I was a personal trainer in a gym for many years, and one of the challenges that I found when training my clients was figuring out what to do when equipment wasn’t available. Gyms get crowded, and the gym I worked at was crowded at practically all hours of the day. Many of my clients were working professionals who did not have the time to wait for equipment to be free. They needed a quick and efficient workout.
My solution was to have a list of exercises that could be done with no equipment that anyone of all skill levels could perform. The solution was calisthenics. Calisthenics is the use of body weight exercises such as push ups and pull ups for strength training. Just like weight training, one could make the exercise as easy or as difficult as they want, and progressive overload can be applied just as easily. The goal was not to turn all my clients into calisthenics athletes. The goal was to use these exercises and workouts when the client needed a workout and equipment was the limiting factor.