Are Calisthenics better for bodybuilding while weights are better for mass?

[Titan127]

Otherwise, are bodyweight workouts better in terms of aesthetics generally while iron is better for building mass and power?

I employ a mixture of the two, which is, frankly, six days a week of 2-3 hours each in the gym lifting along with 100 push ups, crunches, and calf raises every day with body weight. Was wondering if maybe I should do a bit more of the latter, honestly.

[LactoseTolerant]

Resistance is resistance.

[GeneralSerpant]

What do you particularly mean by bodybuilding?

Bodybuilding by definition is the practice of putting on mass. Weights are pretty much all that's talked about here, so yeah, mass and weights, but that's what bodybuilding is.

Calisthenics fits more into varying fitness categories to condition for exhibition.

[Bob1950]

"Resistance is resistance " is OK. But I see some little problem with progressive muscle loading in calisthenics without using additional weights or voluntary muscle self-resistance. But anyway, the combination of weightlifting and calisthenics is not a bad idea.

[DCSpartan]

aesthetics is mass plus low bf%. BW exercises are highly inefficient ways for building mass. Sure, ifyou want to do 2 hours of pushups every day for 10 years to look line someone who has been going to the gym for a months, go ahead.

[CommitmentRulz]

IMO, progressive resistance is king for adding mass. Hard to add progressive resistance via bodyweight. Then, being lean gives you that "fit" look. That can be accomplished solely via diet. So calisthenics are actually unnecessary, but not "wrong".

I can just meet my goals faster with weights. Much faster.

[Titan127]

aesthetics is mass plus low bf%. BW exercises are highly inefficient ways for building mass. Sure, ifyou want to do 2 hours of pushups every day for 10 years to look line someone who has been going to the gym for a months, go ahead.

100 push ups doesn't take two hours bud. Probably more like five minutes throughout the day. And I said above that I spend most of my time in the gym.

"Resistance is resistance " is OK. But I see some little problem with progressive muscle loading in calisthenics without using additional weights or voluntary muscle self-resistance. But anyway, the combination of weightlifting and calisthenics is not a bad idea.

That's what I figure. My weight-to-strength isn't great. Like, I can toss around more weight than almost anyone at my gym, although most are med school students, but I can only clear my weight by 75 pounds on squat and 35 pounds on bench, so my thinking is that bodyweight should helpwith that at least a bit.

[DCSpartan]

And I said above that I spend most of my time in the gym.

You sure the **** dont look like you spend 3 hours a day 6 days a week in the gym. YOu may want to try actually putting some weight on the bar so fater an hour or so you are ready to call it a day.

[Casca]

Most people that mainly lift weights and some pull-ups and dips also do a whole lot of isolation work. I think that leads to more of a "gym" body and not an athletic "aesthetic" build. Pull-ups use your biceps, but you don't get better at pull ups by doing arm curls. Isolating supportive muscles to develop them to be bigger has a different look.


Calisthenics can be made extremely challenging, even without adding weights for weighted dips/pull-ups or resistance bands for push ups. Use different leverage points. Push ups too easy? Do pike push ups, do hand stand push ups, be able to planch hold and planche push ups. There is progression for all that and no doubt it'll be challenging. Go "archer" on everything. Push up position, place your working arm so you have balance, assisting goes farther out from torso and do a push up like that where you are mostly lifting with one arm. Doing this with good form takes a whole lot of core strength and will offer more resistance depending how much assistance you make use of from other arm. Same thing with pull ups. Body mostly under working arm, assisting arm farther out (the farther, the harder it is) and pull up trying to use just one arm.


I use to lift a lot. I am really into calisthenics now and I like it so much more.

[WolfRose7]

Most people that mainly lift weights and some pull-ups and dips also do a whole lot of isolation work. I think that leads to more of a "gym" body and not an athletic "aesthetic" build. Pull-ups use your biceps, but you don't get better at pull ups by doing arm curls. Isolating supportive muscles to develop them to be bigger has a different look.


Calisthenics can be made extremely challenging, even without adding weights for weighted dips/pull-ups or resistance bands for push ups. Use different leverage points. Push ups too easy? Do pike push ups, do hand stand push ups, be able to planch hold and planche push ups. There is progression for all that and no doubt it'll be challenging. Go "archer" on everything. Push up position, place your working arm so you have balance, assisting goes farther out from torso and do a push up like that where you are mostly lifting with one arm. Doing this with good form takes a whole lot of core strength and will offer more resistance depending how much assistance you make use of from other arm. Same thing with pull ups. Body mostly under working arm, assisting arm farther out (the farther, the harder it is) and pull up trying to use just one arm.


I use to lift a lot. I am really into calisthenics now and I like it so much more.

You do realize you can only build or lose muscle right?
It doesn't change shape, insertion, bodyfat or any other random factor depending on what sort of training you do

[Casca]

You do realize you can only build or lose muscle right?
It doesn't change shape, insertion, bodyfat or any other random factor depending on what sort of training you do

I agree mostly. But also been training forever, use to do lots of deadlifting. My neck grew a little, but not like it is now. Neck is the only isolation work I do and it is definitely different looking compared to before and that would not happen without me isolating it. Can you spot dudes that spend all day doing arm curls and tricep push downs? I can. Also traps, with all my deadlifting, I had traps but not like the cartoon huge of guys on unmentionables or actually directly train them with heavy shrugs. I am not saying it changes the shape, but the size in relation to other muscles.

[LactoseTolerant]

Can you spot dudes that spend all day doing arm curls and tricep push downs?

I see them all day long. I wouldn't call them bodybuilders.

