Good Calisthenics Workout for Beginners: How to Start and Structure an Effective Routine

Starting your fitness journey with a good calisthenics workout for beginners is one of the best ways to build strength, flexibility, and control, using only your body weight. 

Calisthenics offers a simple yet highly effective approach to those new to exercise, and with the right guidance, it’s incredibly easy to design a beginner calisthenics workout plan that fits your fitness level and goals.

In this article, we’ll break down everything you need to know to get started – from structuring the best routine and choosing the best exercises to learning how to progress safely and effectively as you improve your foundation and improve your health.

What Is a Good Calisthenics Workout for Beginners?

A good calisthenics workout for beginners is one that focuses on mastering the simple basics – the fundamental movements that help you build strength, balance, and proper form before you can advance to more complex and advanced movements.

As calisthenics exercises are done with little to no equipment and relies on your body weight, it’s essential that your routine targets all the major muscle groups in the body – upper body, core, and legs – as this will give you a full-body workout at the end of your workout session.

How to Start Calisthenics as a Beginner

So you’ve never tried calisthenics before, but are keen to try, but you have no clue where to start. Here are some simple tips on what you need for the ultimate beginner calisthenics workout no equipment routine.

• Space

The best thing about calisthenics is that it can be done anywhere – at home, at the beach, in the park, in your backyard, or even in a small corner of your garage. As long as the space in question is enough for you to move around without knocking yourself into walls or furniture, you’re good to go. Find a small space and mark it as your dedicated exercise space.

• Workout Clothes

They don’t need to be expensive, but they do need to be breathable and comfortable to move around in. 

Whether you prefer tight-fitting clothing or baggier ones, ensure that whatever you pick is something you can comfortably move around in and that’s made of breathable fabric, i.e fabric that allows air and moisture to pass through the fabric, which helps to regulate body temperature by letting sweat evaporate and keeping you comfortable.

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• Good Workout Shoes

The perfect workout shoe should fit well and offer good arch support. 

Note that some people prefer to do calisthenics barefoot. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, if your calisthenics for beginners at home routine requires high-impact movements such as jumping, it is best to wear shoes to provide grip and protect your joints from the impact. Also, you should always wear shoes if you’re training outdoors.

• Resistance Bands

A good calisthenics workout for beginners at home should always be scalable. There are many ways to scale bodyweight routines, but one of the easiest is by using resistance bands. 

These bands come in multiple variations, ranging from lighter to heavier, providing variable resistance that can be easily adjusted for different fitness levels and exercise progressions.

In addition to adding resistance to bodyweight workouts, these bands can also be used for multiple exercises, such as bicep curls, seated rows, modified deadlifts, and many more.

• A Pull-Up Bar

While calisthenics largely relies on body weight, some equipment is sometimes needed to help complete the exercises. A pull-up bar is one of the few pieces of equipment that are used in calisthenics. 

While you can substitute the pull-up bar for a towel hanging on the door, some practitioners warn against this, as accidents while using the towel alternative are more common than when using a pull-up bar.

• The Right Exercises

A good beginner calisthenics workout plan needs the right combination of foundational workouts to be effective. A basic calisthenics workout should include:

1. Push movements – These are upper-body exercises that help strengthen the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
2. Pull movements – These are the opposite of push exercises, and they help strengthen and develop your back and biceps.
3. Core exercises – If you want a flatter stomach and defined abs, these need to be part of your routine. Strengthening the core will also help improve your balance.
4. Leg exercises – Also known as lower-body workouts, these exercises work the muscles from the hips down to the foot, helping improve the strength of these muscles and your mobility.

Read more: Bodyweight Circuit Exercises: Your Definitive Scientific Guide

How to Structure a Good Calisthenics Routine for Beginners

A well-structured beginner’s calisthenics routine should be simple yet balanced to help you build strength, improve your mobility, increase your fitness, and train the aforementioned major muscle groups in one session. Here’s how to structure the workout and some exercises to include in the session

Warm-Up (5-10 Minutes)

This helps get your body and mind ready for the exercises that are to come. The routine can include light cardio exercises and some dynamic stretches to get the blood pumping, oxygen circulating, and your joints and muscles ready for movement (1, 2, 3). 

