Calisthenics are making a comeback. Is body weight enough to get a good
workout?
[November 11, 2025]
By JAMIE DUCHARME
You won’t find dumbbells or weight machines in the gym Sean Keogh runs.
At Calisthenics Club Houston, it’s all about training with body weight.
“That’s all we do,” Keogh said — but that’s enough to keep new members
coming through the doors, excited to learn moves like handstands and
pullups.
Keogh and his members have plenty of company. These days, content
creators, independent gyms and megachains alike are promoting
calisthenics, an age-old form of fitness that uses little or no
equipment and instead relies on body weight for resistance.
In July, President Donald Trump even reestablished the Presidential
Fitness Test, intending that youth across the country will again
practice old-school exercises like situps, pushups and pullups.
It’s little surprise that these no-frills moves are making a comeback in
our over-scheduled society, said Anatolia Vick-Kregel, director of the
Lifetime Physical Activity Program at Rice University. “We don’t always
have time to go to the gym,” she said. “This is what you can do at home
or in your office.”
Another reason might be economic, said Michael Stack, an exercise
physiologist and president of the Physical Activity Alliance, a
coalition of groups that promote physical activity. With no equipment
required, calisthenics-based programs are affordable for exercisers and
profitable for gyms that offer them. Plus, people may have gotten used
to exercising with few accoutrements during the pandemic.
“This trend has been building,” Stack said. “The pandemic definitely
accelerated it.”
How effective are calisthenics?
There’s plenty of research to suggest that calisthenics can improve
everything from muscle strength to aerobic conditioning, Vick-Kregel
said.
“Body weight is phenomenal,” she said.
But there are limits to its effects, said John Raglin, a professor of
kinesiology at the Indiana University School of Public Health,
Bloomington. “It can be effective,” Raglin said. “But I think the idea
that it can or should replace the use of even simple equipment is
wrong-headed.”
Sometimes, Raglin said, using equipment can actually make exercises
simpler or safer to perform. Many people, for example, do pushups with
improper form.
“If you’re not strong enough or you have joint issues or arthritis, then
lying on a bench and using small hand weights can actually be safer and
more practical,” he said.
It all depends what your goal is
Beyond safety, people looking to significantly increase their strength
or muscle size will likely see more dramatic results if they use
weights, Raglin said. Doing so “utilizes more of your muscle and
generates more force than you could otherwise,” he explained.
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A man works out in a public park in Madrid, Spain on July 1, 2025.
(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
Lifting weights also damages muscle tissue in a way that can be
productive, as muscles grow larger through the body’s repair process.
Over time, though, it may take larger amounts of weight to keep seeing
gains. Progress plateaus as the body gets used to exercises it’s done
before.
It’s not impossible to grow muscle through calisthenics, Vick-Kregel
said; it’s just harder to continuously level up exercises for sustained
progress without increasing external weight.
“After you’ve done a couple workouts of squatting with your body weight,
your body’s going to need external load to get stronger or to build
muscle tissue,” Stack agreed.
In other words, if you’re after bulging biceps, you may need more than
calisthenics to get there. But if you’re just looking to get moving and
improve your health, your body is probably enough.
Particularly for the roughly 75% of Americans who aren’t meeting federal
physical activity guidelines — which call for at least 75 minutes of
vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, plus two
strength-training sessions — calisthenics are a great option, Stack
said.
“Body weight is the simplest apparatus you can use,” Stack said. “I
would encourage anyone who’s not exercising to start exercising with
just their body.”
How to begin a calisthenics routine
First, assess your current fitness and mobility, Vick-Kregel said. With
the help of a mirror, workout buddy or trainer, see if you can do
exercises like planks, pushups and squats with correct form. If not,
look for modifications, such as doing pushups from your knees.
Once you feel confident with the fundamentals, aim to perform
calisthenics in 10- to 30-minute chunks, two to three times a week, she
suggested. (For a little more structure, you can consult the The Five
Basic Exercises Plan, or 5BX, a classic calisthenics program developed
by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s.)
Progressively increase the duration and intensity of your workouts as
you get fitter. “Gradual progression is critical,” Vick-Kregel
emphasized.
As you get more experienced, though, calisthenics can be performed at
high intensity. Keogh maintains that these exercises are not just for
beginners. There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty of
body-weight exercises over time, making them both highly challenging and
effective, he said.
For doubters, Keogh has a blunt message: “Try it.”
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