Interested in the CaliMove program? Before trying it out, read this Calisthenic Movement review!
The popularity of calisthenics has been growing in recent years, especially when gym access is limited due to the pandemic. With many options to choose from when it comes to fitness workouts, where can I get resources for my calisthenics programs?🧐
As programs for fitness enthusiasts grow, finding the right workout to fit your needs can be overwhelming. There are tons of disciplines you can choose from. Aside from that, there are also a ton of selections within a specific discipline. Calisthenics is no exception.
✨Calisthenic Movement Review
In this article, we will talk about the Calisthenics Movement AKA CaliMove, a company that established a strong following in the fitness world thanks to its digestible way of sharing science-based information. We will discuss their calisthenics approach, the benefits of their workout, and the founders of the company.
We will also provide you with a preview of their programs that will help you build muscle, learn calisthenics skills, and improve your physique, and mobility. Hope this will give you an idea of what to expect if you decide to join their community.
Here’s what’s Cali Move offers:
General OverviewDuration: 57 Weeks + Difficulty Level: Adaptive for all skill levels Training Plan: 3 major programs available: 5 levels complete calisthenics program, 3-course body transformation, mobility program |
| 👍 PRO’s | 👎 CON’s |
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⚡️Who is Calisthenic Movement?
Sven Kohl (left) and Alex Lorenz (right) easily holding an L sit and V sit respectively.
Calisthenics Movement is a company that offers training courses and programs that focus on bodyweight exercises. Helping you build muscle and improve your overall fitness level is the goal of these exercises. They’re also a goliath in the calisthenics Youtube community garnering over 3.8 million subscribers. That’s such a huge following for a high niche market.
Sven Kohl and Alex Lorenz founded Cali Move in 2012. The partners have over 25 years of experience in the fitness industry.
They also carry credentials to hold group classes and personal training sessions.
✊The Dynamic Duo
Sven is a recognized physical therapist and licensed fitness trainer. On the other hand, Alex has a degree as a sports teacher that focuses on nutritional sciences. He is also the founder of a Calisthenics & Parkour association in Germany.
The trainers sought a compromise after finding that traditional gym sessions became repetitive and time-consuming. So Sven Kohl and Alex Lorenz designed the workouts to provide a more efficient workout that would still yield results.
💥Complete Calisthenics by Cali Move
When you say complete calisthenics, the exercises are not limited to just bodyweight workouts. Cali Move offers a progressive workout program that spans five different fitness levels.
- Level 1 to 3: Appropriate for Beginners to Intermediates
- Level 3 to 5: Intermediate to Advanced
The first three levels are the right place if you are new to calisthenics. You will learn all the basic exercises and progress at your own pace. The program targets areas of your body. This will help you build a strong foundation for more advanced exercises.
Once mastered the beginner and intermediate levels, you can move on to levels 3 to 5. The advanced level will test your strength, endurance, and flexibility. If you are looking for a challenge, this is the level for you.🤛
🎯What do you need to get started?
“El Eggs” performing bodyweight rows at home using his furniture. He’s wearing his Legendary BLUE SHORTS this time. More of this in their video on calisthenics equipment.
To fully benefit from the program, Cali Move recommends that you have access to some basic equipment. This includes a pull-up bar, dip station, and parallettes.👆
A pull-up bar or a set of gymnastics rings are a must-have for anyone who wants to do advanced exercises. You can purchase these items relatively inexpensively and they will last a long time if you take care of them.
The other pieces of equipment are not as essential, but they can help you progress faster in your workouts. For example, a dip station will let you do more advanced dips, and parallettes can be used for more advanced handstands.
If you do not have access to these pieces of equipment, don’t worry. You can still progress in the program by using alternative exercises.
Need help with calisthenics equipment? Read here: 📍 The Ultimate Guide to Calisthenics Equipment and Cheap Ways to Replace Them
🔎How to Assess Your Fitness Level?
Before starting any program, it is important to assess your current fitness level. This will help you determine which level is appropriate for you. The team at Cali Move has put together a fitness test that you can use to assess your level.
The test consists of four different exercises:
- ✔️ Pull-ups
- ✔️ Dips
- ✔️ Push-ups
- ✔️ Handstand hold (wall)
- ✔️ Skin the cat
- ✔️ L-sit
If you can complete the given number of repetitions for each exercise, then you are ready for the next level.
New to the exercises?😲
If you are not familiar with the exercises, don’t worry. The team at Cali Move has put together video tutorials for each exercise. You can find these videos on the company website or their YouTube channel.
Before actually doing the program, you will be introduced to some basic exercises that you will need to know. Explanations and additional tips are also provided to help you get the best results from your workouts.
Workout Schedule⏰
Don’t worry too much about the workout schedule. They designed the program in a way that you can do the workouts at your own pace. Depending on your selected level of training, a schedule will be given to you. As a result, you’ll better understand the workouts you’ll be doing each week.
🔥Phases and Progression of the Workout
Sven showing a 7-month transformation video of himself when he lost track of his diet and workout. Watch his journey here.
They designed the programs in a way that will ensure you’re consistently challenged. The workouts are divided into different phases. It still follows a progressive calisthenics approach.
Each training level consists of four phases, and every phase lasts for four to five weeks totaling 19 weeks.
The level 1 and 2 program requires 2 to 3 days of workouts per week and level 3 through 5 requires 3 to 5 days per week. Workout sessions last for about 45 minutes up to 2 hours, depending on your selected level.
🤜At the beginning of every phase, you find a list of all the exercises you need to complete for that phase. In addition, a tutorial video containing a comprehensive explanation of all exercises that you’ll be doing during that phase is also included.
