Typical body weight exercises

Probably the most common bodyweight exercise is the pushup. You probably remember doing them in school, probably doing more than you wanted to at the time. It is one of the best exercises you can do because it works so many muscle groups. Of course if you haven’t exercised in awhile and you are an older adult you may want to start out doing them with your knees touching the floor and then gradually build up strength where you can do them with just your hands and toes on the floor.

A good bodyweight exercise for legs would be the one leg squat. Simply stand on one leg and squat down as far as possible. If you are worried about falling stand in front of a wall so you can catch yourself. This is great for the upper leg muscles as well as the calves.

Walking lunges are also a great way to build leg muscles. Stand up straight with your hands on your hips and put one foot forward as far as possible. Bring it back and do the same with the other foot.

The Jumping Jack is another one that you might remember from school. It’s great for getting the blood flowing and working the legs.

Technically with pull-ups you do need a chin up bar, or something else to pull your self up with but it is still a great exercise for the back, shoulders and arms.

What are Body weight exercises?

Lifting weights isn’t the only way to build strong and toned muscles, there is also a technique called bodyweight exercises where instead of weights you use your own body weight as the resistance to build muscles.

You probably are thinking that bodyweight exercises sound a lot like calisthenics, what we used to do in gym. You are right they are one in the same thing. But they aren’t the same as isometrics exercises which involves muscles contracting against resistance.

There are 2 big advantages to doing bodyweight exercises. One, there is no equipment to buy or gyms to pay membership fees to, which is great if you are on a budget. The second advantage is that you can do these exercises anywhere, at home, in a motel, in a park, anywhere.

Some people believe that you just can’t get a good strength workout without lifting weights. They think that since you can continue to increase the weights with weight lifting and you are limited with a certain weight (your body weight) with body weight exercises, it is the only way to get stronger.

Well that isn’t true, bodyweight exercises if done on a regular basis and done correctly can be effective in building muscles and gaining strength.

In fact you may want to start out doing calisthenics first before venturing into weight lifting.

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