Beautiful Strength

Calisthenics does not mean what I thought it means.

In a recent class a student asked:

“Would you say a lot of the movements we do in class are ‘calisthenics’?”

I told her:

“It depends. Words can have multiple meanings. Calisthenics could mean…

i) gymnastics strength training
or
ii) bodyweight exercises
or
iii) the sport of Calisthenics, which compresses the expression of the art into a narrower subset of patterns
or
iv) some other meaning related to the origin of the word, which I hadn’t yet researched, but assumed was something to the effect of ‘body movement’.”

So…

“Which one do you mean?”

We all laughed, clarified the meaning enough to continue the class, and moved on.

Later, I did some digging.

It turns out ‘calisthenics’ does not mean what I thought it means.

The word calisthenics comes from the ancient Greek words kállos, meaning beauty, and sthenos, meaning strength.

(-ics denotes a field, practice, art, or system of study.)

So calisthenics means something like:

the study or practice of developing and expressing beautiful strength.

Isn’t that interesting?

No mention of method.

Only of an orientation towards a certain quality.

A philosophy.

Why do you suppose we think of calisthenics as bodyweight strength training, when embedded in the word itself is so much more?

Have we lost something important?

Or has the narrowing of the word also given people an entryway into practice and belonging?

I’m not sure.

What do you think?

🤔🐒

These ideas are not only philosophical. They are explored through consistent movement practice.

At Meditative Monkey we work with these principles directly, developing awareness, capacity, and resilience over time.

If this perspective resonates with you, you are welcome to begin your practice with us.