The Top 10 Reasons Why Body Weight Exercises Are the Best Way to Get in Shape
August 20, 2012 by admin
Filed under Get in Shape
From my experience a program of bodyweight exercises is the absolute best way to get in incredible shape in the shortest period of time. I am not saying this because I have read it somewhere. I am speaking from my own experience. I used to lift weights and use all of those fancy machine in the gym but no more. For me I know used a combination of bodyweight training, isometric exercises and yoga (along with hill sprints occasionally). I am now in the best shape of my life. Why are bodyweight workouts so effective? Let me count the ways:
1. All bodyweight exercises work your entire body as a unit. Exercises like Hindu Squats and Hindu Pushps, or variations of them, all work major muscle groups simultaneously. People who work out in the gym typically do isolation exercises of one kind or another. This can lead to the body becoming “out of balance” and more injury prone.
What I mean by this is it’s possible to work a muscle with an isolation exercise till it is proportionally stronger than another muscle group. When the muscles have to work together, whether this involves playing sports or anything else, the chance of injury is MUCH higher. When I was taking Judo I was also weight lifting. I was getting injured all the time. Years later when I tried Jiu Jitsu it wasn’t a problem.
2. Bodyweight workouts are vastly superior to more conventional gym workouts when it comes to fat burning. With bodyweight exercises you are constantly using major muscle groups. The more muscle you use, the more fat you burn. It’s that simple.
3. Bodyweight training forces you to really think about what you are doing as you perform the exercise. You are using the old mind muscle when you do this, and focusing your mind is as important as performing the physical exercise itself.
This self-concentration promotes neurological connections allowing for a deeper mind body connection. You will get much faster results this way.
4. Bodyweight exercises will not only build tremendous strength, but stamina as well. When Karl Gotch ( a real professional wrestler who was in amazing shape) took up weight lifting, he found he COULD lift heavier weights. However, the amazing stamina he once had that would allow him to wrestle for an hour or more completely left him. He was gassed after 10 minutes. The strength gained from exercises like Hindu pushups and squats is functional, and that makes all the difference.
5. Bodyweight Workouts promote flexibility. Many of the routines you can do stretch your muscles at the same time as they are strengthening them. You just don’t get this with weights.
6. Bodyweight training allows you to work your body from all angles and directions. The same cannot be said of weights and all of those ridiculous machines.
7. Bodyweight exercises increase your strength, endurance and flexibility at the same time. Again, Hindu pushups and squats are a perfect example of this.
8. Bodyweight training attacks the muscle at a much deeper level than weights, thereby giving you a greater ‘functional strength” The person who does a set of pull-ups, for example, works the back and arms far more than a person who uses the lat pulldown machine. What’s more, the person doing the pull-ups will be able to use the lat machine no problem. The reverse is not true.
9. As they don’t require any equipment, bodyweight workouts can be done anywhere at anytime. No excuses about not being able to make it to the gym!
10. Bodyweight exercises also save you a lot of time so that you have more time to do the things you want.
David Nordmark is a Vancouver based fitness consultant as well as the owner and operator of Animal-Kingdom-Workouts.com, a fitness site with a unique twist. Check out his website for more information on yoga, bodyweight exercises, isometric exercises and other aspects of bodyweight training.
