Athlete excels in strength and balance

Dan Pile performs a more difficult version of a planche. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Dan Pile provides fitness motivation by defying gravity employing amazing power and balance. He is a calisthenics athlete.

Using the body weight exercises of calisthenics, Dan vastly enhanced his strength and physique. The athlete explained the importance of being fit.

“Fitness is important to me because when you look good, you feel good,” he said. “It's also essential for your health. Regularly exercising decreases chances of disease later in life and can also prolong life itself.”

Dan, 27, of Atlanta, Georgia, explained why he prefers calisthenics to traditional weight lifting.

“I feel like I'm in the best shape I've ever been,” Dan said. “Weights are good. But when you're lifting weights, you're limited to, for the most part, what you can do. You have to adjust the weight based on what you're able to do. With calisthenics, you don't have that ability. You just have to do it. You have to practice and become strong enough to lift your own body weight, which is one of the best ways to build pure strength.”

His workout routine includes the gym, but focuses on calisthenics.

“I pretty much strictly use body weight workouts,” Dan said. “Occasionally, I'll use weights, but it's really mostly just body weight. I try to go as much as possible to the gym. It's probably four days a week. It really differs with my routine of the different workouts I do. I do a lot of handstand work, a lot of planche work, and I obviously like to create content. So I try to do different things during the workouts to come up with different ways I can come out with cool videos.”

He spends roughly eight hours a week working out, developing a great physique despite avoiding meat in his meals.

“Sometimes, I even struggle to keep weight on,” Dan said. “Sometimes, just from diet. I'm a vegetarian, so maybe sometimes with lack of protein I can lose weight.”

He explained how using body weight exercises also helps avoid injuries.

“Because you're not lifting more than your body versus when you're bodybuilding,” Dan said. “You're trying to max out. That could be prone to injuries. I would like to say it is safer than weights. However, as a calisthenic athlete and as a content creator, sometimes we do things, try different stunts in different places that ultimately are a little bit more dangerous. You are prone to injuries when you start doing sketchy things, but it's all good fun. I have not injured myself from calisthenics to the degree of any kind of surgeries or extensive resting periods from the workouts themselves.”

He cited calisthenics as the ideal way for beginners to start working out.

“Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, even crunches, certainly,” Dan said. “That's what I would recommend as a calisthenic athlete, is starting with the basics, developing the strength and going through the progressions that lead up into those more advanced techniques.”

He pointed out calisthenics require and enhance balance.

“Balance is one of the things that you need to develop in order to really excel with your progress,” Dan said. “Handstands, especially. A lot of people have problems with handstands because of the balance aspect, so having good balance is definitely fundamental to the sport.”

He foresees fitness remaining a significant part of his life.

“I've contemplated developing e-books to not only help people develop physically, but definitely also to make some money on the side,” Dan said. “I definitely need to grow my following a little bit more in order to actually see good results with that. But that's definitely something that I have contemplated. I want to remain fit. I want to progress with my skills, some of the techniques and the different — you could call them — holds positions. I want to progress there. It would be great to train people more often and perhaps for money. The big thing is just to influence people, be someone that can help someone develop physically, mentally, emotionally and just influence people to become stronger.”

He may enter calisthenic competitions someday.

“I think it would be cool and fun,” Dan said.

He does attempt fitness challenges.

“One of the videos where I was doing a handstand on one of my gym partner’s back was something we saw on Instagram that we replicated,” Dan said. “Gym partner challenges are things that we do mainly for fun, but also to see if we can actually do them.”

He also helps others train.

“Pro bono,” Dan said. “I don't have any business where I do that. I've had a couple of offers for personal training, but ultimately, if people who I know or maybe someone I meet at the gym want to train, it's going to be for free.”

He’s been training for nearly three years.

“It's actually kind of funny,” Dan said about what led him to start. “I was just on Instagram scrolling through reels, and all of a sudden,  I saw some reels of Russians doing some crazy moves, calisthenics. I was like I want to do that. That's awesome. That's what led me to start with handstands, and that really opened up the door to everything else in the calisthenic world.”

He enjoyed using body weight exercises.

