A pull-up bar and a set of parallel bars in an open space in Santa Luċija inspired a young man passionate about sports and physical activity to start practising what he used to read and research about on the internet. And he would spend hours at it.

Twelve years down the line, he is now a calisthenics trainer and has founded Kalistenika – Calisthenics Malta.

“Back then, I knew it as ‘bar training’ since most exercises were performed on pull-up bars and parallel bars. I wasn’t even aware that I was practising calisthenics,” Tyler Tanti, who is also a physical education teacher and martial arts coach, says.

When COVID struck in 2020, Tanti − a former karate national team coach − couldn’t spar with anyone, so he focused 100 per cent on calisthenics. He became fully committed to training and research on the subject. 

Tyler Tanti

His skills improved drastically in the following two years and he thus decided to start conducting calisthenics classes: as a teacher, he felt impelled to impart what he had learnt throughout the years.

“From my experience as a physical education and martial arts teacher, I already knew how to properly manage a class and so that gave me extra motivation to start something new, something fresh, on the island,” he says.

On June 21, 2021, he led his first calisthenics class and hasn’t stopped since. Kalistenika was founded a few months later, when Tanti felt that “these were not just normal classes but also a part of a community”.

Ancient form of training

Calisthenics is actually an ancient form of physical training: Spartan warriors and Chinese monks trained by using their own bodyweight to become faster and stronger for battle, Tanti explains.

Fast forward to the early 1800s, calisthenics training started to be implemented in education, especially in gymnasts’ training regime.

Nowadays, gymnasts use calisthenics to improve their strength and acrobatic routines.

The core principle behind calisthenics is training by using your own bodyweight to build strength, flexibility and endurance, reflecting a holistic approach to physical fitness and self-mastery. The main equipment used are rings, pull-up bars and parallel bars.

“It could also be considered as the bodyweight training regime of a gymnast,” the 30-year-old says.

The main equipment used in calisthenics: rings, pull-up bars and parallel bars.

Calisthenics targets the whole body, however, it offers a variety of progressive exercises mainly targeting the shoulders, back and core.

“It could be described as the pinnacle of upper body strength; the hardest bodily movements that the human body can perform are all present within calisthenics training,” Tanti explains.

He further notes that the main difference between calisthenics and other types of exercise is the “complexity of movements”.

“While calisthenics can still offer a great deal of beginner friendly exercises that can be done by everyone, it also includes difficult exercises that require a certain level of strength. It also offers skills – which are mainly comprised of static holds requiring strength and balance,” he says.

Benefits

Calisthenics offers all the benefits that come with physical activity but, over and above that, Tanti highlights the following:

1. First and foremost, it’s free for everyone – given that the person knows how to train properly. If not, it is advised to ask a professional to help you learn how to train.

“Once you learn, you can then head to the nearest outdoor gym (having the proper equipment) and train for free,” he says.

2. One develops “incredible” strength, especially in the upper body. The body will be able to climb, bend, jump, hang and apply force with such ease if you train it regularly. Military training, in fact, adopts lots of exercises from it.

3. It helps tendon and ligament strengthening due to the straight arm movements involved − unlike other forms of training that rarely focus on static or dynamic straight arm strength exercises.

4. It improves mind-body connection due to increased body awareness of muscular activations.

5. It’s a personal journey of fitness; the only competition is between yourself yesterday and today.

“The satisfaction of learning a new skill or increasing the number of repetitions of an exercise, beating your previous PR (personal record), is unmatched,” Tanti says.

Participants in a calisthenics class.

And who is to benefit the most? According to Tanti, it is:

1. Those who would like to start their bodyweight strength journey, learning how to do the basic exercises first and then progressing to beginner skills; and

2. Those whose fitness levels are already good and want to level up their strength. In this case, they would still need to train to master the basic exercises and skills and, later on, move to more advanced ones.

Rewarding and fun

Beginners mostly focus on basic exercises and their variations, such as pull-ups, push-ups, leg raises, pikes and squats.

Once they start increasing the number of repetitions, the variations of such exercises will start to get more and more difficult: from pull-ups to muscle-ups and front lever pull-ups; from push-ups to planche (push-ups with feet in the air) skills; from pikes to handstands and handstand push-ups; from squats to pistol and single-leg squats.

Tanti performing a straddle planche.

Tanti says that almost everyone can grasp beginners’ skills with some practice but intermediate and advanced skills “can easily take years to master”.

As mentioned earlier, the focus is on rings, pull-up bars and parallel bars, which Tanti says are “more rewarding” than floor exercises and “fun to do”.

In fact, he says that people often comment about feeling “like a kid again” when performing certain routines.

Pushing limits

As a physical education teacher and someone deeply passionate about martial arts, sports and physical activity, calisthenics has been the discipline that has fascinated Tanti the most.

“Its challenging nature has continuously motivated me to push my limits, grow stronger each year, master new skills I once thought impossible and truly appreciate the incredible potential of the human body,” he enthuses.

Tanti thus encourages those who either want to start experi­menting with bodyweight training or want to level up their fitness levels to at least try calisthenics once in their life. 

“It will be worth it,” he assures.

Anyone interested in giving calisthenics a try can contact Tyler Tanti on the Facebook page Kalistenika – Calisthenics Malta, Instagram page kalistenika.mt or call on 7925 4961. Calisthenics classes are held at La Salle Karate Club, Vittoriosa. The gym is fully equipped and matted for better safety and performance. The schedule of classes can be found on the FB page.