Anyone want to talk about bodyweight training?

scubasuenc · May 2014

I do a combination of lifting and body weight training. I am fortunate enough to have a gym at my place of work, but the downside is that it is closed on the weekends. Other commitments mean I can usually only hit the gym twice a week at best. I do body weight on the weekend and during the week if I can't get to the gym.

I recently purchased Your Body Is Your Gym for Women, and I look forward to reading it to find ideas to change things up.

TheWorstHorse · May 2014

I started doing bodyweight workouts after heart surgery with the intention of returning to the weight room as soon as I was able. I might return to the gym at some point but for now, I am having a blast. You can go a long way with bw training before you need to pick up a dumbbell; just look at Al Kavadlo or Mark Lauren.

Books I'd recommend are Convict Conditioning (cheesy prose and graphics but the progression program is the most gentle introduction to bw strength training I've seen), You Are Your Own Gym (good training programs and photos), and Pushing the Limits (crazy enthusiastic). Lots of good websites out there, too.

rybo · May 2014

I've really taken to BW training and have to laugh at those who underestimate it. You can get very strong and you can build size and most people will never max out.
Waldo's website strength unbound is great
As already mentioned convict conditioning, Al Kavadlo, shot of adrenaline are all good places to go too.

bexcobham · May 2014

Thanks to the people who've recommended books such as Convict Conditioning. I shall check those out.

Even though I'm a woman, I find that I do pack on muscle fairly easily, even with bodyweight exercises, but I'm considering joining the loca; fitness centre - even though you have to go though a ridiculously long induction period (weeks), before they'll even let you in the weights area.

I'm even thinking of taking up yoga again - shock horror - to improve my flexibility. That is a form of bodyweight training really, but yoga instructors tend to be supetr skinny. Nevertheless, they usually seem to be the hippy types who do fasts and juice cleanses. I think I would rather die than live of vegetable juice, because it would be so depressing.

I got some free weights, but have a weird shoulder issue. I had a frozen shoulder when I was a teenager and it still gets sore sometimes, so have limited strength in that arm. Doing bicep curls and the like, my arm just stops working, but the other one is fine. Strange, does anyone have any suggestions as to what this might be?

waldo56 · May 2014

Geez, it seems I'm developing a bit of a reputation.

BW training can take you wherever you want to go. Building muscle is my focus, and it works fine for me. I absolutely do not do high rep work (can't stand it and it isn't very effective).

You don't have to be a hardcore purist about it; I use dumbbells (plus a weight vest or ankle weights on occasion), but I do not consider myself a weight lifter, I use weight to enhance my bodies' load where appropriate.

You can find a bunch of good stuff (and links to other good sites) on my website strengthunbound.com

I'm personally not a fan of Convict Conditioning. We are pretty much polar opposites philosophically and I think Wade is full of dung half the time.

bexcobham · May 2014

Well, you're certainly looking good on it waldo. I'm also going for that kind of look, but a woman's version. People say that women can't get bulky lifting heavy weights, but I can and have done in the past and the female bodybuilder/fitness model just isn't a look I aspire too, although it is pretty impressive.

Even the stuff I've been doing so far has built muscle. It's there and I can feel it, but a lot of it is obscured by flab. I am starting to get good cuts on my legs and shoulders, the belly and love handles and inner thing fat are ****ing me off right now. They're always the last to go.

So, should I be cutting and doing more cardio based BW and circuits before upping the intensity with BW workouts and gaining more strength?

strengthunbound.com looks good.

darrensurrey · May 2014

Couple of points:
-When Waldo says he doesn't do loads of reps, he probably keeps it tough, so even just 6 reps will be a bastid to do. Doing 6 reps of something easy is a waste of time.
-Start strength training now, don't wait for some random time. It all helps to burn fat and that's what you want, isn't it?
-You're not building muscles as much as you think - I am guessing you're building muscle under fat which pushes the fat out making you look more bulky. Live with it for the short term and the muscle will stay but the fat will shrink, leaving you lean and "toned".
-You said you can't bicep curl - that's fine. It's not strength training and just builds bigger biceps. Focus on total body exercises eg push ups that work triceps, pectorals, abs, thighs to varying degrees. Also see if you can do stuff like one hand dumbbell shoulder press - works delts, triceps, core.

bexcobham · May 2014

Couple of points:
-When Waldo says he doesn't do loads of reps, he probably keeps it tough, so even just 6 reps will be a bastid to do. Doing 6 reps of something easy is a waste of time.
-Start strength training now, don't wait for some random time. It all helps to burn fat and that's what you want, isn't it?
-You're not building muscles as much as you think - I am guessing you're building muscle under fat which pushes the fat out making you look more bulky. Live with it for the short term and the muscle will stay but the fat will shrink, leaving you lean and "toned".
-You said you can't bicep curl - that's fine. It's not strength training and just builds bigger biceps. Focus on total body exercises eg push ups that work triceps, pectorals, abs, thighs to varying degrees. Also see if you can do stuff like one hand dumbbell shoulder press - works delts, triceps, core.

