Street workout is an increasingly popular form of physical activity involving the use of urban building elements for exercise. You don't have to pay for passes, admission tickets or buy specialized training equipment - street workout is completely free! All you need is a little bit of motivation and a little creativity to start practicing in the urban space today.

Street workoutare strength exercises performed with the use of urban building elements, e.g. walls, barriers, beaters, benches, lanterns, etc. or on special street workout squares with bars, handrails and ladders. They are usually based on calisthenics.

Calisthenics is a type of physical activity in which your body weight is used for training. The simplest calisthenic exercise is push-up, but the repertoire of techniques used in street workout is practically unlimited. The most common are pull-ups, squats, crunches and leg raises.

The very term street workout (from the English "street training") has been used in popular circulation since around 2009, although this sport was known earlier, mainly in the USA and the countries of the former Soviet Union. So far, over 20 groups of fans of this sport have been established in Poland.

Warsaw street workout fans talk about what regular training gives them:

Source: Dzień Dobry TVN / X-news

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Street workout

Here are examples of the most common street workout exercises:

  • pull-ups- this exercise comes in various variants, both basic and, for example, with lifting straight legs and touching the bar with your feet (thanks to this, the abdominal muscles are additionally engaged) ;
  • push-ups on the bars (dips)- for this exercise you need two stable, parallel bars on which you can lean and make torso raises, the easiest way to find them is on special squares for street workout;
  • push-ups on a platform- in a city space you can afford push-ups in various variants, e.g. push-ups with a palm rest on a park bench make your arms work harder. In turn, push-ups with feet resting on the bench(head down) strengthen the chest more effectively;
  • tuck planche- this is an exercise on the border of bodybuilding and acrobatics, because it is very important to maintain balance in it. It consists of resting your arms on handrails (as for dips) and drawing your knees to your chest. Thus, the weight of the entire body rests on the shoulders. You should hold this position as long as possible.
  • frog stand- an exercise similar to tuck planche, except that we lean not on the handrails, but directly on the floor. It requires spreading your knees to the sides and resting them on slightly bent elbows;
  • human flag- the "human flag" actually looks more like an acrobatic figure than a strength exercise. It consists in catching a vertical post, lifting the body sideways and maintaining the body (straight from the hand to the feet) perpendicular to the ground. The human flag requires tremendous strength of hands and body;
  • squats- you shouldn't forget about leg exercises, and for this purpose squats are best. To increase their effectiveness, it is worth doing squats on one leg (the so-called pistols).

How to start training street workout?

If you haven't de alt with some strength sport before, such as bodybuilding or martial arts, your beginnings with street workout can be difficult. People who are not fit have to put in more effort to gain enough strength and condition. If you have not practiced any sport so far, it is worth spending a month on general development training to strengthen all muscle groups, and only then move on to calisthenic exercises.

When you feel you've built up enough strength, go ahead and set your training plan. Think about what exercises you want to do and with what intensity. It's best to train in series, but remember not to push yourself over, especially at the beginning. One set should require moderate effort on your part, and with each subsequent set you can increase the number of repetitions. Be careful not to overtrain, then you may lose all motivation for further training!

Don't forget about warm-up and proper technique of exercising. The above-mentioned guides written by experienced street workout enthusiasts will be helpful in this matter. You can also contact a group of street workout enthusiasts in your area via the Internet - groups from individual cities usually have Facebook accounts. Forums for those interested in this form of activity are also developing dynamically. With their help, you can ask a question, share your doubts, and even ask for a free training plan and guidance one.g. diets or interesting locations.

Where to train street workout?

As the name suggests, the best place for street workout is the street. For this sport, local beats, walls, barriers, lanterns, football goals are perfect for this sport … But in fact, you can practice anywhere and at any time, and the only limitation is your imagination. If you are not inventive enough, you can take advantage of the so-called playgrounds for adults, i.e. parks with specially prepared poles, handrails and ladders. Admission is free.

In many Polish cities, there are also outdoor gyms that offer simple devices most often used in street workout (ladders, rails), as well as more advanced equipment.

Worth knowing

Why is it worth doing street workout?

Due to the fact that street workout is based on calisthenics, you do not have to buy specialized equipment or pay for training in order to do it. You also don't have to look for special places for exercise - it can even be a playground for children, a park or your own backyard. So doing street workout costs nothing.

Second, it is a great alternative to the gym. Instead of buying an expensive pass and spending hours indoors, you can exercise just as effectively outdoors for free. It will benefit not only your muscles, but also the whole body - better oxygenation results in increased efficiency, which in turn translates into better sports results.

In addition, street workout is a discipline with which it is impossible to get bored. Contrary to the gym, where there are usually a dozen or so devices at your disposal, street workout offers an unlimited number of possibilities in terms of where and how to perform exercises. Greater variety of training techniques better motivates to comprehensive work on your own body and makes the muscles develop harmoniously. On the Internet, you can easily find numerous guides that will teach you how to properly perform exercises in the urban space and to strengthen which parts of the body they are intended for.

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Summer sports