Rens Bestman is a young calisthenics athlete and social media influencer, who among the others, won at the ISF Open World Street Lifting World Championship 2022. We at RDXSports got the opportunity to dive into his calisthenics journey.
- When you were learning calisthenics, how difficult was it and what sources did you utilize to develop your skills?
I first started training when I was 14. So for the first couple months I trained two times a week. And after sometime, I learned more gradually, watched YouTube videos, followed some guys on Instagram.
2.What would you do or recommend for calisthenics to have more exposure?
I think it’s not an official sport yet, it needs to get official and more people need to learn about calisthenics. More callisthenic videos are being uploaded by many individuals now, so I see it is becoming more known and I see more and more people doing it. So yeah it’s already getting better. It has the tendency to get more popular.
3. When did you know that calisthenics and bodyweight exercises were the way for you?
I was training with my nephew in the woods with some pull up bars, slip bars, they didn’t have much. So we did some bodyweight exercises, but I didn’t know calisthenics really yet so I didn’t know what I was doing until I started watching some YouTube videos, we did some exercises from Chris Heria and other big youtubers. So that’s when I started training in calisthenics. I also got an Instagram account and posted some calisthenics stuff on that. So then I knew what calisthenics was, I wanted to learn muscle up and handstand pushups. so then I started to really do calisthenics and that’s exactly how I got into it.
4. When did you first discover Calisthenics and how did it make you feel?
As I mentioned earlier, I used to go with my nephew, watch videos and then with friends we would do pull ups and muscle ups. When you first muscle up, it feels awesome, you feel very strong and confident. And then you just want to go further and explore more of calisthenics. In calisthenics you learn new skills, you progress as the journey moves.
5. What do you want to be remembered for at the end of your career?
Well I’m very young, and I have a long career to go and by the end of my career, I would like to be known as a famous callisthenic athlete. I want to get a lot of followers and I want people to look up to me. So yeah, I want to get big and I want to become a champion. Everything!
6.What does Move, Improve, Evolve mean to you?
Move of course means you start working out, you begin with training so you move. And then you get better, so you move to improve, and then you evolve into a beast! You get better!
We wish this rising star good luck for the future and hope to see more youngsters getting inspired by this young and fired up Calisthenics athlete, in years to come.
