Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains

Home  »  Weight Training Programs  »  Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains By Greg Hayes   |  Comments

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Bodyweight training offers many advantages over a "traditional" gym workout. While many of the classic weight training exercises are isolation motions (take the curl, for instance), bodyweight exercises are compound movements, thereby working many muscle groups simultaneously. Since balance is involved in these exercises, they also build fine muscle control, which makes for practical strength. The result is a stronger, more stable core, with greater overall body control. This reduces your risk of injury during daily activities. Additionally, bodyweight training can be done almost anywhere, which makes it friendly for frequent travelers and those on a tight budget.

And it's hard. The fact is, bodyweight training can build the foundation for huge strength gains. Lets go over 3 of the best body weight exercises you can start using right now to improve your strength.

The ability to lift one's bodyweight in the form of a classic pull-up is one of the most fundamental exercises for measuring and building strength. It's incorporation as one of the three exercises in the U.S. Marine Corp. fitness test is a testament to its value. Put it in your arsenal for big strength gains.

The classic pull-up is done by grasping a suspended bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder width apart. Starting from a hanging position, you attempt to lift yourself, such that your chin rises above the bar. At no time should you rest your chin on the bar. The move is completed by lowering your body back to a hanging position, with the arms fully extended. This completes one rep. In this exercise, the focal point is the latissimus dorsi, with biceps, shoulders, and secondary back muscles also coming into play.

You can bring other muscle groups to bear through a nearly infinite number of variations on the classic pull-up.

A few classic examples include: Widen your grip to bring greater focus to the lats.
Reverse your grip to a classic chin-up to provide an outstanding bicep workout.
Grasp a bar with palms facing together for a neutral grip pull-up, which will bring greater focus on the forearms.

The classic push-up is again, one of the most overlooked exercises in strength training. Yet, properly performed push-ups provide a chest workout to rival a bench workout for most guys. The classic push-up, when properly performed, brings most of the major muscles in the chest, shoulders, and triceps into play. Then there's the added challenge to the stabilizing core muscle groups, including the obliques and abs that are required to hold your body steady to properly execute a push-up.

Much like the pull-up, any number of variations on the classic push-up can be done to bring other related muscle groups into play. Here are a few examples:

1. Elevate your feet for an incline push-up. This works the anterior deltoids, chest, and triceps. For an added challenge to core stability, rest your hands on a stability ball.

2. Elevate your hands above your feet to execute a decline push-up. This brings your posterior deltoid and lower chest into focus. Up the challenge level by putting your feet on a stability ball, rather than a solid surface.

3. Move your hands together, positioning your fingers and thumbs touching, directly beneath your chest. This is the "triangle push-up," which brings even greater focus on the triceps.

Step-ups are performed by placing a step no taller than knee height, directly in front of you. Begin with your feet placed together, hands loosely at your sides, and simply step up on the platform. The motion is completed by bringing your other foot up to rest beside the first, and reversing the order to step back to the floor. Repeat the motion on the other side, starting with your other foot. This works quads, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as bringing agility into the equation.

Although it sounds simple, the difficulty rises dramatically with increasing step height and number of reps.

Because it works agility, strength, and builds cardio simultaneously, this seemingly simple exercise plays a large role in the training regimen for many professional athletes.

Common variations include: Hopping up on the step while keeping both feet together.
Placing multiple steps of the same height together and hopping between steps.
Placing multiple steps of staggered height together and hopping between steps.These exercises, with many other simple variations, can form the foundation in your quest to build muscle and strength. All too often, we make the decision to start getting shape, and think in terms of expensive gym membership and weights. However, particularly when you're just getting started, all of that may not be necessary. The judicious use of a well-chosen bodyweight training routine will often provide huge gains in strength, without the need for that expensive gym membership.

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About the author: Greg Hayes is the author of Live Fit Blog, where he writes about healthy living, fitness, and balancing the demands of life.

Related Articles:

View the original article here

5 Bodyweight Training Exercises You Must Do

When designing a strength workout, you should aim for exercises that cause a great metabolic impact. This is because These exercises cause an increase in testosterone and growth hormone levels, and as a consequence they help you to build muscle and burn fat.

Among most effective exercises for strength and conditioning we can find bodyweight exercises. These are exercises performed exclusively with your own body weight, so they need little or none equipment at all. Bodyweight exercises have been the core training of olympic gymnastic athletes, being the base of their strength and power.

Looking at their physiques, you quickly realise how effective these exercises can be when properly added to a regular training program.

5 Best bodyweight exercises:

Squat: One of the most basic human movements. It strengthens your legs and core muscles. You can performed with both legs using a fast pace for conditioning or just with one leg for strength.

Splits: Probably one of the best exercises for conditioning and to strengthen your quadriceps, splits will help you to develop explosive power, muscle endurance and cardio conditioning, specially when performed like alternating split jumps.

Push Up: great for your core, chest, shoulders and arms, push ups are unrivaled to develop muscle endurance and core strength. If regular push ups are easy to you, you can always perform clapping push ups, handstand push ups, or one arm push ups to make it more difficult.

