Bodyweight exercises

[Simon Cowell]

are far superior to using weights and machines. Much safer and more natural too. Pushups, dips, squats are great exercises. Why do you think the military uses them? They build strength and endurance, UNLIKE free weights and machines.

Enough said.

[gugafan05]

What are all of the main bodyweight exercises and what do you do when they are not hard any more. I mean you do not want to sit there doing thousands of squats. That is the only reason why I think machines might be better. You can add more resistance so you do not have to do thousands of reps.

[Ano]

Let say I could perform 200 reps on bodyweight squat and 100 reps on push up.

In that example, what should I do if I only want to do 15 Reps squat and 10 reps on push up? I could put a barbell on my shoulder when doing squat or wear a weight vest on my body when doing push up, but it's no longer a bodyweight exercises.!!

So????

[Phil]

are far superior to using weights and machines. Much safer and more natural too. Pushups, dips, squats are great exercises. Why do you think the military uses them? They build strength and endurance, UNLIKE free weights and machines.

Enough said.

I understand what you're saying, but if you know what you're doing, weights are every bit as safe as bodyweight exercises...and both, if done incorrectly or to excess will cause injury. Also, bodyweight exercises, while very good, are limited. As Ano indicated, once you reach a peak, where do you go next? Why...you add WEIGHT...

[tricky]

What are all of the main bodyweight exercises and what do you do when they are not hard any more. I mean you do not want to sit there doing thousands of squats. That is the only reason why I think machines might be better. You can add more resistance so you do not have to do thousands of reps.

BW exercises (i.e. free movement exercises) are really designed to improve functional ability and can be GREAT as part of a conditioning program.

http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/cond/lower

[ATXtennisaddict]

are far superior to using weights and machines. Much safer and more natural too. Pushups, dips, squats are great exercises. Why do you think the military uses them? They build strength and endurance, UNLIKE free weights and machines.

Enough said.

Starting off as a beginner, bodyweight exercises is good. But as you move on, you might want to add more resistance, hence, the weights.

[Kevin T]

Once I started cranking out 50 reps on the push-up, I just had Phil sit on my back. 20 reps on pull-ups? Phil wrapped around my waist. 100 reps on bodyweight squats? You guessed it, Phil on my shoulders chicken fight style. The buddy system overcomes the limitations of bodyweight exercise and brings me closer to the ones I love.

[Craig Sheppard]

Once I started cranking out 50 reps on the push-up, I just had Phil sit on my back. 20 reps on pull-ups? Phil wrapped around my waist. 100 reps on bodyweight squats? You guessed it, Phil on my shoulders chicken fight style. The buddy system overcomes the limitations of bodyweight exercise and brings me closer to the ones I love.

classic right there lol good 1

[Phil]

Once I started cranking out 50 reps on the push-up, I just had Phil sit on my back. 20 reps on pull-ups? Phil wrapped around my waist. 100 reps on bodyweight squats? You guessed it, Phil on my shoulders chicken fight style. The buddy system overcomes the limitations of bodyweight exercise and brings me closer to the ones I love.

Kevin - You seem like a swell guy and all, and you certainly know your stuff, but lets not overdue it here...yeah, if you want me to, I'll sit on your back, reading the sports page and drinking a cold one while your joints explode tryin' to do push-ups (I'm no lightweight). But under no circumstances will I wrap myself around you as described above...no way, man...that's worse than not leaving an empty seat between you and your buddy...nope, you're gonna have to recruit the Missus for that!:)

[MTXR]

Any body weight rotator cuff exercises? I need to make it stronger for injury prevention.

[volker]

Let say I could perform 200 reps on bodyweight squat and 100 reps on push up.

In that example, what should I do if I only want to do 15 Reps squat and 10 reps on push up? I could put a barbell on my shoulder when doing squat or wear a weight vest on my body when doing push up, but it's no longer a bodyweight exercises.!!

So????

