So, you want to know my top five bodyweight exercises, huh? It got me thinking.
A lot of folks opt for barbells, dumbbells, or fancy gym equipment and often overlook the power of bodyweight training. But have you ever checked out a gymnast’s physique?
They’re proof that bodyweight routines can make you seriously ripped. Many people think bodyweight exercises are just for cardio or conditioning.
That’s a big misconception. Bodyweight exercises offer a unique challenge for your muscles. Trust me, they can be a reality check. You might be a champ at bench pressing, but that doesn’t mean you can easily handle your own body weight.
Bodyweight exercises and traditional compound movements like squats or bench presses aren’t as different as you might think. They both engage multiple muscle groups and require a high level of neuromuscular activation.
The key difference? With bodyweight exercises, you’re maneuvering your own weight through space, not lifting an external object. To pull it off, you need good muscle control, balance, stability, and a decent strength-to-weight ratio. It’s not as simple as it sounds, especially depending on your size.
Now, I’m not here to pit bench presses against push-ups or barbell rows against inverted rows. Each has its own merits and downsides, and they all deserve a spot in your workout regimen.
But if you’re like most people, you’re probably already doing plenty of lifting with weights and machines and not focusing enough on bodyweight exercises. If you’re aiming to be both lean and strong, it’s time to incorporate bodyweight moves into your routine. So let’s dive into my top five bodyweight exercises to get you going.
Benefits of Bodyweight Evercises
Bodyweight exercises are incredibly versatile, making them an essential part of any fitness routine. Whether you’re at home, in a hotel room, or even at a park, you can get in a solid workout without needing any special equipment. This convenience factor can be a game-changer for busy people who struggle to find time for the gym.
When it comes to functional strength, bodyweight exercises have you covered. These exercises replicate natural movements like pushing, pulling, and balancing, which are skills you use in daily life. This makes them not just good for athletic performance but also for improving your ability to perform everyday tasks more efficiently.
Injury risk is something many people worry about when starting a new exercise regimen. Bodyweight exercises generally pose a lower risk of injury compared to heavy weightlifting. They allow for a more natural range of motion and encourage you to be more aware of your body mechanics, reducing the chances of overuse injuries or strains.
Another advantage of bodyweight exercises is the compound effect. Unlike isolated machine exercises that target specific muscles, bodyweight exercises engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously. This leads to more comprehensive strength and conditioning, often in less time than you’d spend moving from machine to machine.
Balance and coordination are often overlooked benefits of bodyweight training. Exercises like squats, lunges, and push-ups require you to stabilize your body and engage your core, enhancing your balance skills. As you become more adept at these exercises, you’ll notice improvements in other physical activities as well, whether it’s playing sports or simply navigating uneven terrain.
Last but not least, bodyweight exercises are incredibly scalable. Whether you’re a newbie looking to get into shape or an experienced athlete looking for a challenge, you can adjust these exercises to match your fitness level. This makes them an excellent choice for people of all ages and stages of fitness.
The 5 Best Bodyweight Exercises
1) Bodyweight Squats (Air Squat)
If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone slapping weight on a barbell to squat without even being capable of performing an efficient freestanding bodyweight squat- I’d be rich by now.
This is one movement I rely heavily upon as a coach to assess an athlete’s strength, kinesthetic awareness, and hip/ankle/thoracic spine mobility.
While a bodyweight squat can seem incredibly simple in nature, you’d be shocked at how many people struggle with the movement.
Prior to allowing anyone I work with to squat with weight, I always require a sound proficiency with bodyweight squats first. Even in my own training, I often revert back to bodyweight squats to help “re-teach” myself to execute a proper squat.
Bodyweight squats help to build muscle, increase strength and mobility, and when performed at a high intensity or as part of a circuit/conditioning work can really help with fat loss/fat burning.
2) Push-ups
Pushups are hard. Period. In fact, most athletes I work with can perform very few, if any pushups when I first begin working with them.
The reason I love them so much as a bodyweight movement is because even though they are commonly thought of as being a chest and triceps exercise, pushups, in fact, work your body top to bottom, recruiting muscles in the quads, glutes, and abs to help stabilize your body as you press your own weight through space.
