Is calisthenics any good for hypertrophy or not?

Is calisthenics any good for hypertrophy or not? I'm only getting back into training, before I trained calisthenics for a year. In retrospect it feels like I got nowhere at all, didn't feel like my diet was bad since I gained 4-5kg (not counting water weight) which was quite nice. Not a lot of it became muscle though. Should I just bite the bullet and get a gym membership if I want lean mass? Or was I training like a moron for that whole year?

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  1. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    i've been lifting for 14 years and have no fricking idea what hypertrophy is

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      its a really big trophy

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      same except only 7 years, i dont put much thought into it, just do routine and eat healthy

  2. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Bodybuilding training works wether you use free weights or bodyweight. There are certain movements that are very hard to overload with only bodyweight, specifically the legs and posterior chain in general, but otherwise you can definetly build muscle using calisthenics--as long as you don't do some meme circuit workout and actually programme it like you would a proper routine with harder variations of movements to progress.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >as long as you don't do some meme circuit workout
      Tbh I ended up switching to doing full body 3 times a week about half way through my year long training because doing pic related felt way too easy. I'd walk away from "training" with a slightly elevated heartrate and that was it. At least with full body training, I'd be sweating and I'd give myself a tension headache.

      As for the progressions, CC is touted as the holy grail but I found the progression rep ranges to be fricking moronic. Especially considering if you're doing beginner exercises, its demanding you do 100 reps of something like horizontal pullups before moving on. I improved my own progression in pullups just by doing eccentrics, then moving into full pullups and filling out the final work set with more eccentrics. Helped me a ton more than if I'd followed what CC asked me to do, which was to stumble through 2 more whole progressions after horizontal pulls before finally doing full pullups.

      >Is calisthenics any good for hypertrophy or not?
      yes
      >didn't feel like my diet was bad since I gained 4-5kg (not counting water weight) which was quite nice. Not a lot of it became muscle though
      bro what the frick are you saying?
      your diet is good because you gained 10 pounds of fat with no muscle?
      >Should I just bite the bullet and get a gym membership if I want lean mass?
      yeah imo, i like calisthenics but i think theyre a lot more useful once you have some gym experience under your belt so you know what training hard actually means. [just because it was a sweaty workout and youre tired and maybe youre sore tomorrow does not mean you were necessarily training hard]
      >Or was I training like a moron for that whole year?
      for sure but every noob trains like a moron, you have to train like a moron to figure out how to train properly

      >your diet is good because you gained 10 pounds of fat with no muscle?
      lel, good in retrospect because I struggle with putting on weight. I've since lost it all, so now I'm back to where I was in bodycomp before I'd even begun training.

      >[just because it was a sweaty workout and youre tired and maybe youre sore tomorrow does not mean you were necessarily training hard]
      What actually counts as training hard then?

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        >What actually counts as training hard then?
        it's hard to put into words but once you start making some serious gains lifting and understanding how making gains works it's a lot easier to apply it to calisthenics

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Convict conditioning is not the holy grail, it's shit dude. Even the reddit bodyweight routine is better than that. Doing 100 reps of something is straight moronic, that's just building endurance and not strength. If you want to build strength through calisthenics you should be moving to more difficult progressions similar to these.
        beginner routine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOmYCf4RJDY
        advanced pushing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpQVoQfwLc

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        >Tbh I ended up switching to doing full body 3 times a week about half way through my year long training because doing pic related felt way too easy.

        That's because you were doing yoga you dummy except for the handstand push ups. That program fricking sucks. Download rings of power and download some olympic rings from the internet and you'll actually gain muscle.

        Legs can grow with plyometrics and isometrics. I've done it myself. But it's honestly not worth it. Plus extremely taxing to your knee structure. I'd get adjustable dumbbells or kettlebells and do unilateral shit plus isometrics.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        This may be the worst program I've ever seen.

