How to Make a Calisthenics Workout Course

Calisthenics increase strength and agility and help protect against hypertension and stroke.

Calisthenics are a system of rhythmic body exercise, usually done without exercise equipment. The word calisthenics comes from a Greek word meaning "beautiful strength." Calisthenics workout courses must be designed in intensity for the intended participants. Courses can be land- or aquatic-based. Aquatic calisthenics help overweight, injured, pregnant, elderly, or sedentary participants. Fartlek, Swedish for "speed play," is a short period of intense calisthenics added to a workout course to increase heart rate, raise metabolism, and to maintain interest.

Instructions

Evaluate Participants' Fitness

1. Determine if any participant has physical limitations that would affect the activity. If a participant is under a physician's care, determine if he has any limitations on movement that have been imposed by the doctor.

2. Determine the age of your intended exercise group. Adjust the intensity of the workout to the appropriate age level.

3. Determine the experience of the intended group. The plan should take into consideration how out of shape and how in-shape your participants are. Make gradual increases in the workout course to allow sedentary participants to build up strength and stamina over time and to avoid injury, strain, or exhaustion. Plan increased activity for active athletes.

4. Determine if your group's members have any special needs. If they are overweight or pregnant, scale back the design of your workout course to account for their condition.

5. Plan for a warm-up period before exercise and a cool-down period after the main calisthenics have been performed.

6. Plan for stretching after the cool-down.

Activities to Include in the Calisthenics Workout Course

1. Begin with stretching. Start out easy and gradually increase until the body is limber.

2. Plan a warm-up. This should be light activity, at least five minutes in duration. As your participants' physical conditioning improves and the exercise course gets longer or increases in intensity, plan for a longer warm-up.

3. Plan the steps for the main part of the calisthenics workout. Use a three-phase program, with each phase being somewhat harder than the preceding phase. The timing of the phases can be varied, but should total 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the condition of the participants. This includes the time for warm-up and cool-down.

4. Add a step to use in the event that participants get bored during a cardio workout session. Calisthenics that include sudden bursts of intense energy for about half a minute build metabolism and revitalize your calisthenics workout. A sample of a cardio plan is the Sprint-Jog Fartlek Workout Course described in Section 4.

Design an Aquatic Calisthenics Workout Course

1. Determine if a swimming pool or other source of shallow water is available for your participants. Check the site for participant safety. Make sure permissions for use have been granted.

2. Design a light warm-up. This should be a motion or series of motions to make both upper and lower limbs limber. The activity of treading water can be used to warm up for experienced swimmers.

3. Design the upper body movements. These include any combination of arm movements, side bending and forward movements. Make sure to instruct participants to keep limbs submerged while performing these exercises.

4. Design the lower body movements. These include any form of leg kicking, leg bends and knee bends. Be creative in the design. Bouncing and flutter kicks -- as in swimming -- while holding on to the pool side are acceptable.

5. Plan the program to alternate an upper-body movement with lower-body movements.

6. Plan a cool-down exercise.

Make a Sprint-Jog Fartlek Workout Course

1. Plan for a five-minute, low-intensity warm-up activity. This can be jogging or an easy calisthenics exercise such as arm and toe raises.

2. Plan for five minutes of moderate activity for cardio exercise. An elliptical trainer, a sort of stair-climbing machine, is ideal for this purpose.

3. Plan for 30 seconds of high-intensity calisthenics for power exercise. Choose any of these three taxing calisthenic movements: push-ups, jumping jacks or sprinting in place. This step must be done at a very hard pace.

4. Repeat Step 2 -- the cardio exercise -- and Step 3 -- the power exercise -- six times for a total workout time of about 33 minutes. You can vary the power calisthenic each time you alternate to help keep the program interesting.

5. Schedule a five-minute light exercise period for cooling down. Exercises such as walking or slow swimming can be used as a cool-down activity.

6. Conclude your calisthenics workout course with a minute or two of stretching activities.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not include any exercise in your program that could cause injury. This includes excessive bending or pressing of the neck. Full squats -- also called deep knee bends -- have been banned in some programs. There is a split of opinion as to jumping jacks. Be wary of any extreme pressure involving movements of the back or neck. Protect the knees. In stretching after exercise, never stretch to an extent that the participant feels pain.

References

• Muscle & Fitness/Hers; Cardio Kick, Top Trainers Show You How to Break Out of a Rut; Alonna Friedman
• Physical Therapy; Cardiorespiratory Responses of Healthy Subjects to Calisthenics Performed On Land Versus In Water; Sandra L. Cassady
• Meriam-Webster Dictionary: Calisthenics
• Diabetes Forecast: Safe Shape-Ups: Here Are Some Important Tips to Keep Your Calisthenic Workout Free of Injury
• U.S. Army: APFT Aquatic Exercises

Resources

• U.S. Army: Aquatic Workout Center Chart