Working out with only your own body weight is an efficient and convenient method of exercise that is suitable for people of all fitness levels. Traditional weight training, aerobic programs, or even just using one’s own body weight as resistance can all benefit from including bodyweight exercises. Learning the proper form of a movement can be accomplished in an efficient and risk-free manner by performing exercises using only one’s own bodyweight.
What Exactly Is Meant By Bodyweight Exercises?
Your own body weight serves as resistance during weight-bearing motions when you engage in bodyweight training. You can increase your strength and muscular mass, as well as your functional fitness and cardiovascular health, with the help of this sort of exercise.
When practicing bodyweight exercises, gravity is employed as a source of resistance. This type of training involves using eccentric and concentric contractions (extending and flexing of the muscles) to engage your muscles in order for them to adapt and become stronger as a result of the exercise.
What Are The Advantages Of Body Weight Exercises?
Bodyweight exercise, just like other forms of resistance training, is an efficient way to increase strength and muscle while simultaneously lowering visceral fat. This has an effect on the composition of the body, the metabolism, and the functioning of the body on a daily basis, while also preventing certain diseases and illnesses.
Using only your own bodyweight as resistance during exercise is one of the best ways to build strength, even if you are just starting out with this type of workout. It is essential to advance your workouts by incorporating increasingly difficult forms of bodyweight motions if you want to maintain the benefits you have been getting.
Bodyweight exercises are effective and convenient for workout planning since they do not require any special setup or equipment on the part of the exerciser. You can perform high intensity interval training (HIIT) or circuit-style workouts by using bodyweight movements because the absence of equipment allows you to transition between exercises quickly and easily.
How To Perform Exercises Using Only Your Own Body Weight?
You can perform exercises using simply your own body weight and the ground, or you can utilize props and other pieces of equipment to vary the angle at which your body is positioned and how it is positioned overall. You could, for instance, elevate your feet or hands by using a bench, table, step, or chair. This would cause a change in the level of difficulty or the muscles that were worked throughout the activity.
Try out some of these different exercises that only require your own bodyweight.
Push-Ups.
The chest, the back, and the core are all worked during a push-up, which is a complex and functional activity. Push-ups are an excellent exercise to do since they allow you to build chest muscles while also improving your spinal stability and core strength.
- Put both of your hands flat on the ground below your shoulders, and then extend both of your legs behind you while balancing on the balls of your feet and your toes.
- Engage your core muscles to lift your hips and clench your glutes to improve your performance.
- You should feel a stretch across the front of your chest as well as the front shoulders as you bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor until it is almost touching the floor.
- To return to the beginning, press through your hands while maintaining a straight arm position. Stay braced and resist the urge to let your hips slump.
- Try anywhere from 5 to 10, or as many as it takes to push you to your limits.
Walking Lunges.
Walking lunges are a type of unilateral activity that can assist a person develop their strength and their level of agility. They also help improve your balance and stability, which lowers your risk of falling and getting injured as a result of such falls.
- Maintain a shoulder-width spacing between your feet while standing, and place your hands on your hips or by your sides.
- Long stride forward with one leg while keeping the other foot behind you as you move ahead.
- While stepping down toward the ground in a bent knee position, keep your back straight and bend your knees. Your knee should be resting at a level that is barely above the ground.
- After holding for the count, rise up by driving into the front of your foot and bringing your knees into a straight line. After you have risen to your feet, bring the foot that is next to your front foot forward.
- Complete one repetition by performing the exercise again using the other leg.
- Perform 15 to 20 repetitions.
Workout Of Bear Crawls
Fun and challenging for your entire core as well as your legs, bear crawls are a great action to add to your workout routine.
- Position yourself on the ground such that your knees are under your hips and your hands are piled on top of one another behind your neck and shoulders. Raise your hips, then stretch your legs and arms while maintaining a neutral position in your neck.
- You should move your right hand forward while also moving your left foot forward at the same time. To advance, continue the pattern using your left hand and right foot. One repetition is this.
- Continue to switch your hands and feet, stepping forward with the opposite foot and hand each time. Maintain a strong core throughout the entire workout.
- Perform 10 to 20 repetitions, or try to hold your position for 30 to 60 seconds.
Shoulder Press Bodyweight Workouts
Shoulder presses with weights present a significant challenge, and if you’re used to doing them with your own bodyweight, you might be surprised by how difficult they are. You can make it more challenging for yourself by raising the level of your feet (on either a chair, table, or exercise ball as shown below). The maneuver will get more difficult to do as you ascend higher into the vertical plane.
- Come into a push-up position, and then, while keeping your back flat, lift your bottom so that you are in a downward dog pose.
- You should flex your elbows, and then slowly bring your shoulders closer to the floor.
- First, bring your forehead down to the ground with a light tap, and then push yourself up and back into the starting position.
- Perform 8–10 repetitions of this exercise.
Glute Bridge Exercise.
Your glutes, hips, and hamstrings, as well as your core, will all benefit from doing glute bridges. They are an excellent workout for alleviating back discomfort as well as avoiding its occurrence.
- Place yourself on your back with your knees bent and your feet planted firmly on the ground.
- Put your palms down on the ground and place your hands at your sides. This will give you stability.
- You can extend your hips by pulling into your feet and lifting your glutes off the ground with this exercise.
- Carry on rising yourself up until your back, hips, and thighs are aligned in a straight line. Contract your glutes and hold the contraction for the given count. Avoid rounding your back out.
- Bring yourself back to the starting position in a controlled manner.
- Perform the action 15–20 times.
The Final Word
No matter what your fitness level is, you may benefit from the full-body workout that is provided by bodyweight training, which is a sort of resistance training. If you want to keep seeing results, you should try some new exercises, ramp up the repetitions, and either modify the angle of the exercise or the number of times you do it.
If you are unclear how to do any of these motions, it is recommended that you seek the assistance of a personal trainer. Visit a medical expert if you continue to feel pain or discomfort after trying over-the-counter remedies.