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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.
The Tabata Protocol sounds like a new Robert Ludlum book. I can imagine a Jason Bourne like thriller set somewhere in western Europe where our hero is running from secret international spy agencies. However, the reality is that the Tabata Protocol is something much different. The tababa protocol is a really an exercise protocol. OK, I know some of you are asking, “What is a protocol?” A protocol is simply a way of doing something. In this instance, the tabata protocol is a particular way to perform an exercise.
If you think that a pushup or a bodyweight squat is a simple exercise to perform then you haven’t done it the tabata way. If you had, both your body and your mind would have remembered it. You will reap tremendous physical benefits from it if you can endure.
The tabata protocol was originally an exercise concept developed by Japaneese exercise researcher, Izumi Tabata. In a nutshell, a tabata exercise routine is a rapid rotation of exercise and rest lasting for 4 minutes. Sounds simple, right? Let take the pushup for example. You would do push-ups for twenty seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. And you will do this for eight rounds. It would look something like this.
| Event | Time |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Push-Ups | 20 Sec |
| Rest | 10 Sec |
| Total Time | 4 Min |
I promise you that at the end of the four minutes you will be in a fat burning zone. Your heart rate will be elevated, your chest and triceps will be aching, and you might even want to cry out for you mama. But we have only just begun. After all, we have only exercised for 4 minutes. If you string five exercises together, you will have a super fat burning workout beyond comprehension. You may have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning but after a couple of days you will be feeling better.
Here are five suggested exercises:
Push-ups
Bodyweight Squats
Pull-ups (or inverted rows)
Crunches
Jumps
Many people are unable to do pull-ups. If this is the case you can do a cheat pull-up (see video) or you can do an inverted row.
For the jumps, I mean nothing more than standing in place and continually jumping as high as you can for 20 seconds.
Give the tabata protocol a try and see what you think. I think you will agree it is one tough calorie burning, fat shredding, muscle ripping, fabulous exercise.
(The tabata exercise protocol and be very taxing. If you are a beginner or out of shape please consult a doctor and if given the go ahead begin with a different time frame. You could possibly to 15 seconds of exercise followed by a 15 second rest. Experiment with what you can handle initially.)
One of the greatest bodyweight exercises is the push-up. This is just the beginning of the quality content that I will be providing on this website. I hope this is of help to you. I want to thank my son for being my guinea pig and allowing me to take pictures of him.
Below you will find video for a number of different types of push-ups. If you use your imagination you could probably come up with a few other variations. Please make sure that you do your push-ups with good form. Good form would include a straight back and your head up and looking forward. Do not rush them. Perform them generally with a 1-0-1 count. That would mean taking 1 second to lower, no pause at the bottom and 1 second to raise back to the starting position. If you want a little more of a challenge them perform them with a 2-0-1 count.
Standard Push-Up
The standard push-up is a great exercise for developing the chest.
httpv://www.youtube.com/v/If7E4tzhvlE
Close Grip Push-Up
The close grip push-up will work the inner portion of the chest more and will give your triceps more of a workout.
One Arm Push-Up
The one arm push-up is really a test of strength. Spread your legs apart for this exercise since you will probably need the wider base to keep your balance.
Feet Elevated Push-Up
This push-up will work the upper portion of your chest to a greater degree.
Triangle Push-Up
To perform a triangle push-up form a triangle with your hands. Your hands should be located a little more forward than they would be for a standard push-up. When you descend place your nose or your chin inside of the triangle.
Triangle Push-Up Hand Position
Push-Up with Clap
This is an explosive movement. You need to provide a lot of upward force so as to be able to get your hands back into position so that you don’t crush your face on the ground. Do not perform these to exhaustion as it could cause injury to you if you are unable to get your hands back into position.
Twist Push-Up
This push-up works on core stability as well.
Push-Up on Ball
This is similar to a close grip push-up. I would recommend performing it on a medicine ball. My son is performing it on a homemade medicine ball but I would use one that is completely round since it forces you to stabilize while doing the push-up
Push-Up with Handles
Push-Up Handle
Push-ups with handles are more difficult. The hand position is slightly different than a normal push-up creating a slightly different stress on the chest. The handles being used are homemade. I will include a post in the next day or so describing how I made them.
Push-Up with Dumbbell
You can also perform the exercise above with dumbbells. It will have the same effect although the push-up handles will probably give you a little bit more of a stretch for your chest since they are slightly higher.
Push-Up with Dumbbell Row
I love this exercise. It will quickly wear you out. You will need a little wider base with your feet to perform it. Try it out, I think you will like it as much as I do.
Push-Up with One Leg Elevated
This is also an exercise that works on your core stability.
Plyometric Push-Up
This is another explosive exercise that will give you a great workout. It requires quite a bit of strength to perform many of them.
Push-Up with Added Weight
If a standard push-up becomes too easy for you then you can add extra weight. Here my son is performing a standard push-up with a 45 lb weight on his back.
Push-Up with Swiss Ball
My swiss ball was kind of flat. Make sure yours has more air. I included this video for a good laugh. I made my son laugh while trying to perform the exercise and you can see the result. This exercise requires great stability strength.
Push-Up on Fists
Here is a picture where a standard push-up is done on the fists.
Push-Up on Fists
Push-Up with Hold
A great and exhausting exercise is to perform a push-up with a 5 – 10 second hold at the bottom or at the midway point.
I read an article today from the UK. I just happened to run across it. Here is the link and here is a direct quote from the article:
“During my hour in the gym with Matt we never touched any of the machines that I would normally use and yet at the end of our workout I felt as if I had exercised every muscle in my body.
“Most gyms are full of equipment, whereas we only use a few pieces of equipment,” says Matt. “I can do a 35-minute circuit without using any of the machines.
“You can use your own body weight to realign your posture and get your muscles working properly.
“Certain machines in the gym can actually make problems worse, especially if you are not using them properly.”
For those of you who have used machines all of your life get ready for the challenge of a bodyweight exercise routine. Over the weekend I will write a post about a great bodyweight workout that is guaranteed to kick your butt and help burn fat and increase muscle. Stay tuned.
