No gym? No problem. That’s just one of the benefits of bodyweight training.

There’s multiple disciplines of physical fitness, from deadlifting 500 pounds to acrobatically flipping through the air after running just a couple feet.

The training style that you choose depends on what works for your body, your interests, your opportunities and much more.

In this article, I’m zooming in on one specific modality, bodyweight training. First, we’ll go through some common questions about bodyweight exercising and then jump into the 7 benefits of bodyweight training.

 

 

Your Bodyweight Questions Answered

How does bodyweight training work?

Bodyweight training is simple because it’s exactly how it sounds. You’re physically training to improve strength, transform your body in some way or practicing for other areas of fitness using only the weight of your body.

You can progress and continue to get stronger by slight changes in how you perform the exercise. For example, if you struggle to do 15 bodyweight squats at first but after a couple weeks are able to get to 30 no problem, then your body will need more resistance (or weight) to continue to grow and get stronger.

In order to get stronger at that point you can change the squatting exercise to something more challenging such as a pistol squat. A pistol squat is a one legged squat where you keep your dormant leg pointed out straight.

Like any fitness training, bodyweight training has it’s main set of exercises and difficulty progressions.

 

Can bodyweight exercises build muscle?

Yes, 100%! There is no doubt that bodyweight exercises can build muscle over time. However, the difference comes into where each individual is when they begin doing bodyweight training.

For example, someone who’s been lifting heavy on the bench press, squat rack and lat machine may come to bodyweight training and could risk losing muscle. That’s because the level of resistance created by the weight and machines they used previously is heavier than what their own bodyweight can challenge them with.

On the other hand, if someone has only lightly worked out their whole life and isn’t much of a fitness nut (like yours truly) then if they start doing bodyweight training they’re going to see a big improvement in strength and muscle mass within just a few weeks.

 

Can bodyweight exercises be done everyday?

Like any physical fitness training, you would want to allocate time for recovery. If you feel inclined to exercise every day then allocate 4 to 5 days of heavy bodyweight training and 2 to 3 days of light bodyweight training. But on those 2 to 3 ‘off’ days it’d be better to get in different exercise such as walking outside, light biking or other low intensity activity because your body needs time to recover after exercise.

 

7 Benefits of Bodyweight Training

1. Versatility: Bodyweight Training Can Be Done Anywhere

This is probably bodyweight training’s biggest unique perspective it has versus other physical training styles. No equipment is needed and that’s incredibly beneficial for some. Especially now that the world is dealing with the pandemic, gyms closed down for weeks everywhere. So people immediately turned to other ways to get in their workouts. The first option, bodyweight training in the home or outside.

This is also great for traveling because of the flexibility bodyweight training offers. No hotel gym? Then just make some space in your room and start a bodyweight workout.

When the pandemic hit, I was working as a personal trainer in a local gym and would hit the weights hard. I love deadlifting and the military press so I’d be on those multiple times a week. But then gyms got closed and I was forced to adapt. By the time I went to buy some equipment to workout at home literally ALL weights that were above 20 pounds were completely SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE. So I had to adapt again and began doing bodyweight training. I invested in a weight vest because I already had put on some muscle and knew to maintain my strength or improve it I would need more of a resistance challenge.

That has turned me onto bodyweight training again, I did it for a while previously, and am now a huge advocate of it and probably won’t be going back to the gym anytime soon because of the versatility this now offers. Also, I save so much time by not having to get ready, drive to the gym, put my stuff away, maybe wait for the machine and then drive back home. I probably get back an hour a day just by working out at home now.

 

2. Bodyweight Training Works Multiple Muscle Groups

Another great benefit of bodyweight training is that most the exercises you do will be working out multiple muscle groups. Which is good for overall strength because more muscle fibers will be called into action per exercise versus isolation exercises such as curls.

For example, pushups involve chest, front deltoid and triceps muscle. Also, any kind of bodyweight shoulder exercise will hit multiple areas of the shoulder, upper chest, tricep and depending on the exact exercise also require several other muscle groups for stabilization. You don’t get all that with tricep cable push-downs.

More muscle groups worked out means more calories burned, muscle fibers broken down and more opportunity for larger growth afterwards.

 

3. The Focus Is On Strength

There are different exercises that focus on ‘getting a burn’. Focusing on burning calories is better than not exercising but the body yearns for strength; for men and women.

Strength is good for the body for different reasons but it matters most to what you care about. Do you care about burning calories and losing weight? Strength is good for that because improving muscle mass will in turn help you burn more calories.

The metabolism, as referred to in popular culture, is a series of chemical reactions that take glucose, carbohydrates, (mostly glucose but fat can be an energy source too) and breaks it down to release the energy that’s trapped inside. This is happening in every one of your 37 trillion cells. Once glucose is broken down in the cell the parts that are left over enter the mitochondria and get broken down again to release energy over and over until it’s been completely dismantled and then electrons are harnessed for the last bit of energy production.

That’s what is referred to as your “metabolism” and by improving strength you challenge your muscle cells to get bigger and to create more mitochondria (remember those are what burn the energy/glucose). With bigger muscles and more mitochondria you’ll be able to burn more calories throughout the day by just existing with those bigger muscles.

