Posts Tagged ‘handstand pushup’
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.
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.