[WolfRose7]

I agree mostly. But also been training forever, use to do lots of deadlifting. My neck grew a little, but not like it is now. Neck is the only isolation work I do and it is definitely different looking compared to before and that would not happen without me isolating it. Can you spot dudes that spend all day doing arm curls and tricep push downs? I can. Also traps, with all my deadlifting, I had traps but not like the cartoon huge of guys on unmentionables or actually directly train them with heavy shrugs. I am not saying it changes the shape, but the size in relation to other muscles.

Must have misinterpreted part of your post. Read like different means of resistance give different results.
Isolating muscles that aren't heavily affected by your regular movements I'd agree make you bigger. Your neck comments make sense, though I'd wager if you were cleaning instead of Deadlifting you wouldn't have needed the isolation to make it grow

[LactoseTolerant]

There's a guy at my gym that does a million pull ups whenever I see him there. Once, he tried to squat 1 plate. It was the slowest quarter rep I've ever seen. Calisthenics bros are a thing.

[Casca]

There's a guy at my gym that does a million pull ups whenever I see him there. Once, he tried to squat 1 plate. It was the slowest quarter rep I've ever seen. Calisthenics bros are a thing.

The reverse is true too. Guys that can squat 500lbs and up, but can't do one pull up if their life depended on it. Doesn't really matter to me. People have different goals. And for a second, I thought you were talking about me, but I don't even try to squat lol

[Casca]

When I talk about calisthenics, I mean like this




If you think it is "Hard to add progressive resistance via body weight.", you don't know chit. I am all about ability. I am totally not a crossfitter. My muscle up, will be ZERO momentum. Working on it. If you use straps to work muscles that don't fail before your gripe strength, you will be developing a gym body.

[GeneralSerpant]

[Titan127]

You sure the **** dont look like you spend 3 hours a day 6 days a week in the gym. YOu may want to try actually putting some weight on the bar so fater an hour or so you are ready to call it a day.

Dang dude, really got me there.

When I talk about calisthenics, I mean like this




If you think it is "Hard to add progressive resistance via body weight.", you don't know chit. I am all about ability. I am totally not a crossfitter. My muscle up, will be ZERO momentum. Working on it. If you use straps to work muscles that don't fail before your gripe strength, you will be developing a gym body.

Wow. Now that stuff isn't anything I'll be doing any time soon, because I'm not there, and considering I don't ever intend on being under 240 again, I might never be. I think some of the stuff you had earlier was good though, with changing up the push ups to make them more difficult and such, and I think I'll test it out today when I get a chance.

Merry Christmas all, btw.

[etet1919]

When I talk about calisthenics, I mean like this




If you think it is "Hard to add progressive resistance via body weight.", you don't know chit. I am all about ability. I am totally not a crossfitter. My muscle up, will be ZERO momentum. Working on it. If you use straps to work muscles that don't fail before your gripe strength, you will be developing a gym body.

This is not calisthenics - these guys are or were gymnasts!!

[Casca]

This is not calisthenics - these guys are or were gymnasts!!

Some of them, sure. Many are not. But it's like saying people lifting weights in the gym are not body building, they are power lifting. I mean, if you think calisthenics is just jumping jacks, push ups and pull ups, I guess it's just something you never had a real interest in. Pull ups and push ups is just the beginnings of it and most people stop there if even that. Doing like the vids posted here and earlier is calisthenics as well, but it's a whole lot more difficult.

Calisthenics: cal·is·then·ics
gymnastic exercises to achieve bodily fitness and grace of movement.

early 19th century: from Greek kallos ‘beauty’ + sthenos ‘strength’ + -ics.

Calisthenics is a form of exercise consisting of a variety of gross motor movements—running, standing, grasping, pushing, etc.—often performed rhythmically and with minimal equipment, so essentially, bodyweight exercises.

Body weight exercise.

These guys, especially the bald one were probably gymnast, did floor routines, back flips and all that gymnast competition stuff. Now they do bar workouts, body weight exercise.



This guy was probably never a gymnast. He just really gets into body weight training.


Yes, calisthenics does stuff that gymnast do. Just like body builders bench press, does that mean they compete in lifting competitions? The guys in the vid are putting on a performance, but most of what they did is used for a calisthenics workout and done for reps or as a hold for time.


I am not a gymnast, I'll be able to planche solidly before 2020, maybe even a slow muscle up to a hand stand on the bar and down to a planche hold. A lot of the guys in the vid DID NOT start out as a gymnast and they do compete. There are competitions for Calisthenics and it is very different from Gymnastic competitions.

[etet1919]

^^^ Would you consider most of their strength and power comes from their "core"?

[Casca]

^^^ Would you consider most of their strength and power comes from their "core"?

No. It takes a lot of core strength, but just about everything else is involved as well. Core strength is involved in just about everything though and you will develop a very good mid-section. You don't just get strong to get better at this stuff, getting lean helps a lot. And I don't know if it's just me, but I really want to get better at this stuff and it really has motivated me to lean out.


I think many weight lifters that also do pull ups, put their legs behind them and some might not even have considered scapular positioning. Guys into this stuff will usually do a hollow body, tighten up and bring their shoulders down and retracted for pull ups .

[etet1919]

Women into pull ups do this^^ also!!

[GeneralSerpant]

The reverse is true too. Guys that can squat 500lbs and up, but can't do one pull up if their life depended on it. Doesn't really matter to me. People have different goals. And for a second, I thought you were talking about me, but I don't even try to squat lol

People that squat 500 lbs tend to be pretty heavy people.

[etet1919]

People that squat 500 lbs tend to be pretty heavy people.

How heavy are sumo wrestlers? Imagine them doing "hollow body" pullups......that's pretty "hollarious"

[DCSpartan]

I think OP confuses calisthetics with competitive gymnasts showing off on youtube.