How Good Are Bodyweight Exercises

Bodybuilding is mostly composed form weight training. People who work hard in the gym use free weight training for better results possible. Free weight training usually includes exercises with dumbbells or barbells. However, there are many people who want to know the importance of bodyweight exercises for building muscle mass and their effectiveness. Bodyweight exercises are largely associated with other types of the sport like fitness, and less used in bodybuilding.

The truth of this matter is that bodyweight exercises can give you fastest results in terms of your muscle growth. Bodyweight exercises do not require any additional weight to be performed. From the technical point of view, they are quite easy to execute, are effective and available for all people who want at least to diversify their workout.

Bodybuilders who use their own body weight for core exercises know that they involve in work all group muscles at once and injury risk is quite lower than in other cases. There are no risks to fall weights you work with on you and to get you injured, even you fall yourself ( in these cases consequences are quite small).

The average men weigh in kilograms between 60 to 90. And this is not a small weight.  All you have to do in case of bodyweight exercises is to learn to use this weight instead of free weights. This is another reason for including bodyweight exercises in a workout program since even you have not all condition for training or you can get to the gym you can choose to train at home or elsewhere. All you need you have with you,  and this can be a great advantage.

The best bodyweight exercises are considered pull-ups/chin-ups, push-ups, squats, dips, calf raises and lunges. Since there can be other variation of these movements, we just mention that bodyweight exercise is any exercise that requires to move in space your torso with no other resistance than your own body.

You can consider bodyweight exercises if you want to achieve one of the following goals:

-Reach asymmetrical growth of your muscle groups;
-Develop general endurance and improve power performance;
-Get the hypertrophy of muscles in their natural geometry;
-Get rid of extra fat
-Get muscle definition.

This is not an exhaustive list of all good effects bodyweight training may have on our body.  Along with these points,  have to be mentioned bodyweight exercises have a great impact on increasing muscle strength and building muscle mass. They give best results as are involved in work all muscles fibers and use several stabilizer muscles too.

Let’s analyze further each of these bodyweight exercises, mentioned their specific and which group of muscles their work. Push-ups are at the top of the list since they are the most common among bodybuilders. And it’s absolutely right to be so since they offer a full-body workout beginning with abs to the gluteus muscles.

To do it you have to get into a prone position. Raise and lower your body using the arms, while keeping your back straight and toes touching the ground.  There are many variations for this type of exercises.  This one is the most simple and is best for beginners.

But once you get stronger, you can choose to do push-ups by placing the legs on the incline or even do them with a single arm. The push-ups are very effective in increasing strength of chest, shoulders and the triceps muscles of the upper arms.

Pull Ups:

Pull-ups and chin-ups are great exercises for developing muscles of the upper back, such as rear deltoid, trapezius, erector spine and especially the latissimus dorsi. In the same way, they greatly work biceps, brachialis, and abdomen. To perform them you will need a bar.

If you are not in a gym and are going to use an improvised bar, make sure it is enough solid and secure to keep you safe while exercising. To do this exercise grab the bar with an overhand grip a bit wider than shoulder width. Pull your body up until your mouth reaches the bar level, or go even higher the level of your chin.

After this, slowly lower your body until you reach the starting position. This exercise has many variations too. Thus you can choose to do wide or narrow grips, changing leg position and others.

Dips:

Dips are great exercises for developing triceps, chest, and back muscles. You can do them on a simple bench or choose a special machine for this. To perform this exercises you will hang from a bar, keeping your arms straight and shoulders above the hand. Lower your body until the elbow creates a 90 degrees uncle and then raise it.  As you get stronger you can choose do not bend your legs at 90 degrees, but to keep them stretched out in front of you.

Checkout Our Article:: 18 Week Chin Up & Dip Program for An Impressive Upper Body

Calf Raises:

Calf raises are best exercises for building and strengthen the muscle of the lower leg.  They are performed in a standing position by trying to raise the heel as high as possible. To increase the level of difficulty, you can do it standing in one leg.

Lunges:

Lunges are is one of the most popular bodyweight exercises. It refers to exercises when a leg is positioned forward with knee bent, while the other leg is situated behind. This exercise can be performed in a wide variety, and it worth to try each of them as they provide different effects.

You can choose them with arms on the side, in front of you or crossed them on your chest. Have to be said that the ability for doing more complex movements comes with time, thus begin with the simplest one and go for more difficult once you get stronger.

Related Article:: Extreme Dumbbell Lunges Exercises

Squats:

The squats are very easy to do and maybe one of the most preferred by all the people, not only bodybuilders. During squats, exercises are usually worked legs and butt muscles. To do them, in a standing position, bent your legs at the knees and hips, and squats down keeping your back straight. Come back to the starter position and repeat the movement. If you are a beginner than opt for three sets of 10 repetitions.

There are many other exercises that can be included in bodyweight exercises. But crunches is the one that worth to be mentioned here. They are perfect for working abdominal muscles and can be done in a variety of ways. If you want to build muscle mass you have not to think that bodyweight exercises cannot help you with this task. The best method to add muscle mass is to increase the intensity of the workout.

Usually, you choose some exercises and do a number of reps for each of them. If you do supersets than you have to perform one more exercise designed for another group of muscles and do a certain amount of reps. Do it for 15 minutes. For example, you do 3-5 push-ups, then the same amount of pull-ups, then repeat them until you feel unable to do more.

After this increase the time of rest between sets. If you can not do supersets, just increase the rest time between sets to 10 seconds and keep doing them. Keep increasing the amount of rest between sets as necessary, until you finish those 15 minutes of training.

Must Read Our Article:: 9 Squats Variations For Bigger Muscles

Also, you can alter the speed of exercise execution, this being another trick for increasing training intensity. In order to increase the muscle mass, you can choose to do push-ups under different angles. Also, a big influence on building muscle mass has the diet. Make sure you follow a protein-rich diet, including supplements too.

Bodyweight Exercises:

Bodyweight Exercises can be successfully used for increasing body strength too. For this purpose you have to do fewer reps but more difficult. How to do it? It is quite simple, choose to do a more difficult variation of bodyweight exercises like with one arm or one leg. Also, you can use some additional weight for more load.

What Not to Do in Case of Bodyweight Exercises?

If you want to make your bodyweight workout as effective as possible, then pay attention to the following details:

- Always make sure you are changing up your bodyweight exercises. Do not stick to a certain workout routine, and change your exercises, a number of reps once a week or two. It may be more simple for you to follow the same exercise program, but if you keep it unchanged more than two weeks than your body reaches that plateau and further no muscle grow will be seen.

- Do not too long pause between sets. Bodyweight exercise has proved to be more effective if the rest between sets is much shorter than other types of workouts. Thus, try to go through sets with minimal pause required.

-Listen to your body. If you feel a pain or uncomfortable to perform a kind of movement than is better to abandon. Your body gives your signals, and you have to listen to them. This will keep you free of any injury anytime.

As you see bodyweight exercises are very effective for building muscle mass and increasing muscle strength. Additionally, they are great for other purposes too like get rid of fat, get a symmetrical growth of the different group of muscles, get muscle definition and others.

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