Monday, May 7, 2012

Bodyweight Workout Moves

This has been a fairly long time coming (thanks to college finals), but it’s finally here!

There are 6 basic movements that cover pretty much every muscle in your body. These movements have endless variations, that can range from very easy to downright impossible. You will need a pull-up bar for some of them, but other than that no equipment or weights are needed. If you do all 6 of them every week I guarantee you will gain strength, become more flexible, and have an overall healthy feeling and good looking body. I unfortunately don’t have the capabilities right now to make good videos of each of these moves, but here’s a basic explanation:

1. Push-up - One of the most simplest movements that pretty much everyone has heard of. However, not many people do them with proper form and even less learn anything beyond the basic 2 arm push-up. Proper form is hands about shoulder width apart, elbows pointed in towards your sides (though not quite touching), feet together, head looking forward, then you bring your chest to the floor and all the way back up. No going half way down! There are so many other variations too, like the diamond, backhand, fingertip, clapping, plyo, and the ultimate one: the one arm push-up!

2. Pull-up - Best exercise move ever! Mainly works your lats, biceps, and back muscles. You can build crazy body weight strength if you do these a lot and with full range of motion. Why do weak bicep curls when you can work on doing a one arm chin up? So much more impressive! You can eventually work up to do doing muscle ups (a pull-up where you pull yourself above the bar) too. These build great full body explosiveness and look/feel awesome!

3. Pistol squat (i.e. one leg squat) - If you want strong flexible legs these are the thing to be doing! They’re better than squatting really heavy with 2 legs because they put a lot less stress on your body while still being extremely challenging. Doing them will greatly improve your balance and flexibility as they force you to have a greater range of motion than 2 leg squats. I’ve recently stopped 2 leg squatting really heavy weights and have focused on almost exclusively on pistol squats and have seen quite a difference. My legs feel much more flexible and springy while still being strong!

4. Back bridge - This is a very underutilized exercise that works your entire posterior chain. It also stretches your shoulders, upper back, and hip flexors. If you take your time building up from easier versions of this it is an extremely beneficial exercise, and one that I think would help a lot of people reduce problems with their back.

5. Handstand Push-up - Best exercise for your shoulders period, seriously. All you have to do is get into a handstand and then bring your face down to the ground and back up, easy! Haha not really, but if you do them close to a wall with your feet against the wall they’re more manageable. I barely could do them at first but have been working on them for a long time and can do them away from a wall sometimes now. Doing them instead of so many shoulder presses has basically eliminated shoulder pain I used to have as well. They also are a great way to work the triceps, especially if you do diamond ones (hands together), SO hard!! ... Plus as an added bonus they look really cool!

6. Leg raises - If you want a strong core and ripped abs then these are the number one move you should do. There are several other good ones too like the plank and L-sit, but leg raises are the best in my opinion. Easy version is laying flat on your back with hands at your sides and then raising your legs straight up . Hardest version is hanging from a pull-up bar and bringing your legs up to the bar and back down again with as little swinging as possible.

These six movements and variations of them are honestly all most people will ever need for a general level of fitness, and some of the advanced versions not even the best professional athletes can do. If you ever see someone do a one handed handstand push-up let me know! Also, I will hopefully have videos up at some point but until then I am more than happy to demonstrate any of these moves to you in person, and can show you variations that you can do no matter what your fitness level. Unless of course you’re in better shape than I am, but if that’s the case you don’t need my help anyways ;)

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