Click Here For Your Free Power Bodybuilding Magazine Subscription

Best Bodyweight Exercises

The Top 4 Bodyweight Exercises

If for some reason you find yourself unable to make it to the gym, then theres no need to worry! You can get a perfectly good workout from bodyweight exercises! Bodyweight exercises are where you only use your own body weight for resistance. In this article, we’re going to go over the best 4 bodyweight exercises!

Push Ups

Push Ups are the most effective bodyweight workout for the upper body, they workout all of the “pushing” muscles(chest, shoulders and triceps). They are incredibly simple to do. Firstly, you get on your knees and place both of the palms of your hands on the floor in front of you, they should be slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Then you fully extend your legs back so that you are balancing on your tip-toes and hands. Then you proceed to lower yourself up and down using your shoulders, chest and tricep muscles to push yourself back up. Make sure to brace your core and keep your body as straight as you can. To add more emphasis on the tricep muscles, you should move your hands closer together, whereas if you want to add more emphasis on the chest muscles, you should make your hands wider.

If you are unable to complete a full push up, you can make them easier by skipping the leg-extending part, and doing them whilst balancing on your knees.

Pull Ups

Pull-ups are another great upper body bodyweight exercise, these work all your pulling muscles(back and biceps). To do a pull-up, you need a pull-up bar. There are 2 main types, one that screws in to your door frame, or one that simply hooks on to your door frame, as is de-attachable.

To do a pull-up, you simply grab the bar with your palms facing away from you(palms facing towards you is a chin-up, which has more focus on the bicep)and pull yourself up towards the bar. To complete 1 full rep, your chin must be level with the bar.

Many people are unable to complete 1 full rep due to various reasons, for people that cannot, I recommend doing negative reps. Negative reps are where you only do the last part of the exercise. In pull-ups for example, you would only complete the part where you’re lowering yourself from the bar, to do this, you simply have to jump up and catch yourself at the “top of a rep”, and then slowly control yourself on the way down. If you do as many as these as you can, you’ll find that you’ll be able to do full pull-ups in no time!

Crunches

Crunches are a great ab exercise, watch the following video for a perfect explanation.

Squats

Squats are the best lower body bodyweight exercise you can do, they work the whole lower body(thighs, hamstrings, calves and glutes). To do squats, all you need to do is stand up with legs slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, you can either hold your arms out directly in front of you for balance, or cross them across your chest. Then you squat down and use your legs to push yourself back up. Squats are known as the best exercise for a reason! Do a few and feel the burn!

Bodyweight exercises are a great way of staying in shape, especially if you cannot make it to a gym.

Click Here For Your Free Power Bodybuilding Magazine Subscription

Power Bodybuilding | Supplements | eBooks | Articles | Tips | Links