Berfin Sarıkaya Hakkında

ABOUT THE ATHLETE

Profession Content Creator

Year of Birth 2000

Place of Birth Eskişehir, Türkiye

Sports Beginnings 2021

Height 168 cm

Weight 55 kg

Disciplines Calisthenics

Instagram @mytinymuscles

HOW SHE STARTED CALISTHENICS AND HER PROGRESSION JOURNEY

Berfin was introduced to calisthenics when her brother started training at home. There was a pull-up bar in the house, and she would watch him train on it. With no background in sports, even the basic exercises were hard for her at first. Her first goal was simply to do a pull-up. Over time she built her ability in the fundamentals (pull-ups, dips and push-ups) and shaped her physique largely through these movements.

She began sharing content to track her progress and to inspire people who were just starting out. The account she opened only to document her own journey grew quickly and reached people around the world, something she never expected. In time, creating content became an important part of her training journey.

Her biggest challenge along the way was consistency. She got bored easily and tended to give up when things got hard, so there were many periods when she stopped training and started again. She especially wanted to learn the muscle-up, but learning a new skill demanded steady work and patience. Working on the same movement again and again, failing, and slowly making progress taught her the value of patience and of believing in herself. It is also one of the main reasons she loves calisthenics: with every new skill, she sees herself move past the limits she once set for herself.

Today her view of training is very different from when she started. She no longer focuses only on building her physique, but on controlling her body better and discovering the limits of what she can do. Once she has developed herself enough, she wants to pass on her knowledge and experience by teaching calisthenics.

PHILOSOPHY AND MINDSET

“As long as the mind can imagine something, the body can achieve it.”

For Berfin, a person’s greatest limits begin with what they believe is possible for themselves. When we don’t believe we can do something, we may give up before even trying. Calisthenics first taught her to question the limits in her mind, and then to work to move past them. Every new skill strengthened not only her physical power but also her belief in herself.

TRAINING SYSTEM AND FOCUS

Berfin trains with a strength focus, five days a week, for one to two hours a day. She works with sets and reps and has built her strength mainly in pull-ups and dips. She doesn’t follow a fixed program, but in most sessions she likes to push her limits.

Lately she has been focusing on technical skills, which she is still learning. For her, enjoying the training matters as much as getting stronger and learning new skills.