The Pros Cons of Body Weight Workouts
The great thing about body weight workouts is that you can do them anywhere: At home, at work, in a hotel room or your mother-in-law's guest room. All you need is a few minutes of time and a few ideas for your workout.
The downside of training with no added weight is that it's hard to progress. With your body weight as your only resistance, the only way you can progress is to gain more weight, which probably isn't an option. Still, something is always better than nothing and there are ways to make the exercises more difficult.
Tips and Tricks
If you want to use some type of resistance but don't want to spend money on equipment, try these ideas:
- Full water bottles and unopened soup cans make great dumbbells.
- Fill an old sock with sand and tie it at the end. Voila! Your own dumbbells.
- If you travel, take resistance bands with you for a simple way to add intensity without having to carry much equipment.
If you're not using any equipment, you'll need to employ some techniques to make your workout challenging.
- Use one limb at a time. Try one-armed pushups or one-legged squats. Having to support all of your body weight with one arm or leg will add more resistance to your exercise.
- Go slow. Take 8-12 seconds to complete each repetition.
- Increase your repetitions. For example, if you were using weights, you might do 12 to 16 squats. Without weights, you can increase your reps to 20 or 30 (or more) to make up for the lack of added weight.
If you're ready, click hereto get started on your no-weight workout.
