People usually go to gym for two reasons: either to lose weight or to start bodybuilding. On occasions such as New Year, new month, or birthday, people take ‘resolutions’ to join the gym. Many gyms and physical fitness centers have been opened across the city to cater to such enthusiasts. However, most of these enthusiasts workout for a few days or weeks at maximum, take selfies of them working out, and then quit too quickly.
People wish to have flat stomach with six- or even eight-pack abs and bulky biceps. But either they do not make any effort in that direction, or they cannot sustain the workout at gym.
But the good news is that there are alternatives for the people who cannot continue their practice at gym.
Calisthenics is one such alternative that that is slowly making its way into the fitness world here. It is a practice where instead of using fancy and heavy machines to tone your body, you use the core strength of your muscles to stay fit and healthy, naturally with minimal or no use of equipment. And these workout routines can be done in any free space. By adopting calisthenics, anyone can improve their overall health and stamina in a more gradual, systematic and organic way.
THE FOCUS
This workout technique focuses on testing the strength of your body and simultaneously taking it a step further.
Stretching to a better workout
“A human body can naturally perform seven different motor skills; squats, lunges, bends, pushes, pulls, unilateral and rotation. Calisthenics is based on these seven movements of the human body. One practices calisthenics even without realizing, with or without machines. While doing calisthenics routine, the focus is on your goal—to stay fit or muscled-up—and to modify special sets to achieve that,” said Tony Prajapati, who has been practicing and teaching calisthenics at The Pump, Jhamsikhel.
Once your body is attuned to the way of working out, then you can start adding weights to add resistance for better results. "From there it’s all about experimentation and what you want to achieve -- whether to lose weight or adapt a healthier lifestyle, muscle up or just learn some new moves altogether," Tony added.
THE SHOCK
If you enter a calisthenics studio, the very first thing you will notice would be the lack of a treadmill, bar bells, plate weights or ellipticals. “Expats in the city already know about the concept but it’s hard to make people understand about the concept when they have no prior understanding or interest,” Tony shared his experiences of dealing with new gym members and walk-in queries.
Traditionally equipped gyms will generally have an environment that meets your expectations. The equipment assists you on what to do, making it easy for you from day one. But, more often than not, such gym routines tend to get mundane with time. Like those passionate about bodybuilding change their calendars from Sunday, Monday to leg-day, chest-day and continue the routine/same sets for a long time.
Calisthenics, on the other hand, has a more natural and easy-going process. For instance, instead of running on a treadmill, you will actually have to run from point A to point B. But before you start the workout, you would first adapt the concept of calisthenics. On the first few days, you might even feel lost, not knowing what to do. You would need to give your body that time to adapt to it. But once you get the hang of it, you will feel more natural. As there are no routines you are even free to go creative and practice new routines.
THE ROUTINE
As routines are different from person to person, you can personalize it depending on your body type and stamina. Nevertheless, workout begins with your own body, by testing the strength and limits of your body and muscles. Taking it a step further, you then start the same routine with dumbbells, kettlebells, TRX suspensions, swiss balls and monkey bars among others, and build your body.
With the routine comes the diet. “People, when they join gyms, tend to adapt all the techniques such as strict diet, heavy weights and supplements at once thinking to get fast results, get bulky faster. We recommend trying only one thing at a time, either it’s the routine or the diet, so you can observe the change or lack thereof,” Tony added.
THE RESULT
Workout is a long-term and continuous process. Calisthenics is a slower process, so in order to have a healthy body and develop bulky muscles, one needs more patience and commitment from day one. One who opts this method might not see their 'desired' results in a month. But better mobility and agility will be seen in trainees’ muscles, even when they age. Tony says an aesthetically-pleasing body would then automatically be a bi-product.
Calisthenics is a widely adopted workout technique for sportsperson and athletes elsewhere. Even our national players and others sportspersons have started adapting calisthenics in addition to their regular training on respective sports to maintain that core muscle power and stamina to play for longer hours.
THE PUMP
The Pump was opened by brothers Aashish and Nirakar Yakthumba with co-owner and trainer Tony in December 2016. They had seen the idea being executed in gyms abroad and wanted to start the practice, even for a small group of people.
They have a total of 11 trainers and offer membership on a monthly/quarterly/yearly basis. All trainees get four orientation classes at first, where they learn basics of the workout such as squats, pull-ups and push-ups, the postures and their importance, and how they affects the body.
The team believes awareness is definitely necessary, for which they are conducting various events.
