Calisthenics Disciplines: The Five Areas Explained
Calisthenics roughly translates as “beautiful strength”, from the Greek words kalos (beautiful) and sthenos (strength). It means training with your own bodyweight: pull-ups, push-ups, dips, squats, muscle-ups. But calisthenics has long been more than a training style. It has its own competitions, its own scenes and very different focuses.
The German Calisthenics and Streetlifting Association (Deutscher Calisthenics und Streetlifting Verband, DCSV) distinguishes five areas. We follow this classification, including when listing the disciplines of our Team INTELLIGAINS athletes.
1. Freestyle
The most spectacular form: dynamic, acrobatic, static and strength-based elements are creatively linked into combinations known as “combos”. Influences come from gymnastics, parkour and breakdance. In competition, athletes often face each other in battles.
More on freestyle calisthenics
2. Strength Skills: Statics and Dynamics
This is about particularly difficult strength elements. The DCSV groups two sides under this heading:
- Statics: holds such as handstand, human flag, planche or lever, in which the muscles work statically. More on statics
- Dynamics: movement elements performed under very high force, such as one-arm pull-ups, impossible dips or handstand push-ups. More on dynamics
3. Streetlifting / Weighted Calisthenics
The basic exercises are made harder with added weight, for example with a dip belt, weight vest, kettlebell or weight plates. This allows the load to be increased in a targeted way to build maximum strength. The DCSV uses the terms streetlifting and weighted calisthenics side by side.
Weighted Calisthenics: How to start training with added weight
4. Endurance
Strength endurance: high performance over a longer period. Training is based on basic exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups, often as supersets or circuits. Competition formats include Max Rep, Max Hold and Timecap.
5. Sets & Reps
The foundation: basic exercises with high-quality execution, done systematically in sets and repetitions, with or without added weight. This is where the base for all other areas is built.
Clean before heavy
Across all areas, calisthenics shares one common standard: clean execution. The DCSV speaks of “clean form” and, more precisely, of “strict form”, meaning maximum precision without compensating movements.
Which area suits you?
Most athletes start with the basic exercises and find their focus over time. Many also combine several areas. You can see what that looks like for our team on the team page, where each athlete's profile shows which disciplines they're at home in.
Source for the classification: DCSV – What is Calisthenics and Streetlifting? (in German)
