Archive for December, 2008
Body weight exercises can be used to work on any part of your body, the shoulders are no exception. This post is going to cover some of the best body weight shoulder exercises that you can do.
You can do bodyweight shoulder exercises with virtually no equipment, however, I would recommend that you spend a few dollars and make some homemade parallelettes. These are great for getting the most out of your handstand push-ups which is the crowning jewel of the body weight shoulder exercises.
I have included a picture of my homemade parallelettes. They are constructed out of 1.25″ PVC pipe. I would recommend at least 1.25″ but it may be better if you go with 1.5″ PVC. My parallelettes are 12″ tall and 27″ long. You need 4 end caps, 2 Ts, 2 elbows and about 5′ of straight pipe to make each parallelette. So a 10′ piece plus the extras should give you enough to make 2.
The first bodyweight shoulder exercise that you can do is performed with your feet on the floor. With your hands on the floor in front of you and your body in a pike position lower yourself to the point where your head touches your hands and return to the starting position.
You can also perform this exercise with your feet elevated. Here my son performs it on our ottoman.
A different version of this exercise is to place your feet up against a wall (fireplace in our case) and walk your hands in until they are about 2.5′ from your feet. Turn your hands so that the tips of your fingers are touching each other and then lower your head down to your hands. This is a slightly more intense exercise. You will feel it in your shoulders. The following photos will show you what I am trying to say.
The king of all body weight shoulder exercises is the Handstand Push-Up. Kick up to a wall or door and lower yourself to your hands and then return to the starting position. This is a difficult exercise and not many will be able to do this bodyweight shoulder exercise for reps. Just do the others exercises shown until you can build up the strength. You can also have someone hold your feet instead of kicking up against a wall. I wouldn’t want you to accidentally put a hole in your drywall.
The parallelettes are used with the handstand push-ups. Using them gives you a greater range of motion since you can take your head below your hands. Make sure that the parallelettes are on a surface on which they won’t slide. I put a blanket under ours when my son performed for this picture. Be safe at all costs. Here is a picture of the handstand pushup with the parallelettes.
If you perform these body weight shoulder exercises you will be surprised by the increase in strength that you will experience. Keep up the good work.
Here is a little bit of a bonus. I ran across this video and just had to show it to you. This guy is insanely strong. Check it out and enjoy. This is the type of strength that can be developed by doing body weight exercises. The core strength required to do this is quite amazing. Enjoy!
This is the second part of the series “Body Weight Exercises for Size and Strength.” The first part centered in on specific exercises that you can do using only your body. However, there a few products that exist that I would recommend getting to help you get the most out of your bodyweight exercises. These products can enable you to perform exercises that you would normally not be able to do.
One of these products is the TRX Suspension Trainer. I highly recommend this training tool. When you buy the TRX Suspension Trainer Professional it comes with a DVD providing workout programs, a training guide showing you the different exercises that you can perform, and a storage bag. I could go on and describe all of the different exercises that you can do but it would be easier for you to watch a few videos. So I have included them below so that you can see the versatility of the TRX Suspension Trainer and how it can help take your body weight exercises to a new level.
This first video is called an atomic push-up. I know that you can tell by looking at it how difficult the exercise can be to perform.
The second video involves three Pittsburgh Pirates that use the TRX Suspension Trainer. They discuss how they use it. One of the things that I like about it is that it allows you to perform some body weight bicep exercises. The only other body weight bicep exercise that most can do is the chin-up or pull-up. This gives you more options. Check out the video.
This is kind of a cool video. Someone took a TRX Suspension Trainer on the the BART train in the Bay area and performed a workout on the train. It shows how easy and portable the TRX Suspension Trainer is. You can literally get a workout anywhere (even on the train).
This video discuss the concept of vector resistance. You have the ability to increase the intensity of any exercise by altering the angle of your body.
I firmly believe the TRX Suspension Trainer is a must to have for your arsenal when performing bodyweight exercises.
The question is often asked whether or not bodyweight exercises can help you get stronger and bigger. It has always been assumed that body weight exercises only increase your endurance level or the stamina of your muscles. Now this is in and of itself a good thing, however, I am here to assert that bodyweight exercises can dramatically improve your strength, especially your functional strength.
