Recently, it can be seen that more and more people are starting to care more about their health and fitness. This can be seen especially in fitness clubs and gyms, but also in parks and forests, where many cyclists, walkers and joggers can be found today. One of the modern sports that has reached Poland in recent years is Street Workout. Let's find out what Street Workout is, what exactly it consists of and its benefits.

• History of Street Workout
• What is Street Workout all about?
• Where to train Street Workout?
• Benefits of practicing Street Workout
• How to start Street Workout well?
• What does Street Workout look like for the more advanced?

History of Street Workout

Street Workout literally means street training, and the name originated around 2009 in the US. Street Workout is derived from calisthenics and is an expanded form of calisthenic training. The origins of Street Workout took place in the United States, and American Tyron Lanham, known in the community as "Hannibal for King," is considered the main pioneer of this new sport in the world. The greatest development of Street Workout occurred in the early 21st century in New York City in areas of particular unemployment and poverty, where residents could not afford regular visits to the gym, so they began to practice the sport outdoors, which required no financial outlay. Street Workout has quickly gained popularity around the world in recent years, including in European and Asian countries. As of today, it is estimated that Street Workout is practiced by nearly 10 million people around the globe.

What is Street Workout all about?

Street Workout is a modern sport that is based on calisthenics. The term calisthenics is a combination of two Greek words, namely kallos and sthenos, which mean beauty and strength, respectively. Street Workout combines elements of parkour (free running from point to point) and gymnastics. It is therefore a sport that uses one's own body weight as resistance for strength training without additional equipment. Street Workout uses bars, handrails, gymnastic wheels and benches. The basic elements of Street Workout training are push-ups, hangs, pull-ups on a bar, standing on hands and various combinations of these exercises.

Where to train Street Workout?

Street Workout is usually practiced outdoors in specially designed training parks, so it does not actually require any expensive equipment. A park designed for Street Workout is characterized by a special soft ground and is equipped with bars, ladders, benches and gymnastic wheels. Street Workout has become very popular, especially among young people, including teenagers. Street Workout can be divided into two main categories:

• Freestyle - the workout additionally uses acrobatic and gymnastic elements.
• Strength and endurance - as part of regular training, basic calisthenic exercises are additionally performed on the amount with the use of additional load.

Benefits of practicing Street Workout

Among the most important benefits of practicing Street Workout on a regular basis, the main ones include:

• Improved physical fitness,
• Increased muscle mass and strength,
• Improved body composition and appearance of the figure,
• Improved health,
• Strengthening of bones,
• Strengthening the muscle corset,
• Improving spinal stabilization,
• Development of correct posture,
• Alleviation of lumbar spine pain,
• Improving blood circulation,
• Building self-discipline,
• Reducing stress and emotional tension,
• Improving mental and physical well-being.

How to start Street Workout well?

Street Workout workouts are based primarily on athletic, isometric and calisthenic exercises. As with learning any new sport, the beginnings can be difficult, but practice makes perfect. At the very beginning of the Street Workout adventure, basic strengthening exercises for beginners are performed. Among them can be distinguished:

• Push-ups, or push-ups - strengthen the shoulders, chest, triceps, and gluteal and deep abdominal muscles.
• Pull-ups, or pull-ups on a bar - an excellent multi-joint exercise that engages the muscles of the back, arms and shoulders.
• Plank, commonly known as plank - strengthens the trunk muscles and deep muscles that stabilize the spine.
• Lunges, or lunges - increase lower-body muscle strength and mobility of the lower extremities.
• Burpees, commonly known as "fall, rise and jump " - a strength and endurance exercise that strengthens the muscles of the entire body and improves cardiorespiratory fitness.

What does Street Workout look like for the more advanced?

All those fascinated by Street Workout who already have a good grasp of the basics of the workout should start incorporating more advanced exercises into their regular training sessions, which require a lot of strength and very good physical fitness. Here are two examples of these:

• L-sit, or the so-called gymnastic level - increases the strength of the abdominal muscles, legs, chest and arms, and helps you learn to maintain muscle tone throughout your body.
• Pistol squat, or single-leg squat - improves the muscular strength of the lower limbs and helps improve motor coordination. This is an exercise that is quite challenging for many people at the initial stage, as it requires good mobility in the knee, hip and ankle joints, as well as adequate strength and motor coordination.

Street Workout can also use WOD (Workout of the Day) training inspired by CrossFit classes. This is a set of endurance and strength exercises, the primary goal of which is to develop overall physical fitness. Functional movements reflecting everyday activities are then used. Among the examples of exercises are push-ups, pull-ups on a bar, bench presses, deadlifts, squats, and triceps. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) using your own body weight, such as the four-minute Tabata metabolic interval workout, which engages the muscles of the entire body and helps increase muscular endurance and physical performance, can also be helpful. During all exercises used in Street Workout, it is very important to keep the abdominal muscles tight at all times and to perform a full range of motion.

Sources:

• Tomczykowska P.: The modern face of calisthenics. Street Workout as a new sport discipline. Journal of Health Science 3 (2013).
• Sanchez-Martinez J, Plaza P, Araneda A, et al: Morphological characteristics of Street Workout practitioners. Nutr Hosp. 2017 Feb 1;34(1):122-127.
• Ngo JK, Solis-Urra P, Sanchez-Martinez J.: Injury Profile Among Street Workout Practitioners. Orthop J Sports Med. 2021 Jun 15;9(6):2325967121990926.
• Schlegel P, Sedlakov L, Krehky A.: Street Workout is the new gymnastics - strength development in a very short school-based program. Journal of Physical Education and Sport. 2022;22(2):489-494.
• https://www.pzkisw.pl/