Mikhail Vasilyev, Staff writer
“I’ve been training for a little over a year, and now I can do a human flagpole, one arm pull-ups, muscle-ups, and handstands,” said Mikhail Vasilyev.
As students you may know him as “that kid in one of your classes” Vasilyev described.
It is what you don’t know about him is what makes Vasilyev unique. He is a calisthenics competitor at the age of fourteen.
You might not know what calisthenics is, but Vasilyev describes it as “Bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and push-ups,” and goes on to say “anyone can do it, anytime and anywhere.”
Vasilyev’s routine is compiled of different exercises to push his body to the achieve peak results. He trains in calisthenics every morning before school, in the afternoon, and at night.
Vasilyev says, “nothing feels better than an early morning workout. It wakes me up and the rush is unequaled.”
Vasilyev’s afternoon session consists of an hour of cardio and then thirty minutes of skills training, consisting of moves like handstands and one arm pull-ups. And in the night, Vasilyev works on learning new moves like the one arm muscle-up and one arm front levers.
If just this training wasn’t enough for Vasilyev, he entered himself in the KnoxxFit Brz Bay Area Calisthenics competition against adults. There he placed fifth out of seventy-five people.
When Vasilyev started, his goal was to “stay fit” but now it sees like he has picked up a new hobby, and might even go pro one day.