Let me explain. If you want to be a powerlifter and one squat 700 pounds and deadlift 800 pounds then body weight exercises will only play a small role in your overal workout program. I am not going to pretend that body weight exercises will propel you to achieve personal bests in your lifts. But just because bodyweight exercises won’t make you a world class powerlifter doesn’t mean they won’t make you stronger.
Body weight exercises create functional strength. One of the strongest people I have ever known never stepped foot in a weight room He would not be able to do heavy benches, squats or deadlifts. Much of this involves technique and some of the lifts done don’t have real world application. However, my friend owned functional strength. I believe bodyweight exercises help provide you with functional strength. But as we will see in a little while it can also provide you with weight room strength.
This is going to be a three part article, primarily because I don’t want it to be so long that you get bored by my writing and miss the nuggets of information in the article. In the first part I want to give you 4 exercises that can be done with little or no equipment that can dramatically increase your strength. Here we go.
One Leg Squat
This is often referred to as “the Pistol.” It is a pure strength exercise. Many people are not able to do this exercise due to the strength required. Others get excited because they were able to do it one time. Of course, I am talking about being able to do it 10+ times for 3 – 5 sets. Now as I mentioned many of you will not be able to do this initially. Therefore, you will have to find something to assist you. I would recommend standing beside a pole or a chair that you can grab onto to give yourself the needed boost to get out of the bottom of the exercise. Possibly the best way is to use a piece of rope attached to the ceiling of your garage or secured in a door that you can hold on to.
One Arm Push – Up
This is another exercise requiring great strength. Make sure to widen the base of your legs when doing this exercise or you just may tip over. Again the goal here is not to just be able to do 1 or 2. The goal is to perform this body weight exercises for multiple set of 10 – 15 reps. If you can work up to this you will find your strength increasing.
Pull – Ups
Pull ups are a fabulous strength exercise. If you want a big and strong back then pull ups are essential. If you get to the point where you can knock out 20 – 25 pull-ups in one set without a problem then go to the store and buy yourself a cheap backback. Load the backpack with 20 – 25 pounds of weight, strap it on and jum back on the pull-up bar. The added weight will make it more difficult. By the way, when doing pull-ups set yourself a goal and don’t stop till you reach it on matter how many sets it takes you to achieve it.
Handstand Push Up
This is another tremendous strength exercise. Kick your feet up against a wall with your back to the wall and lower yourself until your head touches the floor then raises yourself back to the starting position. If this is too difficult to start you can always do the tent version with your feet on the floor or a chair.
As you progress, I would recommend that you build some parallelettes that will allow you a greater range of motion. You can build them out of 2″ PVC at very little cost.
So try these four exercises and watch your strength grow. Stay tuned for the next two parts of this article.
You can get a great workout for any part of your body with body weight exercises. In this post I want to review some of the exercises that you can perform for a great bodyweight workout for your back. The back is one of the greatest looking body parts when it has been developed correctly. You will find out as you have a chance to do many of these exercises that bodyweight exercises are one of the best ways to develop your back. In fact the great Arnold Schartzeneggar once said that if you want to develop your back then one exercise in particular was what you should concentrate on.
That one exercise is the pull up. If you want a big back then you need to do pull-ups. In this post we will cover a number of pull-up variations along with a few other back exercises.
Before I go any further let me state that the pull-up is the greatest of all bodyweight exercises. It is a pure strength exercise. Pull-ups can be very difficult for many people to do. If they are difficult for you then you can do a cheat pull-up. I provide an example of my son doing a cheat pull-up with a chair. You merely place one foot on a chair or stool and use it to give you the boost you need. Or you can attach an exercise tube to each end of your pull up bar so that it hangs to your waist or knee level when you are hanging from the bar. You would put one foot in this to give you an extra boost to help you get up.
Different grips on the pull-up bar will work different parts of your upper back. So experiment with your hand grip and see what results you get. So here we go.
