by James - This article may contain affiliate links.
If you’re overweight and want to start your journey to getting healthy, you may find it impossible to exercise. But calisthenics, or bodyweight workouts, is perfect for people of all fitness levels because of their modifications. What should overweight people consider before jumping into calisthenics?
Before starting calisthenics, get into the right mindset to avoid becoming frustrated and giving up early. Commit to a good diet plan properly designed for you to promote weight loss. Do cardio workouts to boost strength and fat-burning. And finally, start small and make incremental progress until you achieve your goal.
This article elaborates on the main things you need to consider before starting calisthenics. It also provides a list of the best calisthenic exercises for overweight beginners.
Contents
Get Into the Right Mindset ?♂️
Suppose you’ve been overweight for a long time; working out and lifting weights, especially at the gym, may feel intimidating.
And perhaps that’s the main reason you put off hitting the gym or planning to get healthy.
But the first thing to consider is that you should start from somewhere because there’s never the perfectly right time to do anything.
Bodyweight workouts are exercises that everyone can do without the help of a personal trainer and regardless of their fitness levels.
But if you think your body needs to prepare for the big change, start with small lifestyle changes.
For example, you could get more physically active by:
- Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
- Not using your car for a short distance and walk instead
- Parking your car away from the place you want to go
- Starting to eat healthily
Have a Good Diet Plan ?
Assuming you want to start bodyweight training while overweight, you don’t need to prepare for anything in advance.
You can jump right in. So, you don’t need to lose weight first and then start bodyweight training.
However, no workout plan works with a proper diet plan.
When you plan on losing weight, exercise comes in second place after diet.
Essential Things to Consider When You Start Dieting ?
There are two essential things to consider when you start dieting:
1. Follow a Wholesome Diet
You should eat enough fresh fruit and vegetables loaded with fiber, vitamins, and nutrients no matter what diet you get committed to.
Cut back on unhealthy fat, sugar, salt, and processed foods.
Eating nutritional food replenishes your body with necessary nutrients and increases your metabolic rate.
2. Forget About Quick Fixes
The diet you choose for complementing your bodyweight exercises should be something that you can live with.
So, a good diet should give you a healthy lifestyle instead of an extreme short-term diet.
If you don’t know where to start, consult your doctor for a well-rounded diet backed by science and health professionals.
A good way of keeping track of your nutrition and calorie intake is using weight-loss apps.
These apps, such as MyFitnessPal, allow you to keep track of everything you eat and help you track how many calories you take in a day.
This way, you can gradually change your eating habits, eat healthier, and stop underestimating your daily calorie intake (one of the main reasons dieters fail).
Do Cardio Workouts ?
Cardio workouts and calisthenics are two horses of a different color, but the former helps you with the latter. Here’s how:
When you do cardio, your metabolic rates rise, and you burn more calories, losing more body fat.
Here are the top reasons to do cardio workouts:
- Cardio workouts can boost your strength, preparing your body for the calisthenics program.
- Simple cardio workouts like walking or bike riding can help you get into regular training.
- Many cardio exercises don’t need specific equipment and don’t strain your joints as they’re low-impact.
You can start with simple cardio activities, like walking, jogging, dancing, or bike riding.
Start with 20-30 minutes a day and then increase your workout’s time, speed, and intensity.
Start Small ⏳
The intensity of your calisthenic exercises should vary depending on your weight and body composition.
The key to performing calisthenics is to listen to your body and not push it too hard.
That’s especially true for high-impact exercises like running, which can hurt your knee if your BMI is high.
Fortunately, each exercise has variations and modifications that can fit your current fitness level.
When you start slow, you can keep yourself motivated by achieving small goals.
This way, a regular workout is more likely to turn into your long-term habit.
If you have difficulty performing simple movements, your doctor may refer you to a physical therapist to build enough strength in your joints and muscles to start exercising.
Progressive calisthenics means increasing intensity and speed in your workout programs. If you engage in weighted calisthenics, you can further increase the weights to challenge your muscles.
Best Calisthenic Exercises ?♀️
As mentioned earlier, calisthenic exercises have different degrees of intensity.
There are useful calisthenics training exercises for any fitness range, starting with very simple workouts.
But don’t let this freedom trick you into thinking that you can start with any exercise without considering your fitness level.
Either way, you’ll lose interest and quit your workout program.
So, begin calisthenics with the following exercises and crank things up whenever you feel ready:
1. Push-ups
Push-ups are a great full-body movement that works lots of muscles in your entire body and strengthens your core.
Doing push-ups as an overweight beginner may be difficult, although these exercises fall into the moderate range.
You can modify the movements to make push-ups easier, including;
Wall Push-ups
Stand up and push your hands against the wall to build enough strength in your arms.
Knee Push-ups
This variation is more difficult than wall push-ups and easier than traditional push-ups.
