Bodyweight training is the fastest growing trend in fitness to date for good reason. The benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks – because there really aren’t any. Adopting bodyweight training either as stand-alone workouts or as part of your existing program will not only spark new enthusiasm, but will also incorporate real-world bodyweight moves making you full-body strong.
What Can It Do For You?
- Shore-up weak spots in your range of motion
- Strengthen your core on almost every exercise
- Make you whole-body strong by supporting your own weight
- Turn you into one functional, athletic machine!
- Engage a host of supportive muscle that was once ignored through too much isolation work
5 Things You Should Know Before You Start
- You can gain muscle and lose fat doing bodyweight workouts: Yes, contrary to meatheads in your local gym you can gain an appreciable amount of muscle performing bodyweight exercises. The key is to know how to be progressive and up the ante regarding difficulty. Still not convinced? Just look at male gymnasts. They have massive shoulders and arms anyone would envy from simply doing bodyweight training.
- Challenge yourself: Learning the proper way to perform exercises with precise form and how to progress and regress when needed will give you all the tools you need to challenge yourself. Shifting your bodyweight, single-limb movements and speed of reps are just a few ways to add to the intensity.
- Stay efficient: The beauty of bodyweight training is the ability to kill two birds with one stone, namely cardio and strength training. This type of training combines these two factors into one fast-paced, fat scorching, muscle-building workout. Keeping an eye on pace and simply sustaining your own bodyweight will have your muscles and lungs working overtime.
- Keep it interesting: Just as you would your traditional weight training, feel free to change up your bodyweight workouts. There’s more than one way to perform a push-up, pull-up or squat. With seemingly countless ways to change up movements it won’t be hard at all to keep it interesting and challenging all the while keeping you on the right road to progress. Change it up, have some fun!
- Adding to your arsenal is easy: Though conventional bodyweight training has you using, well, your own bodyweight, you can easily add in a few tools without too much hassle or money. Kettlebells, bands, weight plates, benches, steps and blocks can be extremely useful pieces of equipment that are not only effective additions but also cheap to boot. As you advance, get stronger and build muscle you may want to include a few of these to your program.
So let’s take your newfound love and understanding of bodyweight training and put it into practice. Below is a complete 9-week bodyweight workout solution anyone can do. Starting with the simple basics, it’s progressive, challenging and contains enough variation to keep you coming back for more.
The 9-Week Progressive Bodyweight Workout
Phase 1: Weeks 1 – 3
This phase introduces you to the basic bodyweight exercises and progresses your volume slightly each week. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Rest 30 – 60 seconds between sets.
AMRAP = As many reps as possible
Phase 2: Weeks 4 – 6
This phase increases the intensity and difficulty. Since you will be performing more challenging moves you will again build up your volume over time. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Rest 30 – 60 seconds between sets.
Phase 3: Weeks 7 – 9
This phase increases the intensity and difficulty yet again so building up your tolerance to volume will be the goal. Exercises labeled as 1A, 1B, for example are performed back-to-back without rest. After the two sets are completed you can then rest for 30 seconds. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Week 3 will utilize a few bodyweight assisted pieces of equipment.