The best pull-up exercise and potentially the most difficult to perform is the wide grip pull-up. This exercise will work your lats to a great degree and will be more responsible for wide lats than any other exercise.
The next picture shows what most consider to be a standard chin-up. It involves an underhand grip where the wide grip involved an overhand grip. This pull-up is also a great exercise for your biceps.
You can also perform the close grip pull-up with an overhand grip.
For a real challenge you can do the towel pull-up. These are quite difficult. This exercise is also killer on your grip since you need to grip the towel in order to do the pull-up.
This is a variation on the towel pull-up. One hand grips the towel while the other hand grips the bar. The staggered grip makes for a difficult and challenging exercise.
The pull-up is not the only bodyweight exercise for the back. Another great exercise is the inverted row. It works the same muscles as the bent over row. Simply support a weight bar between two different object (I used my squat rack) and perform the exercise as shown in the picture. You can also use a sturdy dowel rod or broom handle laid across two stools. My son has his feet on the floor in the first picture and to make the exercise more difficult he places his feet on the bench in the second picture.
For your lower back you can perform reverse hyperexetensions. I do not have a reverse hyper bench so we use a makeshift bench. I have a preacher curl bench. We slide it up to my old tablesaw and hook our feet under the tablesaw (not running of course). It works just fine.
You can also perform a superman exercise for the lower back. Lay on the floor on your stomach with your hands extended out above your head. To perform the exercise lift your head, arms and feet off the floor and hold them in the air for a count of 15 – 30 seconds. Rest and then repeat.
Oh, I almost forgot. Here is the picture of the cheat pull-up.
If you perform these exercises I think you will be pleased with the result. Give them a shot.
When I posted my Push-up variation post a little while back, I should have included Hindu push-ups. Hindu pushups are a fantastic exercise that are a little more challenging than the normal push-up. Hindu push-ups are a much more dynamic exercise.
Not only do they work your chest but they work your shoulders and triceps as well. I am sure others may be different but they tire me out much quicker than regular push-ups. Regular push-ups do not necessarily get my heart rate up but Hindu push-ups do. They can be used as a conditioning exercise and not merely a strength building exercise.
So how do you perform them? Here is how you perform Hindu pushups:
- From a standing position with your feet slightly wider than your shoulders place your palms flat on the floor several feet in front of your feet. Your feet should also be wider than your shoulders. Your arms and legs should be straight. You should in essence look like a giant inverted V.
- Without bending your legs lower your upper body towards the floor in sort of a swooping motion. You want to get as close to the ground as possible (nearly grazing your nose on the floor). As you swoop through you will begin to push your upper body back up into and upward dog (for all you yoga fans) position. Once you have reached this position, return to the original starting position. You do not swoop down through on the way back to the starting position. That would be known as a dive bomber push-up (another great exercise).
I would shoot for 3 sets of 15 – 20 reps to start. If you find this easy then increase the reps. Enjoy.
I really like this piece of equipment. Again this is another essential piece of equipment to get the most out of your bodyweight exercises. It allows you to do dips, inverted rows, L-sits, knee raises, etc. The cool thing is that it folds up and stores away. Check out the video below and if you are like me and feel you need to have it there is a link to purchase it at Amazon below the video.
In order to get the most out of bodyweight exercises you need to be able to do pull-ups and chin-ups. Pull-ups are one of the greatest exercises one can do for size and strength in the back area. However, most of us don’t have the equipment to do a pull-up. Free standing units are usually quite pricey. However, Iron Gym has a great pull-up attachment that hooks to any door and can be purchased for less than $35.
You can watch the video below to see the Iron Gym in action and if you need something like this to perform pull-ups in your house then I have provided a link to Amazon for you.
Portable Monkey Bar Gym
I ran across an interesting product today. It is called Monkey Bar Gym. They sell a number of portable pieces of exercise equipment that you can basically take anywhere you are going. It can pack away easily in your suitcase.
It allows you to use your body weight to get a great overall workout. Below you will see a video that shows you just some of the things that you can do with a couple pieces of equipment. Add these to your arsenal to maximize you bodyweight workouts.