Now, typically when I talk about getting bigger muscles women object and don’t want to be bulky. But you can still get bigger muscles with more mitochondria and not be bulky. Being bulky takes years of hard work, heavy and consistent lifting and eating a lot. By doing bodyweight exercises focused on strength, the chances of someone being bulky from that without them noticing are slim.

Strength training will also help you build strong bones, manage chronic conditions, such as back pain, and will enhance your quality of life for every day activities. Walking up and down stairs you’ll find you’re less winded. You can carry more groceries in less trips back and forth to the car. Play with your kids more because you’ll have the stamina to keep up and lift them above your head.

 

4. Noticeable Visual Progression

As you progress in bodyweight strength, you can do handstand push-ups, one leg squats and multiple different pull-ups on a bar that’s visually noticeable. You’ll impress yourself with what you’ll be able to do and can show off to people; if that’s your thing.

Bodyweight training in itself is wonderful for strength, overall fitness and for being active. But if you’re the type of person that likes to progress and grow then bodyweight training offers that through the next level of calisthenics.

With calisthenics you’ll notice how much you’ve improved from where you started because eventually, you’ll be capable of doing muscle ups, humans flags and handstands. Whereas traditional weight lifting the only progress in the exercise modality itself is adding more weight. Which, don’t get me wrong, is cool when you can add another 45 pound plate to the bar that you couldn’t before. But after a while, from my experience, it gets stale.

One of the biggest push backs I would get from people who don’t like weight lifting is that it’s so repetitive. With bodyweight training that’s a thing of the past because there’s always a next level to the exercise and as your strength improves the possibilities get more interesting, complex and unique.

 

5. Functional In The Real World

This benefit is good for everyone but mainly useful towards people who are often found doing outside activities. If you like exploring the outdoors, hiking, parkour or other similar activities then bodyweight training will be particularly useful to you.

The functional training done with bodyweight exercises are relevant to having control over one’s body not of having control over outer object. For example, take someone who’s done mainly weight training or power lifting and put them on a mountain hike with someone who’s practiced bodyweight training; for this example we’ll say they each have equivalent skill and experience in their style.

The bodyweight exerciser is going to do significantly better on the hike because she’s used to moving her body in all different angles, pulling herself up and needing to lean on one leg for strength. Versus the weight trainer or power lifter who’s used to moving objects they’re going to struggle on the hike because their muscles may actually hinder them due to the lack of flexibility. The weight trainer or power lifter may also struggle on the hike because they’re not used to moving their body in functional ways, so they may have a hard time going uphill, using trees or rocks as support.

I understand an example like this won’t be relevant to everyone due to location and activity inclination. Take me for example, I like in Florida, so a hike on a mountain wouldn’t necessarily be an every day occurrence. But instead, fill in the blank of what that activity would be that’s relevant to you and what you may find is that bodyweight training has more flexibility for functionality in the real world.

 

6. Low Cost Home Gym Set-Up

If you’re leaning towards not relying on the local gym and want to set up a home gym that may cost you several thousand dollars. From the weight rack to barbells, to plates to dumbbells to weight pads and more it’s not cheap.

However, bodyweight training requires just your body and maybe a few pieces of equipment such as a pullup bar. But if you do want to progress in bodyweight you will have to provide your body with more of a challenge after you can hit some basic pushup, squat and pullup metrics.

My preferred way to do this is through a weighted vest. With a weighted vest I can still do pushups, squats and pullups with multiple varieties AND with more of a resistance challenge to my body to get stronger.

 

7. Fun

This benefit is more an opinion, albeit a strong opinion and one that’s shared among many. Like mentioned before, bodyweight training has multiple benefits and one of those is the flexibility in exercises and progression.

An example progression for pushups exercises could be:

  1. Knees down pushup
  2. Regular pushup
  3. Pike pushup
  4. Diamond pushups
  5. Plyometric pushup
  6. One arm pushup
  7. Planche hold
  8. Planche pushups
  9. Planche pushup into handstand
  10. Handstand pushup (more shoulders)

That’s just one progression example, there are all kinds of different pushup variations such as archer pushup, spidermand pushup and Hindu pushup.

Here’s an example of a chest bench press progression (keeping the exercise type similar as possible):

  1. Pressing the bar
  2. Adding weight plates to the bar
  3. Adding more weight plates
  4. Maybe putting on chains or resistance bands
  5. Adding more weight plates
  6. Adding more weight plates
  7. Adding more weight plates
  8. …you get the point

Again, don’t get me wrong about chest press and traditional weight lifting. That’s what I did for over 10 years and will probably do again in the future. The point I’m making here is that there’s more variety with bodyweight training that could be more fun to some people.

 

Conclusion

Bodyweight training has been around as long as humans have and was done before anyone called it ‘bodyweight training’. There are many benefits of bodyweight training and the 7 covered in this article are:

  1. Versatility: Can Be Done Anywhere
  2. Working Multiple Muscle Groups
  3. The Focus Is On Strength
  4. Noticeable Visual Progression
  5. Functional In The Real World
  6. Low Cost Home Gym Set-Up
  7. Fun

To get started, find a good bodyweight training program and just get moving in your living room or backyard; it’s that easy! If you’d like a custom bodyweight training program from me then contact me and I’ll create one for you. With my background as a certified personal trainer and experience in the field I can quickly create a plan that will work for you.

 

Disclaimers

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