Will Calisthenics Build Muscle?
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It tends to be the first thing on someone’s mind when they first hear about calisthenics (especially in young men). ‘Can I build muscle and get bigger with just calisthenics?’
When searching for the topic on Google or YouTube, there is a LOT of misinformation. Pages and pages of bodybuilders and influencers can be found telling you that calisthenics is a waste of time - as they try and sell you dumbbell and barbell workout programs.
Well, we’re here to set the record straight and debunk a widely held myth… will calisthenics build muscle?
How Do Muscles Grow?
Without overloading you with scientific language, working out damages muscle fibres. After your workouts, eating and resting well helps the damaged muscle fibres to recover and grow bigger. Or for slightly more detail, the damaged fibres repair through the fusing of fibres to form new muscle protein strands.
To effectively damage the muscle fibres for hypertrophy (muscle growth), training sessions require a principle known as ‘progressive overload’. This is simply the act of increasing the tension, resistance, or weight used in exercises over time, to increase muscle growth and strength.
With weight training, it is caused by using a heavier weight than your previous workout. In the case of calisthenics, it can come in many forms. You could slow the reps down to focus on form or try different variations of workouts like Diamond or one arm push ups, or even add weight to your movements, for example weighted pull-ups. Essentially, workouts need to slowly become more difficult, as your body adapts to the workouts, to begin and continue to see muscle growth.
For an in-depth, scientific guide on how muscles grow, we recommend this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag9F6YJaGIU
Where Does The Myth Come From?
While no one will probably ever know who started the myth that you can’t build muscle with calisthenics, it’s popularity has probably been caused by two factors.
- The popularity of bodybuilders
- The, supposed, lack of progressive overload
The first reason stems from how our brains are wired. We see a successful person and we look at, and copy, exactly what they are doing to try and be like them. Will a workout plan consisting entirely of calisthenics make you look like Arnold? No, it won’t. But unless you plan to hit the Mr. Olympia stage, that’s not a problem. However, a lot of bodybuilders do implement calisthenics in their programs. Pull-ups are one of the best exercises to build your back muscles, and a lot of elite athletes utilise exercises like pistol squats to build leg strength and hypertrophy.
The second reason was touched upon earlier. But to go into slightly more detail, a lot of people seem to equate calisthenics with just cardio and endurance. To increase progressive overload with calisthenics, a great and simple method is to increase the amount of reps or slow the reps down. But a lot of people misconceive this as endurance training. Increasing the rep range is a great way to overload the muscle fibres and build muscle. How do you think Mike Tyson built his legs? Repetition after repetition of air squats.
The Truth
The idea of following exactly what a successful person does to achieve the same success is purely anecdotal, meaning ‘if it works for me then it must work for everyone.’
More comprehensive, scientific, proof can be found in a 2018 study, which took two groups of men and had each group train three times a week for four weeks. One group’s program revolved around push-ups and calisthenics exercises, and the other groups program focused on bench press and weight training. After the programs were complete, the researchers found no discernible difference in the increase of muscle thickness and growth between the two groups. This supports the idea that calisthenics is just as effective at building muscle as weight training.
If you are looking for visual proof that calisthenics is effective at building muscle and size, then look no further than professional gymnasts. Constant training using gymnastics rings, bars, and plyometric movements like jumping and springing (all examples of calisthenics) have caused gymnasts to develop exceptionally muscular physiques. Often asked how they develop such large biceps, most gymnasts reply with ‘chin-ups, lots and lots of chin-ups.’
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