Warm-up examples include:

1. Light cardio – Jumping rope, jogging in place, or jumping jacks
2. Dynamic stretches – Ankle, wrist, and hip circles, walking lunges, high knees, butt kicks, leg swings

Main Workout (30 Minutes)

As mentioned above, your routine should include push, pull, core, and leg exercises for a well-rounded full-body workout. Here are some examples for each category

Lower-Body Workout – Bodyweight Squats

How to do it:

1. Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, your toes pointed out slightly, and your arms at your sides.
2. Keep your chest upright and engage your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine. Don’t hold your breath and continue to breathe as normal.
3. On an inhale, clasp your hands in front of your chest, hinge your hips backward, and bend your knees, dropping down into a squat position. Stop once your thighs are parallel (or almost parallel) to the floor.
4. Hold this position for a few seconds and then on an exhale, push through your heels and return to the standing position.
5. This is one rep. Perform 8 to 12 reps for one set and two to three sets for a full workout.

Hip Thrust – Lower-Body Workout

How to do it:

1. Stand in front of a stable surface, such as a bench or a couch, then sit down on the ground, leaving some space between your back and the bench/couch.
2. Lean back so your shoulder blades are comfortably lying on the edge of the bench.
3. Bend your knees and plant your feet securely on the ground approximately hip-width apart.
4. Engage your core, squeeze your glutes, and then push through your feet to push your hips up until your body is in a straight line from shoulders to knees.
5. Keep your glutes squeezed and hold this position for a few seconds.
6. Slowly lower your hips back to the ground to return to the start position.

Elbow Plank – Core Exercise

Sit-ups and crunches are the go-to core workouts for many people. While they work well enough, research has shown that planks don’t just improve core strength, they also contribute towards improved flexibility, cardiopulmonary fitness, stability, grip strength, basal metabolic rate, and skeletal muscle mass. The exercise also works to reduce body fat mass and fat percentage (4, 5, 6).

1. Lie on your stomach on an exercise mat.
2. Press your forearms on the floor and push your body up till your entire body is in a straight line. At this point, you should be balancing on your forearms and toes.
3. Don’t sag your belly toward the floor or arch your back – try to be as straight as possible.
4. Remember to also keep your core engaged and breathe. Try to breathe in through your chest and out through your stomach. With every breath out, you should tighten your stomach even further.
5. You can hold a plank for anywhere between 20 seconds and a full minute. Use the timer on your phone for this.

Flutter Kicks – Core Exercise

How to do them:

1. Lie on your back on an exercise mat with your legs extended in front of you.
2. Place your arms on the mat, palms down, or place them under your buttocks for extra support during the movement.
3. Engage your core and lift your feet approximately 12 inches off the floor.
4. Keeping your core engaged and your neck relaxed, slowly lower one leg toward the floor as you lift the other. This movement should imitate a scissors and kicking movement.
5. Continue scissor kicking for 20-30 seconds. These seconds equal one set.
6. Perform three sets of 20-30 seconds each for a complete workout.

Push-Ups – Upper-Body Push Workout

1. Get on the floor or mat and get into a plank position. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and your body should be in a straight line from your head to your heels. Don’t sag at the waist or arch your back.
2. Lower your body until your chest almost touches the floor while keeping your elbows pointing back and at a 45-degree angle to your body.
3. Just before your chest touches the ground, push through your palms and back up to the starting position.
4. Make sure to keep your core engaged throughout the movement.

Tricep Dips – Upper-Body Push Workout

1. Sit on the edge of a stable chair, weight bench, or step and grip the edge next to your hips.
2. Extend and spread your legs till your feet are about hip-width apart and your heels are touching the ground.
3. With your gaze looking straight ahead and your chin up, press into your palms to lift your body and slide forward just far enough so your buttocks clear the edge of the chair.
4. Lower yourself until your elbows bend between 45 and 90 degrees. Control the movement throughout the range of motion.
5. Push yourself back up slowly until your arms are almost straight, and repeat.

