Body-weight strength training in limited areas
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You might want to consider getting a Personal Trainer, maybe once a week. It can get costly however he/she will teach you to lift correctly. Injury prevention is a must. A good trainer will assess your fitness level, help you establish goals, motivate you, design a program, and evaluate your progress. Even if you are very knowledgable a Personal Trainer can provide so much more. Check with your local community college or University. They will have Health/Physical Science students that may help you for free. Some professors may help you free of charge. Google "Exercise Is Medicine"(EIM)www.exerciseismedicine.org. If you are over 55 years you can get free help, depending on where you live.
Thank you. I'm not yet 55 though some days I feel like 95.0 -
Functional? To me the primary exercises for function are Pushups, Pull ups, Squat, Dead lift, Rows and Over head press or hand stand pushups. You can add things like step ups, planks, 1 arm 1 leg variants, use elevation or rings. But ultimately those are the primary motions you want to train. You probably won't be able to do all of those. That's why some of the progressive BW programs already listed are good to start with so that can progressively train yourself to do those movements. The one difference being deadlift, there is no other way to train yourself to pick things up than dead lifts, I no of no better way to do this other simply doing deadlifts. You can do back extension or glute ham raise, but those are actually more difficult than simply lifting weights at first. Same goes for overhead press, you are probably going to be able to lift light dumbbells but not do a hand stand pushup. And really any of motions can be done with light weights to get yourself to be able to lift your body weight.1
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mutantspicy wrote: »Functional? To me the primary exercises for function are Pushups, Pull ups, Squat, Dead lift, Rows and Over head press or hand stand pushups. You can add things like step ups, planks, 1 arm 1 leg variants, use elevation or rings. But ultimately those are the primary motions you want to train. You probably won't be able to do all of those. That's why some of the progressive BW programs already listed are good to start with so that can progressively train yourself to do those movements. The one difference being deadlift, there is no other way to train yourself to pick things up than dead lifts, I no of no better way to do this other simply doing deadlifts. You can do back extension or glute ham raise, but those are actually more difficult than simply lifting weights at first. Same goes for overhead press, you are probably going to be able to lift light dumbbells but not do a hand stand pushup. And really any of motions can be done with light weights to get yourself to be able to lift your body weight.
Thanks for your response. You're right, there is no way I could even begin to do a hand stand pushup at the moment. Your list of functional exercises makes a lot of sense. Those do seem like the majority of functional movement I would tend to do. The only thing I can't do is the pull ups. I don't have any place for a pull up bar in the house.
I do have a set of resistance bands I could put over a door to pull down but that doesn't quite imitate the pull up very well I think. I also have a set of dumbbells that I can adjust the weight of I can use for the over head press and deadlift.0 -
Most people can't do pull ups at first. Pulling on resistance bands, they make really thick ones that will challenge you more, is good start. But you can do horizontal pull ups and pull ups from a seated position. Put a bar like shovel handle or broom handle across two tables or chairs, lay on the ground, grab the bar and pull your torso up. Change the difficulty by pulling more of your torso off the ground, so eventually you can pivot from your heels with straight legs. You can start with keeping your butt on the ground, then go to bent knee, then to heels, etc. This simulates rows. Once you get that, try to find a way to raise the bar higher, and pull from a seated position, like a pull up, except its only the top half of your body, and heels are still on the ground, you can start with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground to give a little boost, until you are strong enough to rock on your heels. Pull ups to me are one of most challenging and most important of all lifts when it comes to functional movements. Being able to pull your body weight is a very important measure of functional strength, and once you master it you can keep progressing by adding weight to your body with belts and vests, etc. Go thru a day and keep track of how many times you have to do a pulling motion and that includes bending over and picking things up, a big part of deadlifts is pulling with your back.1
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mutantspicy wrote: »Most people can't do pull ups at first. Pulling on resistance bands, they make really thick ones that will challenge you more, is good start. But you can do horizontal pull ups and pull ups from a seated position. Put a bar like shovel handle or broom handle across two tables or chairs, lay on the ground, grab the bar and pull your torso up. Change the difficulty by pulling more of your torso off the ground, so eventually you can pivot from your heels with straight legs. You can start with keeping your butt on the ground, then go to bent knee, then to heels, etc. This simulates rows. Once you get that, try to find a way to raise the bar higher, and pull from a seated position, like a pull up, except its only the top half of your body, and heels are still on the ground, you can start with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground to give a little boost, until you are strong enough to rock on your heels. Pull ups to me are one of most challenging and most important of all lifts when it comes to functional movements. Being able to pull your body weight is a very important measure of functional strength, and once you master it you can keep progressing by adding weight to your body with belts and vests, etc. Go thru a day and keep track of how many times you have to do a pulling motion and that includes bending over and picking things up, a big part of deadlifts is pulling with your back.
yeah. Seems like almost everything is bending over and picking stuff up. Laundry, kids toys, house cleaning, groceries, and removing/storing air conditioners (this time of year for me), all seem to need some form of bending/lifting.
