If you’re like most, you remember that your first exercise was a set of jumping jacks or push-ups in gym class. While they’re commonplace in today’s fitness-focused society, bodyweight exercises, better known as calisthenics, have been a staple of cultures throughout history.
Calisthenics are bodyweight-based physical movements that can be performed with varying degrees of intensity. They directly benefit your levels of strength, muscle mass, fat loss, sports performance, and overall cardiovascular health.
You’re probably familiar with a push-up and a pull-up – the two most common calisthenics and something of a traditional standard of fitness – but where did they originate? Let’s take a look at the long and incredible history of calisthenics.
Calisthenics in the Ancient World
1,700 BCE (Before the Common Era): Many experts agree that calisthenics began with the ancient yoga practitioners of India. Yoga wasn’t the fun and flowery fitness craze it is today. Back in 1,700 BCE, yoga was almost exclusively taught to and practiced by the warrior class. Researchers point to the fact that the postures performed in ancient yoga are similar to bodyweight exercises we practice today.
How it Applies Today: Yoga has survived the test of time and it has become one of the most popular forms of physical fitness, all of which is based in calisthenics. Bodyweight postures such as Warrior One, Downward Dog, and Cobra wouldn’t exist without it.
480 BCE: Calisthenics were famously used by Leonidas and his Spartan warriors to prepare for battle, the same one that the famous historical tale, comic, and movie are based on. While the comic and movie may have embellished many details, there is proof that the Spartans used bodyweight exercises to train. In fact, they referred to bodyweight exercises as “kilos sthenos”, which means “beautiful strength” in ancient Greek.
How it Applies Today: Spartan warriors had legendary dexterity and strength. And it’s no coincidence that our own military closely resembles that of this ancient warrior society. As we’ll look at below, our military utilizes a strict bodyweight training program to prepare soldiers for the battlefield.
105 BCE: Much like the Spartans, the Roman gladiators have been placed on a pedestal as far as physical fitness is concerned. While their history has certainly been exaggerated in much of entertainment, there’s no denying that the gladiators went through rigorous physical training based on calisthenics. The competitors needed to be as fast as they were strong, so sword combat training was combined with intense bodyweight exercises.
How it Applies Today: Mixed-martial arts is something of the new gladiator sport. It should come as no surprise that fighters combine intense skill training in different forms of fighting with extreme high-intensity intervals of bodyweight exercises.
420 CE (Common Era): The Shaolin monks of ancient China are the ideal symbol of the peaceful warrior. They meditate for hours each day, maintain a minimalist lifestyle, and vow to live by peaceful means. At the same time, Shaolin monks were highly skilled in Kung Fu, an ancient form of fighting. Research shows that Shaolin monks were peacekeepers but also defenders of their temples as these beautiful buildings often held treasure. Monks were a necessity to ward off robbers. Aside from mastering the movements of Kung Fu, monks also used calisthenics to train their bodies, eventually reaching a point where one-finger push-ups were effortless.
How it Applies Today: As we’ll discuss more below, the resurgence of calisthenics in the modern day has resulted in a new wave of unbelieve physical feats including two-finger handstands.
Calisthenics in the 19th Century
Despite their benefit, calisthenics eventually faded away with time, but they weren’t completely forgotten. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that interest in physical fitness via bodyweight exercises took hold again, but it was slow going.
Two German researchers, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Adolf Spiess, are credited with popularizing gymnastic movements for the benefit of physical fitness. In the United States, Catherine Beecher wrote Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families in 1857. While it was initially written for women, it didn’t take long for men to realize the benefit of these exercises.
Calisthenics Today
As research on health and fitness increased, the need for calisthenics became more relevant and apparent.
Bodybuilding Boom: Physical fitness and the popularization of bodybuilding go hand-in-hand. Many of the foundational bodybuilding movements are based in calisthenics.
Military Tests: American soldiers – and literally every solider in the armed forces in the world – must go through physical fitness training to prepare them for combat, even if there is no active fighting. For example, the following are the exercises that are measured during the
Ranger test:
Push-ups in 2:00
Sit-ups in 2:00
Pull-ups
Two-mile run
Five-mile run
16-mile hike with 65-pound pack
15-meter swim with gear
CrossFit: The last decade has seen one form of exercise dominate as far as exposure and popularity: CrossFit. This combination of calisthenics, gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, and high intensity is one of the best examples of the resurgence of bodyweight workouts. CrossFit workouts can be performed with rings and wands, but there is always a focus on mastering one’s bodyweight through exercises such as handstand walks, kipping, and toes-to-bar.
YouTube Fitness: You can’t talk about calisthenics without talking about Hannibal for King. His 2008 YouTube video is credited by many as the official kickstart to rediscovering calisthenics in popular culture. Many of the exercises he performs in his famous video are reminiscent of those movements used by the Spartan warriors and Shaolin monks.
Which Part of the History of Calisthenics Did You Find Most Fascinating?
Did you know that the Spartans used calisthenics? Were you surprised to learn that bodyweight exercises fell to the wayside for some time? Let us know what part of the history of calisthenics you found most interesting.
References
1. Samuel, Geoffrey (2008), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-69534-3.
2. Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999), The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21972-4. pp. 8, 54–55.