You already have all the weight you need to squat

__freckles__

*Just youtube'd full pistol squats*

*Will never think badly about bodyweight exercises ever again*

So thank you for this!

ninerbuff

No one's talking on SHRIMP squats?

Body weight squats are great to do, till they become easy. Then one is just working on muscular endurance. That's when you have to change the leverage or difficulty of them.

That said, I would guess that only 1 out of 20 people (conservative guess) who do weighted squats could perform a pistol squat. I'm experienced at them and I still struggle somewhat with them.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

VeryKatie

I read a book a few years ago that I absolutely love by Mark Lauren called You Are Your Own Gym. It details how you can use minimal equipment to work your whole body, and to this day I still consult that book when I'm planning out my workouts.

Question... I looked this up on Amazon and it's a reasonable price. But it seems they have a female version too. Do you know anything about it? I'm concerned the female version will lighten the exercises up too much but also wonder if the male version might be a bit upper body heavy for what I'm looking for (I want to do arms and such, don't get me wrong, but I want to get some nice lady legs on this bod).

Thanks!

wheird

Bodyweight exercises definitely have their place in a fitness routine.

I would even argue that the increased endurance would help your weighted routine quite a bit and is more functional to boot.

Timshel_

Goals people.

People looking to be fit for an active lifestyle could make great progress with calisthenics. If your goal is to build muscle, weights will become a reality. And not even heavy weights.


Muscle fatigue is the key.

JoRocka

I read a book a few years ago that I absolutely love by Mark Lauren called You Are Your Own Gym. It details how you can use minimal equipment to work your whole body, and to this day I still consult that book when I'm planning out my workouts.

Question... I looked this up on Amazon and it's a reasonable price. But it seems they have a female version too. Do you know anything about it? I'm concerned the female version will lighten the exercises up too much but also wonder if the male version might be a bit upper body heavy for what I'm looking for (I want to do arms and such, don't get me wrong, but I want to get some nice lady legs on this bod).

Thanks!

I don't know anything about a female vs a male one- but a good program for a person will be the same regardless of gender. There is no such thing as a male workout vs a female one- which makes me crazy about new rules of lifting/new rules of lifting for women.

The absence or presence of penis or vagina does not make a program effective or not.

darrensurrey

No one's talking on SHRIMP squats?

I mentioned them near the start!

They take much of the balance and flexibility elements out of pistol squats so it focuses more on strength. I've done them with dumbbells. )

likitisplit

. However, saying you shouldn't squat a loaded barbell until you can do a pistol is like saying you shouldn't throw a baseball until you can dunk a basketball.

I know- right? exactly what I was thinking- just a ridiculous concept. LOL

There seems to be a little bit of confusion as to the fact that if you get under a barbell and squat, you'll have massive legs. Or if you do bodyweight training you won't add mass.

As lofteren notes, you can have a higher intensity and lower volume under a barbell and you'll get strength adaptations without loads of mass.

You can also incorporate pistols into some thing like Staley's EDT and you'll build some mass if you eat enough.

People have got to divorce strength/hypertrophy/weighted/unweighted training and look at it all with a critical eye.

And this is why I find it frustrating that the issue is consistently framed as "body weight" vs. "heavy weights."

It would be better is to have a discussion of goals that included all of the tools to get there.

You want massive thighs - consider these options.

You don't want massive thighs - consider these options.

It's a question of intensity and volume.

But people do get caught up in their favourite thing and it skews their perspective towards other things.

The main thing is you have to trig your intensity/volume/diet right to get the adaptation you want. Then have some kind of intelligent progression and recovery to keep forcing that adaption.

Then you just have to do the hard work and be consistent....(!)

Another stupid question: is intensity = speed X load

EDT is where you take either your 10 RM for two lifts and alternatively do 5 reps of each for 15-20mins. Or you take your 6RM and do 3 Reps alternatively for 15-20mins. As you get further on, then reps go down... you maybe on singles by the time you get to the end of the allotted time. You record the total reps for the session. Next time if you improve by 20% on the number of reps, you add weight to the lift and start again.

Intensity is percentage of your 1RM for a lift.

Speed x load is power. So an olympic lift uses less weight than a powerlift, but moves much faster so has a higher power generation. Powerlifting is confusingly named in terms of the physics when you compare it to Oly lifting...

How do you figure 1RM for a body weight exercise?

Well, probably not going to happen.

You could work off 5RM and figure that as a proportion of a notional 1RM. But, it's hard to say because bw progressions tend to be similar but different to the preceding intensity level. Unlike a barbell squat where the movement stays the same but the load on the bar is increased.

You could do it by perceived intensity. But that would depend on how sensitive you were to your body and your experience in general, I think.

Tough call.

I can kind of see how it would fit together in the squat progression I've been doing. Even more in the push-up progression, though body weight seems to be more of bringing more/fewer muscles into play with different exercises than increasing intensity on a specific set of muscles.

Thanks for the information!

Jimmers right- that's what's kind of tricky about them- the movement changes as you make it more difficult. so like I said- they can be complimentary but not the same kind of side by side comparison.

