Revealed: The Common Calisthenics Mistakes KILLING Your Gains

Calisthenics is one of the best types of strength training around. Revolving around bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, and air squats, calisthenics requires very little equipment so you can work out almost anywhere and anytime.

You don’t even need to spend any money on a gym membership, making it perfect for budget-conscious exercisers.

However, despite research to the contrary (1), some people find that calisthenics training is not as effective as conventional weight training. Consequently, they dismiss bodyweight training, believing that it’s a waste of time and energy.

Related: Calisthenics vs. Weightlifting: Which Is Best?

In my experience as a veteran personal trainer, people who don’t get the results they want from calisthenics are usually making one of several common mistakes. Fix these problems and bodyweight training can be just as effective as lifting weights.

In this article, I reveal the 10 most common bodyweight training mistakes that are killing your gains.

The Most Common Calisthenics Progress Killers You MUST Avoid

Stop wasting your time on ineffective calisthenic exercises and workouts. Avoid these common mistakes and make the progress you deserve.

1. Not Following a Well-Designed Program

A well-designed program is the foundation on which your progress is built. Following a program means that every time you drop down to do a set of push-ups or hang from a pull-up bar you know exactly how many sets and reps you’re going to do and why.

Unfortunately, a lot of calisthenic practitioners fail to follow a program. Instead, they just do whatever exercises they feel like doing on that particular day. This is what bodybuilders call the instinctive training method.

Invariably, this approach means you end up spending your time on exercises you enjoy while avoiding those you don’t. This can lead to an unbalanced physique, poor posture, and even chronic injuries.

Avoid this problem by following a program that works all your muscle groups evenly. You can create your own program, ask a trainer to design one for you, or sign up for one of the many free calisthenic programs available online.

Related: Calisthenics Workout Plan: A Beginner’s Guide

2. Too Little Exercise Variety

Ask any lifter how many exercises they do per muscle group and they’ll probably answer in the range of three to six. For example, for legs, they might do:

1. Squats
2. Lunges
3. Leg curls
4. Leg presses
5. Calf raises

In contrast, calisthenics enthusiasts often build their workouts around just a few exercises, doing just one or two movements per muscle group. This lack of variety can make bodyweight training boring and can hurt your progress.

There is no reason that bodyweight training should be any less varied than conventional strength training. After all, there are lots of push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and lunge alternatives you can use to make your workouts interesting and more effective.

Check out the Fitness Volt calisthenics archive to discover new bodyweight exercises. Incorporate them into your workouts to avoid doing the same old exercises over and over again.

Related: Ultimate Calisthenics Workout Guide: Best Exercises by Muscle Group

3. Not Using Progressive Overload

If you use 25-pound dumbbells every time you do biceps curls or always bench press 135 pounds, your progress will eventually stall. Consequently, most trainers recommend progressive overload to keep your muscles growing and getting stronger.

Progressive overload describes the process of gradually increasing training weights to make workouts more demanding. For example:

• Week 1 – 10 reps @ 85 pounds
• Week 2 – 10 reps @ 90 pounds
• Week 3 – 10 reps @ 95 pounds
• Week 4 – 10 reps @ 100 pounds

While progress may not be as linear or predictable as this, your aim should always be to try to train a little harder from one week to the next.

Bodyweight exercisers often struggle with this concept and fall into the trap of doing the same exercises for the same reps and sets. Needless to say, such a lack of progression will quickly bring your gains to a screeching halt.

There are numerous ways you can make calisthenics training more demanding over time. These include:

• Increase the reps
• Increase the number of sets
• Choose more demanding exercise variations
• Move your hands or feet closer together
• Switch from bilateral (two-limbed) to unilateral (single-limbed) exercises
• Shorten the rest periods between exercises
• Use a weighted vest

Adjusting these variables week by week should help maintain your progress.

4. Not Using Regressions/Assistance

Calisthenic exercises involve working against a set level of resistance – your body weight. While this means you can work out anywhere and anytime, it also means that some exercises will be more challenging than others, and some movements may actually be too difficult to do properly.

For example, beginners often struggle with pull-ups, muscle-ups, and pistols – as do some intermediate exercisers. Attempting these exercises before you are ready or using poor form can lead to injury and nothing will derail your progress like missed workouts.

Avoid this problem by using exercise regressions and resistance band/partner assistance to make difficult exercises more manageable. Examples include:

• Self-assisted pistol squats (kickstand squats)
• Band-assisted pull-ups
• Kneeling push-ups

While doing an easier version of certain exercises may hurt your ego, the progress you experience as your performance improves will more than make up for any short-term discomfort.

5. Adding Too Much Weight Too Soon

Weighted calisthenics are very popular, and you’ll find lots of YouTube videos of exercisers doing pull-ups, push-ups, and pistols while wearing extremely heavy weighted vests. This leads many people to believe that the best way to get strong and muscular with calisthenics is to use extra weight.

This is not necessarily the case!

While a weighted vest is a valid form of progressive overload, using too much weight too soon can lead to poor exercise technique and may cause injuries.

There is no need to rush into weighted calisthenics and for most people bodyweight exercises are more than challenging enough to produce good results. That said, if you do decide to try weighted calisthenics, avoid using too much weight too soon. Just 5-10 pounds can completely change the feel of an exercise.

