Strength training Weights vs body weight

ChristyMomx3

Is one better than the other? I am doing the Couch 2 5K program and everything I read says I need to do strength training. Am I okay doing squats, lunges, and core exercises or do I really need to lift weights? Also what if I only have a few hand weights to lift. What should I be doing with those weights?

BenderFitness

You are going to get very strong mixed opinions on this post. Both will work. I primarily do body weight exercises. You can check out my workouts at www.benderfitness.com or www.youtube.com/mdloughy but I like high intensity workouts with a lot of fat burning.

Lifting weights can give you results and build muscle very quickly. Try both and see what works for your body.

ninerbuff

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

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Lift_hard_eat_big

One great benefit of strength training with heavy weights is that it improves bone density. A major plus specially for women.

Going4Lean

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pastryari

This is something that's good to start with


http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

DavPul

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

While I completely and totally agree with every word of this, I'd like to point out that the OP is a female with a C25K level of fitness. That's to say that bodyweight workouts will be challenging and rewarding for the OP for quite some time. I'm thinking the first few pushups will be a challenge, and 3 sets of 12 is worlds away right now. Pullups? Plenty of work to be done before we've hit the endurance phase. One hand push ups? Come on, Niner, you know most of the guys on MFP can't do those.

Bodyweight workouts are great and will be beneficial for the OP for a while. When pushups, pullups, squats and lunges in rapid succession get to be too easy, come back and post again and we'll be happy to guide you into the next phase.

wheezybreezy

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

While I completely and totally agree with every word of this, I'd like to point out that the OP is a female with a C25K level of fitness. That's to say that bodyweight workouts will be challenging and rewarding for the OP for quite some time. I'm thinking the first few pushups will be a challenge, and 3 sets of 12 is worlds away right now. Pullups? Plenty of work to be done before we've hit the endurance phase. One hand push ups? Come on, Niner, you know most of the guys on MFP can't do those.

Bodyweight workouts are great and will be beneficial for the OP for a while. When pushups, pullups, squats and lunges in rapid succession get to be too easy, come back and post again and we'll be happy to guide you into the next phase.

So, for someone very far from those fitness goals that you outlined, would doing something like stronglifts or starting strength not be a good idea? I still find body weight exercises to be pretty darn difficult!

ChristyMomx3

This is something that's good to start with


http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

This is the one that I am currently doing. However squats and lunges are killing my knees.

DavPul

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

While I completely and totally agree with every word of this, I'd like to point out that the OP is a female with a C25K level of fitness. That's to say that bodyweight workouts will be challenging and rewarding for the OP for quite some time. I'm thinking the first few pushups will be a challenge, and 3 sets of 12 is worlds away right now. Pullups? Plenty of work to be done before we've hit the endurance phase. One hand push ups? Come on, Niner, you know most of the guys on MFP can't do those.

Bodyweight workouts are great and will be beneficial for the OP for a while. When pushups, pullups, squats and lunges in rapid succession get to be too easy, come back and post again and we'll be happy to guide you into the next phase.

So, for someone very far from those fitness goals that you outlined, would doing something like stronglifts or starting strength not be a good idea? I still find body weight exercises to be pretty darn difficult!

If you want to join a gym, SL and SS are both tremendously successful routines for beginners. I was speaking more to the OP, who stated she didn't want to go to a gym and wanted to add bodyweight strength exercises. She absolutely can benefit from a bodyweight routine.

Both can be beneficial, but like Niner pointed out, when you're at the gym you can progress endlessly, whereas with bodyweight there is a limit of what you can do.

wheezybreezy

Thank you! I just recently joined a gym, but I'm a total procrastinator and a teensy bit scared of the giant weight room. Sigh.. the women's fitness center upstairs doesn't even have a squat rack so I guess I just need to suck it up and quit being a baby.

ixap

So, for someone very far from those fitness goals that you outlined, would doing something like stronglifts or starting strength not be a good idea? I still find body weight exercises to be pretty darn difficult!

No those would both be fine. You'll just choose a weight on your barbell that's appropriate to your fitness level.

It's more the reverse that people need to worry about -- if one is already quite strong, there's a limit to the strengthening benefit of bodyweight exercises, because your body weighs what it weighs, vs. a barbell, to which you can add weights indefinitely to keep it challenging.

Hezzietiger1

I'd say eventually u will want to add weights. When I first started, body weight was fine. I could do squats, pushups, burpees, plank holds, and variations of all of the above and it was enough to increase strength. Then I just kept getting stronger. I still do all of these things but they have become pieces of a cardio set or pieces of a strength set... not the full workout. My body is transforming with the heavy weights.

