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If you are looking for a calisthenics bodybuilding workout, you are in the right place.
A calisthenics routine for bodybuilding is a routine which focuses on the aesthetics of your body, rather than your performance with calisthenics skills.
In this article, we are going to have a look at:
And more.
Keep reading if you want the information necessary to improve your aesthetics and reach your genetic potential in terms of muscle building.
Calisthenics bodybuilding workout
In this part of the article, we are going to give you a calisthenics bodybuilding workout split.
However, we will only be providing an upper body workout, since we don't believe that calisthenics can offer a high enough stimulus for legs to be considered bodybuilding style training.
Thereofere, we will only give you push and pull days.
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays will be reserved for rest.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Every exercise will be done with an intensity that will leave you with 2-3 repetitions in the tank after the first set! Doing so will allow you to optimize the intensity of your calisthenics bodybuilding workout towards building muscle mass.
Modify each exercise by manipulating the angle, choosing easier or more difficult progressions, or adding weight so that you struggle to hit the repetition ranges mentioned in the tables.
Day 1 - Monday, Push 1
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Dip | 4 - 5 | 5 - 7 | 2 |
Push-up | 3 - 4 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Pike push-up | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Ring fly | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Incline push-up | 3 | 15 - 20 | 1 |
Bar triceps extension | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Day 2 - Tuesday, Pull 1
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Pull-up | 5 | 3 - 5 | 3 |
Inverted row | 3 - 4 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Pull-up | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1:30 |
Ring face pulls | 4 | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Bodyweight curl | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Day 3 - Thursday, Push 2
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Handstand push-up | 4 - 5 | 5 - 7 | 2 |
Dip | 3 - 4 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Pike push-up | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1:30 |
Push-up | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Triceps dip | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Day 4 - Saturday, Pull 2
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Front lever row | 4 - 5 | 3 - 6 | 2 |
Pull-up | 3 - 4 | 8 - 12 | 1:30 |
Inverted row | 3 | 8 - 12 | 1 |
Rear delt fly | 3 | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Pelican curl | 3 | 6 - 8 | 1 |
How to do calisthenics training for hypertrophy
Hypertrophy is a fancy word used to describe an increase in muscle mass.
If you want to pass off as a calisthenics bodybuilder, you need to train in a way that maximizes your muscle building results, rather than your strength or endurance results.
Numerous studies, some of which we will be quoting below, have been conducted to lay out the foundation of how you should train to build muscle.
Fortunately, you can use those findings for your calisthenics bodybuilding routine.
The two most important factors in terms of hypertrophy are:
Mechanisms of hypertrophy
When it comes to building muscle, there are three mechanisms of hypertrophy (1):
Mechanical tension
This type of hypertrophy is activated with high intensity exercises and fast movement.
In the context of calisthenics bodybuilding, this means doing an exercise that you deem fairly difficult with fast speed. It doesn't matter if you don't do the repetition fast; the intention of doing it fast will recruit more muscle fibers (2), making your muscles work harder.
You can think of mechanical tension as "heavy training".
Examples of mechanical tension exercises in a calisthenics workout for bodybuilding:
As you can see, in these examples you are working close to your maximum strength output.
To manipulate this you can do weighted calisthenics training, or choose a progression of an exercise where you can do a low number of repetitions.
Muscle damage
Muscle damage hypertrophy is activated with medium intensity training.
In the context of calisthenics, you will be doing an exercise that is intense enough to create damage to the muscle, yet light enough to allow enough repetitions to create the said damage.
Muscle damage can be regarded as "medium difficulty training".
Example of muscle damage exercises in your bodyweight bodybuilding workout:
As opposed to mechanical tension, we are working further from failure.
The idea is to get more volume (total work) while working fairly close to failure, but not necessarily as close as with the mechanical tension mechanism.
Metabolic stress
This type of hypertrophy is activated through low-intensity, high volume style training.
For your bodybuilding workout with calisthenics, if you plan on doing metabolic stress type workouts, you will be doing a light exercise for a high number of repetitions.
Obviously, to get the best results, you will be mixing all these mechanisms.
Metabolic stress training can be thought of as "light training".
Example of metabolic stress exercises in your calisthenics workout:
The metabolic stress mechanism is also known as training until you feel the burn.
Volume, intensity, and frequency
Other very important factors when it comes to calisthenics bodybuilding are:
Volume is the total amount of sets performed per muscle group per week.
Intensity is represented by how difficult the exercise is related to your strength level.
Frequency means how often you should train a particular muscle group per week.
This is it in a nutshell.
Note: As far as the intensity recommendations are concerned, they only apply if you are working close to failure. To be more specific, we recommend you to have only 2-3 repetitions left in the tank after the first set, regardless of the rep range you should be hitting.
There is no point in doing 3 sets of 5 pull-ups if you can easily do 3 sets of 15.
Why there are no calisthenics bodybuilders
If you try to find calisthenics bodybuilders online you may find yourself having quite a hard time.
Unfortunately, this is not by accident.
The truth is that, even with the best calisthenics bodybuilding workout, you may never be able to reach bodybuilder-level physique. There are a few reasons why:
Calisthenics is not intense enough
One of the first issues in the context of bodybuilding and calisthenics is the lack of intensity in calisthenics. Aside from pull-ups, most exercises will get too easy at some point.
