Ever watched at a calisthenics move and thought, “No way, that’s impossible for me!”? Well, we’re here to help you out. In this article, we’re sorting 8 eye-catching calisthenics moves into two groups: the ones that look really difficult but are surprisingly achievable, and the ones that seem easy but are actually really hard. Whether it’s the gravity-defying Frontlever or the tricky Impossible Dips, we’re here to demystify them all. Ready to challenge your perceptions and your muscles? Let’s go!
Calisthenics exercises that are easier than they look
Typewriter Pull Up
First exercise on the list of moves that are easier than they look: is the Typewriter Pull Up. This move looks very advanced at first sight, but you can actually learn it pretty quickly. In fact I’ve seen people that could only do 2 Regular Pull Ups and were able to do the Typewriter on their first tries.
However, how easy or hard the Typewriter feels is also dependent on the equipment you use: Simply said it’s much easier and way more joint friendly when you’re doing it on rings.
Rings allow you to rotate the arm into the most comfortable position without losing the grip, while the bar forces you to make some adjustments during the movement.
To make the Typewriter Pull Up as easy as possible, bring your arm slightly in front and fix it as close to your torso as you can. Also make sure to move slowly and not extend your arm too quickly.
Elbowlever
The Elbowlever also looks a bit harder than it really is because this exercise is actually easier than a Bent Arm Planche, a Tucked Planche and even a Planche Lean.
The reason for this is that you support yourself on your elbows instead of holding your bodyweight with raw strength.
Just think of it as a balance scale, your arms act as the stand while your upper and lower body act as two load trays.
However you still need some basic strength and also balance to be able to do it. If you wanna try this move, start with your feet on the ground and lean yourself forward until you find the right center of gravity.
Another way to get more comfortable with this position is by trying it on a bench, a box or maybe a table. In this way you have more room to vary and adjust the position of your body and your legs a bit more.
Also make sure to find the most comfortable hand placement. Some prefer it with fingers pointing to the side while others feel more comfortable with fingers pointing to the feet.
If none of these adjustments work, you can also use parallettes or push up handles to make the Elbowlever a bit more wrist friendly.
One Handed Pull Up
Next we’re taking a look at the One Handed Pull Up.
This exercise also looks kinda impressive, but is miles away from a real one arm pull up, because you can still use most of the strength from the arm that grabs the wrist.
However it’s still more challenging than a regular pull up because you’re not at the exact same height as the other hand and you’re still holding yourself on the bar with just one hand, while the other one is using your wrist for pulling up.
All these points make this exercise not easy but in terms of strength still way easier than a real One Arm Pull Up.
Way more impressive would be a one handed pull up while grabbing your forearm or even the biceps, not only because of the difference in height but also because of the way more challenging grip.
The Backlever
The Backlever is also easier than it looks but still not easy at all. To be more clear:
If you compare the Backlever to a Frontlever and show both moves to someone that has no clue about calisthenics skills, it is very likely that most people will crown the Backlever as the harder move. Of course there are some people that can do the Front but not the Backlever, but this is an exception and not the rule.
The Backlever is easier in general because it stretches your pecs and shoulders as the arms go behind the back, so it has some passive strength component coming from that stretch that is helping you. In the Frontlever you don’t have that passive strength component because your arms are in a very natural position and not stretched, so you have to produce all the force actively.
To give you a real life example of difficulty between those 2 moves let’s take a look at Sven’s Front and Backlever Progression back in 2012. After just 5 weeks of focused back lever training he was already able to hold a solid straddle back lever and achieved the full back lever just 1 week later.
The Frontlever however didn’t come that easy. After 4 months of focused training he was still not able to hold a Frontlever with good form and it took him about 9 months in total to nail this move.
Calisthenics exercises that are harder than they look
The Frontlever
This brings us right to exercises that are harder than they look and here we start with the Frontlever.
Like explained before the Frontlever has no passive strength component and you need a lot of lat and long head triceps strength to do it.
So for most people it is actually harder than a backlever and even as the human flag because of it’s heavy focus on pulling strength. On the other hand if you’re really strong at Pulling Movements you can achieve the Frontlever pretty quickly because it’s more about raw strength than technique.
The Planche Lean
The Planche Lean is the next movement that is way harder than it looks. On the first view it may seem like some kind of Push Up Support Hold but this move is tough as nails.
Of course its difficulty depends on how far you lean yourself forward, but if you’re doing it like that: it’s actually harder than a tucked Planche, even if your feet still have contact to the ground.
The reason for this spike in difficulty has to do with the shoulder to wrist position. Simply said: The more you lean forward the more your front delts have to work and the harder it gets.
Similar to the elbow lever you need to prepare your wrist properly and you can also vary the wrist position to make this move more comfortable and wrist friendly.
Sitting Leg Raise
Next we got the Sitting Leg Raise and this move looks like some easy beginner stuff but you’ll be surprised how hard it actually is when you try it for the first time.
What makes this move so challenging is the necessary compression strength and flexibility in order to close the angle between your upper body and legs.
So the more you lean forward and the higher you raise your legs the more challenging it gets.
If you compress your body to the max, this exercise can even be harder than the L-Sit, at least when it comes to mobility and flexibility.
Impossible Dips
Impossible Dips are the last exercise that are way harder than they look. Of course you can already tell its difficulty by its name, but if you are not that familiar with Calisthenics or biomechanics it simply doesn’t look that impressive.
The impossible Dip is so hard because it’s basically a triceps extension with your own bodyweight.
In other words you don’t use your chest or shoulders like in a regular dip.
Also don’t make the mistake of comparing it with elbow or russian dips because they are way easier.
In the impossible Dip you try to push yourself up without leaning your upper body forward and shifting your shoulders too far in front of your elbows.
To get an idea how hard this exercise actually is, you can try it with a resistance band or do some easier triceps focused exercises like sphinx push ups and triceps dips.
All right guys, what’s your opinion about these moves? Are you ok with our list or do you think some movements are harder or easier that we ranked them?
If you want to learn more about these exercises from the article we suggest you to check our new video in youtube about the topic. And if you want to improve your calisthenics skills as fast as possible we suggest you to check out our complete calisthenics program you can get at calimove.com.
Watch The Video 8 Calisthenics Skills That Are Easier Than They Look!
Follow us for more!
