you can ultimately move on to the full bodyweight pistol squat.

And once mastered these, you can even challenge yourself

by doing weighted or balancing pistol squats.

Next up is the handstand.

You might be surprised that this skill is in the intermediate class,

but it's actually pretty doable to learn for everyone

since it doesn't require much strength, only frequent practice.

Me and my brother,

we learned this

skill in about three weeks, by practicing every day for 20 minutes.

Do you remember?

Yeah I do, my wrist still hurt, but it was all worth it.

Definitely.

So when starting this exercise, we would recommend achieving a 30 second wall

handstand first, and from there start practicing free standing only first.

You want to practice falling over comfortably and once that's no big deal

anymore, it's just a matter of consistency and time until you've mastered

the handstand, progressions for the handstand are high bar handstands

or even one arm handstand.

Next, the explosive pull up is the first vertical pulling exercise

that you want to practice after mastering the regular pull up,

and the goal of this exercise is to increase explosive strength,

which is the number one requirement to achieve the muscle up. Wait,

but this exercise is often confused with high pullups, right?

Yes.

So with the explosive pull up, the aim is to pull up as fast

as you can, whereas with the high pull up, the goal is to pull yourself up

as high as you can, for example, chest to bar or even hips to bar.

Anyway, the higher and faster you can pull up, the easier the muscle up will be.

So to start with the explosive pull up, we recommend using a resistance band

first to master the technique since it's pretty different from the regular pull up.

So once you can do five reps with each band.

You can practice it with bodyweight only, and your focus on this

exercise is not more reps, but faster and eventually higher reps.

So to progress further, you can practice this exercise even with weights.

All right, now it's time to get serious.

Let's dive into the exercises from the advanced phase.

Next up is the backlever, for me and my brother,

this was the first skill that we unlocked on a static bar.

Yeah, but also the most comfortable one.

I really hated this exercise.

Yeah, it's true, but we see the same with all the people that we have trained.

It's just the easiest one to unlock first.

Yeah, it's a skill that requires straight

arm strength, a strong core, especially the lower back and good shoulder mobility.

So when first starting with this exercise, you should practice the tucked backlever

for up to a 20 second hold together with tucked backlever raises

to strengthen your shoulders.

Next, you should do the same for the advanced tucked back left for

and when progressing through the single leg, the straddle and the full

backlever, you should practice holds together with pulses and negatives

for each progression.

You want to aim for a ten second hold before moving on to the next one.

The pseudo pushup

is a variation of the regular pushup, also known as the forward lean push up.

Since the goal with

this exercise is to keep your hands at waist height instead of chest height

So this exercise of one of the best exercises to increase waistline

pushing strength, which is required for the 90 degree handstand pushups

and even the planche, which we'll dive into in a few moments.

Yes, I have done this exercise a thousand times before

unlocking a 90 degree handstand push up.

Getting started with this exercise is simple.

You just start with the push up and then lean forward

for a fixed amount of distance at each progression.

We always use a simple measuring tape for this.

The goal would be to do

six reps at each progression until your hands are at your waistline,

and you can even make this exercise harder by doing assisted planche push ups.

Having your feet off the floor.

Number 20.

We have mentioned this exercise quite a lot already.

The muscle up, this is probably the most iconic advanced calisthenics exercise.

By now, you should know that mastering straight

bar dips and explosive pullups are required to unlock this skill.

But that's not all.

It also requires quite a bit of technique.

When starting to learn this move,

you should practice the swing first to gain momentum.

An excellent exercise for this are the tucked pulls.

Once you get this down, you can start practicing the muscle up

with a resistance band aiming for five reps at each band.

Beside assist muscle ups, you should also do negative muscle ups and jumping muscle

ups to gain specific muscle up strength using your own body weight.

Once you've mastered the muscle up, you can progress to ring muscle ups,

straight muscle ups, or even weighted muscle ups.

We've come to the Dragon Flag, an exercise that you've probably seen

some crazy athletes do.

It requires a lot of core strength, but also pull strength.

And once you've reached an advanced level in calisthenics, this exercise

should probably never disappear from your workout plan.

Since it has incredible

benefits for all static skills such as the human flag and the frontlever.

Well, that kind of makes sense, right?

Because they look similar, don't they? Yeah. Very true.

So as a beginner, you can start practicing this into an accessible way,

starting with the half

a dragon flag with half range of motion until you can do the full range of motion.