Pull-Ups – Upper Body Pull Exercise

How to do it:

1. Stand directly under the bar and lift your hands to grab the bar in an overhand grip. Move your hands apart till they are slightly further than shoulder-width apart.
2. On an exhale, engage your core, keep your shoulders back and down, bend your elbows, and then raise your upper body up toward the bar until your chin is over the bar. Make sure that you aren’t swinging your legs around or shrugging your shoulders up – this helps you maintain proper form.
3. Hold this position for a few seconds, then on an inhale, extend your elbows to lower your body back down to the starting position.

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Banded Body Rows – Upper-Body Pull Workout

This exercise can be done while seated or standing. Here’s how to do the seated variation:

1. Sit with your feet stretched out before you and secure the resistance band to the soles of your feet at ankle height.
2. Make sure you’re seated firmly and comfortably, and grab the handles with your hands, with your palms facing each other.
3. Bend your knees slightly, arch your lower back, and slowly pull the resistance band handles to your lower abdomen. Make sure to keep your posture straight and your elbows close to your side during the movement.
4. Once the handles touch your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades together and reverse the direction, gradually returning to the start position.
5. This is one rep. Perform 8-10 reps for 1 set.

Cool-Down (5-10 Minutes)

Once the main workout is done, take at least 5 minutes to do some static stretches. This will help relax your muscles and allow your heart rate and breathing to slowly drop, which helps with recovery and prevents fainting (7, 8).

Which Is the Best Calisthenic Workout for Beginners?

As previously mentioned, the best calisthenics workout for beginners is one that teaches the fundamentals through simple, basic exercises that are scalable over time. The above exercises are all excellent fundamental exercises that help you understand the basics of calisthenics and improve your fitness.

The above exercises can also be scaled through progressive overload, which is done by:

• Increasing the number of sets per workout
• Increasing the number of repetitions per set
• Increasing the duration of your workout, i.e. from 30 minutes to 45 minutes (9, 10)

Read more: Your No-Sweat Simple Calisthenics Workout Plan

How Long Should a Beginner Do Calisthenics?

According to the CDC, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. This translates to 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week (11). 

Beginners to calisthenics can start with a simple 30-minute calisthenics routine 5 days a week, and over time, they can increase the time they spend exercising.

If 5 days a week seems too much, you can start with 2 or 3 days of calisthenics exercises a week and gradually increase it.

What Is a Beginner-Friendly Calisthenics Routine?

A beginner-friendly calisthenics routine is a simple full-body workout plan that uses basic bodyweight-only exercises to help those who are new to this exercise build foundational strength, balance, and mobility. The workouts on such a routine focus on proper form and gradual progression, which helps practitioners lay their foundation and improve their endurance to help them advance to more challenging exercises over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does calisthenics burn belly fat?

Yes, it can. Scientific studies have shown that calisthenic workouts can help with overall body fat and abdominal fat loss (12, 13).

• Is 30 minutes of calisthenics a day enough?

Yes, it is. As mentioned above, the CDC recommends at least 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week, which makes 30 minutes of calisthenics enough, at least for beginners. However, you should always aim to do more, so start with 30 minutes and gradually increase the time you spend doing this exercise.

• Are jumping jacks calisthenics?

Yes, they are. Jumping jacks are a form of cardio calisthenics. Other forms of cardio calisthenics include dancing, walking, and hiking.

• What time is best for calisthenics?

There is no scientifically proven best time for calisthenics. The best time will depend on your lifestyle and individual preferences. Some people prefer to exercise in the morning, others in the afternoon, and some at night. All times are good, as long as the time you choose fits into your lifestyle.

The Bottom Line

A good calisthenics workout for beginners will help you master the simple basics of this workout, which helps you lay the foundational basics that are needed to perform these exercises correctly and scale the workouts so you can do more. We hope that the above exercises will help you successfully start working out and enable you to reach your fitness goals.