Bodyweight Exercises vs. Lifting Weight

To START body weight exercises will be good. But eventually you get diminishing returns. It would be kind of like saying, well, I am walking, there isn't any reason to run or jog.

I started here:

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

But eventually you will have to make it harder still:

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/17/advanced-body-weight-workout-warning-this-will-kick-your-*kitten*/

And eventually even harder. But you don't have to have alot of money or a gym membership to lift heavy things. Make sand bags, fill up bags with books or canned goods. It really depends on your creativity.

But short answer, YES, start with body-weight exercises.

I agree with the other poster that body weight excercises are a great way to start. You do need to make the moves progressively harder or they will stop being useful as strength training, so it's helpful to be on a structured program. I've checked out the workouts on nerdfitness they look good. I however use You Are Your Own Gym via the ap on my phone. I do my squats with a weighted backpack though, because I can do about a million squats with my butt all the way down to the ground, but pistol squats are so impossible to me (if I use a chair for balance, I seem to put too much pressure on it). I do plan on going the heavy lifting route once race season is over, but I am seeing a difference now using YAYOG, not in weight but in size.

I agree with everything everyone has said. Very good advice!

Walmart and Target sell dumbbells for a reasonable price. You can work so many parts of your body just using those and will probably see faster results than doing strictly body weight.

I agree with pretty much everyone as well. Both have benefits and using both would be ideal, but if cash is an issue, there's certainly nothing wrong with doing body weight exercises. I do them all the time.
One great thing about body weight exercise is that it can help you make smart nutrition choices - you know that whatever you eat today, you will have to lift tomorrow!!

Good luck!
Joe

Bodyweight has the potential to get you comparable results, but the issue is that progression doesn't just happen through increased load like with weights. With bodyweight training, as your strength goes up, balance, flexibility, coordination, and control have to go up as well. There's a lot of skills work involved with progressing via bodyweight training that most people aren't willing to attempt to work on. If you choose to stick with bodyweight only and are willing to work at it, you CAN get the results you want. But it will mean eventually progressing to exercises that require near-gymnast levels of flexibility, balance, and coordination as well as just focusing on strength. With weights, it's as simple as adding more weight.

I do both. You can always make body weight exercises harder, with increasingly difficult variations. I'm doing squats with a barbell right now, because it's easier than single leg squats, not because it's harder.

I prefer body weight exercise, because I'm interested in strength that I can use in sports like dance and climbing. It's much cooler to be able to do chin-ups than lat pulldowns, or to be able to walk on your hands than to do overhead presses.

You can probably do body weight exercises for as long as you want.

Once squats becomes easy do pistol squats. Once push ups become easy do one arm push ups. Once pull ups become easy do muscle ups. You can progress for a very long time on just bodyweight exercises.

Bodyweight has the potential to get you comparable results, but the issue is that progression doesn't just happen through increased load like with weights. With bodyweight training, as your strength goes up, balance, flexibility, coordination, and control have to go up as well. There's a lot of skills work involved with progressing via bodyweight training that most people aren't willing to attempt to work on. If you choose to stick with bodyweight only and are willing to work at it, you CAN get the results you want. But it will mean eventually progressing to exercises that require near-gymnast levels of flexibility, balance, and coordination as well as just focusing on strength. With weights, it's as simple as adding more weight.

^^This, this is what I am attempting to do. But with only one balance nerve I don't know if it is possible...gonna try anyway

I haven't started it yet, but I got this book recently and like what I saw in it and may try it, or at least use it for ideas for mods. I was looking at the you are your own gym book and some of the exercises I couldn't have done the first ones, but this one has so many levels in it. IE, I believe the very lowest level 'push up' type exercise is against the wall all the way up to all kinds of crazy pushups beyond millitary.. But a wall push up ..I can certainly do..actually the pool table is just right.

A lot of time when I see body weight exercises I get frustrated, as I am pretty heavy, and I can't adjust the weight any lighter. If I had my same muscles attached to an 120 lb woman, I could probably do planks far longer than I can at a bit more than double that. So I have to look for mods and work up I guess. Then if i get good at real planks..and lose weight at the same time..I'll have to do something to make it harder since I would no longer have as much resistance. But with hand weights or machines, I can do nearly everything in the same form just with lighter weights. As I get stronger, get bigger weights.

I also kind of hate getting up and down onto the floor, but I'm trying to get over it.

