While calisthenics training focuses on no equipment routines, many of the pros, like Chris Heria, use equipment to assist their development. What calisthenics equipment does Chris Heria use?
Chris Heria uses calisthenics equipment to improve the effectiveness of his training routines. The calisthenics equipment Chris Heria uses includes pull up bars, dip bars, parallettes, weighted vests, ankle weights, a stationary bike, a rope, a skipping rope, and resistance bands. Chris Heria uses his own, custom made calisthenics equipment that you can buy from his website and the Thenx School of Calisthenics website.
Let’s take a detailed look at the calisthenics equipment used by Chris Heria, and at how he uses it, and how much it costs.
Pull Up Bars
Like everyone who trains calisthenics, Chris Heria uses pull ups bars. He uses them daily to perform pull ups, muscle ups, leg lifts, and a range of other exercises.
In fact, Chris Heria stars every day by doing 100 push ups and 100 pull ups on pull up bars.
Pull ups, says Chris, are one of the fundamental calisthenics exercises that everyone needs to master. You don’t need your own a specially made pull up bar at home to do it though. Head to your local calisthenics gym or calisthenics park to find a good pull up bar to practice on.
For those of you who, like me, prefer to workout at home you could consider investing in a door frame pull up bar, or a standing pull up bar frame. Chris Heria uses a stand alone pull up bar in his home.
The advantage of stand alone pull up bar frames compared to door frame pull up bars is that they offer a great variety of grips, allowing you to do more varieties of pull ups.
A pull up bar is one of the most important pieces of calisthenics equipment Chris Heria makes use of, and if you want to succeed at calisthenics it probably will be for you too.
Chris Heria Cardio Equipment: The Stationary Bike
Chris Heria does cardio training at least four times per week. The main bit of equipment he uses for this is a stationary bike.
Chris cycles on the stationary bike in the morning for 30 minutes. During his workout he will alternate the intensity, turning it up and down to create variation and challenge himself.
When he’s not cycling, Chris goes skateboarding, but skateboards really don’t count as calisthenics equipment, so I won’t go into that!
Chris Heria Ankle Weights
Actually, Chris Heria ankle weights are Thenx ankle weights. For those who don’t already know, Thenx is the calisthenics training academy founded by Chris Heria.
Thenx sells calisthenics equipment through its website. Chris Heria is normally seen using Thenx gear, including their ankle weights.
The Chris Heria ankle weights from Thenx come in pairs. Each ankle weight weighs 2.4 pounds and is adjustable, allowing you to increase or decrease the difficulty.
Chris Heria ankle weights cost $30 and are shipping within the United States and internationally.
Chris Heria Weighted Vest
The latest edition to the Chris Heria calisthenics equipment range is the Chris Heria weight vest.
The Heria weighted vest comes in three weight categories: 18LB, 28LB, and 35LB.
There are numerous designs and colors to choose from, so you can pick a style that suits your workout gear.
The Heria weighted vest features iron weights that can be added or removed to increase or decrease training difficulty. In one of his videos Chris even uses the weights during a shadow boxing workout, holding the weights in his fists while he throws punches.
The Chris Heria weighted vest is priced between $99.99 for the 18LB version, up to $179.99 for the 35LB vest.
How do you put on the Chris Heria weighted vest? You put on the Chris Heria weighted vest by placing it over your shoulders and connecting the adjustable clip around the middle. By all accounts it’s super easy to use and can really boost the effectiveness of your workouts. Read my review of the Heria Weight Vest to find out more.
There are also many other types of weighted vest available. I think the miR Air Flow Weighted Vest is the most similar to the Chris Heria weighted vest. Another similar vest is the Gymnastics Power weighted vest. Both are available on Amazon.
Chris Heria Wooden Parallettes
Another item commonly featured in Chris Heria’s YouTube workout videos is his set of wooden parallettes produced by Thenx.
Chris uses parallettes to perform all sorts of pushing exercises, including push ups of all kinds, and to do the planche.
According to Chris, using parallettes, rather than placing your hands directly on the ground, helps to prevent injury in your wrists.
If you want to know more about Chris Heria’s wooden parallettes you can read all about them here.
There are many wooden parallettes available from Amazon. I recommend the Ultra Fitness all-wood ones.
Chris Heria Resistance Bands
The last piece of calisthenics equipment used by Chris Heria is the resistance band. In fact, he uses multiple different resistance bands of different strengths.
“Resistance band progressively increase the force as the band expands and as you reach peak contraction”
Chris Heria
Chris likes to use resistance because they effective at building muscle and because they are small and portable. You can throw them in your bag and easily carry them anywhere – essentially taking your workout with you. They are a great item to have with you when you travel.
“There are many resistance band exercises that can easily be done in a small space of a hotel or even your home.”
Chris Heria
What is more, you can replace an entire set of dumbbells with just one resistance band and you can use them to exercise every muscle in your body and complete a full body workout.
There is a selection of resistance bands for sale on Chris Heria’s website and on the Thenx websites. The price depends on the strength of the band and ranges from $12.99 to $29.99.
Cheaper bands are available on Amazon. I recommend the SUNPOW 5 band set for calisthenics.
Chris Heria Calisthenics Equipment
Now that you know what calisthenics equipment Chris Heria uses, why not take a moment to purchase some for yourself. Since you don’t need a gym membership to train calisthenics, you should be able to afford building a calisthenics style home gym of your own with the limited gear used by Chris Heria.
Bonus Info: For the fanatics out there, I’ve also spotted Chris climbing ropes in the Thenx gym and using a skipping rope. Skipping ropes are easy to come by, but setting up a climbing rope in your living room might be a challenge…