Bodyweight exercises use one’s own body weight for resistance and can be supplemented with external weights. They improve coordination, flexibility, and cardiovascular health. They involve multiple muscle groups and are considered more functional than isolation exercises. Examples include squats, lunges, push-ups, and dips.
Bodyweight exercises are a category of strength training exercises, just like exercises with dumbbells or weight machines. They are performed using one’s own body weight for resistance, although body weight can be supplemented with external weight loads such as dumbbells, dumbbells, or medicine balls to increase the difficulty of the exercise. Intended to strengthen the muscles of the body, bodyweight exercises can also improve coordination, increase flexibility, and introduce a cardiovascular component to traditional strength training. Examples of bodyweight exercises include lower-body movements like squats and lunges and upper-body movements like push-ups and push-ups. Core exercises like crunches and planks can also be categorized under bodyweight movements.
The exercises that fall under this style of training are generally classified as closed kinetic chain exercises. This means that the hand in the case of upper body movements and the foot in the case of lower body movements remain in contact with a fixed surface, either the floor or a pull-up bar.
They always involve multiple muscle groups. For example, a push-up trains the muscles of the chest, shoulders, arms, back, and abdomen. As such, they are considered more efficient and functional, as the training style more closely resembles the way the body moves in real-life scenarios, than exercises that work muscles in isolation, such as a bicep.
There are many different types of bodyweight exercises. Those that work the lower body muscles can be performed standing on one or two feet or in a bridge position with feet planted on the floor and shoulder blades on a bench, exercise ball, or the floor. Examples of standing exercises include bodyweight squats, single leg squats, split squats, calf raises, and multi-directional lunges.
Hitting the glutes and hamstrings and involving lying on your back and raising and lowering your hips, hip bridges can be performed as above with your shoulder blades resting on an elevated surface and your feet on the floor or vice versa. Prone leg raises performed while lying face down on the floor, on a bench, or on a ball can also be considered bodyweight exercises. These work the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, although they are not closed-chain exercises.
Upper body exercises that use your body weight for resistance include different styles of push-ups, inverted rows, push-ups, and dips, among others. Pushups are a horizontal pressing exercise that predominantly works the chest and triceps, while reverse rows are a horizontal pulling exercise that targets the upper back and biceps. Unlike a push-up, this involves placing a bar in a squat rack or Smith machine at chest or waist height, hanging under it on your back by your arms with your body in a straight line and feet flat on the floor. , and throw chest to the bar. Pull-ups and dips are vertical push-pull exercises that similarly work opposing muscle groups. Pull-ups predominantly use your mid-back muscles and biceps to pull your body weight up, while dips use your front shoulders, chest, and triceps to press your body weight up.
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