Teen gained amazing abilities through calisthenics
Carson Teagarden does pull-ups with 105 pounds chained to his waist. • Photos Submitted
By Tom Victoria
Carson Teagarden is capable of seemingly superhuman feats worthy of an Olympic gymnast or strongman.
Unlike those premier athletes who spend a lifetime to reach their level of competition, Carson developed his skills in less than two years. Now, the 16-year-old is teaching others how to do the same through the arduous training of calisthenics on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Carson transformed his body doing calisthenics.
“I feel it’s more fundamental,” he said about calisthenics. “You use it more in daily life.”
Carson also does calisthenics for another reason.
“They are crazy fun to do,” he said.
Calisthenics are body weight exercises improving overall fitness, including a significant increase in strength.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania high school athlete posts clips of himself doing such grueling exercises as pull-ups with weights hanging from his body and suspending his entire body horizontally in the air while holding onto a pole with one arm. A more recent video shows Carson beat the Impossible Brick Push-up Challenge. In an impressive display that has to be seen to be believed, he held three bricks side to side while doing three push-ups against them with only one arm and brick touching the ground.
Carson caught the calisthenics bug watching clips of other people demonstrating their abilities.
“I called it crazy skills,” he said. “I said I really want to do this.
If I do what they’re doing, I’ll get there, too”
Carson dangles horizontally from a tree.
With much effort and persistence, Carson did just that.
“I knew hard work got results,” he said.
On a recent trip to Mexico, Carson did something that would make Tarzan, the fictional king of the jungle, proud — he climbed a palm tree barefoot to grab a coconut.
Among Carson’s crazy skills is moving his legs in a walking motion while doing pull-ups.
“It’s called air walking,” he said. “It makes you look like you’re walking on air.”
Carson explained air walking is as difficult as it looks, working numerous muscles simultaneously.
He learned how to do planches, suspending the body horizontally in the air solely by the support of the arms holding grips attached to the ground, and front levers, which entail holding a bar above the horizontal body.
Calisthenics are divided into three categories: street workout, which is often done utilizing equipment at an outdoor park; calisthenics skills training, which encompasses exercises requiring precise balance along with strength; and weighted calisthenics, which incorporates weights into bodyweight training.
Although doing intensive calisthenics does not result in a humongous gain in body mass, it does greatly enhance the athlete in other ways.
Carson demonstrates a front lever.
“You’re not huge,” Carson said. “You’re more defined, stronger.”
After not gaining much muscle doing traditional strength workouts as an early teen, he decided to try calisthenics. Carson soon found a new passion.
“I loved doing calisthenics,” he said.
The new training regimen not only increased Carson’s strength and size, but boosted his performance in organized athletic competition.
“I started to get stronger for sports,” he said. “For golf, I was hitting farther on my drive.”
In basketball, Carson went from being the small guard who couldn’t get past the bigger players to driving in for layups and shooting over those same players.
His speed increased as well.
“I was the fastest on the track team,” Carson said.
His coaches noticed pretty quickly how much he improved over a year.
“They were telling the other players ‘you need to be more like Carson,’” he said.
Other players and students not on his teams began asking Carson for tips.
In Carson’s initial forays with social media, he initially posted random clips on social media that did not elicit much attention. After he started seeing gains from calisthenics, his parents suggested he post his workouts.
Carson developed his physique using calisthenics instead of the weight room.
“I knew how to edit,” Carson said.
His new content caught people’s roaming eyes. Posting a video on his physical transformation drew the most views. Then, viewers noted how tough Carson’s exercises, such as the air walker, were.
“People would say: ‘What are you doing? It’s insane,’” he said.
Carson eventually acquired some clients. He said most people are particularly interested in getting one part of the body ripped.
“Getting abs is the most popular,” Carson said.
As with any content creator or anyone putting themselves in the public eye, Carson dealt with a few haters. However, he eventually realized they were people who would never be able to perform the feats he does.
“They can’t do what I do,”
He draws a lot of satisfaction from seeing the impact on those who follow his training.
“It’s definitely awesome to see the transformations,” Carson said.
He is considering initiating virtual group sessions to reach as many people as possible.
Carson trains by doing pull-ups like above and the more strenuous muscle-ups.
The physical trainer not only works on improving people’s bodies, he also seeks to enhance their spirits. Carson is among a growing number of young people unafraid of espousing their religious faith.
“You have hard time without God,” he said about spiritual needs.
Along with followers heeding workout training, some are listening to his encouragement to rely on faith.
“People accepted Jesus,” Carson said. “It’s amazing.”
He draws courage from that faith to put himself out in the public eye, which in turn is why he cites it on social media.
“God has given me a platform,” Carson said. “God is working there.”
For those needing motivation in life, he cited that faith.
“Go to God,” Carson said. “Pray about it. If you’re feeling down, talk to God.”
He expressed confidence that God handles all problems.
“You know God already has taken care of it,” Carson said.
He intends on pursuing a business degree in college to complement his entrepreneurial efforts as he builds a training business with pending offshoots such as merchandise.
“I found my love. I worked hard at it and achieved my goals. If you find your love, you will work hard and achieve your goals as well.”
Carson strongly urged others to engage in some sort of exercise.
“I found the exercise that was best for my body,” he said.
Carson said a person needs to see gains as evidence the workouts are effective.
For those wanting to try calisthenics, he advised starting out with less difficult exercises.
“Just don’t start with the most difficult,” Carson said.
In one video, he demonstrated how people could work up to pull-ups by using bars lower to the ground and dips - lowering and raising your body by just the arms with the legs folded up - by practicing lowering the body to the ground slowly.
“It’s going to help you,” Carson said about calisthenics.
While he works out two to three hours a day, he recommends beginners train one to two hours for three or four days.
“As body gets used to working out, it’s getting stronger,” Carson said.
He credits a work ethic learned from his father as the foundation for his achievements. According to Carson, others can achieve results by doing the same.
“I found my love. I worked hard at it and achieved my goals,” he said. “If you find your love, you will work hard and achieve your goals as well.”
Carson does handstand push-ups and other moves while suspended in air.
Carson does the Impossible Brick Push-Up Challenge seemingly defying gravity and typical strength limitations.
The link to Carson's Instagram account is: https://www.instagram.com/carsonteagarden/
The link to Carson's YouTube page is: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarsonTeagarden/videos
The link to Carson's TikTok page is: https://www.tiktok.com/@carsonteagarden?lang=en