Join the tribe of Movement & Calisthenics Athletes – people just like you that are working with their own body weight to get strength, lose fat build muscle, recover from injuries and live their best lives!
Meet Jan-Erik
Our athlete for today is Jan. A 27-year old product developer. With more than 10 years of weight lifting experience, he had a very active history in his fitness journey. But this activity came to a halt when he realized what he really wants.
This is the story of Jan-Erik – The Movement Athlete
Jan was looking for a way to get stronger without getting too bulky. He wants to get more mobile and more flexible, too. He wants to feel more comfortable moving in his daily life. Jan doesn’t get this from lifting weights. He cannot get to his fitness goal with weight lifting. He wants a change in his fitness journey.
Jan added, “I’ve been doing strength and gym trainings for like at least 10 or 12 years now and I got pretty tired of it because I felt that I don’t want to get big and I don’t want to get really strong in bench press.”
When training gets boring, you’ll feel unmotivated and soon your progress will regress. Jan realized this soon enough.
Jan went searching through the world wide web for his solution. He found that calisthenics can help him get to his goal in his fitness journey. His next move was to search for a platform for his training. He found a couple of calisthenics apps He wasn’t satisfied until he found The Movement Athlete.
Jan’s now enjoying the amazing benefits of calisthenics through The Movement Athlete: superb strength and physique, increased flexibility and mobility, and a very adaptive exciting platform to train with.
“ I didn’t see the point anymore”
Jan’s main reason why he left weight lifting is because he no longer sees the purpose of weight lifting for him. He said, “ I felt like I really don’t care if I can take 5 kilos more in any exercise, I really don’t care because it’s still the same exercise. And I don’t want to get bigger or stronger in that particular thing”
He was looking for something else that’s more profound than just getting stronger only in a specific exercises by adding 5 kilos over and over again. Repeating the same exercise, the same motion, the same movement wouldn’t work.
“More than just strength.
Jan added, ““It’s not just about strength it’s more about ‘moveability’ and flexibility and all that.”
There’s more to fitness than just strength alone. Weight lifting is an excellent training ground to build strength but it’s not alone.
Calisthenics, too, provide strength training that can also improve one’s flexibility and mobility. In Jan’s words, also his “moveability”, his ability to move comfortably.
We all have only so much time in our lives. We must maximize our training by also improving other aspects of our body and function.
“It feels more like a health thing.”
Forget those injured, bulky, overweight lifters you see all the time. Jan doesn’t really want to be like them.
Instead – wouldn’t you rather be like a gymnast? Muscular, lean, and most importantly strong as hell in the real world?
Plus you’ll feel your aches and pains in your joints start to fade away as you develop more real world mobility.
“Freedom for your body”
Jan doesn’t want to be restricted with his movements. Who, in their right mind, would like to be restricted?
“I actually want to feel fit. The most important thing I felt was that I want to be able to do with my body whatever I feel like.”
Feel free to move however you like in any given situation. Feel free to do whatever with your body. Also, feel free from aches and pain that will hinder your freedom!
“Time to change.”
“I wanted more all around training or method or whatever, compared to just strength lifting and all that.”
Jan has had it with weight lifting. He wanted more for his body other than just strength. After his research, he stumbled upon calisthenics.
He immediately gave it a try and tried a few apps. It didn’t work for him because something isn’t quite right.
“I felt that the gaps between the steps and exercises were too big sometimes. So if you’re stuck, you’re stuck,” said Jan. He had trouble progressing safely and properly with the exercises. Something is always missing in the puzzle to bridge the gaps from exercise to exercise.
“So I gave The Movement Athlete a shot.”
Through his random browsing in the internet, he saw an advertisement of The Movement Athlete. The ad got his attention and read on. He felt that the app sounded good since it can adapt and provides the other benefits he wants: strength, mobility, flexibility, endurance.
Jan described The Movement Athlete:
“I would say that it is an app that helps you understand how you can increase your strength and mobility, basically anything that you want to do with your body. Without having to use weights or equipment or anything like that. I would also say it’s really nice because it tries to adapt to your level and also where your daily motivation and level is.”
Jan found exactly what he’s looking for and much more.
He talks about the app’s adaptability,
“So with The Movement Athlete app it’s like the first time I can feel like I can follow it and it doesn’t bother me that it’s telling me every day the exact training plan for the day. Doesn’t bother me at all because I feel it’s adaptive and fun. It works great for me.”
Jan doesn’t need to worry about any strict workout he needs to follow. As another athlete said about The Movement Athlete:
“Most other apps either give you a strict program, or a method based on one guy’s training ideas.
“The Movement Athlete Academy adjusts to you.”
After an assessment, The Movement Athlete app provides Jan a workout that helps him achieve his goal while still considering his current situation.
The app gives Jan the exact workout that’s best for him that day based on scientific assessments and how he’s feeling. No thinking, no guesswork. And when he’s feeling a bit tired, the app automatically adjusts to his energy levels.
Another interesting quote from an athlete, “No matter how you’re feeling, you can just use the app and still feel an improvement – even on your off-days or days when you’re not feeling super motivated. Because the app adjusts to you and how hard you rate your exercises during the workout. It’s like having a personal trainer that never yells at you.”
Bridges the gap to progress safely and efficiently
As said earlier, Jan has also tried out different calisthenics apps that has big gaps that get him stuck at a certain level. With The Movement Athlete, that problem just disappears.