So, if I were to make a program of push ups, dead lifts, squats, overhead press, horizontal pull ups, and bent over rows, what would be a good routine? A 3x circuit of AMAP, certain number of reps, something else?0 -
stevenringeling wrote: »mutantspicy wrote: »Most people can't do pull ups at first. Pulling on resistance bands, they make really thick ones that will challenge you more, is good start. But you can do horizontal pull ups and pull ups from a seated position. Put a bar like shovel handle or broom handle across two tables or chairs, lay on the ground, grab the bar and pull your torso up. Change the difficulty by pulling more of your torso off the ground, so eventually you can pivot from your heels with straight legs. You can start with keeping your butt on the ground, then go to bent knee, then to heels, etc. This simulates rows. Once you get that, try to find a way to raise the bar higher, and pull from a seated position, like a pull up, except its only the top half of your body, and heels are still on the ground, you can start with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground to give a little boost, until you are strong enough to rock on your heels. Pull ups to me are one of most challenging and most important of all lifts when it comes to functional movements. Being able to pull your body weight is a very important measure of functional strength, and once you master it you can keep progressing by adding weight to your body with belts and vests, etc. Go thru a day and keep track of how many times you have to do a pulling motion and that includes bending over and picking things up, a big part of deadlifts is pulling with your back.
yeah. Seems like almost everything is bending over and picking stuff up. Laundry, kids toys, house cleaning, groceries, and removing/storing air conditioners (this time of year for me), all seem to need some form of bending/lifting.
So, if I were to make a program of push ups, dead lifts, squats, overhead press, horizontal pull ups, and bent over rows, what would be a good routine? A 3x circuit of AMAP, certain number of reps, something else?
One of my favorite simple plans has for each session: 1 leg + 1 pull + 1 push, alternating A & B sessions, 3 sets of each exercise...(ETA: with at least 1 rest day between sessions)..
A: quad dominant leg, horizontal push, horizontal pull → squats, push-ups, rows
B: hip/ham dominant leg (deadlifts), vertical pull, vertical push → deadlifts, pull-ups, overhead press
Typical reps range from 5-10 in most programs (with selecting a weight that is hard to do that number of reps in)-- with limited weight options, you'll have to play with the reps more.1 -
I like to do progressing intervals when doing BW exercises. Pick 4 moves, Push up, Squat, Row / Horizontal pullups, core work for instance. 40secs on / 20sec active rest(like jogging in place). 6 rounds that ends up being 24 mins. Round 1 is like doing pushups off a bench not the floor round 2 would be planks or something, instead of squats do wall sits, Instead of horizontal pulls do light DB rows, for core do crunch, build it up so that by the time you get to round 6 you are doing full push ups, Full squats as you better pistol squats, horizontal rows, boats. Each round you just make it a little tougher until you get to the final movement. Do something like this 3 times a week 4 different moves each time, each week try to make your final movement a little more advanced.1
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stevenringeling wrote: »mutantspicy wrote: »Most people can't do pull ups at first. Pulling on resistance bands, they make really thick ones that will challenge you more, is good start. But you can do horizontal pull ups and pull ups from a seated position. Put a bar like shovel handle or broom handle across two tables or chairs, lay on the ground, grab the bar and pull your torso up. Change the difficulty by pulling more of your torso off the ground, so eventually you can pivot from your heels with straight legs. You can start with keeping your butt on the ground, then go to bent knee, then to heels, etc. This simulates rows. Once you get that, try to find a way to raise the bar higher, and pull from a seated position, like a pull up, except its only the top half of your body, and heels are still on the ground, you can start with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground to give a little boost, until you are strong enough to rock on your heels. Pull ups to me are one of most challenging and most important of all lifts when it comes to functional movements. Being able to pull your body weight is a very important measure of functional strength, and once you master it you can keep progressing by adding weight to your body with belts and vests, etc. Go thru a day and keep track of how many times you have to do a pulling motion and that includes bending over and picking things up, a big part of deadlifts is pulling with your back.
yeah. Seems like almost everything is bending over and picking stuff up. Laundry, kids toys, house cleaning, groceries, and removing/storing air conditioners (this time of year for me), all seem to need some form of bending/lifting.
So, if I were to make a program of push ups, dead lifts, squats, overhead press, horizontal pull ups, and bent over rows, what would be a good routine? A 3x circuit of AMAP, certain number of reps, something else?