It involves doing push-ups on the ground, but your knees are on the floor during the exercise, and you don’t raise them.
You could also use exercise balls to help you learn the movement and support your weight during the exercises.
Here are our top three exercise balls (stability Balls) available on amazon. Our best product below is my favorite as it has an anti-burst design and comes in different sizes.
Here’s a video showing you how to perform easy push-ups, including a ball.
2. Pull-ups
If pull-ups remind you of school days when you had to pull your body up in front of the whole class, you may be discouraged to do them.
But they’re excellent upper-body builders that feel great once you master them.
You can target lots of muscle groups, including your core, lats, biceps, shoulders, and forearms in one go, and strengthen your grips simultaneously.
Doing pull-ups as a fat person may be difficult as you need to work against gravity and pull up your weight. So, you may not be able to perform them when you’re a beginner.
You could postpone doing pull-ups until you’ve lost some weight and improved your upper-body strength.
Or, strengthen your lats and arms by hanging from the pull-up bar. Then take some rest and hang again. Repeat until you can pull yourself up and do reps.
3. Chair Squats
Squats are one of the most effective exercises in any workout program to target lower body muscles, including quads, glutes, and hams. They’re also pretty easy so every beginner can do them.
Chair or bench squats are helpful for beginners who don’t know where to stop squatting and start going back up.
Doing calisthenics training means you only use your body weight to perform the exercises.
But if you want to incorporate resistance training into your workout routine, you could use resistance bands or dumbbells to promote muscle growth and build strength.
For example, here are our top 3 recommended resistance bands on Amazon. They are perfect for beginners. They come in a set of three or more bands with different colors. You can go for any you like.
Or, you could go for our top recommended best-seller adjustable dumbbells set on Amazon to help your workout.
You can adjust them from almost no weight to over 50 pounds so they can grow with you as you become more fit.
You should incorporate them in various routines to help you lose weight faster.
4. Dips
Dips are perfect upper-body movements that shape up your shoulders and triceps.
Although you need to have medium or high strength to do dips, you can modify your movements to match your fitness level.
The best thing is to use a stable chair to help you stabilize your body.
This exercise has different variations, like dipping as low as you feel comfortable and going lower when your arms strengthen.
Alternatively, you could perform dips with bent knees instead of straightening your knees.
Check out this video to see how to perform triceps dips:
Other calisthenics training exercises suitable for overweight beginners include:
- Calf raises
- Planks
- Lunges
- Arm circles
- Flutter kicks
- pistol squats
- Sit-ups
- Chin-ups
If, after some time, you have become fit and decide to try lifting barbells while doing dips, you should consider getting a dip belt to help protect your spine.
Here are our top three recommended belts.
Frequently Asked Questions About Calisthenics for Overweight People ?
How Do Fat People Start Calisthenics?
Calisthenics for fat guys starts with beginner exercises, such as squats, pull-ups, push-ups-, and dips.
Then they should increase the exercise intensity and number of reps as they build muscle strength.
But they should also commit to having a clean diet plan full of fresh vegetables and dense food.
Is Calisthenics Good for Overweight People?
Calisthenics exercises are perfect for overweight beginners because they don’t need any equipment and provide all the benefits of resistance training or weight lifting.
They contribute to losing fat, building muscular endurance, growing muscles, and boosting functionality.
They help fat people learn proper form and techniques and move to weight training if they want to.
Can You Burn Fat With Calisthenics?
You can burn body fat with calisthenics exercises because you’ll burn calories, especially with compound exercises.
They burn more fat than cardio exercises because they engage more muscle groups.
But to promote fat burn, you should combine calisthenics with a proper diet plan and caloric deficit.
Can You Be Big and Do Calisthenics?
You can be big and still do calisthenics exercises as they’re progressive.
This means you can adapt the exercises to your current fitness conditions and perform any modification that feels comfortable for you.
Start with beginner calisthenics, combine it with a good, science-backed diet, and increase your exercise intensity as you get stronger.
What Are Good Exercises for Obese Beginners?
The best exercises for obese beginners are bodyweight squats, pull-ups, push-ups-, and dips.
They can also perform static lunges, calf raises, crunches, and planks.
These exercises have beginner modifications that help obese beginners lose fat and build strength.
Do I Need to Lose Weight to Do Calisthenics?
You don’t need to lose weight to do calisthenics.
You can do these exercises without any preparations, but you can’t lose weight only by doing calisthenics.
Having a proper diet with nutritious foods, enough vegetables and fruits, and water is essential.
Key Takeaways ?
Doing calisthenics can be challenging for overweight people if they’re idealistic and impatient.
And remember that no workout routine can help you lose weight if you don’t watch what you eat.
Ask around and find the best diet plan for you and change it to a lifelong habit.
Last update on 2023-11-22 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
