A 'stronger' you

Bodyweight training refers to any exercise that involves using the body as a means of resistance to perform work against gravity. In other words, it consists of moving your body through space against a naturally occurring force. There are three main factors that play a vital role in bodyweight training:

Bodyweight

Gravity

Body levers

Many people believe in the myth that bodyweight training can only be done by young individuals but as a matter of fact, it can be done by any age group from children to senior citizens. However, you have to choose your exercise wisely keeping in mind your body type and current physical conditions. For example, if we have to target chest muscles in three different age groups (children, youngsters, senior citizens), keeping in consideration their body type and physical condition. I will try to make you understand how the same exercise can be used by three different groups of individuals targeting the same musculature.

Children: Baby push ups. Baby push-ups. A kid can do a push up while keeping his contact points on his hands and knees and doing a standard push up focusing on his chest going down towards the ground and then pushing with his hands back to starting position.

Adult: Standard push ups. Keeping your hands shoulder-width apart and

the other contact point will be the balls of your toes, keeping your back straight, tummy tucked in, go for a standard push up letting your chest go down towards and push with your hands back to the starting position.

Old age: Incline push up. Keeping your hands on a table/bed/wall leaning your body towards it, follow the same procedure as a standard push up.

All these push variations target same muscles but at different intensities and difficulty level which can be done by anyone at any time without the use of any fancy equipment, which is a major benefit of bodyweight training.

Some of the common bodyweight exercises are as follows:

Squats

Push-ups

Abdominal curls

Pull-ups

Planks

Plyometrics

Hundreds of variations and progressions can stem from each exercise to form an incredibly diverse catalogue of movement patterns for you to try out.

Take the push-up, for example. If the standard push-up gets too boring for you, you can try positioning your hands closer together and then proceed to do some narrow-based push-ups which will target your triceps muscles more than your chest muscles, which is the usual target muscle in standard push-ups. Conversely, you can place your hands wide apart to trial some wide-based push-ups which change the body lever and make it a bit more difficult. If those options start to get mundane, you can challenge your power-generating capacity by banging out a few plyometric push-ups, which in simple term means clapping push-ups.

In this exercise, there are also many variations like single clap, double clap, front and back clap push-ups with a progressive increase in difficulty levels. And finally, once two hands aren't fun anymore, one-arm push-ups are always an option. Then there is the world-famous Bruce Lee push-up, which is the two fingers push up. So you see, there is so much variation that you can do in just one exercise, which is fun and exciting to do.

Pros of bodyweight training

More relative strength gains than weight training

Relative strength refers to your ability to move a load as a percentage of your bodyweight. This type of strength requires a good tone of core stability/activation, as well as joint stabilization. As a result, you'll develop much more control and awareness of your own body.

No time and space constraints

The best part of doing bodyweight exercises is that no gym membership or fancy equipment is required for bodyweight training. You can use home furniture as a part of your bodyweight training and even a simple carpet or a mat can be useful but the most important thing is your own body, which acts as the resistance in this type of training and there you go, you have yourself a whole home bodyweight training gym!

Exercise programme for 'you'

Have you ever tried adjusting a machine at the gym to properly fit your body position, but even after multiple attempts it just doesn't feel right? This can happen, as it's pretty much impossible to build an exercise apparatus that can accommodate everyone's physical structure in terms of height, width etc. However, with bodyweight training, you won't run into that problem. Since exercises are done in an open space, your limb length, unique movement pattern, and comfort level will all be accommodated for. The best thing is, your body will be the best judge to decide the specifications for yourself.

Compound exercise pattern

Most bodyweight exercises are closed kinetic chain exercises or compound exercises, meaning your hands or feet are anchored/fixed in space during the movement. These types of exercises typically strengthen multiple muscle groups at once, giving you the best activation of muscles.

Good fat burner

As most of the exercises in bodyweight training involve compound or multi-joint movements, it activates many muscle groups during a single movement which helps to burn more calories in less time and in turn helps you to get rid of those excess calories in problem areas and burn that stubborn fat.

