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Comment by sundvor | Hacker News Reader

If I could find room for a squat rack+ bench at home I'd agree with you. :) Nothing beats proper squatting, deadlifting, bench and shoulder presses.

I cycle a lot but the benefits for this desk jockey are marginal compared to doing stronglifts twice or thrice a week.

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Depends on the body type and age and history. these movements are super hard on the spine. Try planks and step ups

While there is some percentage of people who these compound movements would be bad for, the beauty of the progressive overload is that you can start incredibly light and strengthen your body overtime. When you compare older people who deadlift versus those who do not, you will often see a great difference in back pain and overall mobility. And for most people it is never too late to start.

And planks/step ups may be great, but they are no replacement for deadlifts and squats.

They aren't hard on the spine with proper form.

These exercises will actually strengthen your back and help your spine stay healthy if you practice proper form.

For bodyweight strength exercises you don’t need a squat rack and bench, or other equipment.

Calisthenics develop muscle more harmoniously and yield stronger joints.

You can also practice them literally anywhere, which helps when on the move.

> Calisthenics develop muscle more harmoniously and yield stronger joints.

I did a quick google, and couldn't find any resources comparing bone density and joint strength for calisthenics practitioners vs strongmen or powerlifters. There's no way joint strength doesn't factor in when you're moving multiples of your own bodyweight. That's also a pretty hard limiting factor of calisthenics - once you're moving your own weight effectively, there's not a lot of places to go, unless you load up with more weight, and then, hey, you're weightlifting.

I'm also confused as to what you mean by "harmoniously" - the big compound movements in lifting that are in vogue right now use a ton of muscles to move stuff around, so a lot of muscles come into play. If you're talking about "muscle imbalances", well, if one was to do a ton of pull-ups and not a lot else, that's a calisthenics workout, and not balanced.

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