6. Too Much Focus on Chasing Rep Goals  

While there is nothing wrong with wanting to achieve a certain rep goal in calisthenics, such as 50 non-stop push-ups or 20 pull-ups, this should not be the sole focus of your training.

Firstly, constantly chasing rep goals will limit your progress as you’ll only be working on improving your endurance while neglecting strength. Secondly, training for such a narrow goal will soon become boring, which could rob you of the motivation you need to continue working out.

So, while it’s okay to spend some time working toward a repetition goal, this should be balanced with other training goals, such as improving your skill, balance, mobility, power, and strength. A more rounded approach to calisthenics will always produce better results than just chasing an arbitrary rep goal.

7. Not Focusing on Strength

 

Most people associate calisthenics with moderate to high-rep training. For example, they do sets of 30-50 air squats, 20-25 push-ups, and 10-15 pull-ups. This is a very common approach to bodyweight training and can produce pretty good results.

However, if you want to maximize your progress, you should also work on your low-rep strength by incorporating some more demanding exercises into your bodyweight training routine.

Building strength offers numerous benefits, not least making conventional bodyweight exercises easier so you can do more of them. For example, working on one-arm push-ups for six weeks will do wonders for your general push-up performance.

So, don’t limit yourself to basic calisthenics exercises and moderate to high-rep sets. Instead, challenge your muscles with low-rep sets of more demanding exercises to build transferable strength.

You can alternate between low-rep and moderate/high-rep workouts or incorporate both types of training into the same session. Either option can work so try them both to see which you prefer.

8. Neglecting Your Legs

Bodybuilders have a saying; “Friends don’t let friends skip leg day.” While not all bodybuilders follow this advice, in my experience, calisthenics practitioners are even more likely to neglect their leg training.

I understand that having light legs makes exercises such as pull-ups and muscle-ups easier. However, they will also detract from what would otherwise be an impressive physique. Some calisthenic athletes look like inverted pyramids, with their wide, muscular upper bodies tapering down to slender, weak-looking legs.

This is NOT a good look!

Calisthenic leg training can be challenging and typically revolves around very high-rep sets of squats and lunges or hard-to-master single-leg exercises. There seems to be very little middle ground.

That said, using a weighted vest for extra load or a resistance band for assistance will make both types of lower-body training more practical and accessible.

Training with calisthenics is not a valid excuse for skipping leg day. That said, you may need to be creative with your programs to find an effective and time-efficient way to build and strengthen your legs.

Related: The Best Calisthenic Leg Workout

9. Not Using Additional Training Methods

I love calisthenics, but I’m not married to them. As such, I have no problem with incorporating things like dumbbells, resistance bands, and kettlebells into my bodyweight workouts.

In contrast, some of the calisthenics fitness community believe that bodyweight exercises are the best and only way to train and that all other forms of exercise are a waste of time.

While calisthenics is an effective workout, it’s not the only way to achieve your fitness goals, and, in some cases, may not even be the best way. There is certainly no reason to limit yourself to bodyweight training unless your circumstances make it necessary, e.g., you’re locked in a prison cell 24/7!

So, by all means, build your workouts around calisthenics, but don’t feel you have to limit yourself to bodyweight training. Using bands, dumbbells, etc. will add an extra dimension to your workouts, allowing you to target the body parts that are otherwise hard to train.

10. Turning Every Calisthenic Workout into a Conditioning Circuit

Imagine constantly rushing around the gym, moving quickly from one exercise to the next. Your heart rate would soar, you’d burn a ton of kilocalories, but you’d also feel increasingly tired, and unable to lift as much weight or do as many reps as normal.

Consequently, most gym-goers do a set of their chosen exercise, rest a minute or two, and then repeat. Conventional training like this is arguably the most effective way to build muscle size and strength.

In contrast, a lot of calisthenic workouts are built around circuits, high-intensity intervals, and other non-stop conditioning methods. While such workouts are useful for fitness and fat loss, they are not the best way to achieve hypertrophy or strength.

If you want to build muscle with calisthenics, you need to train less like a CrossFit or HYROX athlete and more like a bodybuilder. The exercises will be different, but your training methods should be very similar.

Slow down and focus more on exercise quality and intensity than speed during your workouts. Research also strongly supports the use of longer rests, typically 2-3 minutes, between sets for optimizing strength and hypertrophy gains (2).

Closing Thoughts

Your time, energy, and motivation are valuable commodities and I hate to see anyone waste them on ineffective workouts. Calisthenics training should produce excellent results for most people, but some exercisers are undermining their progress by making avoidable mistakes.

Audit your calisthenic workouts and fix the mistakes that are killing your gains. In most cases, removing these roadblocks is all you need to do to start making progress with calisthenics.

References:

1. Kotarsky CJ, Christensen BK, Miller JS, Hackney KJ. Effect of Progressive Calisthenic Push-up Training on Muscle Strength and Thickness. J Strength Cond Res. 2018 Mar;32(3):651-659. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002345. PMID: 29466268.
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, Hester GM, Sellers J, Nooner JL, Schnaiter JA, Bond-Williams KE, Carter AS, Ross CL, Just BL, Henselmans M, Krieger JW. Longer Interset Rest Periods Enhance Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res. 2016 Jul;30(7):1805-12. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001272. PMID: 26605807.

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