He said,
“I would say the biggest difference is that The Movement Athlete I don’t need to worry about getting stuck on some level, because that’s what I felt with other apps or websites or whatever that focused on body weight training. That there’s a really big risk that you get stuck somewhere because the gaps between the exercises can be quite big sometimes”.
These gaps which other apps have are the cause of a plateau in training. After getting stuck and feeling like you’re no longer progressing, you’ll probably quit and head back to weight lifting.
The Movement Athlete addresses this issue by providing a complete set of progression. When training with the app, you’ll have a full step-by-step instruction in order to reach your goal. There’s no jump that will make you want to quit!
Benefits Jan-Erik gained from joining
The Movement Athlete
Keeps you consistent with training
What keeps Jan consistently training are the progressions. With the progression in The Movement Athlete app, Jan has a wide variety of exercises to choose from. Each added level, he learns another new exercises unlike with weight lifting, you’ll just add more weights to your barbell or dumbbells. Where’s the fun in that?
Another reason to keep him consistent is that he can always feel he’s progressing in his training. Jan said,
“In The Movement Athlete, it feels that I can always just go on and still feel an improvement. And get closer to my goal through that.”
Never get stuck
As mentioned earlier, getting stuck hinders you to consistently train. With the app, Jan never gets stuck. This is mainly through proper provision of progressions by the app. Jan mentioned,
“ I don’t need to like do a really boring exercise for half a year because I’m stuck until I can do the actual pull up. There’s a lot of progressions I can use so it feels like I’m not getting tired of what I’m doing.”
You’ll always have the chance to improve your level of fitness by moving forward with progressions. You’ll also have much more fun rather than doing the same motion thousands of times.
In Jan’s case, he finally got a proper pull up through a set of progressions that slowly but surely helps him to reach his goal. Progressions is the key.
Builds amazing overall strength
“I felt like the muscle ups looks so hard and it would be really nice to do that. And also, I like the thought of that it’s so definite with the body weight exercises, either you can do it or you can’t. It’s not like when you can bench press 100 or 150, it’s still the same exercise for me it just depends on how big you are.”
Jan’s correct. With calisthenics, you’ll still build amazing overall strength that’s not based on the muscle size. Learning the muscle up requires tremendous upper body strength that even a person that can bench 150kg can’t necessarily do.
Other than muscle ups, all calisthenics exercises can help you build strength as long as you choose the proper exercise for you. The Movement Athlete can help you in that department with ease!
Improves flexibility and mobility
“I’ve been pretty flexible all my life so I haven’t had any issues with it. But I always felt like it’s a shame to not try to improve on that as well.”
Jan’s a lucky guy. There are some people that are just naturally flexible, yet he still wants to improve it through calisthenics.
Calisthenics exercises helps improve your flexibility and mobility. This translates to a comfortable and healthy body.
Keeps any type of movement comfortable
Through Jan’s improved flexibility and mobility, he also kept his body free to do anything he wants to do.
“ I never want to feel like I’m restrained by my body or my health. If I want to pick something up or jump onto a cliff or whatever, I want to be able to do that and do that comfortably. That’s the health for me. I don’t want to be restricted and I want to be able to do things the way I want to do them.”
This means that he’s also free from injuries, aches, and pains that we always try to avoid. Calisthenics keeps your body free. If you have a desk job that keeps you seated for tons of hours a week, we highly suggest trying out The Movement Athlete app!
Rock solid core
You’ll also get a healthier and more injury-free body with a very strong core. Calisthenics trains this the best!
Jan’ emphasized,
“The biggest change I would say is the core part that has gotten a lot stronger.”
Having a strong core translates to numerous benefits. You’ll have a stronger complete motion with any exercise if you have a strong core. You’ll also have an overall comfortable feel in your motions.
In Jan’s case, he also finally trained part of his core muscles that he never trained. Even though he’s not training those muscles, those are still used in everyday function.
“Like a lot of side muscles and small back muscles and stuff like that, so then it becomes pretty clear that my core is improving since I’ve clearly never used this muscle before in my life.”
Remember that the core isn’t only composed of your abs. It’s everything on your trunk; front, back and sides. Power for other body motions comes from it. So like Jan, everybody should train their full core muscles!
Jan enjoys training with calisthenics through The Movement Athlete app. He so much from switch to calisthenics from weight lifting. Overall, he has a more complete and healthier state of body and mind through the exercise.
For the rundown of just some of the benefits of Jan’s experienced through using The Movement Athlete:
- He kept training consistently because of the interesting wide variety of progressions and he constantly sees progress
- He still built amazing strength that translates to other body movements
- Even though Jan’s already flexible and mobile, he was still able to improve it through calisthenics
- He keeps any daily movement comfortable and lessens injuries, aches, and pains
- He now has a full rock solid core
Final Advice
Jan’s happy training with The Movement Athlete:
“ I feel a little stronger and some parts more flexible and I can feel that I’m stronger in more weird positions than before.”
His thoughts and recommendation regarding The Movement Athlete app:
“I stopped searching after I tried this because I was satisfied with it, but I haven’t seen any apps similar to it. Because most apps, as I said, either there’s a really strict package they sell you or they’re just offering you, like yeah you might want to do this exercise or this. There’s not like real thing that adapts to you and really tries to get you in good shape I would say. So yeah, I would definitely recommend it.”
With The Movement Athlete, Jan was able to progress in his fitness journey. He’s no longer doing the same repetitive motion over and over. He said,
“It’s more like leveling up.”