Top 4 Bodyweight Training Myths

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Bodyweight exercsies are very quickly becoming an extremely popular way to improve ones body. But this great popularity also comes with lots of “myths” surround bodyweight training.

I’m here to clear all these up and get to the bottom of all the confusion:

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Bodyweight Training Myth #1: The Only Way to Lose Fat with Bodyweight Training is to Perform Super High Repetitions

Most people stick to basic pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats. And when the workout starts to get too easy, they simply add repetitions or add sets, especially if their goal is to lose fat. The only thing this does is make a workout last incredibly long.

The real way to lose fat with bodyweight exercises is to make your workouts more intense and challenging. Do this by using intensity techniques such as circuit training. Circuit training is where you choose 4 or more exercises and perform them back to back with little to no rest in between each exercise.

Bodyweight Training Myth #2: Bodyweight Exercise is another Form of Cardio

I think there’s a confusion between bodyweight exercises and calisthenics. Calisthenics is aerobic exercises using your own bodyweight. Exercises such as jumping jacks, run in place, and high knees would be classified as calisthenics. Bodyweight training is strength exercises using your own bodyweight.

Pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats are not a form of cardio. Both bodyweight exercises and calisthenics are very good ways to use your bodyweight to lose fat. However, you do need to place a distinction between the two. These two words are not interchangeable.

Bodyweight Training Myth #3: There’s No way You can Burn fat and Build Lean Muscle mass at the Same time with Bodyweight Exercises

People are starting to understand how you can burn fat and gain muscle mass with high intensity weight training. So why can’t you do the same with bodyweight exercises? If you use exercises that challenge you enough, then you can easily burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

Once again, the formula to achieve this is to organize difficult movements into workouts using high intensity techniques. One of these techniques is circuit training. But I’ll now reveal a second effective training techniques called interval training. Interval training is simply alternating between periods of high and low intensity training intervals.

Bodyweight Training Myth #4: Bodyweight Exercises won’t work if you’re Overweight or Obese

If anything, overweight and obese individuals need to perform bodyweight exercises. This is because the greatest problem with these individuals is a lack of mobility. Greater mobility and flexibility can be achieved with very simple bodyweight movements such as the chair squat.

The chair squat is exactly what it sounds like: sit on a chair, and get up. But think about how many times we sit down and get up on a daily basis. This is the most basic function of our lives, and yet our hip muscles are not being effectively strengthened to perform such a basic activity.

Bodyweight Training (Great For Athletes and Regular Exercisers)

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Many athletes (as well as the casual exerciser), feel that they can get absolutely no benefit from bodyweight training. They feel it’s too easy for them. But i feel this is a big mistake because bodyweight exercises are essential for training athletes, as well as help exercisers of all skill levels burn fat, build strong muscles and improve fitness.

Lets look at some things advanced athletes and regular exercisers can do to make their workouts even more intense using bodyweight training.

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Here is what happens: We have been brainwashed to believe physical training is resistance Training (weight lifting) and Cardio. We do sets and reps of a certain exercise to target a certain muscle group with certain rest periods. Then after we are done treating the body like a bunch of parts, we do some aerobic cardio to improve the heart and lungs.

So, athletes think that doing a workout with only the resistance of their own body is too easy because there is no added resistance. And here’s the thing… if you are only getting the inflated muscles of bodybuilders, they are probably right.

However, I believe the body should be trained as one complete unit. The entire body, all the muscles as well as the heart and lungs should be challenged at the same time. The lines between resistance training and cardio training need to be blurred. I would ask the athletes, “Is your sport done in a compartmentalized way with robotic actions where strength and cardio-respiratory endurance are separate?

Or, is your entire body needed to work in unison in order to excel at your sport?” Bodyweight training is great for switching between strength exercises and “cardio” exercises seamlessly… which is an excellent way to train.

Plus, exercise is really a question of movement. And there are two types of movement: moving your own body through space, and moving objects through space. I would argue that for most athletes, being able to control and move your own body around with strength, balance, flexibility and coordination is going to help your perform better. And for the regular exerciser, bodyweight training is important to prepare your for the physical and mental challenges you face in your everyday life.

My recommendation is to blur the lines between strength training and cardio-respiratory training in the same bodyweight workout. For example, complete a circuit of push up, air squats and crunches as fast as possible without rest, and then do 50 jumping jacks before repeating the circuit 2-5 times… and repeat for 20 minutes without rest. This type of bodyweight workout targets all your muscles as well as your heart and lungs and trains the body to work as one complete unit.

I encourage you to add bodyweight training to your overall workout program regardless of whether you are a high-performance athlete or just a regular exerciser trying to improve fitness and control your weight. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how effective bodyweight training can be. And when your heart is pounding, your breathing is hard and you are laying on the ground in a pool of your own sweat, ask yourself… “Are bodyweight exercises too easy?”