Seriously, take someone like Chris Bumstead.
Do you really think he's going to grow his chest to competition level with push-ups?
The more you train, the more difficult the exercises have to be to elicit an adaptive response in your body. If all you offer your chest is push-ups, or train your quads with pistol squats, you will never stand a chance on stage.
The strength curve is messed up
We know that for certain exercises, there are progressions which are more difficult.
Unfortunately, the strength curve is quite messed up in calisthenics.
For instance, going from a pull-up to an archer pull-up is very difficult. Progressive overload with calisthenics is hard to come by, unless you are using extra weight.
We have outlined these issues and more in our article about calisthenics vs weights.
Isolation exercises are lacking
Bodybuilding is all about aesthetics.
Even with the best calisthenics bodybuilding workout you will still be lacking the isolation needed in certain areas.
Sure, there are certain exercises that can help - like bodyweight curls or tricep dips.
However, it is very difficult to develop the lateral deltoid and posterior deltoid with calisthenics. It is difficult to get big calves with calisthenics, or improve the "teardrop" muscle in your quads by only doing bodyweight squats.
Unfortunately, calisthenics fails at exactly what bodybuilding is trying to achieve. Perfect symmetry of the human body at enhanced muscular development.
Calisthenics athletes who could pass off as bodybuilders
Having all these in mind, there are numerous examples of people who look like calisthenics bodybuilders. They do calisthenics only, as far as it's known, yet their bodies look tremendous.
This is the power of good genetics of the following athletes:
Lazar Novović
Lazar is one of the most well-known calisthenics athletes who could easily pass off as a bodybuilder. He is one of the founders of BarBrothers, an international calisthenics community which specializes in bodyweight exercises only.
Lazar is originally from Serbia but moved to the United States when he was young, where he started the BarBrothers movement.
To learn more about Lazar, check our article on calisthenics before and after where we cover his transformation, along with the transformation of Dusan, the co-owner of BarBrothers.
Hannibal for King
Hannibal is yet another popular athlete from the pioneers of calisthenics on YouTube. For some time he was part of the BarStarzz movement, which, alongside BarBrothers, used to be one of the most influential calisthenics movements.
As far as it's known, Hannibal does not use weights for his training. His chiseled body was built with high volume calisthenics focusing on the basic exercises, and a lot of patience.
Even today, Hannibal is as active as ever. You can learn more about him on YouTube.
Adam Raw
Adam Raw was part of controversy for a long time. Over and over again he was suspected of steroid use, claims which he denied on numerous occasions. Whether his alleged steroid use is true or not, is beyond the scope of this article.
Nonetheless, if there was such a thing as a calisthenics bodybuilding, Adam would surely be one of the top contenders.
With that being said, we will mention that Adam suffered a biceps injury that had to be taken care of surgically. Therefore, his form may no longer be as good as it used to be. Nonetheless, he is still one of the greatest calisthenics athletes with some of the most impressive feats of strength.
Daniel Vadnal
Daniel Vadnal is, in our opinion, one of the most complete calisthenics athletes. In recent years he's been known to use weights for his training. However, the video above is from a time when Daniel was (presumably) only training his lower body with free weights.
What makes Daniel so special in our eyes is his non-dogmatic approach to training.
Just like us, Daniel believes that each style of training has its pros and cons, and that you should get the good and disregard the rest. You can learn more about Daniel on his YouTube channel, FitnessFAQs, or by visiting his website.
FAQs
When it comes to calisthenics bodybuilding, there are a few questions that usually come up. In this part of the article we will answer those questions to get rid of any confusion.
Can a bodybuilder do calisthenics?
The short answer is yes.
Bodybuilders have the necessary muscle mass to support more difficult calisthenics elements. With that being said, they usually weigh more than the average calisthenics athlete, so bodybuilders have a slight disadvantage in that regard.
Furthermore, a lot of calisthenics elements are done with what is known as straight arm strength, which is virtually the strength you can exert with your elbows locked.
For this reason, we recommend bodybuilders who want to get into calisthenics to condition their joints for a few weeks before attempting difficult calisthenics elements like the planche.
Do calisthenics skills build muscle?
To some extent.
Calisthenics static skills build muscle and strength around 30-degrees from the specific joint angle. For this reason, we recommend you couple them with dynamic exercises.
For instance, if one of the skills you are trying to get is the planche, we suggest incorporating planche push-ups variations - tuck, adv. tuck, etc. - to your isometric training.
This will not only build muscle but will also help you get the skill faster.
Can calisthenics build hypertrophy?
Yes.
Calisthenics can build hypertrophy if you are working close enough to failure, while not getting to actual failure, in the 5-25 rep range.
To learn more about this, read about the mechanisms of hypertrophy that we discussed above.
Conclusion
Doing bodybuilding style training with calisthenics can be difficult.
However, as we have seen above, with the right approach and the right information, you can create your own calisthenics bodybuilder workout that will have you pack a generous amount of muscle mass.
And if you don't want to create your own workout routine, we have you covered. Just use the workout at the beginning of the article and be ready to pack on some serious muscle.
Over to you.