Thanks, that all sounds very sensible.

I love the total body exercises. My relatives are over this weekend, but I'm about to go to the park and I'm going to mess around on the monkey bars.

sparklefrogz · May 2014

OP, Mark Lauren has a second book out called "Body By You". Although it's marketed at women, what it really is is a very granular progression of bodyweight exercises. I highly recommend checking it out.

http://www.startbodyweight.com also has a set of progressions and workouts for free online.

Waldo, I've read Convict Conditioning and while I didn't care for the tone of most of the book and thought the nutritional advice was scant, I'm curious to hear your gripes with it.

darrensurrey · May 2014

Couple of points:
-When Waldo says he doesn't do loads of reps, he probably keeps it tough, so even just 6 reps will be a bastid to do. Doing 6 reps of something easy is a waste of time.
-Start strength training now, don't wait for some random time. It all helps to burn fat and that's what you want, isn't it?
-You're not building muscles as much as you think - I am guessing you're building muscle under fat which pushes the fat out making you look more bulky. Live with it for the short term and the muscle will stay but the fat will shrink, leaving you lean and "toned".
-You said you can't bicep curl - that's fine. It's not strength training and just builds bigger biceps. Focus on total body exercises eg push ups that work triceps, pectorals, abs, thighs to varying degrees. Also see if you can do stuff like one hand dumbbell shoulder press - works delts, triceps, core.

Thanks, that all sounds very sensible.

I love the total body exercises. My relatives are over this weekend, but I'm about to go to the park and I'm going to mess around on the monkey bars.

Nice one. Just busting your *kitten* from one end to the other is a decent workout!

eslcity · May 2014

Personally, I did body weight training squats, push-ups, crunches and etc. before joining a gym to use weights... and I know it prepared my body... to lift heavier... without the pain...

http://hundredpushups.com/

waldo56 · May 2014

Waldo, I've read Convict Conditioning and while I didn't care for the tone of most of the book and thought the nutritional advice was scant, I'm curious to hear your gripes with it.

A few things,

First of all, the overall programming plan if terrible. That is the worst part. If you compress it all into a single day and progress exercise to exercise as soon as you can, it becomes much better. One exercise a day, ridden out to high reps each progression, purposely slowing progression to bank strength, is absolutely idiotic.

His "banking strength" concept is utter BS. Erase it from your memory, it is totally false.

Progression-wise:
- The book will lead to believe you are ready to being one arm chin training FAR, FAR earlier than you actually are. After pullups, work on the front lever and muscle-up, then go back to the one arm chin.

- There is no such thing as a one arm handstand pushup. It is a theoretical exercise. After headstand pushups (handstand pushups on a floor) elevate the hands (giving space for the head) and work on handstand pushups. The stack of book progression for both is by far the easiest.

- The one arm pushup progression does not include straddle (wide leg) one arm pushups and the step before, incline straddle one arm pushups. CC followers are led to believe that doing one arm pushups with wide legs are incorrect or poor form. It is a different exercise and on the progression path; you never do a feet together one arm pushup using his progression, it doesn't ever deal with the rotation (the hardest part).

- LOL @ the pistol squat progression. Close squats? That thing with a basketball? There are much easier ways to get there; there are 4 main weak points to a pistol, each has a different means of attacking. That progression addresses none of them. Box pistols, doing pistols onto progressively lower objects like chairs is by far the easiest progression.

- The bridge progression is fine. He overstresses the importance of it, but W/E. A better path than the walkover bridge is to move to single leg bridges/hip thrusts if glute work is the main goal.

