Street Workout (“Street Workout” – from the English “street training”) is one of the varieties of physical education in which all exercises are performed on outdoor sports grounds: on structures (horizontal bar, bars, horizontal and vertical stairs, dug-in wheels, benches and etc.) or on the ground without their use. international championships. Given its mass character and the growth in the number of fans, it is possible that this may soon change.

This unofficial sport has a number of advantages, and this is not only accessibility for almost any person. Workouters or street athletes, as they also call themselves, are usually fans of a healthy and active lifestyle, as a result of training they acquire high physical performance, relief figures (especially the torso), and most women consider this to be much more attractive than huge, “steroid-loving» inhabitants of rocking chairs.

Where did the workout come from?

Many guys went in for sports on horizontal bars, uneven bars and other structures back in the days of the Soviet Union. It was in the USSR that the tradition was born to place sports grounds (with horizontal bars, stairs and other structures) in courtyards near apartment buildings. This tradition has continued to this day, while the requirements for the sites are regulated by law, although they are not mandatory. In our time, the sports ground is one of the few remaining tools for introducing young people to sports and active recreation of life, since the remnants of the Soviet cultural enlightenment system have long been destroyed.

In educational institutions, standards for pull-ups, push-ups were introduced, and the benefits of playing sports were actively promoted. Similar standards are passed even now in educational institutions, and not everyone is able to fulfill the norm without preparing.

Since 1993, Calisthenics has been actively developing the direction of sports activities in the United States, in which the weight of one’s own body was mainly used for training. In the early 2000s, the exchange of information became more accessible thanks to the Internet, and this also contributed to a more active exchange of it between SND and the West. At this time, videos with records began to appear and gain popularity, where African Americans with impressive figures performed various tricks on horizontal bars, bars and other structures and without them. Many of these videos were called Ghetto Workouts, most likely due to the fact that the participants in the videos themselves lived in ghetto areas (areas in large cities inhabited by ethnic minorities). But the exact reason for the name of the videos can only be confirmed by their author. Part of the video was signed as Street Workout, this name is more used and known today.

These videos were distributed on phones back in the days of infrared ports, causing great interest among the youth of the post-Soviet space. Gradually, both the number of such videos on the network and the number of fans of this direction grew. Then separate sites dedicated specifically to street training began to be created, competitions began to be held, celebrities appeared among street workouts, quite often this direction began to be mentioned on television. The date of the emergence of the Workout (a), as a separate direction, is considered to be 2008. It is widespread among the CIS countries, most of all in Russia and Ukraine, in the west, such activities remained under their former names. The workout classification includes two main areas (styles):

– Street Workout – a kind of workout, in which they mainly train to perform various elements, gradually learning new ones and complicating and perfecting the old ones.

– Ghetto Workout – a kind of workout, in which the emphasis is primarily on training strength indicators to increase the number of possible repetitions in individual exercises (different types of pull-ups, push-ups) or the time of performing static exercises (holding the body in any position that requires effort). But you can also find the definition of Ghetto Workout as an activity that also develops the mind, and also does not require a horizontal bar or other structures, but implies the possibility of exercising in any conditions and in any place.

– Handstand – an additional kind of workout, in which training is devoted to handstands, walking on hands, push-ups in such rack, power exits to the rack (matches), bouncing on the hands, etc.

You can also find other classifications. For example, yard gymnastics is sometimes considered as one of the varieties of street workout. Gimbarr is sometimes also referred to as a workout. This is also a street sport that came from Colombia. But it is rather a separate discipline. The elements performed in jimbarra require the development of not so much strength as coordination of movement, flexibility, persistent learning of exercises, many of which are very traumatic and are often performed from insurance. It is officially recognized as a sport in its homeland, Colombia. But in the CIS, Jimbarra competitions are usually held as one of the workout styles.

But often, the guys involved in sports fields do not consider themselves to be a separate style of street training. They just learn the elements that are interesting to them and work on strength indicators. The types of workout videos can be viewed below to better understand the difference between them.

Let’s sum up the workout:

There is no single classification of workout, just as this unofficial sport itself can be interpreted with some differences in different sources by different authors. But this does not change the essence, as well as the benefits of the development of this direction. Not so important is the origin of the workout, which is described above, or where the street workout came from. Accessibility and impressive results achieved by people who have devoted themselves to this occupation make street workout more and more popular.

It is difficult to argue with the fact that if it is possible to visit the gym constantly and without much material damage, then it is better to exchange it for street workouts. The opposite, of course, can be argued by street workout fans. But people for whom the rocking chair is so accessible are a small fraction of a percent. The horizontal bar and bars can be bought and installed at home on the wall for less than 70 USD. And to build these structures in the yard, if they are not there, is even cheaper. There are a number of workout exercises, for which, in general, there is no need for any structures.

Do not puzzle over theory, but move on to practice. Training, of course, you need to start with basic exercises (pull-ups with different grips, push-ups on the uneven bars and from the floor in different versions, exercises for the press with a lift, like torso, and legs, etc.). Complex elements and exercises will be developed with experience, after the muscles are sufficiently developed.