Tag Archive for: Bodyweight Arm Exercises

Total Body Transformation

The Best Household Items You Can Use to Create Challenging Bodyweight Exercises

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If you want to train your strength using just your bodyweight, then there are a vast range of different exercises you can use. One of the best parts? You don’t need any equipment to get started.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking that bodyweight training always means ‘without equipment’. Often you’ll use equipment to enhance your bodyweight routines and perhaps the most obvious example of this is a pull-up bar or a dipping station. With either of these two items, you can get a much more intensive and effective workout in and thereby build muscle faster.

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But it’s not just pull up bars and dipping stations you can use. In fact, one of the great things about training with bodyweight is just how versatile it is. Anything you can hang off of or lean on can become a piece of equipment to train with and it will surprise you just how much of a difference something like that can make.

Here are some pretty compelling examples…

Chairs

Chairs can easily become dipping stations if you position two opposite one another. At the same time, they can also provide something for you to put your back leg on when doing lunges, or they can allow you to jump straight up onto them. Likewise, chairs can be arranged in a triangle in order to do an ‘increased range of motion push-ups’. These are simply push-ups, except you are dipping down further than level with your hands.

Cans

Take two cans of coke and you can create very convincing push-up stands. Place one palm on each and you now have to engage your forearm strength as well as your balance and core in order to perform a push up as normal!

Towels

A towel is actually an incredibly versatile piece of training equipment. Hanging from a doorframe, this can provide something for you to hold while performing neutral grip pull-ups which will also train your grip. Likewise, you can use it to perform tricep extensions in the same position or you can trap it in a door and lean back in order to perform leaning back rows.

Punch Bag

A punch bag is an actual piece of training equipment that can be fantastic when combined with a usual bodyweight workout. This is an example of resistance cardio and one of the best ways to build muscle, burn fat and get your hormones pumping. What makes a punch bag so effective is that you are accelerating through the movement. This means that you’re engaging all those fast twitch fibers just as you would when lifting heavy weights!

Skateboard

Instead of an ab roller, consider using a skateboard. You can then also use this to perform crawls along the ground (for pec training) as well as many other wonderful exercises that require one or two limbs to slide along the ground or move independently from the rest of your body.

And this is just scratching the surface! Take a look around you and see what else can be turned into a piece of training equipment!

Total Body Transformation

Why Mechanical Drop Sets Are the Secret to Successful Bodyweight Training

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If you’re looking to build more muscle, burn more fat and generally get into the best shape of your life then bodyweight training has an awful lot going for it. This is a way to work out that will allow you to train anywhere, to build better ‘strength to weight ratio’ and to increase the challenge as you progress. You don’t need any equipment, you don’t need any instruction… just drop and give me 20!

But that said, there are ways and ways of using bodyweight training and unfortunately a lot of people don’t approach this in the right way.

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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.