I would really honestly ask Waldo- he does all body weight work for size building- and he's wildly knowledgeable about bw vs barbell work. He knows his ****.

I'm not at a point where it's more than gathering background and tryin to figure out the connections with nuggets dropped in threads. On the other hand, if he wants to blog about it on his website, I'll read it sooner or later.

likitisplit

I read a book a few years ago that I absolutely love by Mark Lauren called You Are Your Own Gym. It details how you can use minimal equipment to work your whole body, and to this day I still consult that book when I'm planning out my workouts.

Question... I looked this up on Amazon and it's a reasonable price. But it seems they have a female version too. Do you know anything about it? I'm concerned the female version will lighten the exercises up too much but also wonder if the male version might be a bit upper body heavy for what I'm looking for (I want to do arms and such, don't get me wrong, but I want to get some nice lady legs on this bod).

Thanks!

I don't know anything about a female vs a male one- but a good program for a person will be the same regardless of gender. There is no such thing as a male workout vs a female one- which makes me crazy about new rules of lifting/new rules of lifting for women.

The absence or presence of penis or vagina does not make a program effective or not.

My understanding is that the female version has more progressions. I prefer Convict Conditioning because it's more focused.

cherbert1

I could do bodyweight squats all day now and not even get sore,

Try it. I challenge you

Imma have to agree. All day? LOL

Azdak

No one's talking on SHRIMP squats?

Body weight squats are great to do, till they become easy. Then one is just working on muscular endurance. That's when you have to change the leverage or difficulty of them.

That said, I would guess that only 1 out of 20 people (conservative guess) who do weighted squats could perform a pistol squat. I'm experienced at them and I still struggle somewhat with them.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Specificity of training.

And you are correct. Like so many of these "debates" people are using apples to argue oranges, and vice versa.

The OP is essentially making an ideological argument, not a scientific one. It's like people arguing that one type of cardio is inherently "better" than another.

If the structure, intensity, and duration of a movement meets your goals, then it is appropriate. If it doesn't then it's not.

Saying that it is possible for some people to meet their fitness needs via bodyweight training only is completely valid.

Saying that, because doing a pistol squat is difficult, it is the equivalent of a heavy squat with a barbell is not.

likitisplit

No one's talking on SHRIMP squats?

Body weight squats are great to do, till they become easy. Then one is just working on muscular endurance. That's when you have to change the leverage or difficulty of them.

That said, I would guess that only 1 out of 20 people (conservative guess) who do weighted squats could perform a pistol squat. I'm experienced at them and I still struggle somewhat with them.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Specificity of training.

And you are correct. Like so many of these "debates" people are using apples to argue oranges, and vice versa.

The OP is essentially making an ideological argument, not a scientific one. It's like people arguing that one type of cardio is inherently "better" than another.

If the structure, intensity, and duration of a movement meets your goals, then it is appropriate. If it doesn't then it's not.

Saying that it is possible for some people to meet their fitness needs via bodyweight training only is completely valid.

Saying that, because doing a pistol squat is difficult, it is the equivalent of a heavy squat with a barbell is not.

I might be wrong but the argument isn't so much that they are an equivalent exercise as much as it is that they are a valid and helpful body weight progression on their own.

TaiFitness

Personally, I don't think you get the same effect squatting without weight. I currently squat 315 off rack, no way I'm getting the same workout at home or with no weights!

tracydr

I tried doing a body weight squat several days ago but ever since, my knees are killing me. I have arthritis in both knees. Any recommendations for squat substitution.

Antlady69

I had a physio who was a gymnast (well, he still is), and he showed me what he can do. Wow!

I was so fascinated that I have started gathering info on bodyweight exercises for beginners because I absolutely hate gyms. Am already looking forward to see the results once they set in.

Thanks for the link and the mention of the book, I'll see if I can still buy it.

waldo56

No one's talking on SHRIMP squats?

OR the more difficult form variations of pistols and shrimps (or my personal variation, tuck squats). Or natural hamstring curls. (or even natural leg extensions, which are almost more of a theoretical exercise than real due to difficulty)

Basic pistol squats are FAR from the most difficult BW squat or BW leg exercise.

Add a little load to a pistol squat though, and it becomes a great exercise that doesn't require much load to take you to very high resistances.

One of these days I'm going to get serious about doing pistol widowmakers, a 100 rep set, switching sides back and forth each rep. I've gotten as high as 70 with minimal effort towards it (I never usually train high reps).

Pistols have been good enough to get me to the "loose fit jeans are skinny jeans" club and I still have a long ways to go.

fatcity66

Where can I find descriptions of these exercises? What the heck is a pistol squat??

waldo56

Bodyweight exercises definitely have their place in a fitness routine.

I would even argue that the increased endurance would help your weighted routine quite a bit and is more functional to boot.

BW exercise does not necessarily mean endurance training.

A pure strength program is plenty possible with BW.

Ideabaker

Thanks so much for reminding all of us that we can improve the condition of our muscles using our own body weight. I'll be getting a copy of the book ASAP!