“That's what led me to progress fast was because I became obsessed, especially with getting a handstand down,” Dan said. “I was practicing every single day on the wall to find that balance. I just became obsessed with it, which allowed me to be dedicated and progress quicker. Not only that, but it's a really cool sport. Being able to do something that is entertaining to others is really cool. And also something to challenge myself is really enjoyable.”

He has an athletic background.

“I've pretty much played sports my whole life,” Dan said. “Young age up to middle school, I played baseball. From middle to high school, I played football. From mid-high school through the end, I played lacrosse. I was playing football in high school and I enjoyed it. I've always been athletic, but I wasn't one of the top players who would start on varsity. I played offensive line, which I really enjoyed. But after a while, football, especially practice, began feeling like a chore. I had some friends who played lacrosse and I started throwing with them a little bit and thought it was really fun. I ultimately dropped football, picked up lacrosse and became a captain on my team.”

He took to the new sport.

“It’s a lot of hand eye coordination, speed, endurance, physicality, because you are hitting people pretty much almost as hard or as hard as football players,” Dan said. “Lacrosse is really a beautiful sport. It combines pretty much every kind of sport. You use a ball, you use a stick, it's physical, it's a lot of running and even the play structure of it is very similar to hockey, basketball and soccer.”

He said calisthenics also offers athletes unique abilities.

“I believe that calisthenics is certainly not as prevalent in the U.S. as it is in European countries, especially the Slavic,” Dan said. “I don't have any friends from high school that I haven't met from training who do any of this stuff. It is really cool to do something that not a lot of people can do.”

He stressed how calisthenic athletes also are deceptively strong for their size.

“It's kind of funny because I've been at the gym and I definitely get a lot of looks from people,” Dan said. “Bodybuilders will be just doing a triceps pull down on a cable machine, and they're blown away with what I can do. I'm like a quarter of their size in weight. Obviously, they can lift a lot more weight than me, but pound for pound, I'm stronger than some of these really big bodybuilders. That's kind of cool, too, because you think that just because you're super strong and you can lift a bunch of weights that you're really strong. You are really strong, but then you got a guy or girl that's lean does a lot of calisthenics. They have a lot more control over their body weight. And that leads to pure strength. That's interesting. I always love when people will come up to me at the gym, ask: how long have you been doing that? Sometimes, people are like can you show me some moves? It's always really great to have those interactions and hope to influence people just to be a better them.”

He wows people when doing calisthenics, particularly out in public.

“That's actually one of my favorite things is calisthenic reactions,” Dan said. “I'll post some videos like that here and there depending on where I'm at. It's definitely interesting and satisfying to get some really funny or cool reactions from people because it's not prevalent here, at least in Atlanta. I know it's bigger in California, but it's definitely cool to get calisthenic reactions from people.”

His career field is geology.

“I'm in sales,” Dan said. “I sell remedial chemicals. Fun fact, I'm actually a geologist. I went to the University of Georgia and got a bachelor's in geology. I sell remedial chemicals to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater from commercial manufacturing chemicals getting into the ground, spilling at the gas station, underground storage tanks breaking and leaking into the subsurface. My prior job was in environmental consulting, but I'm a people person, so I wanted to interact more, which led me into sales for these remedial chemicals.”

He also prioritizes the other side of health.

“I'm very big into all natural health using natural supplements to heal the body,” Dan said. “Because based on my research — I like to research that stuff — the earth is a very beautiful thing that pretty much has a cure for almost anything. Being in the environmental industry, I know that our water supplies are contaminated. You get sick, and then you go to someone in a white coat to give you something that covers up your symptoms when they're not looking at the root cause. I'm very much into that. That's definitely one of my hobbies is teaching people about natural health and wellness medicines. I've been studying it for a long time. I've gone through my own healing journeys physically and done research, which has given me a bunch of knowledge that when people have issues, for the most part, I can recommend something for them that's natural, that will help with the root cause of it.”

He cited some beneficial supplements.