- The hanging leg raise progression is fine, easy though. That should be the first one you get, then further progressing to hanging L's, L-sits, and toes to bar.

sparklefrogz · May 2014

First of all, the overall programming plan if terrible....Progression-wise: (long list items)

Thanks for elucidating. I had a look at your bodyweight strength training beginner's guide post on your site and from what I can tell, Mark Lauren's programming plans fit in much better with your philosophy. I am curious to know what you think about his exercise progressions in "Body By You" (if you've read it). Also curious to hear your opinion on Startbodyweight.com, if you have one.

I'm coming to this as someone who did gymnastics as a young child and loved it, but hasn't touched resistance training of any kind for close to 20 years. I realize that at my stage of the game, getting started with any program and going consistently is probably more important than picking the "best" program, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts.

CrescentCityGirl · May 2014

This is all new information for me, but I definitely want to be involved. Many great websites and resources to check out here.

I too have trouble with my shoulder. I've found tha if I weight train a few times a week with yoga and kickboxing the other days it doesn't keep me up at night.

Is there a body weight group on myp yet???

Vailara · May 2014

I have used Body By You (mentioned above) and preferred it to You Are Your Own Gym. It seemed less fiddly - just basic whole-body exercises (although the actual programme was a bit complicated, with different sorts of sets on different days). What I liked about it was that it allowed for small increments, so you could feel you were progressing. One thing I didn't like was that it felt uneven in difficulty: this may well have been just me, but I found I was able to start just about at the end of the progression for one particular exercise, whilst I was on a much lower level with the other exercises. The website did give suggestions of what to do at that point, but it was frustrating to be outgrowing an exercise right at the beginning.

I'm reading this thread with interest and will look at some of the things other people have suggested.

Yagisama · May 2014

I'm starting to add some body weight exercises so I'll be paying close attention to this thread.

geebusuk · May 2014

bodyweight stuff is hard, that's why nobody wants to do it.

I don't want to do it because it's often less effective.

This is hard:

That is NOT why people don't want to do it

.

I just tried a pistol squat - it was pretty easy, it seemed - but while I'm far from from strong, my first warmup sets for normal barbell squats is around body weight on my shoulders, so shouldn't be challenging to put all my actual body weight through one leg.

After all that - if it's all you've got available, it's certainly much better than nothing.
For me, I could never get motivated to do it when I was last working away, so I found a better solution this time

...

enipla · May 2014

I like BW exercises. For me it is very functional and can carryover to my other activities I like to do such as hiking, climbing,etc.

tonileigh820 · May 2014

I also do mainly body weight exercises. Not only have I been getting great results, but it's free and you can literally do it anytime, anywhere.

steve0820 · May 2014

Waldo, I've read Convict Conditioning and while I didn't care for the tone of most of the book and thought the nutritional advice was scant, I'm curious to hear your gripes with it.

A few things,

First of all, the overall programming plan if terrible. That is the worst part. If you compress it all into a single day and progress exercise to exercise as soon as you can, it becomes much better. One exercise a day, ridden out to high reps each progression, purposely slowing progression to bank strength, is absolutely idiotic.

His "banking strength" concept is utter BS. Erase it from your memory, it is totally false.

Progression-wise:
- The book will lead to believe you are ready to being one arm chin training FAR, FAR earlier than you actually are. After pullups, work on the front lever and muscle-up, then go back to the one arm chin.

- There is no such thing as a one arm handstand pushup. It is a theoretical exercise. After headstand pushups (handstand pushups on a floor) elevate the hands (giving space for the head) and work on handstand pushups. The stack of book progression for both is by far the easiest.

- The one arm pushup progression does not include straddle (wide leg) one arm pushups and the step before, incline straddle one arm pushups. CC followers are led to believe that doing one arm pushups with wide legs are incorrect or poor form. It is a different exercise and on the progression path; you never do a feet together one arm pushup using his progression, it doesn't ever deal with the rotation (the hardest part).

- LOL @ the pistol squat progression. Close squats? That thing with a basketball? There are much easier ways to get there; there are 4 main weak points to a pistol, each has a different means of attacking. That progression addresses none of them. Box pistols, doing pistols onto progressively lower objects like chairs is by far the easiest progression.

- The bridge progression is fine. He overstresses the importance of it, but W/E. A better path than the walkover bridge is to move to single leg bridges/hip thrusts if glute work is the main goal.

- The hanging leg raise progression is fine, easy though. That should be the first one you get, then further progressing to hanging L's, L-sits, and toes to bar.

Glad I caught this write up, thanks Waldo. Was thinking of some new reading material, and this was one of them. But the one arm chin progression had me laughing.

Anyone want to talk about bodyweight training?

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