Saves time

You don't have to wait for the use of the equipment which is very common in gyms. As a matter of fact, you don't need to go outside of your room which is a blessing, especially during this time of the pandemic. All you need is 6/6 space, your own body gravity which is present everywhere on the planet and an exercise mat if possible, which will be the cherry on the cake.

Good aerobic exercise

It takes time and patience to do those long and boring cardio sessions. It really feels like time has paused when one is on a treadmill or elliptical. 20 minutes to half an hour on these feels like ages but bodyweight training provides you with an alternative which is effective, saves time and burns more calories in a shorter amount of time. Some examples for such alternatives are burpees, high knees, mountain climbers, etc.

Harder to get injured

One of the biggest reasons I like bodyweight exercises more than weight lifting is that they dramatically decrease the likelihood of injury. It's very common to do ego lifting in the gym, but instead of gaining strength, people try their best to injure themselves. This is especially true for the young guns, but when you rely on your innate ability as your determining factor, it's much more difficult to injure yourself.

Fun and with SWAG

Some people (myself included) find it more satisfying to master a new skill or movement pattern that they've been working on for a while. For example, a human flag pose looks cooler and signifies more core strength than lifting 100 kg weights in the gym. With hard work and dedication, bodyweight training affords you the opportunity to do some pretty spectacular things with your body, which can be incredibly satisfying to an exerciser.

Improves balance

Balance is one of the fastest things to go as we age, and we really must use it or lose it. Lifting weights doesn't put you in the sort of positions that challenges your balance like bodyweight exercise does. Simple bodyweight exercises like single-leg standing, tandem walking or even Tai chi are the best examples of bodyweight exercises, which helps to maintain and improve balance by keeping your proprioception going, which means perception or awareness of the position and movement of your body.

Improve flexibility

It is a benefit that women will like the most. Many women want to do resistance exercises but fear that they will bulk up by lifting weights but with bodyweight training, they will gain both strength and flexibility without bulking up the mass. It helps to improve the tone of the muscle which means no flabby arms, no protruding belly, and a well-shaped butt which is what most of the women dream of after doing a good workout.

Pocket friendly

The membership cost of gyms ranges from 15k to 70k annually in a country like India which is a lot but with bodyweight training there is zero money that you need to spend. Besides, nobody will tell you to buy useless supplements or any steroids which is a very common scene in the gyms.

Limitations of bodyweight training

Although I'm a huge advocate for bodyweight training, I'd be doing a disservice to you if I do not discuss some of its limitations.

Gains: Using bodyweight alone for the lower extremities cannot yield the same gains in size and strength that weight training can. To build muscle size, you need to overload a muscle in order to gain some mass which is difficult in bodyweight exercises as the programme results in fat loss which leads to loss of body weight although the lean muscle mass may increase.

Slow progression: The jump from four to five pull-ups can oftentimes feel like it is months away from achieving. These plateaus are common and can be frustrating for an exerciser. Also, the bodyweight of the person plays a big role in pull-ups. More your weight, the harder it is for you to increase your repetitions. Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to bodyweight training. One has to keep positive and maintain a never-give-up attitude.

Hard to "isolate" a muscle/muscle group: Undoubtedly, there are many benefits to doing multi-joint exercises from a training standpoint. This may or may not be an issue for you, but from a rehab point of view, this can be problematic when working with someone who has an acute injury and wants isolated exercises to be performed. For example, if you want to train only biceps muscle without involving other musculature, it is really hard or next to impossible.

Last but not least, it is always good to get some expert advice without trying to do everything on your own from the get-go. If you cannot participate in some exercise sessions with a fitness trainer personally, at least initially, there are plenty of fitness gurus online who will give you demos and conduct group or one-to-one sessions online for a fee or even for free. There are also many YouTube tutorials and CDs you can watch for some great tips on this satisfying new way to exercise, without much damage to your pocket or to your muscles.

(The writer is a certified sttot intensive reformer Pilates trainer. He can be contacted at raveesraja16@gmail.com)