One of my favorite simple plans has for each session: 1 leg + 1 pull + 1 push, alternating A & B sessions, 3 sets of each exercise...(ETA: with at least 1 rest day between sessions)..
A: quad dominant leg, horizontal push, horizontal pull → squats, push-ups, rows
B: hip/ham dominant leg (deadlifts), vertical pull, vertical push → deadlifts, pull-ups, overhead press
Typical reps range from 5-10 in most programs (with selecting a weight that is hard to do that number of reps in)-- with limited weight options, you'll have to play with the reps more.
I like this. Thank you. It's simple in the exercise selection, manageable in limited space, and yet flexible enough to add a lot of variations to each exercise as I improve. I may not increase the reps but add sets to make up for the lack of adding weights. But, there's a lot of ways to modify to make the most use of it so it'll take some experimenting.0 -
mutantspicy wrote: »I like to do progressing intervals when doing BW exercises. Pick 4 moves, Push up, Squat, Row / Horizontal pullups, core work for instance. 40secs on / 20sec active rest(like jogging in place). 6 rounds that ends up being 24 mins. Round 1 is like doing pushups off a bench not the floor round 2 would be planks or something, instead of squats do wall sits, Instead of horizontal pulls do light DB rows, for core do crunch, build it up so that by the time you get to round 6 you are doing full push ups, Full squats as you better pistol squats, horizontal rows, boats. Each round you just make it a little tougher until you get to the final movement. Do something like this 3 times a week 4 different moves each time, each week try to make your final movement a little more advanced.
That's a nice progression from easy to hard. Seems like a good way to warm up muscles in preparation for a full exercise rep by increasing the difficulty each set.0 -
You have lots of great suggestions here. I also urge you to begin walking since you haven't done much for 9 years. Start with 10-15 minutes, then work up to about an hour and hills. You can walk on alternating days with strength workouts, and eventually daily. In all activities, pace yourself slow and steady. Don't try to make up for 9 years in 9 days. You sound like you want to take a reasonable approach and that's terrific!1
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^ Agreed I consider myself to be an intermediate lifter moving toward advanced, and I walk everyday. I consider it to be a major part of my fitness. Its great for your body to get started, but its great for piece of mind, Its great for active recovery once you start to have a regular fitness regimen. Walking is one of simplest best things you can do for yourself. And assuming you have shoes and clothes its free.1
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You have lots of great suggestions here. I also urge you to begin walking since you haven't done much for 9 years. Start with 10-15 minutes, then work up to about an hour and hills. You can walk on alternating days with strength workouts, and eventually daily. In all activities, pace yourself slow and steady. Don't try to make up for 9 years in 9 days. You sound like you want to take a reasonable approach and that's terrific!
Thank you. I agree with you about the walking although I do go hiking (just not as often as I'd like). I have a treadmill for the winter months so I could keep walking but we got a puppy and I lost my walking time. I walk the dog but that's not much exercise. More like he pulls, I follow
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mutantspicy wrote: »^ Agreed I consider myself to be an intermediate lifter moving toward advanced, and I walk everyday. I consider it to be a major part of my fitness. Its great for your body to get started, but its great for piece of mind, Its great for active recovery once you start to have a regular fitness regimen. Walking is one of simplest best things you can do for yourself. And assuming you have shoes and clothes its free.
I think it was Hippocrates who said Walking is Man's best medicine. I can remember having to relearn to walk after a life threatening medical issue that sidelined me in ICU for a month and a half. It's such a simple joy I often take for granted still.1 -
I used the You Are Your Own Gym app. When you start, you check off what "equipment" you have at home (door frame, chair, dumbells, etc). I made great progress doing it. Can't remember why I stopped...
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I really like the routine at www.startbodyweight.com. If you read through the site, he gives you a warm-up, resistance routine with progressions from beginner to advanced, and stretching routine for the end. It may be quite easy at the start if you begin and the first progression of each exercise, but you should start a bit easier than you think you can do so you don't hit a stall too fast and get discouraged. The equipment needed is very minimal and most can be improvised using chairs, door frames, tree limbs or towels. As a bonus, there is even an Android App that helps you track your progress and take you through the progressions (not sure about Apple).
The real key is to just pick something and start doing it. Most of us, myself included, over analyze things and waste weeks or longer before starting something. After we start something, we generally don't give it time to see a real result and quit or change routines. Good luck with your journey. You have plenty of great suggestions. Now it is time to pick one and get started. Let us know how it goes!1 -
I really like the routine at www.startbodyweight.com. If you read through the site, he gives you a warm-up, resistance routine with progressions from beginner to advanced, and stretching routine for the end. It may be quite easy at the start if you begin and the first progression of each exercise, but you should start a bit easier than you think you can do so you don't hit a stall too fast and get discouraged. The equipment needed is very minimal and most can be improvised using chairs, door frames, tree limbs or towels. As a bonus, there is even an Android App that helps you track your progress and take you through the progressions (not sure about Apple).
