The Best Fitness Gear for Gymnastics and Calisthenics Training

Many of us believe that getting into shape and building a strong, toned body means using complicated, heavy, and cumbersome gym equipment, that not only costs an arm and a leg but ties you to an unwanted gym contract. This doesn’t have to be the case.

Bodyweight training has a lot to offer. All you have to do is move your body and use your own weight to become fitter. Bodyweight training has amazing benefits. It is convenient as it can be done almost anywhere, it engages more than one part of your body, and you can adjust the type of exercise based on your fitness level.

Gymnastics and Calisthenics are popular training techniques that incorporate bodyweight training with the use of simple pieces of equipment and you guessed it… your bodyweight.

Gymnastics versus Calisthenics

Calisthenics harnesses the basics of gymnastics and there is a lot concerning each discipline that overlaps. However, there are a few crucial differences.

While gymnastics takes place indoors with the use of highly specialised equipment such as trampolines and vault tables (just to name a few), calisthenics is less defined and can take place almost anywhere, in your home or outside, as it uses improvisation and creativity in using your bodyweight in unique ways.

Both gymnastics and calisthenics use a variety of different pieces of versatile equipment which assist in utilising your body weight to its maximum potential. Let’s have a look at a few important ones below to take your bodyweight training to a new level.

The Pull-up Bar

This essential piece of equipment will boost your upper body training and engage your core in a few different ways, based on the specific exercise. REBEL’s Wall Mounted Elite Pull-Up Rig and REBEL’s Wall Mounted Pull-Up Bar are ideal accompaniments to any functional training facility, high performance centre or home gym as they are perfect compact training tools. If you aren’t too keen on the permanency of these fixtures, the REBEL Above Door Pull-up Bar will allow you to integrate your fitness goals seamlessly into your daily life, by allowing you to easily mount it to any door frame in the house or holiday home.

Gymnastic Rings

These can be used for a host of different bodyweight exercises. This quintessential piece of equipment can be tightened around pull-up bars, trees, or ceiling beams for a never-ending number of bodyweight exercises. Pair the REBEL Classic Wooden or Plastic Gymnastic Rings with our elite pull-up bars to kick your workout up a notch.

The Plyometric Box

At REBEL Fitness, our range of Plyometric boxes will enhance your bodyweight training routine allowing you to use your own body to boost agility, improve your strength and allow for High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). From the REBEL 3 Tier Trapezium Plyo Box to the REBEL 3-way Plyo box and REBEL Foam Coated Safety Plyo Box, you will be able to increase your strength & conditioning using a range of different exercises.

Parallette Bars

The parallette bars or parallettes are portable bars that resemble gymnastic parallel bars and come in a variety of different shapes and sizes. REBEL Parallettes come in pairs and offer a safe, low-height platform to perform an array of pushing and pressing movements such as dips and L-sits for upper body and core strength.

Resistance Bands

Resistance bands allow you to add more resistance to any movement in bodyweight training, from upper body to lower body workouts. They can also decrease resistance by adding support in movements you may not be strong enough to do yet, such as pull-ups. REBEL’s Power Resistance Bands can be used to assist bodyweight exercises, up your stretching game or assist in resistance-based exercises as they come in a range of different widths, each providing a different level of resistance.

The Suspension Trainer

Like gymnastic rings, this versatile bodyweight training tool can be used to mimic common gymnastic movements and opens an array of stability exercises. The REBEL Suspension Trainer can be used by anchoring the heavy-duty webbing straps, with adjustable buckles in a doorway or from the ceiling (in place of a tree or pull-up bar).

If you rely solely on bodyweight training or use it interchangeably with another training method, you can choose to use one or all these flexible pieces of equipment to your advantage. There is no shortage of a variety of different movements inspired by gymnastic and calisthenic exercises to help you achieve your fitness goals.