You are your own gym

CJsf1t

I am planning to start with a body weight training program. I was thinking of buying the boo, ' You are your own gym'. Has anyone read it? Is it good? Would you recommend it for a beginner?

lseed87

No idea but that's deep

LiftAndBalance

I have his other book 'Body By You' and would recommend that at least. I prefer lifting weights but don't have access to a gym at the moment so I just started it. It's easily scalable to your level as you start the programme with an evaluation so, yes, I think it's definitely suitable for beginners as well. It's only up to 30 minutes three times a week.
I'm sure someone else will still chip in with opinions on 'You are your own gym', though.

jimmmer

It's a beginner's program. So on that front it will be perfect (It's also available as an app, afaik.)

It's a progressive routine, so if you follow it diligently it will get you stronger without needing equipment.

In the interests of balance, other regularly recommended beginner's bodyweight programmes are Convict Conditioning (a book) and http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/start-bodyweight-basic-routine.html (free website).

47Jacqueline

There's nothing wrong with doing body weight workouts. It just gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Siran12001

How much of a beginner are you?

'You are your own gym' is the original book Mark Lauren wrote. It has 4 10 week workout plans, going from Basic to Master. With those plans you train 4-5 times a week, between 20min to 36min, not including warm up or cool down. The training is pretty varied and needs not a lot of things. A sturdy chair, table and door will be sufficient. There is an app for android and iphone which helps you keep track of the program. If you decide to start it, I would recommend buying it.

The basic routine has no preconditions but it might be to difficult for a complete beginner. You get to normal Push Ups and Inverted Rows pretty fast. That does not mean you can't do the program but you will have to change the exercises to something easier. The book tells you how to do that but if you don't feel comfortable with that, Mark Lauren's second book 'Body by You' might be a better idea. But the program itself does work and you do get results out of it.

It is written predominantely for women but is a good starting point for anybody who is struggling with the routines in the original book.
The workout structure here is different. You take a test before starting in 5 categories: Squatting, Inline Pushing, Perp Pushing, Pulling, Bending. For each of those 5 categories there are 25 different exercises in the book, although sometimes it's just a case of adding some holding time. Depending on your result you start with an exercise in the progression and work up from there. That might be exercise number 7 in squatting, but only number 1 in perp pushing. The progressions start at a lower level, push ups against the wall for example, and have smaller increases in difficulty. It also does help if your legs are a lot stronger than your arms or upper body because your leg progress is not hindered by the your weaker arms.
With that program you workout 3 days a week and workout time is about 30 minutes, without warm up and cool down.

The programs both work. It is just a question of where you are and what is better for you. Some women I know have started with the book for women and gone on to the original book. If you can do push ups and inverted rows and/or are not afraid of modifying exercises to fit your fitness level, I'd go for the original book. If you don't feel comfortable doing that yet, I'd go for 'Body By You'.

mymodernbabylon

I have used the app which I find very handy. There are some programmes available on it as well as a list of potential exercises for various body parts.

davert123

I've got it and it is a great introduction. It won't make you as fit as you can get but it is a fantastic way to start out (my opinion anyway)

davert123

47Jacqueline wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with doing body weight workouts. It just gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Any exercise tends to :-) We just need to mix it up a bit when it does :-)

Siran12001

47Jacqueline wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with doing body weight workouts. It just gets a bit repetitive after a while.

That really depends. If you have a nice progressive routine your exercises can change a lot.

CJsf1t

jimmmer wrote: »

It's a beginner's program. So on that front it will be perfect (It's also available as an app, afaik.)

It's a progressive routine, so if you follow it diligently it will get you stronger without needing equipment.

In the interests of balance, other regularly recommended beginner's bodyweight programmes are Convict Conditioning (a book) and http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/start-bodyweight-basic-routine.html (free website).

First off, thank you for all the tips. That's right I don't have any equipment at home and the apartment gym is very rudimentary. I cannot go to the gym due various reasons hence body weight training.