The same goes for the one leg dragon flag.

And when mastering a progression for six reps,

you can move on to the next one until you can do six full Dragon flags.

But it doesn't stop there.

You can even attempt the single arm Dragon flags.

How impressive is that?

That's crazy man.

All right, guys, things are getting real now.

Less than 1% of all people get to this final stage.

Let's explore the pro exercises.

The next exercise is one that we've also mentioned a lot.

Once you've mastered the wall handstand push up and the free standing

handstand, you are totally ready to tackle the free standing handstand pushup,

which is a skill that screams calisthenics mastery.

Okay, but here's a question that I get a lot.

How long should one be able to do a handstand to start practicing handstand push up?

Yes. So what I would recommend is when you can do a 30 second handstand,

you can start practicing this move by doing small handstand

push up pulses, aiming for about six reps at the same time.

You want to get used to the full range

of motion of the handstand push up by doing negative handstand push ups.

So once

You can do the negative more and more controlled.

You can make the pulses look more into small repetitions

until you've achieved a handstand push up with elbows bent to 90 degrees.

Further progressions

are deep handstand pushups and even a 90 degree handstand pushup/

Did we already mention

that the handstand and handstand pushups are easier to learn on parallettes?

That's how we both learned it at first.

So to help you out to mastering them,

we're going to give away one pair to one of you guys.

So follow the steps below to enter and we will announce the winner

in the next video.

So this is the winner of the last video.

Congrats!

The human flag is a jaw dropping exercise that for many people

looks truly impossible.

Meanwhile, is actually pretty doable to learn once

you've built up to good basic strength and know the right steps to take.

What makes this exercise unique is that it's both a pushing and pulling movement,

forcing all your upper body muscles to work.

Okay, but how on earth should one start with this move?

Well, the best way to get started with this skill on a foundational

level is by doing human flag side planks, building up your core

strength and good shoulder mobility.

Next up you should do the vertical flag down hold

and hanging flag presses to get your body used to the pushing and pulling movement.

One key exercise to master before attempting the various

progressions is the vertical flag up hold.

Do this by climbing up the ladder and hold your body vertically up.

From here you can progress through the tucked, the one leg,

the straddle, and ultimately the full human flag.

The frontlever is a brutal display of pulling strength, and it's a must skill

you need to have in your pocket when mastering calisthenics.

However, looks don't justify the strength required for this skill,

although it may not seem as impressive as, for example, the human flag,

it's a lot harder.

Yes, and guys, don't overtrain this one, otherwise you'll get yourself injured.

So first make sure you're ready for it.

Yes, we both definitely got our lesson learned there.

So for our beginners watching

they can start out with the tucked frontlever holds and band assisted holds

to build straight arm pulling strength and for learning the right technique.

Ultimately, the exercise that we're most effective for us

to really increase strength for the front lever

where the tucked and advanced tucked frontlever raises

dragon flag bottom holds and simply heavy weighted pull ups.

Because guys, if you become so damn strong in the basics, it's

only a matter of technique and specific strength training to get this skill down.

All right guys, are you ready for the final exercise?

Finally, it's time for the Mighty Planche!

This exercise is,

for most people, the dream goal in the world of calisthenics.

Achieving the planche showcases extraordinary power and the complete

mastery of one's own bodyweight, earning respect among most calisthenics athletes.

Even we only have come as far as the straddle planche, as it requires

years of specific dedication, especially with a relatively higher body weight.

So how much do you weigh?

82 kgs, which is about 180 pounds.

Well, that goes to show, calisthenics isn't only for small guys, right?

Well, that goes to show, calisthenics isn't only for small guys, right?

Well, that goes to show, calisthenics isn't only for small guys, right?

Yeah, I suppose so.

Anyway, beginners dreaming of the planche should start

with tucked holds, followed by the l-sit and tucked blanches.

Focus on pressing the floor away as you protract and depress your scapula,

creating that rounded turtle upper back to build up your straight arm

pushing strength.

You should do band assisted presses and planche leans.

Progress by doing advanced

tucked blanches, single leg

planches, straddle planches and ultimately the full planche.

So these were the 25 exercises that you should do to master calisthenics.

And don't forget to download our calisthenics app to start your journey for free

by following our workout plans available for all goals and levels,

click the first link in the description or search for calisthenics family

in the app Stores.

Start the journey, join the family and subscribe.

Peace out guys!