As the name suggests, in a bodyweight workout, you become your own weight set, using those pounds you dread towards a slimmer you. There are several benefits to this basic, oldest exercise form -chief among them the cost. Why go out and spend your money on an expensive shiny weight set when you already have everything you need?
After all, the concept of lifting weight for the sake of weight to develop strength is only a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to the market hype and investment into weight training, it was through bodyweight based exercise programs alone that people could build up their strength and endurance.
Some common basic examples of bodyweight exercises include squats, push-ups, and chin-ups. Today this simple exercise program has evolved to include several more rigorous and effective exercises as well. Sure, squats, pull-ups, and chin-ups remain an effective regiment that stirs sentimental memories of high school gym teachers in all of us, but the most effective workout is one that constantly keeps your body on its toes.
Don’t let muscle memory steal the rewards of your workout through the same simple, heaving, vertical axis motions repeated over and over again until you -and your body- have lost interest entirely. Rather than work that same single degree of freedom, heaving, push your body by incorporating the other five. The most effective bodyweight exercise workout is one that pushes each of the six degrees of freedom in every session.
For the nimble and ambitious, there are even certain exercises that all you to work two degrees at the same time. These are the exercises that will benefit your functional strength the most. Circular strength training exercises, such as the quad squad, are highly effective movements often derived from Prasara Yoga.
There are many ways to create your own highly effective bodyweight exercise workout.
At the core of any effective bodyweight exercise workout is circuit training. This type of exercising allows you to increase functional strength quickly and effectively through the quick, successive repetition of exercises, i.e., exercises completed in a circuit.
Today, Tabatha intervals, trisets, super sets, giant sets, pha, and interval circuits are all possible examples of circuit training. The logic is simple. Repeating the same simple motions in the same order ever day builds muscle memory rather than actual muscle and strength. Therefore it’s important that whatever your exercise of choice, you mix things up now and again.
While squats, push-ups, and chin-ups are still better than nothing, the body needs more to develop full functional strength. The other five degrees of freedom must be addressed as well. Strength, endurance, and stamina can only be achieved through the integration of all six degrees of movement.
This is the next step in the continuing development of an effective bodyweight exercise workout.