RobynMWilson

It really depends what your goals are. If you just wanna build some lean muscle mass, body weight resistance is ok but if you really wanna build muscles to rev your metabolism and for muscle definition then more resistance in the form of bands or weights would def help you meet your goals faster..

ixap

This is the one that I am currently doing. However squats and lunges are killing my knees.

Have you had someone check out your form to make sure that isn't causing the pain?

blb1230

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Hezzietiger1

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

While I completely and totally agree with every word of this, I'd like to point out that the OP is a female with a C25K level of fitness. That's to say that bodyweight workouts will be challenging and rewarding for the OP for quite some time. I'm thinking the first few pushups will be a challenge, and 3 sets of 12 is worlds away right now. Pullups? Plenty of work to be done before we've hit the endurance phase. One hand push ups? Come on, Niner, you know most of the guys on MFP can't do those.

Bodyweight workouts are great and will be beneficial for the OP for a while. When pushups, pullups, squats and lunges in rapid succession get to be too easy, come back and post again and we'll be happy to guide you into the next phase.

I''d also like to add that "c25k level of fitness" doesn't mean that she isn't strong. I am not a runner and if I decided to be a runner I'd be at a c25k week 3 level.. but I am an athlete. I sprint very quickly, I can bust out 100 burpees in 1 set, and I can easily do 3 sets of 12 pushups or 36 straight pushups if I really wanted to. I can't do one armed pushups, but I can do them with one hand on a basketball, or one leg up, or on a balance ball or with a weight vest or whatever.

All that to say... you are what you train for. I don't train to run.. I train to burn a **** load of fat, sculpt my body, to be stronger and increase my overall endurance. Let's not limit posts by making assumptions of what we feel a person can or cannot do based on our assumptions of fit. That's all.

myfitnessval

This is the one that I am currently doing. However squats and lunges are killing my knees.

Have you had someone check out your form to make sure that isn't causing the pain?

pretty much this. the farther you stick that *kitten* out during squats the least likely its gonna hurt. lol

DavPul

Both work. But eventually unless you can increase resistance (by changing the leverage or adding weight) bodyweight exercises will become more endurance training rather than strength training. To increase strength you need to overload the muscle and if you can do say 12 pushups easily, then to increase strength you would need to either switch to one hand push ups, change your position or put extra resistance on your body to keep progressing.

While I completely and totally agree with every word of this, I'd like to point out that the OP is a female with a C25K level of fitness. That's to say that bodyweight workouts will be challenging and rewarding for the OP for quite some time. I'm thinking the first few pushups will be a challenge, and 3 sets of 12 is worlds away right now. Pullups? Plenty of work to be done before we've hit the endurance phase. One hand push ups? Come on, Niner, you know most of the guys on MFP can't do those.

Bodyweight workouts are great and will be beneficial for the OP for a while. When pushups, pullups, squats and lunges in rapid succession get to be too easy, come back and post again and we'll be happy to guide you into the next phase.

I''d also like to add that "c25k level of fitness" doesn't mean that she isn't strong. I am not a runner and if I decided to be a runner I'd be at a c25k week 3 level.. but I am an athlete. I sprint very quickly, I can bust out 100 burpees in 1 set, and I can easily do 3 sets of 12 pushups or 36 straight pushups if I really wanted to. I can't do one armed pushups, but I can do them with one hand on a basketball, or one leg up, or on a balance ball or with a weight vest or whatever.

All that to say... you are what you train for. I don't train to run.. I train to burn a **** load of fat, sculpt my body, to be stronger and increase my overall endurance. Let's not limit posts by making assumptions of what we feel a person can or cannot do based on our assumptions of fit. That's all.

And that would put you in what percentile of all women in the world? 95%? 98%? 100 burpees? That would put me at the edge of vomiting, and metabolic routines that include burpees are part of my weekly routine. Now that we've established that you're in the upper echelon of strong women, what are the odds that you or someone with your level of fitness would create a thread with the OPs question? 0.000001%, I'd imagine. I wasn't trying to be condescending (tho I can see why you felt it was and apologize if I offended), I was merely playing the percentages. If her post mentioned doing 100s of burpees my advice would have been contained the phrase "get yo azz to the gym".

victoria4321

Both are effective if you know what you're doing. Have you ever seen the muscles on a gymnast? That's all body weight work.

victoria4321

This is the one that I am currently doing. However squats and lunges are killing my knees.

Have you had someone check out your form to make sure that isn't causing the pain?

pretty much this. the farther you stick that *kitten* out during squats the least likely its gonna hurt. lol

That is unless you stick it out so far and over-arch your back.

kdeaux1959

Anything that offers resistance can be used to do strength training; Weights, in my opinion, offers you more measure-ability, consistency, and ability to increase incrementally. If possible, a good gym with a personal trainer provides a lot of good instruction, support and options. Otherwise, do what you can do with what you have.

slowturtle1

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