My Calisthenics Transformation – 7 years of advice + 7 Lessons

Intro – My calisthenics transformation

Picking up calisthenics was one of the best decisions of my life. My calisthenics transformation changed the way I look at myself in the mirror, it increased my health and made me feel better on a day-to-day basis, and it probably will increase my longevity. All for an activity that barely takes 3 hours per week and that costs barely anything. Seriously, I first started with no equipment, buying my first pair of gym rings 1.5 years later.

The benefits of exercise are endless, but I will put a big emphasis on increased energy levels, improved mood, improved cognition, and increased BDNF. 

One study even found that exercise has similar effectiveness to drugs when it comes to heart disease and diabetes. So all things considered, exercise is a good thing to do. I picked up on calisthenics simply because it’s faster and cheaper. 

I’ve been to the gym for a month just to try it out, but it was taking me a lot of time, from driving there to waiting for the machines to be empty and other things like that. I’ve decided to give it up for now.

So in this article, I want to briefly show my 7-year calisthenics journey (even though I hate sharing shirtless pictures) and touch on the 7 best tips I have learned along the journey

My 7-Year Calisthenics Transformation

1. 2017 – 73kg Before starting calisthenics – I don’t have a shirtless picture of back then, I was kinda fat and didn’t want to take any.
2. 2018 – 72kg – Seeing the first results, my arms grew a lot. Also achieved 50 push-ups in a row.
3. 2020 – 72kg – I was showing a clear sign of having abs, but not that much strength. Back then I also started being on a caloric restriction with keto and OMAD – it was a lot for me, but I got used to it in the following years. A true testament that diet is everything. PS: one year before that I bought my rings, and they surely helped (They were the piece of calisthenics equipment I needed most)
4. 2023 – 77kg (lean) – I had a killer diet for like 6 months straight, I was doing weighted muscle ups, and achieved 100 push-ups in a row. Compared to my strength, my body felt like a feather. Most of the exercises I did on gymnastic rings felt like gravity was on holiday.
5. 2024 – 83kg (bulked) – I kinda miss being lean, but my chest became absolutely massive.

My 7 lessons from 7 years of calisthenics

So now that you’ve seen my journey (at least from a bird’s eye view), I can share the best tips I have found to stay fit. Most of those tips are focused on diet and habit-building since that’s what matters anyway. Those who focus on specific exercises will get specific improvements. You can get fit with just push-ups, and I did that for like 6 months of my life. 

So if you are consistent, have a great diet, and do compound movements, the rest is almost irrelevant in comparison.

1. Calisthenics is actually the right path

Most of my friends tried going to the gym, some quit after a month, and some did it for years. But most gym people have periods where they lose all of their muscles. Outside of fitness influencers, life actually gets in the way, and you just can’t allocate 1–2 hours 4-5x a week going to the gym

That’s why calisthenics is actually the right path. If your workouts take 30 minutes, and they’re from the comfort of your own home, you don’t have to stop it. Especially if you…

2. Workout before showering – Habitify your Calisthenics transformation

This is the weird tip, but it just works. Working out before showering means that:

1. You don’t need an exercise routine, just to schedule more time for showering. No more guesswork about when to exercise.
2. When you crave a shower you now need to do an activity that makes you crave it even more and in no time the routine will solidify in your brain.

I have done this tip for the last 5 years by accident, and it’s actually a big reason why I have stayed fit during the most busy or sad periods of my life. 

3. 3x a week of 20 minutes is enough if…

You have a great diet and focus on hard compound movements. 

If you have a great diet, your body composition will be good enough. There is this big misconception that if you exercise, you lose fat, which is absolutely false. If you start calculating how much exercise you need to do to burn those 3 Snickers bars you ate, you’ll give up on it. 

Exercise mainly helps with heart health and muscle composition, not weight loss. You’ll be hungry anyway after a big cardio session. If you struggle to lose weight, I suggest you pick up intermittent fasting: even though you abstain from food for a big part of the day, you know you can indulge a bit more when the time comes

So start eating lean. Pound up lots of greens and fruits to fill up your stomach, and get your daily protein intake with milk, meat, eggs, and nuts (0.8g of protein per lb of body weight). Cut off sugar and bread. Replace desserts with protein bombs (see below).