This makes them, in my opinion, more of a total body movement than just a chest and triceps exercise.
There are also so many variations of pushups that it’s hard to grow stagnant. There are numerous variations you can use to help continue to progress yourself, challenge your muscles, and stimulate results.
I remember back to when I couldn’t do one pullup- and it took me several months of focus and dedication to be able to rep strict pullups, and I still remember the day I got my first strict pullup.
I was beyond proud of myself. Pullups are a great mass builder for the back, but just like most bodyweight movements still require muscle recruitment from top to bottom.
Holding your body stable during pullup execution so you can efficiently move your mass through space is crucial in your ability to perform pullups. For this reason again,
I view pullups as being a total body movement that not only enhances muscle growth in your back and arms but also helps foster core stability, balance and mind to muscle connection as well.
Like pushups, there are so many pullup variations that it’s hard to get bored. There are countless adjustments you can make to continue to challenge and progress yourself.
4) Elbow Plank
Sometimes the most basic movements prove to be the most challenging. The elbow plank might seem an uncommon selection for a top bodyweight movement but similar to the squat,
I can tell a lot about an athlete’s core strength, muscle balance, stability, and mind to muscle control by watching them fight through a plank. Although planks do work the abs, they also largely recruit the quads and glutes to help keep your body tight in an efficient position. Planks help to increase core strength and stability, and can help to decrease low back pain and improve your posture.
5) Burpee
I chose burpees because they are basically the king of conditioning movements when it comes to bodyweight exercises. Everybody loves to hate them (except maybe for me, I
genuinely do LOVE them) but the fact of the matter is that a burpee is resistance training and cardiovascular conditioning all bundled into one quick compound movement that requires no equipment whatsoever.
Burpees were actually listed by Health.com as one of the top 5 calorie-burning exercises- 10 calories per minute, and to top it off they help to make you stronger, can be done almost anywhere, and can be infused into any workout for an added metabolic boost/calorie burn.
Like pushups and pullups- there are countless burpee variations available as well- burpee pullups, burpee box jumps, burpee lunge jumps, no pushup burpees, and so forth- so there’s no reason to grow stagnant or cease to progress yourself.
Can Bodyweight Exercises Build Muscle?
Absolutely, bodyweight exercises can build muscle. The key factor is the concept of progressive overload, which involves increasing the demands on your muscles over time. This can be achieved in various ways with bodyweight exercises, just like it can with weights.
For instance, once basic push-ups become easy, you can transition to more challenging variations like diamond push-ups, archer push-ups, or even one-arm push-ups. The same goes for squats; you can progress to pistol squats or Bulgarian split squats. By continually challenging your muscles with these more advanced moves, you can effectively promote muscle growth.
However, bodyweight exercises may have limitations if you’re trying to achieve extreme muscle mass like a bodybuilder. In such cases, you’ll likely need to incorporate weights to achieve the level of muscle hypertrophy you’re aiming for. But for most people looking to get fitter, stronger, and build muscle, bodyweight exercises offer a robust and convenient way to achieve those goals.
Final Word
Bodyweight training keeps you healthy, keeps you strong, and keeps you lean and best of all it challenges your body in ways that dumbbells and barbells cannot.
With endless variations available it’s hard to land in a rut with bodyweight training and the fact that it requires no equipment whatsoever makes these exercises easy to execute just about anywhere.
The older I get, the more and more I find myself sticking to the basics of strength training, and utilizing a good amount of bodyweight movements in my programming is one of the ways I stay lean, strong and functional year-round.
Allison Moyer-Fahrenbach is a nationally and internationally published fitness model, well known NPC figure competitor, CrossFit and strength athlete, entrepreneur, motivator, nutritionist and performance dietary specialist based out of Lancaster, PA. She holds a Bachelors in Wellness and Sports Science as well as multiple certifications including her C.P.T, C.S.N, C.S.C.C, and her CF-L1 and CF Weightlifting. She can be contacted for appearances, talks, seminars, posing classes, training and more through her website www.alli-fitness.com or by email, [email protected].
