Many people struggle to reach their fitness goals with Calisthenics. If you feel like giving up or just don’t know what to do to overcome your plateau keep reading… In this article, we’re going to share with you a few different reasons on why you are not seeing results with Calisthenics.

Not Choosing The Right Progressions

This is one of the biggest reason on why some of you can’t seem to get any results. If you always choose to do exercises that you are comfortable with, chances are that you’re never going to improve. You must be comfortable putting yourself in an uncomfortable position to push yourself and develop your skills and strength.

Let’s say that your goal is to increase muscle mass and you have been training for 6 months. One of the exercises you love to do is regular press ups. The exercise started off quite hard in the beginning but after training them for a while you have now become pretty good at them and can now do over 30 press ups with ease. Can you spot the problem there? Once the exercise has stopped being challenging enough, your body doesn’t have a reason to grow and adapt. You might increase the endurance of the muscle but that wasn’t the goal to begin with. Picking the right progression of an exercise is key. Obviously, everyone is on a different level and not everyone has the same goal, so the progression always varies. In this scenario, the progression would be to make the exercise harder. Perhaps perform archer press ups, hindu push ups, tuck planche push-ups or handstand press ups, or start doing them on gymnastic rings, you could even add extra weight to make them more difficult.

Not Having Specific Goals

Another reason people fail to see results is training with no specific goals. Are you training to build a nice physique, get stronger, or learn new skills? There are many people in Calisthenic parks trying random skills and then doing a few sets of dips, with no real plan in their head. If you’re just going through the motions, can you really expect to see any results? You need to have a clear goal in mind and then create a plan on how to achieve it. Decide on your goals, understand which exercises you need to achieve them, if you don’t know then hire a PT or coach, and then set a plan to nail them.

Wrong Expectations

Having the wrong expectations is something that is very common, people give up too quickly. For some people the problem is not that they’re not progressing but that they just haven’t put enough time into it. Getting your dream body or mastering elite Calisthenic skills will probably take months and even years, it’s not something that can be attained overnight. Set small goals and big goals. Tick off the small goals on the path to achieving the big goals, understanding that the big goals are going to take a long time to achieve.

Not Being Consistent

We all know how important consistency is… doing a workout once or twice a month is not enough for you to see results. If you fall into this category, you probably already know what you’re doing wrong, so be honest with yourself and start working out more frequently. Training 2-3 times per week is much more likely to get you to where you need to be.

Overtraining

Now there are also the people that are the total opposite of not being consistent. Overtraining does exist and can affect your progress. Taking time and letting your body heal and repair itself is crucial when it comes to progressing with Calisthenics. If you are training for difficult skills and moves like Front Lever, or Planche, these will take 100% of your strength. If you haven’t recovered from your previous workout then you will do more damage than good training again. Overtraining will not only make your progress stop but can also make you weaker or even worse, get you injured. More isn’t always better, so keep that in mind. Keep your protein intake high, and ensure you’re getting enough sleep.

Conclusion

These are just 5 reasons on why you’re not seeing results with Calisthenics. Whilst there are lots of factors, these are very common with many people. Share your Calisthenics journey with us #ReachYourPeak #AusterFit

This blog was contributed to by Vladimiros Mangenakis

He represents: WorkoutClarity

Instagram: @workout_clarity