When designing this blog, I wanted to keep in mind those of us who don’t always have the time and money for a monthly gym membership. In this case, body weight exercises are the next best thing.
One of the more obvious benefits to body weight exercises is that you can do them anywhere without the need for any equipment. This particularly comes in handy when you find yourself traveling a lot with unpredictable schedules.
The following are a list of benefits for body weight exercises:
- Helps maintain and establish lean muscle mass
- Convenient and easy to modify
- Safer on joints and ligaments
- Smaller muscles get worked, along with larger groups of muscles simultaneously
- Emphasizes core stabilization and balance
- Use your own body for cardio
Personally, I like to use body weight exercises as a building block for other gym exercises. For instance, at one point I was doing hundreds of push-ups each day. Doing all of these push-ups didn’t necessarily make me look or feel much stronger right away. However, once I went back to lifting heavy weights at the gym again I noticed that my chest was able to handle a lot more strain than before!
The same thing started happening with my legs. I started practicing dozens of body weight squats at home and before I knew it I had established a firm foundation for squatting with heavy weights.
Building a strong fundamental keeps you process-minded and is essential for any task you take on in life.
Therefore, I encourage you to practice the following body weight exercises on your own!:
Lunges (legs):
Squats (legs/gluts):
Jumping Jacks (cardio exercise):
Bicycle crunches (abs/core strength):
Push-ups (chest):
Push-ups alternatives (beginner/easier):
Shoulder taps (chest/core stability):
Bridges (gluts/hip stability):
Planks (abs/core stability):
Scissor-kicks (abs):
Box Jumps (legs/cardio):
Superman holds! (back):
BONUS: Learn how to turn these workouts into a High Intensity Cardio Circuit!:
Key Takeaways:
- Implementing body weight exercise routines are a great alternative to going to the gym
- One of the main benefits to body weight exercises is that it is convenient and schedule-friendly
- Body weight exercises are great for building a foundation for weight machines and heavier lifting
