Benefits of Body Weight Training! No Weights Required!

Hey guys, 

Hope everyone is staying happy and healthy. Reaching those goals and going beyond. This week we are going to cover the benefits of body weight training. How your body alone can get you stronger, no weights required. 

If you were to ask most people how to get stronger, the unanimous response is weight training, using barbells, dumbbells, or kettle bells. If you are a beginner, push-ups or sit-ups might be recommended, and you make think that these exercises are only preparation for heavy lifting. The truth is weight training is not the only way to get stronger and it isn't the best way either. The world's strongest athletes, who demonstrate extremely high levels of strength in a range of positions and orientations are gymnasts, acrobats, and martial artists. All of which are known for their bodyweight training regimens. The problem however, is that most people are not aware of the higher level bodyweight strength progressions.

Once a push-up has been mastered, not a lot of people know where to go from there. Well there are many different options, for one you can elevate your feet. Although, this adds only marginally to the movement and leads to minimal strength gains. A better solution is to learn the advanced bodyweight progression. For a push-up learning how to do multiple reps of straight body, one-arm push-ups will usually do the trick. 

When comparing to a heavy bench press, one-arm push-ups done correctly actually requires much greater levels of muscle tension and nervous activation. You may not get massive pecs, but you will have the equivalent or greater pushing power, not to mention some amazing core strength and shoulder stabilizers. 

Now, that I have your attention let's take a closer look at the many benefits that come from bodyweight training. First and foremost, because all you need is your own bodyweight, and possibly a pull-up bar or tree branch you can train literally anywhere you have room to lie down. When you become more advanced you can utilize some equipment, such as hanging rings. Remember though, the coast of this equipment is far less than that of a full set of weights! 

Developing strength in the entire rage of motion and more angles as well. This helps protect the joints more reliably than weight training. Due to the fact that you have your bodyweight to adjust the difficulty of exercises, you learn how to utilize your entire body in any given movements. While a bench press is largely an arm exercise, one-arm push-ups require the entire core and hip musculature in addition to the pressing arm. 

The method behind this madness, which most people do not realize is that strength is much more than simply the amount of load a muscle can lift. Muscle tension is combined with stabilization and focused force to generate strength in any given movement. Also, neurological elements, such as clarity and strength of the nerve signal can enable relatively small muscles to generate a great amount of force. Traditional weight training methods neglect the development of these factors. 

Why? You ask.... The reason is simple, weight training relies on moving a load in the most efficient way possible, a straight line, while the bodyweight training tends to distinguish itself by utilizing disadvantaged positions. By using awkward positions, you force the muscles involved to learn how to create more tension that they would normally have to in order to move the weight. The principles of bodyweight training are different then those of weight training. In weight training you simply have to increase the weight slowly over time and wait for your muscles to adapt. Bodyweight training still relies on increasing load to develop strength, but the way this is done is mainly though decreasing the leverage of the muscle group that is involved. 

Let's look at an example..... take the L-sit. This is where the athlete holds their legs out at a 90-degree angle from the body. This movement can be made much easier by allowing even a slight bend in the knees, but locking the legs out will make it an extremely difficult abdominal exercise. A few centimeters makes a huge difference.

 Another way to alter leverage is by keeping your hands or legs in a particular range of motion. Doing a diamond push-up instead of a regular push-up. The other way to increase load on the muscles being used, is the unilateral nature of the movement forces the rest of the body to stabilize and the working limb learns to focus its force output. 

Here are some examples of high strength bodyweight moves: 

• The one-armed pushup (done with legs together and chest parallel to the ground)

• The one-armed pull-up

• The single leg squat

• The planche

• Front and back levers on rings

• Handstand presses

• Strict muscle-ups on rings

• Ring dips

• Iron cross

There you have it! Stop using those weights, put them down, and get outside. Start utilizing your most precious and most expensive piece of equipment you own... YOURSELF!!! I hope you enjoyed, until next week!! 

Pistols...Out

Xo