4. Get used to eating lots of meat (and learn how to season it)

Honestly, ground beef and steaks are the best way to get your protein up. Eggs help, as well as nuts, milk, and oatmeal, but the majority of your protein will come from meat. 

Learn how to season it so that you can eat lots of it (garlic, paprika & curry work well together). Try making sauces from yogurt or mashed tomatoes. It won’t take more than 3–4 minutes. Cut off your bread (it isn’t healthy anyway) to have more space in your stomach for meat. Make some tzatziki or pizza sauce to make it even easier to eat.

You might now think I am recommending you do unhealthy things, but that’s not the case. Make sure you get enough calcium from spinach and eggs to avoid health problems from red meat, and alternate between poultry, beef, and pork to avoid any problems. Pair this with lots of veggies and greens.

You can also try protein powder, but I prefer meat & eggs because of the nutritional value.

5. Get 2 pairs of gym rings to best train full-body

Rings are the best calisthenics equipment you will ever own, period. You can train your whole upper body, they are fun and the imbalance will build up your strength like nothing else. Not to mention they are portable, resistant, and can last you a lifetime (especially the plastic gymnastic rings).

But it’s a hassle trying to hang them and change their height for every exercise. So one time I decided to get 2 pairs: one is hung at chest level for pull-ups dips, rows, and other skills, and one is hung at foot level for push-ups and other skills. 

Now that there’s no need to hang and re-hang rings, the workouts are much faster and there’s much less resistance to start working out since everything is ready. Rings are dirt cheap anyway, so there’s no reason to not do it. Place a pair of parallettes near them and that’s your home “gym”.

6. Replace cheat meals with high protein bombs – they taste the same

Cheat meals are inevitable in your calisthenics transformation, and they will happen somewhere between 1–2 times a week. I know they did for me. They are pretty harmless, but if you want to stop eating crap and be better off with cheat meals, then learn how to make delicious high-protein bombs in little time.

For me those “cheat meals” are pizza sauce with ground beef (you can make the sauce in 2 minutes at home, and it’s healthy) and a mix of milk, honey, cocoa powder, and banana. The first is a perfect replacement for pizza, and the second one for chocolate. 

Not to mention the first one can be either mixed with a spoon in a bowl or blended: it tastes amazing. Add more oatmeal to the mix to make it feel like pudding, or more milk to make it feel like a shake. You can microwave it, or, as I prefer it, eat it cold.

You might want to learn how to make chocolate protein shakes, fruit juices, or healthy wraps. Get creative and focus on being able to do them fast, because most of the time the reason we do cheat meals is that we are lazy to cook.

7. Compound over isolated movements to transform calisthenics workouts

The last tip is one of the most important in my calisthenics transformation. If you took a look at my abs, especially in the 4th photo, you must think that I have a special routine that I do every week to train them.

Right? Actually, I have NEVER trained abs. How is this possible? I have also never trained shoulders, or other small muscles in the body. My whole routine consists of skills, dips, rows, push-ups (here is my calisthenics push workout), and pull-ups. I don’t need fancy exercises to build muscle if my exercises train more muscles at the same time.

If you’re a professional bodybuilder you might want more isolated movements, but nowadays, every beginner thinks you need to do crunches to get abs. The most I would do is raise my legs in an L shape when doing pull-ups, so my abs are worked more.

But for most people, compound movements will get you 85% there. I had times in my life when I only did push-ups, and everything was fine. The only thing I was strict with was my diet. And that doesn’t mean I don’t do more complex exercises. 

I like pelican push-ups, sit pull-ups, ring chest flies, and muscle-ups. But they are all movements that train a lot of muscles, even though not as well as isolated movements.

Summary of my calisthenics transformation

My 7 years of calisthenics weren’t filled with ups and downs, but actually a consistent growth year over year. Because of the fact that my workouts are short and well-scheduled, I don’t need that much time to get fit. My diet of course plays a big role in this, especially since I have started intermittent fasting.

A great and well-thought-out diet is essential, with enough meat, protein, and nutrients. But I never tracked my calories or stuff like that. Compound movements are a must, and most calisthenics exercises train your abs as well. In those 7 years, I have never prioritized exercise but my career and everything was fine. 

The health and mind benefits are felt every day, and I would do calisthenics even if no visual changes were made to my body. I hope that this post inspires you to start a beautiful journey yourself.