Not everyone can afford a gym membership or gym equipment for their home. Calisthenic workouts are not only wonderful for cardiovascular purposes, but they are a cost-effective way for getting in your workouts at home or anywhere for that matter. Breaking up your workouts to twice a day can also keep your metabolism up, effectively build muscles and improve your cardiovascular health.
Benefits
Calisthenic workouts can improve both heart and lung function. With an increase heart and lung function, you run less of a risk of developing diseases and improve your quality of life. Not to mention the high intensity workouts you get from calisthenics can burn fat and calories at a high rate. Performing calisthenics twice a day is just as beneficial as performing exercises for 30 minutes in a row once per day, according to the American Heart Association.
Sample Workouts
The beauty of calisthenic workouts is that you can do them almost anywhere. When breaking up your workout make sure to include both strength exercises and cardio exercises. A sample workout for one day would be to perform an upper/lower body and cardio combo. You can break these up into two 15- to 20- minute sessions twice a day. Include pullups, squats, pushups, lunges, situps and a cardio of your choice, such as jumping rope. Perform 15 to 20 reps of each exercise and 50 reps of the ab exercise. When performing your cardio, such as jumping rope, complete five to 10 minutes for optimal results.
Intensity
It’s essential to make sure you are getting your heart rate up with these exercises. How intensely you perform your exercises will directly affect how many calories you burn. To increase the intensity of your calisthenic workouts create more resistance during the exercises. You can do this by increasing the amount of reps you perform and by adding extra weight, such as dumbbells. Adding in an additional set of cardio exercise can get your heart rate pumping even more. Running stairs, jumping jacks and skipping in place with high knees are excellent choices for increased intensity in your workout.
Frequency
You should perform at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise. You can perform 150 minutes of moderate exercise by breaking up your workouts to five days a week, 30 minutes per day. If you are performing calisthenics twice a day, give yourself two 15-minute workouts. If you are short on time and can manage 75 minutes per week, increase the intensity of your calisthenic workouts. Perform 25-minute workouts three times a week. You can break up calisthenic workouts twice a day for those days you work out with a morning session of 15 minutes and an evening session of 10 minutes.
References
Writer Bio
Danielle Clark has been a writer since 2009, specializing in environmental and health and fitness topics. She has contributed to magazines and several online publications. Clark holds a Bachelor of Science in ecology and environmental science.