Did you know, that on August 18th we celebrate Never Give Up Day?
It is the perfect day for acknowledging the resilience and determination of those who never give up on their dreams and also a reminder of how important your dreams are.
“Never Give Up” is one of the most popular sayings which has motivated many people around the world to achieve greater heights in their field and encourages each and every one of us to keep trying. Every day. Like Nelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
I believe National Never Give Awareness day is of extreme importance and should be celebrated. Wonder why?
No matter what you do and where you are in your life, everything is connected to Never Give Up Day.
Whether is reaching your dream or fighting illness.
Whether you are struggling financially or emotionally.
Whether you suffer in silence, fighting battles no one knows about.
Never Give Up Day speaks to so many, because people deserve to celebrate what they have achieved and what they have been through to achieve it.
Be proud of your strength, determined people have the power to make real change, in their lives as well as others.
For this day, I wanted to mention Calisthenics, as a perfect example of something that requires never give up mindset.
© Frame by Nat
What is Calisthenics?
In short, Calisthenics is the most natural form of exercise that uses person’s body weight with little or no equipment. It originates from Ancient Greece and remains popular until today.
It’s about doing exercises which involve multiple joint movements and several muscle groups at once to coordinate, stabilize and transfer power efficiently. So called compound exercises.
Calisthenics builds excellent overall strength and burns more calories than isolated exercises. It’s also amazing for building true core strength.
I will not write a several pages’ long post on Calisthenics, as I’m sure if you Google it or talk to professionals, you will learn everything there is to know about it.
I’m here to tell you about what you must bring to the table to get there. It requires a certain set of traits: determination, self-motivation and consistency.
© Frame by Nat
It takes a long time to master something like Calisthenics and look like Miguel in the pictures I have taken or any other image you Google when you research calisthenics.
It looks impressive, feels liberating and has more benefits to health than I can list here, but like everything else, it doesn’t come without the strong mindset and training.
Calisthenics takes a lot longer to learn, whereas i.e. weightlifting‘s progress can be easily tracked by evaluating the increase in the weight that you work with. On the other hand, calisthenics is slower, more dangerous and harder to achieve. Sometimes it takes a very long time to see progression and results. As you get stronger, the complexity of exercises increases.
Therefore, maintaining motivation in calisthenics is one of the biggest challenges you will face. Sometimes, facing injuries or not seeing any progress will feel doubting, discouraging and achieving desired goal might seem impossible. In our busy lives, we might find it hard to fit the training in our routine, because of other responsibilities, which breaks consistency and slows down the progress. Or we might feel down or tired and skip one or two trainings, which quite often is unavoidable and completely understandable.
The range and complexity of body weight exercises is incredibly expansive. But if you master the most impressive calisthenics exercises out there, you will literally be able to perform movements that seemingly defy gravity. And that my dear friend, it’s a reason for celebration. That feeling of pride and sense of achievement. That moment when you remember everything you had to face to get where you are now. Priceless.
That’s why Never Give Up Day is perfect for bringing communities together to promote the spirit of never giving up, convincing ourselves and the world that we are strong, determined and able to achieve everything we dream of.
If you’re up there with calisthenics pros, give yourself pat in the back, because you have Never Given Up and that must feel amazing, even though I’m sure you have had several bumps on the way.
If you are a beginner and some movements feel impossible, this day is to remind you to Never Give Up and that nothing is impossible if you only work hard for it!
I hope this day will help you focus and accomplish your goals:
- Push yourself to the limits,
- Better yourself in anything you put your mind to,
- Break those records,
- Never give up on your dreams,
To all of you calisthenics enthusiasts – well done! You are an inspiration! Take pride in everything you've overcome and defeated, help and educate people to persist through their challenges.
If you have a story to tell that can inspire others to overcome difficulties, that’s the day to do it.