Yes.
Besides the nerdfitness links, there are also
YAYOG
Shot of adrenaline.net
global body weight exercises
unique bodyweight exercises

You have to progress a REALLY, really long ways before you run out of ways to make body weight stuff more difficult and unless you want to be a power lifter, you will never run out of body weight exercises.

I have been doing, Body by You (same author as YAYOG). I basically agree with the previous posters. Just as with lifting you need to increase intensity. You don't want to be doing low intensity with lots of reps. If you can do more than say 3 sets of 10 (in good form) and not get to failure and not have at least some mild soreness the next day then you need to be doing a harder exercise. I like Body by You because it gave me a system with increased intensity to follow (I live 70 miles from a gym). Although if I would've known about it at the time I would've started with maxcapicitytraining.com .

I've lost 15 pounds and 5 inches off my waist since I started BBY in March. It's the only thing I've changed, I was already running and watching my intake. Strength training really is all that.

I think you've gotten some good advice, but I have to ask ... are you taking classes online or attending on campus? If the latter, your college probably has a gym you can use, and you are usually paying for it through your tuition and fees, whether you use it or not. You might check into that.

this is what i did on days when i had a couple hours between classes.

Great advise everyone. Thank you for the information, and congratulations to the many success stories I've seen here. Everyone is such an inspiration that keeps me pushing forward towards my goal.

The myth that eventually you get diminishing returns with bodyweight just has to be dispelled. It's just not correct.

If you are going to stick with conventional push-ups, weightless squats and a few burpees then yes, you are right. But bodyweight doesn't have to stop there. How many people who lift heavy can perform pullups, pistol squats or handstand presses?

The only problem with bodyweight exercising is meeting the strength gaps that exist between the different intensities of bodyweight exercises - for example between doing inverted rows and moving on to chin-ups and pullups. Or the gap that lies between Squats, One Legged Squats and Pistol Squats.

You can keep upping the intensity in bodyweight exercises to build incredible strength but you have to be creative, whereas it is easier to just keep putting the weights up in tiny increments with weight lifting and keep with more conventional movements.

I used to be a purist, but my view now is why does it have to be one or the other? Why not a blend of both?

Weights can help support bodyweight progress and vice versa. To increase strength in pull-ups for example, you can incorporate dumbell rows and bicep curls maybe to strengthen the weaker links in the pull-up chain. Military press is a great weightlifting link between decline push-ups and handstand presses.

I am rediscovering the buzz I used to get from lifting weights and finding weights and bodyweight working to be really compatible training methods.

Hey kind of in the same position as you, I downloaded YAYOG app today so going to try and incorporate that into my exercise routine, i do kickboxing classes and i know this is primarily cardio but we do incorporate some basic bodyweight moves such as pushups etc which has got me interested in strength training, just completed the 30 day shred and actually found julian michaels strength, cardio, abs formula good.

Personally for me mixing a bit of julians strength moves in with the bodyweight app is enough for now, maybe later i will move on and read New Rules of Lifting for Women or Starting Strength, seen them names float around the forum a good bit but for now bodyweight is still challenging me enough to tone up. Sorry its not much help, im in the same boat as you and still looking for advice on lifting....going into a gym doing free weights, i honestly don't know where to start and it may sound jeuvenille but im nervous doing it in college in front of other students when i dont have a clue what im at :P

The myth that eventually you get diminishing returns with bodyweight just has to be dispelled. It's just not correct.

If you are going to stick with conventional push-ups, weightless squats and a few burpees then yes, you are right. But bodyweight doesn't have to stop there. How many people who lift heavy can perform pullups, pistol squats or handstand presses?

The only problem with bodyweight exercising is meeting the strength gaps that exist between the different intensities of bodyweight exercises - for example between doing inverted rows and moving on to chin-ups and pullups. Or the gap that lies between Squats, One Legged Squats and Pistol Squats.

You can keep upping the intensity in bodyweight exercises to build incredible strength but you have to be creative, whereas it is easier to just keep putting the weights up in tiny increments with weight lifting and keep with more conventional movements.

I used to be a purist, but my view now is why does it have to be one or the other? Why not a blend of both?

Weights can help support bodyweight progress and vice versa. To increase strength in pull-ups for example, you can incorporate dumbell rows and bicep curls maybe to strengthen the weaker links in the pull-up chain. Military press is a great weightlifting link between decline push-ups and handstand presses.

I am rediscovering the buzz I used to get from lifting weights and finding weights and bodyweight working to be really compatible training methods.

Great Post. Check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POdzasJklxw

great link tacguy - thank you.