Siran12001 wrote: »

How much of a beginner are you?

'You are your own gym' is the original book Mark Lauren wrote. It has 4 10 week workout plans, going from Basic to Master. With those plans you train 4-5 times a week, between 20min to 36min, not including warm up or cool down. The training is pretty varied and needs not a lot of things. A sturdy chair, table and door will be sufficient. There is an app for android and iphone which helps you keep track of the program. If you decide to start it, I would recommend buying it.

The basic routine has no preconditions but it might be to difficult for a complete beginner. You get to normal Push Ups and Inverted Rows pretty fast. That does not mean you can't do the program but you will have to change the exercises to something easier. The book tells you how to do that but if you don't feel comfortable with that, Mark Lauren's second book 'Body by You' might be a better idea. But the program itself does work and you do get results out of it.

It is written predominantely for women but is a good starting point for anybody who is struggling with the routines in the original book.
The workout structure here is different. You take a test before starting in 5 categories: Squatting, Inline Pushing, Perp Pushing, Pulling, Bending. For each of those 5 categories there are 25 different exercises in the book, although sometimes it's just a case of adding some holding time. Depending on your result you start with an exercise in the progression and work up from there. That might be exercise number 7 in squatting, but only number 1 in perp pushing. The progressions start at a lower level, push ups against the wall for example, and have smaller increases in difficulty. It also does help if your legs are a lot stronger than your arms or upper body because your leg progress is not hindered by the your weaker arms.
With that program you workout 3 days a week and workout time is about 30 minutes, without warm up and cool down.

The programs both work. It is just a question of where you are and what is better for you. Some women I know have started with the book for women and gone on to the original book. If you can do push ups and inverted rows and/or are not afraid of modifying exercises to fit your fitness level, I'd go for the original book. If you don't feel comfortable doing that yet, I'd go for 'Body By You'.

I have been doing some light lifting for my upper body since 2-3 months now . I have painful knees , so cannot do a proper squat or a lunge right now but I am working on that. I guess in a months time I'll be alright. Thank you very much for the detailed info. As recommended I will buy both the books and see how it goes.

BigGuy47

It's a good starting point. The book covers a lot of exercises with varying degrees of difficulty.

jimmmer

Siran12001 wrote: »

47Jacqueline wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with doing body weight workouts. It just gets a bit repetitive after a while.

That really depends. If you have a nice progressive routine your exercises can change a lot.

This^

There's typically more variation with progressive bodyweight routines (since you have to do different moves to create an new kind of mechanical disadvantage to provoke strength gains).

So for a beginner a regular push up might be a challenging push variation (or even an incline push up, etc), but for a more advanced trainee a handstand push up would provoke a strength response where a regular (unweighted) push up probably wouldn't

CJsf1t

Thank you for all the replies. They were really helpful . I read a preview of body by you on the net. I really liked it. I placed an order already. Looking forward to working on it

SingRunTing

I do "You are your own gym" using his app (it's like 2.99, so not free, but not expensive either).

I completed the novice program and am now on the next level. It still kicks my butt. I've seen really great strength gains from it. There are still 2 more levels after this, so I'll be a while before its not challenging me anymore.

Really great program, especially for beginners.

annakadabra_

I'm on Week 3 Day 3 of YAYOG with the Basic program and it's awesome! Gotta love those beginner gainz ^_^ I'm at 92.3 kg now and looking to reach ~65 kg (5'4", 31/F).

My husband has had the You Are Your Own Gym book for ages but it wasn't until I saw him getting into it (he's almost done with the 'First Class' program) and admiring his transformation that I started it myself. The app by Mark Lauren called "Bodyweight" is really handy and makes sticking to a regular workout program a lot easier for me. Definitely worth the 3$!!!

jeremywm1977

I've read the book, and from a knowledge perspective, it's quite good and worth a read.

In trying to do the workouts, I also downloaded the app. Like another poster above stated, it does get repetitive (hence, boring). I did it for almost two weeks before I just stopped out of boredom.