Dips: the best exercise for your chest and triceps, dips mimic real movement of getting on the top of an object. Perform it with a low pace to develop rock solid muscles.

Pull Up: one of the most, if not the most challenging bodyweight exercises, pull ups alone are almost sufficient to develop your upper body strength. They are great for your back, shoulders and biceps, and you can even involve your abdominal muscles if performed like L pull up.

How to add this exercises to your workout

You can add this exercises to your regular strength training or you can design specific workouts for them. Here it is a simple example on how to do that:

Bodyweight Workout:

3 Rounds of:

50 Squats

20 Push Ups

10 Pull Ups

5 Dips

Perform with little or no rest between sets and fast pace for conditioning, or equivalently with longer rest periods and lower pace for strength. Perform the first round as a warm-up set, and go harder for the rest of the rounds.

David is a fitness and nutrition researcher and passionate martial arts practitioner.

Visit my website about MMA Training. Where you will find the latest tips to burn fat and build muscle based on scientifically proven training methods.

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View the original article here

Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains

Home  »  Weight Training Programs  »  Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains By Greg Hayes   |  Comments

  Tweet  

Bodyweight training offers many advantages over a "traditional" gym workout. While many of the classic weight training exercises are isolation motions (take the curl, for instance), bodyweight exercises are compound movements, thereby working many muscle groups simultaneously. Since balance is involved in these exercises, they also build fine muscle control, which makes for practical strength. The result is a stronger, more stable core, with greater overall body control. This reduces your risk of injury during daily activities. Additionally, bodyweight training can be done almost anywhere, which makes it friendly for frequent travelers and those on a tight budget.

And it's hard. The fact is, bodyweight training can build the foundation for huge strength gains. Lets go over 3 of the best body weight exercises you can start using right now to improve your strength.

The ability to lift one's bodyweight in the form of a classic pull-up is one of the most fundamental exercises for measuring and building strength. It's incorporation as one of the three exercises in the U.S. Marine Corp. fitness test is a testament to its value. Put it in your arsenal for big strength gains.

The classic pull-up is done by grasping a suspended bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder width apart. Starting from a hanging position, you attempt to lift yourself, such that your chin rises above the bar. At no time should you rest your chin on the bar. The move is completed by lowering your body back to a hanging position, with the arms fully extended. This completes one rep. In this exercise, the focal point is the latissimus dorsi, with biceps, shoulders, and secondary back muscles also coming into play.

You can bring other muscle groups to bear through a nearly infinite number of variations on the classic pull-up.

A few classic examples include: Widen your grip to bring greater focus to the lats.
Reverse your grip to a classic chin-up to provide an outstanding bicep workout.
Grasp a bar with palms facing together for a neutral grip pull-up, which will bring greater focus on the forearms.

The classic push-up is again, one of the most overlooked exercises in strength training. Yet, properly performed push-ups provide a chest workout to rival a bench workout for most guys. The classic push-up, when properly performed, brings most of the major muscles in the chest, shoulders, and triceps into play. Then there's the added challenge to the stabilizing core muscle groups, including the obliques and abs that are required to hold your body steady to properly execute a push-up.

Much like the pull-up, any number of variations on the classic push-up can be done to bring other related muscle groups into play. Here are a few examples:

1. Elevate your feet for an incline push-up. This works the anterior deltoids, chest, and triceps. For an added challenge to core stability, rest your hands on a stability ball.

2. Elevate your hands above your feet to execute a decline push-up. This brings your posterior deltoid and lower chest into focus. Up the challenge level by putting your feet on a stability ball, rather than a solid surface.

3. Move your hands together, positioning your fingers and thumbs touching, directly beneath your chest. This is the "triangle push-up," which brings even greater focus on the triceps.

Step-ups are performed by placing a step no taller than knee height, directly in front of you. Begin with your feet placed together, hands loosely at your sides, and simply step up on the platform. The motion is completed by bringing your other foot up to rest beside the first, and reversing the order to step back to the floor. Repeat the motion on the other side, starting with your other foot. This works quads, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as bringing agility into the equation.

Although it sounds simple, the difficulty rises dramatically with increasing step height and number of reps.

Because it works agility, strength, and builds cardio simultaneously, this seemingly simple exercise plays a large role in the training regimen for many professional athletes.

Common variations include: Hopping up on the step while keeping both feet together.
Placing multiple steps of the same height together and hopping between steps.
Placing multiple steps of staggered height together and hopping between steps.These exercises, with many other simple variations, can form the foundation in your quest to build muscle and strength. All too often, we make the decision to start getting shape, and think in terms of expensive gym membership and weights. However, particularly when you're just getting started, all of that may not be necessary. The judicious use of a well-chosen bodyweight training routine will often provide huge gains in strength, without the need for that expensive gym membership.

---------------

About the author: Greg Hayes is the author of Live Fit Blog, where he writes about healthy living, fitness, and balancing the demands of life.

Related Articles:

View the original article here