You’ll be progressively introduced to new exercises. This will allow you to master the basic movement and progress to more difficult exercises.
Each phase starts with a test week. The test week is designed to help you track your progress and see how much you have improved.
Jumping from one phase to another, you get to learn new exercises, which will help improve your fitness level and help you push your limits and gain new skills.
The first phase is the most difficult, but don’t worry. The team at Cali Move ensures that you’ll be properly prepared before starting the program.
They have certainly done an excellent job in designing a comprehensive that promotes an opportunity for both fitness and skill development.
Exercise examples
The Complete Calisthenics includes exercises but is not limited to:
- 🏆 Pull-Ups
- 🏆 Body Rows
- 🏆 Dips
- 🏆 Chin Ups
- 🏆 Human Flag
- 🏆 Handstand
- 🏆 Handstand Pushups
- 🏆 Squats
- 🏆 Leg Raises
- 🏆 Front and Back Levers
The complete calisthenics program is not easy. You will feel the challenge both physically and mentally. But if you stick with it, the results will be worth it.♥️
How Much Does the Program Cost?💰
The cost of the program depends on which level you choose. Cali Move also offers purchases with discounts if you purchase bundle packages.
The prices are as follows:
- Level 1-5 complete bundle: $199.99 or 8 payments of $27.99/month
- Starter set: Level 1-3: $129.99 or 6 payments of $24.99/month
- Pro Package: Level 4+5- $89.99 or 6 payments of $17.00/month
- Single Levels: $59.99 or 4 payments of $18.00/month
Upon checkout, you can also add their Nutrition Upgrade which is an additional $34.99. This will be an additional benefit if you want to achieve optimal results. The Nutrition Upgrade will give you a diet guide that matches your specific program duration.
👍PROS
✅ Monthly Payment Terms
This is an excellent payment term since it can help lower the cost of availing of the program. It doesn’t require hefty upfront cash out so you can easily check their program out and bail if it doesn’t fit your requirements without losing too much money.
✅ Comprehensive Scope
From building muscle to building strength, to improving mobility, to learning new skills, to fat loss, their calisthenics programs cover all of these topics. Their holistic approach to fitness allows training multiple training goals in a given session.
✅ Mobility programs
You can also specialize your training in a complete mobility program that helps you improve your range of motion. Perfect for those who are experiencing any aches, pains, and stiffness in their muscles and joints. It’s great to have a separate option as specificity is still the optimal way to improve mobility.
✅ Scalable programs
Their programs can cater from complete beginners to advanced. Scalability allows you to work on your specific weaknesses while you also improve your strengths. They take advantage of the progressive calisthenics approach.
✅ Nutritional programs
Nutrition is a CRUCIAL component of fitness. Even if you’re following the best, personalised, and adaptive training program like what The Movement Athlete has, there’s no way you will progress if your diet sucks.
With Cali Move, you also have an option to get a nutritional guide so you can boost your progress even further.
You can read what a nutritional guide should look like here: Bodybuilding Nutritional Guide
✅ Excellent FREE resources
CaliMove is a popular calisthenics and general fitness content creator on Youtube aside from providing their workout programs. They post useful tips from general exercise tutorials to more specific exercises that address mobility weaknesses, and even general nutritional advice.
With their academic background and years of practice, they have mastered how to relay complex biomechanics and explanations in an easy, digestible, and practical manner.
And no, they’re not rising stars. They have already been on Youtube for 10 years already!
👎CONs
🥺 Endurance-based leg workout
There are definitely advantages to calisthenics leg training. This includes:
- Capacity to build strength and muscle
- Improves mobility at the same time
- Builds balance and control
However, calisthenics can be limited in progressing with your leg workouts so CaliMove utilizes the muscle’s capacity to grow with “endurance-based” leg workouts or high-volume training. Research indicates that you CAN build muscle with high volume training granted that the intensity matches the volume. This means that the lower the intensity (in calisthenics’ case, the limited leg resistance), the higher the required volume for you to build muscle mass. The caveat is that strength gains can be limited if weights are not used.
This disadvantage is more of a general calisthenics con, but you can STILL build strength up to a certain point.
🥺 Comprehensive training goals
It is a double-edged sword. While many will think that having a comprehensive workout that covers many training goals is ideal, it can actually slow down your progress which can lead to frustration.
🥺 Why too many goals might not be effective?
It comes back to the SAID principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands). Your body can’t efficiently handle multiple goals in which it would time some time for it to adapt to the multiple stimuli. It’s the same thing as productivity. You can get more work done if you focus on one task at a time rather than doing tidbits of many tasks.
You CAN and WILL still make progress with this type of training, but it will not be as efficient if we were to say training specifically for planche and all exercises are geared towards learning this skill.
To give you a better idea, let’s say you want to master planche, then your workout structure, frequency, and exercises choices should be geared towards this skill. Adding too many elements of (let’s say you want to learn one-arm pull-up as well) one-arm pull-up will affect your training recovery and your adaptations that should be centered towards planche.
This concern is generally for intermediates to advanced athletes. Beginners should stick to general strength building by mastering first the calisthenics fundamentals.
📌Final Thoughts
Overall, we’re impressed with Cali Move and the program they’ve put together. Cali Move did an excellent job designing a comprehensive system that promotes both fitness and skill development.👊
The program is very well structured, and progression is clearly laid out. In addition, the tutorial videos are extremely helpful and provide clear explanations of all the exercises.
Sven and Alex, together with their team, are passionate about what they do and are constantly putting out new content to help their clients reach their goals.🎯
Whether you are a beginner or advanced athlete, we recommend checking out Calisthenics Movement.
To know more about programs, read here: 📍 What Is The Best Calisthenics Program?