You could do squats using one leg or push-ups using one arm or pull-ups as shown below (yes, it is not in English but a picture says more than ...)

http://www.kampfkunst-training.de/FighterFitness/Training/Bjoern/T06/FFB6.htm
http://www.kampfkunst-training.de/FighterFitness/Training/Bjoern/Einarmig/Einarmig.htm

[scotus]

You could do squats using one leg or push-ups using one arm or pull-ups as shown below (yes, it is not in English but a picture says more than ...)

http://www.kampfkunst-training.de/FighterFitness/Training/Bjoern/T06/FFB6.htm
http://www.kampfkunst-training.de/FighterFitness/Training/Bjoern/Einarmig/Einarmig.htm

I strongly recommend that the one-legged squat described in the first link be avoided. This squat, nick-named "Pistol", requires that you balance yourself on the floor with one knee fully extended and the other fully flexed (and you are not supposed to let the extended leg touch the floor). This balancing act puts enormous pressure on your lower back and hip.

I used to perform this squat religiously until one day I developed sciatica from it, and it took 2 years to heal. And I regretted every day of the two years. Why didn't I just stick to my regular smith-machine and freeweight squats?

It is not that it is difficult to squat yourself on one leg. But the safer way to do it will be to get up on a bench or whatever to give yourself enough room to clear the non-squatting leg without having to do the awkward balancing act as in Pistol.

One problem with body-weight exercises is that its proponents tend to advocate either too many repetitions (500 squats? Can you say tendinitis?), or moves that are too exotic to be safe (Have you tried hand-stand pushups to substitute for military press? If someone should fall and cracked his neck, it is really not worth it, is it?

I used to go for all sorts of exotic training regiments. But now that I am old and my body cannot heal itself as quickly as it used to, I am becoming more and more conservative in the exercises that I choose.

[SalvadorVeiga]

I strongly recommend that the one-legged squat described in the first link be avoided. This squat, nick-named "Pistol", requires that you balance yourself on the floor with one knee fully extended and the other fully flexed (and you are not supposed to let the extended leg touch the floor). This balancing act puts enormous pressure on your lower back and hip.

I used to perform this squat religiously until one day I developed sciatica from it, and it took 2 years to heal. And I regretted every day of the two years. Why didn't I just stick to my regular smith-machine and freeweight squats?

It is not that it is difficult to squat yourself on one leg. But the safer way to do it will be to get up on a bench or whatever to give yourself enough room to clear the non-squatting leg without having to do the awkward balancing act as in Pistol.

One problem with body-weight exercises is that its proponents tend to advocate either too many repetitions (500 squats? Can you say tendinitis?), or moves that are too exotic to be safe (Have you tried hand-stand pushups to substitute for military press? If someone should fall and cracked his neck, it is really not worth it, is it?

I used to go for all sorts of exotic training regiments. But now that I am old and my body cannot heal itself as quickly as it used to, I am becoming more and more conservative in the exercises that I choose.

there's the difficulty...in order to perform it well you have to maintain a straight back...and for that you need strong abs and lower back... you can squat withonly one leg without doing weird positions to balance...the secret is to work it with the abs etc...that is the tough thing to do...i can't do it properly, as you said, i have to move my weight forward in order to keep balance but that is the WRONG way to do it... anyway body weight exercices are the best...just check those guys at olympics in artistic gymnastiques...the RIMS...the VAULT...etc...they all require huge strength to be executed...at my training center they have a gymnastiques class where our countries athletes train and I have swome friends there and although they only do Bodyweight exercises they are all strong as hell... for example push ups up side down (not only you have to maintain balance as you also work with a lot of your weight).

anyway if you go with weights you rather work with dumbells than barbells...why ? because barbells are much easier to balance therefore the muscles you use to stabilize are being excluded from the exercise...at least with dumbells you'll have a lot more work to do in order to keep the weights balanced... its more complete in my opinion...i usually only do dumbell exercises or Bodywegiht

[chess9]

Every military base I've been stationed at has had HUGE amounts of weights. The weight room is the one place you would find guys after chow, theater, and happy hour. :) But, in all fairness to your argument, the guys in our military back in my day had to lug around .50 cal. machine guns. I carried the base for that gun (plus a PRC-6 radio) for one exercise, including a 50 mile force march! Bloody hell.....Thank God I'm too old for that stuff.

-Robert