2017/06/02 by Ewan Thomas, Antonino Bianco, Esamuela Pieretta Mancuso +5 · 1 citation
Medicine · Health Professions · Psychology · Nursing · #Sports injuries and prevention #Sports Performance and Training #Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention #Calisthenics #Physical therapy #Medicine #Strength training #Test (biology) #Body weight #Composition (language) #Significant difference #Intervention (counseling) #Body fat percentage #Lean body mass #Physical medicine and rehabilitation #Psychology #Body mass index #Nursing #Internal medicine
paper · doi:10.3233/ies-170001
openalex publication_date 2017/06/02 · openalex created_date 2017/06/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
BACKGROUND: Calisthenics was a term used to define a generic set of body weight exercises. Such term is now used to define a world wide spread discipline based on body weight and gymnastics exercises. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to administer a calisthenics training protocol and evaluate its effects on posture, strength and body composition in untrained individuals. METHODS: Twenty-eight male participants (24.2 [Formula: see text] 4.2 years; 67.0 [Formula: see text] 8.3 Kg; 173.3 [Formula: see text] 5.2 cm) were divided into two groups, a Calisthenics based intervention group (SG) and a control group (CG). The SG exercised for 8 weeks. Each participant underwent a body composition analysis, a postural assessment, a handgrip test, a push-up and a pull-up test. Each participant was tested at baseline and post intervention. RESULTS: The SG improved their posture (with open eyes [Formula: see text] 0.001 and with closed eyes [Formula: see text] 0.05), their strength (push-up test [Formula: see text] 0.01 with a 16.4% increase and pull up test [Formula: see text] 0.0001 with a 39.2% increase) and their body composition (Fat mass 14.8 [Formula: see text] 5.1 vs. 11.4 [Formula: see text] 5.9, [Formula: see text] 0.01). No difference was shown for the handgrip test. No significant differences were displayed in any variable of the CG between pre and post measures. CONCLUSIONS: Calisthenics training is a feasible and effective training solution to improve posture, strength and body composition without the use any major training equipment.