Bodyweight Training – Fit to Fight

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I love this saying: “Fit to fight”. I heard this from the #1 man of bodyweight training world records Paddy Doyle. And he has it right, you need to be fit to fight. More and more men and women are taking to bodyweight training as the way to optimal fitness in record time. MMA fighters and athletes all over the world are starting to take notice of the benefits of bodyweight exercises and getting results that push them to the next level.

Using your own bodyweight as resistance is not just a few pushups and sit ups it’s so much more. Bodyweight exercises are so versatile that you never have to do the same workout again. A man that has well over 100 bodyweight and martial arts world records is a man I want to learn from. Using your own bodyweight will make you a better athlete or will burn the fat from your waste line like a spreading wild fire.


The physical fitness aspect of bodyweight training will not only work in the ring or to make you physically fit, it will make you mentally fit that will carry you in life. The more you improve using your bodyweight as resistance the more you will push yourself. You will start to push yourself farther and harder, you will start to feel as if you are unstoppable. Martial artists and other athlete’s will become faster, stronger, more explosive with a ” I’d rather die then give up” attitude. Bodyweight training will get you fit to fight either in the ring or in life.

Bodyweight training will build a physical and mental toughness that you will be proud of. So become fit to fight. A short workout you can try will only take a few minutes so no excuses on time.

Pick 4 bodyweight exercises. For example Burpees, Pushups, Jumping Jacks, Bodyweight squats. Each exercise is to be done for 1 minute with a 1 minute rest in between each exercise. After you go through this 1 time rest for 2 minutes and repeat one more time.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity you’ll be calling for oxygen soon enough.

Bodyweight Training Exercises for Strength and Stamina

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Are you worried about your body’s shape? Do you want to improve your stamina and be fit? Then start the bodyweight training exercises and see the change. Fitness experts say that exercise is very good for health and that is the best way to keep your body in shape. Along with a fitness training plan you would need a healthy diet to support your body with nutrients.

Otherwise your body would become weak and you will lose your strength. Stamina is very important and it can be improved only with the help of bodyweight training. One thing you should keep in mind is that bodyweight training doesn’t suit everybody and you need to check your weight from time to time. If there are drastic changes in your weight then you should immediately stop them and look at other alternatives to improve your strength.

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Bodyweight training can be quite rigorous and women cannot support such exercises. Men who want to have a chiseled body and who wish to acquire the macho looks only should take up bodyweight training exercises. You can spend very little time and practice intense sessions if you want to finish it up quickly.

Such exercises will not only improve your strength but also increase body flexibility. People who want to burn their fat fast and shed extra pounds can take up these exercises and they will see a change very quickly. Many of the weight programs do not concentrate on the back and that is the reason why the waist line increases and women accumulate fat. The bodyweight training exercises will reduce the waist line and get rid of the girdles.

The advantage of these bodyweight training exercises is that you can practice them indoors and you wouldn’t need any gym equipment. It is a common notion among people that gym is the only thing that reduces weight and increases stamina. That is completely wrong and exercise is a very good way of losing weight and building your body.

A complete body workout for about 30 minutes or less than that is beneficial and you can speed up your exercise process. Planning the bodyweight training exercises is quite important and it will help you in maintaining a routine. Initially you would have to do a few warm-up exercises and then practice rigorously.

Leg raises, jumping jacks, push-ups and pull-ups should be the initial exercises you would do. Everyday 10 leg raises, 10 jumping jacks and 10 leg raises can be done and slowly the number should be increased. Intense bodyweight training exercises would require 50 to 60 of each of the exercises and they should be juggled.

Never exercise in the same way and keep juggling in between. That will ensure that the routine doesn’t get boring for you. Bodyweight training is the best way to sculpt your body and within no time you would be flaunting a chiseled body.

A healthy diet should always be followed while you are practicing the bodyweight training exercises. People generally do not eat well and go behind crash diets that just fill the stomach. All these might seem to be good in the first days of your training and as the intensity of the exercises progresses, your body will grow to be weak and it will not support you.

Sickness follows and you might even be bed ridden due to severe weakness. Eat healthy food that is rich in proteins and carbohydrates and always keep your body hydrated. This kind of a planned bodyweight training exercise will always keep you fit and maintain your stamina.

The Benefits Of Bodyweight Training

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It’s been close to 10 years since I stopped training at a gym and have been training at home. I train with bodyweight exercises and some isometric exercises. If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that bodyweight training can work wonders if you’re willing to be motivated enough to stick to it.

I started with a bodyweight workout routine earlier on as a desperate measure to make my workouts more efficient and it quickly became an eye-opener about the vast benefits of bodyweight training.

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The Benefits are as follows:

Very little equipment

If you use your imagination, you can do these exercises without special equipment. All you need is some space and motivation. So bid farewell to time lost travelling to the gym. Get on floor and do push-up, hang from the door way and do pull-ups and squat with your bodyweight. As you get stronger, make these exercises more challenging by adding the single limb variations – e.g. Single arm push-ups, Single arm pull-ups and Pistol Squats.

