Today on the podcast I’m showing you how you have your own gym with you everywhere you go. Doing body weight exercises gives you an unlimited resource to getting fitter, stronger and to lose more body fat. O.K, let’s do this thing..
In This Episode on Using Your Body Weight To Get Fit You’ll Learn:
- Why it’s important for you to engage your own bodyweight
- The test that shows if you have good control of your body
- Why the burpee is such an important exercise and where it comes from
- Why H.I.I.T training is so beneficial
- Some of the best bodyweight exercises you should be doing
- How to combine them into circuit training
- A few sample workouts
- How to work your core better and what you should be working besides just your abs
Using Your Body Weight to Get Fit
Many of us may not realize, but we carry an entire gym wherever we go. Yes, that’s our body itself. Regardless of your gender, age, and height, did you know you can give yourself an effective workout using only your body weight? Working out using your body weight is not something too hard.
You don’t go around doing backflip somersaults. It is as simple as being able to get up without using your arms. It is the idea of controlling your own weight using legs and manage your functional movements using your hands. You do not have to start with something extreme you can simply practice with something basic and later build yourself up slowly with harder tasks.
Burpee
Many of you may be familiar with the burpee exercise. Almost all of us have done it in high school during gym class or during some other sports session. For those of you who are not familiar with it, the burpee is a full-body exercise. You start in a standing position, then get done in a crouch position, then kick your legs behind you. This is more like an upper portion of a push-up. Then pull your legs quickly and jumping straight up, and then start all over again.
Fun facts of Burpees
It was invented by a guy called Royal H Burpee, who used to be a professor. He had been looking for a quick way and a combination exercise to use all the muscles in his body. That’s when he started Burpee. It’s an aerobic and anaerobic exercise, which is burning glycogen and increasing cardiovascular endurance—basically, everything in one shot. During World War II, the US troops need to see the strength and vitality of a soldier quickly. So they tried out burpee to assess each soldier’s stamina, ability, and strength.
Some of the other bodyweight exercises include exercise in a mountain climbing position, bodyweight squats, planks, simple push-ups, balancing on your toes using your body weight. Even your gym workout routines, whether you are in boot camp training, doing cardio, or any other session, you are working out using your body weight. Incorporating most of these workouts into a HIIT training session is always the most effective choice.
Why is HIIT beneficial?
HIIT or High-intensity interval training is the best and most effective way to burn your body fat. During the HIIT workout session, your body is using oxygen and replenishing it too through EPOC or Excess post oxygen consumption. This basically means your body is burning calories long after your workout session is done, like an after-burn effect. Some studies claim that even after 36 to 42 hours after a workout, you are still burning calories. So when you combine workouts, it is less time consuming, and you can carry it out wherever you want.
Steps on how to start bodyweight exercises
1. Circuit planning
A great workout would be taking 6 body weight exercising and breaking them into two groups of three. You can start with bodyweight squats, push-ups, and mountain climbing. So what you need to do is combine all three and do them in a row and carry each of them out for 20 seconds. Don’t stress too much. Just work out at your own pace. Increase the number and time of the number of push-ups, squats, and mountain climbing as you progress. Rushing will only make it worse. Increase it in steps and at your own pace.
2. Group training
The best type of workout is the one which you do in groups. Your group can consist of people of different ages, starting from teenagers to old aged people. 15 to 30 people working out together is a great practice as everyone motivates one another. Everyone can grow together at their own pace in their own time.
3. Rest intervals
The resting period is necessary. After any workout, you should rest for 30-60 seconds and then start your next session. Sometimes you may feel you are ready to go, and you don’t need to rest. That’s because your cardiovascular system recovers faster before your muscular system. So even if you start working out immediately, you will hit the wall. Thus it’s better to have a few interval gaps before the next series of push-ups, squats, or cardio.
4. The second set of circuit training
The next circuit can consist of plunges, burpees, and bodyweight lunges. Start with 20 seconds with all these in a row, with 45 seconds interval, and then start for again 20 to 30 seconds. This type of workouts won’t take much of your time. You can practically be anywhere, your office, college, get these workouts done within 13 minutes, and you will be all good to go. It is advisable to warm up your body first.
You can ride a bike, swim, or walk for 5 to 10 minutes or something simple, which will get you in a form and loosen up your muscles. So that when you start your circuit training your transition, is proper and beneficial to your body. So just with these 6 exercises, you have thousands of combinations at your disposal. You can choose your own order of plunges, burpees, and push-ups, then in the second circuit, the other three.
In this way, you can carry out different exercises without letting your body adapt to them. No matter how rigorous exercises you go, if you keep carrying on the same exercises every time, your body manages to learn and adapt to it. You will begin to lose fewer and fewer calories, and less muscle buildup would result.
Core and Abs training
If you are interested in core body and abs training, whole-body exercises are a great way to get these done. Burpees and mountain climbing can help you with your core and your abs. Light lifts are, especially for your abs. It’s more like you are sitting on your hands, lying flat down, and you keep your feet together, lifting them up and lowering them just before they touch the ground.
Another one is bicycle crunches, where you are drawing your elbows towards your opposite knees. Planks are one of the best exercises to strengthen your core. If you picture your spine line a column, your core muscles are the ones surrounding it. Balancing is an essential step in core and abs training. If you are carrying out chest and shoulder exercises, you should balance them out with back exercises to pull everything in place. Remember to carry out all these exercises for 20 to 30 seconds, then wait for 30 to 45 seconds to rest, then start again.
Wrapping it up
If you have watched the Olympics, you must have noticed the gymnastics and how fit, strong, and proper their body is. This is because they are constantly working on and balancing their body weight. They are constantly lifting, pulling, and pressing themselves up.
Round 1: Body weight squats, push ups, mountain climbers-
- Perform all three exercises back to back for 20 seconds each
- Rest for 45-60 seconds
- Do all three in a row for 30 seconds each
- Rest for 45-60 seconds
- Do all three in a row for 40-45 seconds before moving on to the next group
Round 2: Burpees, alternating body weight lunges, planks
- Perform all three exercises back to back for 25 seconds each
- rest for 45-60 seconds
- Do all three in a row for 35 seconds
- Rest for 45-60 seconds
- Do all three in a row for 45 seconds
- Cool down for 5-10 minutes at a moderate pace by either walking or on a piece of cardio equipment followed by stretching
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
- Benefits of High Intensity Interval Training
- How to perform Tabata training for better weight loss
- The quick sample workout I mentioned (you want to make sure you’ve been cleared for exercise and you’ll want to warm up for at least 5-10 minutes at a moderate pace)