“There's a lot of really great things out there,” Dan said. “One of the best things to take is glutathione. It's really just great for everything. It's a super powerful antioxidant that even has the ability to prevent cancer. Soursop fruit and turkey tail mushrooms have scientific peer-reviewed journals on their effectiveness to cure cancer, preventing it, killing tumor cancer cells. That just goes back to show you how there are so many things out there that can cure these major illnesses that we have that are given to us by the planet.”

He said natural means and a positive mentality are more effective than harmful drugs.

“If I got cancer, I would not get that kind of treatment,” Dan said. “I would take those supplements, the three I mentioned. I would meditate to try to manifest the killing of the cells because everything's energy. I've seen people cure themselves of cancer and other diseases or physical ailments from visualizations, positive mentality. Doctors will give you a diagnosis and a prognosis. And that prognosis can scare you. It can cause fear and stress and that's just going to impact your health even more on the negative. So being optimistic, being positive is really fundamental to achieving good health, especially if you're suffering from an ailment.”

He also explained how everyday substances are bad for the skin and to be used for storing and cooking food.

“Wearing polyester,” Dan said. “It sucks because I'm wearing polyester right now. It's plastic, which we all know if you got plastic all over you, especially like in your genital area, not to mention PFAS, if you've ever heard of that. PFAS stands for perfluoroalkyl substances. It was in Teflon. It's in all of our nonstick pans. Extremely toxic to humans at the lowest levels. And we're talking parts per trillion, which is one of the smallest units of measurement that we have for contaminants. It's in everything. GORE-TEX, it's really concentrated in the crotch area of polyester leggings, even major brand names that a lot of women wear. It can cause infertility, cancer. The list goes on. It's in all of our bloods. You can find it in pretty much every single human unless it's some indigenous tribe somewhere. It's terrible.”

He said such toxins can be removed.

“One of the supplements for the toxins is zeolite,” Dan said. “That's really good for removing toxins out of the body.  When people start it, it's not uncommon for them to develop headaches, flu-like symptoms, skin rashes. But that's literally the zeolite clays grabbing toxins and moving them out of your organs and your blood to eliminate them. You can get sick. It's detox symptoms. People get freaked out because this happened — I was throwing up, I got a fever. But it's your body detoxing.”

He said it’s essential to not consume tainted water.

“There's so much we can do,” Dan said. “Brita filters, they do not do what people think they do. Absorb some VOCs (volatile organic compounds), some PFAs, they don't absorb heavy metals. From my research, there's a few things that manifest all diseases in the physical body. Heavy metals are huge. Mucus, which lines the organs, causes inflammation. Parasites are a big one. You can heal yourself from taking those binders like zeolite and water quality is essential. I bought a $500 countertop reverse osmosis water purifier. It's called AquaTru, and it is well worth the investment. I get a giddy feeling knowing that I'm drinking the cleanest water you can drink. It's taking out everything: plastics, heavy metals, VOCs, everything. I've even seen a video of them pouring Coca-Cola in the back part of it, filtering it and completely clear water is coming out on the filtered end. Fundamental to good health is clean water.”

He explained what he wants his followers to get from his social media content.

“I want them to be entertained,” Dan said. “I want to influence them to take up calisthenics and become strong. Become physically strong, try something new and be entertained. I try to make my content in a way where it can be actually entertaining and not just repetitive or basic.”

He stays motivated by making content.

“Getting content to entertain and influence people motivates me and then keeping my strength,” Dan said. “If I'm going a couple of days without working out, I'm like, okay, I need to get to the gym so I can stay strong. And then seeing positive results in my exercises and routines where I start landing different moves that I didn't before are all things that keep me motivated to keep doing it. Influencing others.”

He does that in person as well.

“I've seen that firsthand with people that I've personally come into contact with who have talked to me about calisthenics, why I got into it, how long,” Dan said. “And then I'm like, let me know if you want to train together or, hey, let me show you some basics real quick.”

He dispensed advice to people wanting to start calisthenics.

“It's never too early,” Dan said. “It doesn't matter what your current state is. It doesn't matter if you're too heavy. The beauty of calisthenics is that you work your way up. You progress by becoming more strong and having more control over your body weight. So you don't need to wait. You can really start at any time from the very beginning and progress at your own pace.”

Dan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calisthenicsbydan/