Kate Moss’s mantra may once have been that ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’, but we’re much more into Sophia Loren’s motto, as told to Life Magazine back in 1961: ‘Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.’
Still. Pasta, it turns out, is only one part of the 91-year-old actress’s programme. In 2020, she told Haute Living San Francisco: ‘I have always been a person who prioritised exercise and a disciplined lifestyle in terms of physical and mental activity. To this day, I still wake up at 6am every day and go through a 45-minute calisthenics routine to start the day on the right foot and with a good frame of mind.’
‘There’s always an excuse to do nothing,’ she has previously been quoted as saying. ‘That’s why I force myself to go out and walk for an hour.’ The benefits are about more than staying in shape, she has explained. Exercise and activity ‘also give my daily life structure and focus’.
Loren may be a long-term proponent of calisthenics, but the retro exercise is suddenly experiencing a social media boom. ‘You only have to tap the word “callisthenics” into your search bar and you’ll immediately be drowning in images of people seemingly defying gravity: holding handstands, balancing in horizontal human flags and moving as if Newton’s theories on gravity were just gentle suggestions,’ says GH fitness expert Kim Hawley.
It may look intimidating, but Kim is reassuring: ‘Every form of movement has an entry point and, simply put, calisthenics is simply bodyweight training with a blend of strength, balance and, perhaps most importantly, mobility. These are the exact skills we need to fiercely protect as we age. After all, there is little glory in being able to run a marathon if you need a 10-minute warm-up just to bend down and pick your socks up.’
Callisthenics is amazing for teaching the body how to move well, she explains, especially as we age: ‘Squatting movements strengthen the lower body for everyday tasks like getting out of chairs. Push moves strengthen the upper body, helping with simple things like getting off the floor, while functional core work improves stability and balance, helping reduce the risk of the dreaded fall.’
It isn’t quite enough of a workout on its own, though. ‘Ideally, we should incorporate some dedicated weight training into our routine, but ultimately you don’t need to master one-handed handstands to reap the rewards of callisthenics,’ says Kim. And the best bit? ‘You don’t need any equipment or a gym membership.’
Five classic callisthenics moves to try
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