Bodyweight Training

What exercises spring to mind when you think of bodyweight training? There are a whole range out there including press ups, pullups, planks, lunges and torso raises, to name but a few. These bodyweight exercises can form a solid foundation for your fitness, and the best part, they can be completed anywhere, without any equipment.

Bodyweight exercises can be modified to suit the individual, and progressed through more difficult variants as you gain strength. This type of exercise session can be incorporated into most fitness training programmes, giving you the opportunity to really work your core stabilising muscles, improve performance, co-ordination, mobility and physique.

Categories of body weight training include:

Calisthenics - exercises like press ups, squats, jacks, lunges, plank, and sit ups.

Plyometrics/Ballistics - explosive exercises such as jump squats, jump lunges, box jumps and burpees.

Gymnastics – advanced precise movements, for example the gymnastic rings where you may see people performing muscle-ups, rows pullups, and dips.

Including a variety of bodyweight exercises into your training can be a good way to keep your training plan varied, and may help to reduce your risk of injury. If you are training for a particular sport or event, you will find there are a number of bodyweight exercises that will help to strengthen the muscles involved through specific related movement patterns.

It is worth noting that one area where bodyweight training may fall short is the lower body. Our legs and glutes are incredibly strong, and as a result bodyweight exercises may not provide enough stimulus for muscle hypertrophy. A way around this though would be to complement bodyweight exercises with other types of training, for example, if you include some bodyweight ballistic movements with hill sprints and single leg bodyweight exercises, you will certainly notice an improvement in muscular strength and definition.

What are your thoughts on bodyweight training? Do you use it in your weekly schedule? Want to know more? Contact one of our trainers at the studio for more details. 0151-342-0035