The real key is to just pick something and start doing it. Most of us, myself included, over analyze things and waste weeks or longer before starting something. After we start something, we generally don't give it time to see a real result and quit or change routines. Good luck with your journey. You have plenty of great suggestions. Now it is time to pick one and get started. Let us know how it goes!
Thanks for the site recommendation. I'm looking at it now. You're so right. I often suffer analysis paralysis and get nowhere and I almost always quit before I see results. I think I suffer from the instant gratification disease
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Burpees, planks, jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups, crunches, lunges, body squats are all things that your body weight is all the resistance you will need. None of these require any equipment and minimal space. I like to do full body workouts daily 3-4 times a week, body part isolation twice a week and run or bike ride a minimum of once a week.
As others have stated rings will add a whole new level of challenge and strength to your fitness. Rings will require your core to stay engaged the entire movement. I LOVE using rings in my shop for pull-ups, dips, reverse grip pull-ups and pushups as well. I am a huge advocate for bodyweight exercises because you don't have to limit yourself to a gym. Get outside and make your workouts your adventures. Running, hiking, biking, kayaking anything that gets you active and outside is a great thing. Best of luck!
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gearhead426hemi wrote: »Burpees, planks, jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups, crunches, lunges, body squats are all things that your body weight is all the resistance you will need. None of these require any equipment and minimal space. I like to do full body workouts daily 3-4 times a week, body part isolation twice a week and run or bike ride a minimum of once a week.
As others have stated rings will add a whole new level of challenge and strength to your fitness. Rings will require your core to stay engaged the entire movement. I LOVE using rings in my shop for pull-ups, dips, reverse grip pull-ups and pushups as well. I am a huge advocate for bodyweight exercises because you don't have to limit yourself to a gym. Get outside and make your workouts your adventures. Running, hiking, biking, kayaking anything that gets you active and outside is a great thing. Best of luck!
Thanks. I love hiking. Hands down my favorite exercise to do. Which is why I love October in New England. It's perfect weather for hiking but I can only do it about once a week. I love the idea of bodyweight so I can do it anytime, anywhere. Outdoors is absolutely the best prescription. Clean air for the lungs, beautiful scenery for the soul, just perfect. I'm actually thinking of trying snow-shoe hiking this winter too.0 -
stevenringeling wrote: »gearhead426hemi wrote: »Burpees, planks, jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups, crunches, lunges, body squats are all things that your body weight is all the resistance you will need. None of these require any equipment and minimal space. I like to do full body workouts daily 3-4 times a week, body part isolation twice a week and run or bike ride a minimum of once a week.
As others have stated rings will add a whole new level of challenge and strength to your fitness. Rings will require your core to stay engaged the entire movement. I LOVE using rings in my shop for pull-ups, dips, reverse grip pull-ups and pushups as well. I am a huge advocate for bodyweight exercises because you don't have to limit yourself to a gym. Get outside and make your workouts your adventures. Running, hiking, biking, kayaking anything that gets you active and outside is a great thing. Best of luck!
Thanks. I love hiking. Hands down my favorite exercise to do. Which is why I love October in New England. It's perfect weather for hiking but I can only do it about once a week. I love the idea of bodyweight so I can do it anytime, anywhere. Outdoors is absolutely the best prescription. Clean air for the lungs, beautiful scenery for the soul, just perfect. I'm actually thinking of trying snow-shoe hiking this winter too.
You would probably live snow shoeing!1 -
Thank you ALL for your suggestions and advice. Here's what I'm going to do for now. I'll start with the NerdFitness Beginner's routine simply because it's a good way for me to get into a routine. I'll do it for about 1 month. The routine is 2-3 sets of:
• 20 bodyweight squats
• 10 push ups
• 20 walking lunges – 10 each leg
• 10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug or another weight)
• 15 second plank
• 30 jumping jacks
To this I'm going to add dumbbell deadlifts.
After the month is up, I'm going to create a plan incorporating the following exercises (using dumbbells where needed). I may do it as a full body routine or break it into smaller chunks. Reps and sets will be determined based on where I'm at at the time I start.
• Squat
• Push-up
• Deadlift
• Bent over row
• Overhead press (working toward handstand pushup)
• Horizontal pull up (until I can do a full traditional pull up)
• Planks
• Leg raise/other ab exercise
I'm also going to add walking/hiking into my routine.
Of course, there are many exercises that can be done in each category so I'll pick an exercise and do it for a time, then switch to another type of exercise so I combat boredom and work my muscles differently from time to time.
I'm starting tonight.
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