The Gym is never shut

When you use bodyweight exercises, you are your own gym. You can workout anytime, anywhere.

Keeps you honest

When you training with weights, your bodyweight increases creating the illusion that you are lifting more. In case of a tie in powerlifting, the lighter athlete is selected as the winner. With bodyweight training, this isn’t so, if you get fatter, you will find you bodyweight movements getting worse.

Builds strength and develops joint health

When properly done, the bodyweight training system can develop incredible strength and stamina, often together. The fact that it doesn’t use unnatural loads to develop strength means your joints, ligaments and tendons grow strong too. Unlike in the bodybuilding style of training where the muscle bellies grow far stronger than the supporting tendons thus leaving you vulnerable to injuries.

Bodyweight exercises are natural

This is the most important factor supporting bodyweight exercises. These movements come to us naturally. Unlike bench presses and bicep curls which aren’t the way our bodies were designed to function. Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to be able to move itself, first and foremost; they weren’t really “designed” to lift progressively heavier external loads regularly.

Bodyweight exercises are basic to human nature. The body is designed to move and needs to do so more efficiently. Unlike training with equipment in a gym where it’s just the limbs moving, usually, bodyweight exercises are designed to utilize the entire body as resistance and forces the entire body to participate in the exercise.

The core goal of any fitness training routine should be the improvement of your own physical (joint) mobility and movement. Very few bodybuilding exercises like the squats and deadlifts can give this benefit. However, these movements do place a lot of stress on the joints and spinal column.

There are other reasons that I could mention and they’d make absolute sense to start with hardcore bodyweight exercises. But nothing, at least for me, trumps the fact that it is an incredible time and money saver. You don’t have to pay expensive gyms to workout, no time wasted travelling to the gym and no time wasted waiting for the equipment to be vacated. Nothing trumps bodyweight training when it comes to tackling these issues.

Reasons Why Body Weight Training Rocks…

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In my point of view nothing beats a well rounded body weight training habit in order to get the maximum results. When I first started exercising I lifted weights and ran like many people. No more. Since I’ve identified the joys of bodyweight exercises in all their forms there is no seeking back. Below are some factors why I believe bodyweight training is the absolute.

They’ll improve your athleticism. Body Weight Training forces you to work your entire body as a unit. When your muscles work well together, you’ll athletic capability will improve in addition. Try it and see.

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They’ll Construct Unreal Strength 

Remember the animals in the wild. None of them lift weights, but all posses animal strength that most weightlifters can only dram off. A gorilla, for example, is anywhere from 6 to twenty times as potent as a man. Another example are gymnasts. They only train with bodyweight exercises, yet they are ungodly potent. Have you ever seen a gymnast implement an iron cross? This is real strength. You just cannot build this sort of strength with weights.

They’ll Construct Strength, Endurance and Flexibility All at Once 

Training easily with your own bodyweight will construct all of these qualities at once. When you train with weights you’ll construct strength, but it will only be good for lifting weights. Strength without endurance and flexibility is hollow strength. I’ve seen more than a couple of bodybuilders who cannot even hold a post in a yoga class for 5 seconds. That’s not a sign of health in my point of view.

Body Weight Training Burns Fat like Nobodies Business 

This one should be evident. Working muscles burn fat. The more muscles an exercise works, the more fat you’ll burn. This is why bodyweight exercises are such efficient fat burners. You’re never isolating muscle groups. Often your working ALL of your muscles at once.

Bodyweight Exercises Work Neglected Parts of the Body that other Programs Miss 

I can remember two examples here. Bodyweight training has a few fantastic exercises for the back and backbone. in special exercises that enable you to bend your back backwards. Back bending is the main factor to a healthy backbone.

Other exercises surely focus on the neck which is markedly important. Your neck must be potent enough to support your head. Weak necks lead to poor blood circulation, headaches, migraines and poor posture. When you see an ancient person with a stooped posture, the “stooping” started when their heads started to fall forward as a result of a weak neck. A potent neck is also vital as far as injury prevention goes. If you are in an automobile accident it can save you from whiplash, not to remark a broken neck and paralysis.

They’ll Save You Time 

As you’re working your entire body at once it’s doable to get a complete bodyweight habit in under 30 minutes.

Great for Men and Women 

Body weight training enables you to train you body easily. This signifies that men become more manly whereas women will obtain a “fit ‘N’ sexy look. Besides looks although both will gain splendid strength, endurance and flexibility.

They Can be Completed Anywhere 

All you require is a small bit of space to implement bodyweight exercises. This signifies you can do them at the office, at residence, in jail, outside, where ever you happen to be. The world is your gym!

Great for Travelers 

When most people are on vacation, the last thing they need to do is to track down a gym. With bodyweight exercises you do not need to. You are the gym!

For all of these factors I believe that a system of body weight training is the absolute thing you can do for your body. Try training easily for a week or two to see what I mean. I’m sure you’ll become converted, just as I have.