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          manages to be completely outclassed by the meme one punch man routine

  3. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    >Is calisthenics any good for hypertrophy or not?
    yes
    >didn't feel like my diet was bad since I gained 4-5kg (not counting water weight) which was quite nice. Not a lot of it became muscle though
    bro what the frick are you saying?
    your diet is good because you gained 10 pounds of fat with no muscle?
    >Should I just bite the bullet and get a gym membership if I want lean mass?
    yeah imo, i like calisthenics but i think theyre a lot more useful once you have some gym experience under your belt so you know what training hard actually means. [just because it was a sweaty workout and youre tired and maybe youre sore tomorrow does not mean you were necessarily training hard]
    >Or was I training like a moron for that whole year?
    for sure but every noob trains like a moron, you have to train like a moron to figure out how to train properly

  4. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Yes calisthenics are good for hypertrophy but only if you add weight as you progress. Weighted dips, weighted pullups, etc

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      countless people with good physiques do unweighted calisthenics, you watch too much youtube fitness
      >hurr durr past 15 reps you no longer build size just endurance teehee

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Don't be silly anon. You can still make gains up to 30 reps or so but there comes a point where it won't do anything. It doesn't matter how much you curl air, you still won't grow until you get som actual stimulus.

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          >does pushups
          >becomes easy
          >starts doing decline pushups
          >becomes easy
          >starts doing archer pushups
          >becomes easy
          >starts doing one arm pushups
          >becomes easy
          Once you reach that point yeah you probably want to add weight but there's a long road to go.

          • 11 months ago
            Anonymous

            Yeah that's my point. Once you can do like 20 reps of pushups, you need a harder progression.

            • 11 months ago
              Anonymous

              are you moronic? have you ever done 100 push ups in a row even?

              do planche push ups if you want a real challenge you wont be able to.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Don't care, you're training endurance not hypertrophy.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                >Black person thinks 100 pushups is cardio
                Hypertrophy can be achieved with rep ranges much higher than 20. Do you know how big of a pump you get doing 50+ pushups?
                >Inb4 pumps aren't a sign you'll grow big
                homies go to prison weighting 125 and go out weighting 200+ and they do nothing but pushups and pullups ALL DAY.
                Not only that, but fishermen (picrel) who never go to failure and just move their bodies all day working with moderate weights achieve impressive levels of hypertrophy. The roman gladiators were jacked as well and I don't think they were benching any 0k0yxsweights.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                >homies go to prison weighting 125 and go out weighting 200+ and they do nothing but pushups and pullups ALL DAY.
                They lift weights my dude. Pic fricking related. Even in the prisons that don't have gyms they'll improvise weights.
                >fishermen (picrel) who never go to failure and just move their bodies all day working with moderate weights achieve impressive levels of hypertrophy
                That dude is lean but that's all. That is not an impressive level of hypertrophy by any stretch.
                >The roman gladiators were jacked as well and I don't think they were benching any 0k0yxsweights.
                Well you think wrong dipshit
                >Saint Jerome, writing in the 4th century AD says "young people should use the round stones for practicing. Those stones were lifted in accordance with their individual abilities, some to the knees, the other to the hip, and some individuals lifted it to the shoulder or head height. Overhead lifting strengthens their hands so that they may show their extraordinary strength”
                >Sandstone blocks from Olympia, weighing 143kg, were said to have been lifted by Bubon and thrown with one hand
                >Halteres (/hælˈtəriːz/; Greek: ἁλτῆρες,[1] from "ἅλλομαι" - hallomai, "leap, spring";[2] cf. "ἅλμα" - halma, "leaping"[3]) were a type of dumbbells used in Ancient Greece. In Ancient Greek sports, halteres were used as lifting weights,[4][5] and also as weights in their version of the long jump ... The Romans, who also had a strong concern on physical fitness as a civic virtue, adopted the use of halteres in their exercises as a means to strengthen their armies.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                >pic related

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Most high security prisons don't have weights.

                %3D

                %3D

                %3D%3D

  5. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    The issue with callisthenics is that skellies do not benefit from it as much, since they need to exert very low force. On the other hand, if you're
    overweight you will be able to build muscle to move your fatass
    So to get anything out of it you need to be somewhat heavy

  6. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Are weighted dips and chins/pull ups only enough for upper body?

  7. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Progressive overload my dude.
    To be putting on mass and gaining strength you need to be increasing the mass you're lifting. You can do this somewhat with calisthenics by changing angles or leverage but its much harder to do steadily compared to a barbell where you can just slap an extra 5 kg on. There are often significant effort spikes moving from one exercise to the next one in the progression. Added to that, many positions alter not just the leverage you're working against but also recruit different muscles - a pull-up isn't just harder than a chin-up, it's a much more lat-dominated movement.
    And no, you can't get away with just doing now reps. Training for mass and training for endurance is not the same (although there is some crossover obviously).

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >Added to that, many positions alter not just the leverage you're working against but also recruit different muscles

      >does pushups
      >becomes easy
      >starts doing decline pushups
      >becomes easy
      >starts doing archer pushups
      >becomes easy
      >starts doing one arm pushups
      >becomes easy
      Once you reach that point yeah you probably want to add weight but there's a long road to go.

      >>does pushups
      easy
      doing decline pushups
      easy
      This is a perfect example.
      Decline push-ups are harder because they emphasise the anterior deltoid and the clavicular head of the pec while reducing involvement of the sternocostal head of the pec. You're not working against a greater load you're just using smaller muscles.

  8. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Technically you can, but certain aspects are a hell of a lot harder to train than others (ie, easy to develop upper back via pullups, good luck getting a strong lower back and glutes with bodyweight-only)
    Also progression is more tedious since you have to do different variations rather than just adding weight

    Really, only reason to do bodyweight-only is if you're a destitute poorgay who can't afford a gym membership. Otherwise, no reason not to do both types of training

  9. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    rate my routine

    Day 1
    Barbell preacher curls 5 sets: 7, 10, 6, 6, 9
    Diamond pushups: 18, 22, 18, 18 , 22

    Day 2
    Chinups 11, 15, 10, 10, 13
    or Pullups (normal or neutral grip) 6, 9, 6, 6, 8

    All gets progressed every time i do all reps for day - at least 1 more rep next day.
    Also on average 30 minutes of yoga every day - abs workout included

  10. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I've been doing elevated shrimp squats and OAP's for a while and I don't know what to do to improve for those anymore. At least pullups have a way higher ceiling for strength needed doing it OA'd

  11. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Your body doesn't care about "tricks" it only cares about contracting against resistance. This is why it sucks. Either you forgo the stupid tricks and add weight, in which now you're just doing weight training, or you stay 130lbs forever like your pic. These guys are not huge, they're like ripped teens which if that's your goal, cool, but weights get you there faster and safer because you're not getting tendon pain from russian dips.

  12. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Slightly less hypertrophy than free weights, but gives the best aesthetic IMO. I've never seen a calsthenics homie who had the "muscle imbalance" look like big upper body and no legs, or big arms no chest, etc.
    If you want to look like a greek statue, then calisthenics will get you there.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >Slightly less hypertrophy than free weights
      Slightly less? Very few people manage to get muscular without lifting.
      >I've never seen a calsthenics homie who had the "muscle imbalance" look like big upper body and no legs,
      There is basically no good way to train legs without weights.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        you can easily btfo me by either:
        if you mean quads post an webm doing 20+ sissy squats all the way to the ground
        if you mean hamstrings, same for a nordic curl (way easier todo imo)

  13. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Only good moves are pullups and dips. Everything else is gay.

  14. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    yes, but you need rings and a good program. Just doing 500 pushups won't cut it.
    Most people complaining about it lacking something most likely are not into calisthenics and only know the basic movements
    movement excel:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1a8tlZ-zbF695HA3Lmm20OIYeYYxo1lmUOczUXKLoL4s/htmlview
    And in pic my current program

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