A lot of you may be wondering, are body-weight workouts enough for me to get stronger and see results? Many people underestimate the benefits body-weight exercises provide and limit their thinking to only one or two exercises, when there is literally hundreds of amazing varieties you could use. The best thing about these exercises is you are not limited with time and you need no equipment meaning you can get a great workout in almost anywhere! This can be a real game-changer for the person who travels a lot, or someone unable to get to the gym.  These exercises are often prescribed by physical therapists and rehabilitation trainers to people with injury for they are excellent choices for improving stability of joints in a closed kinetic chain. And many of the advanced exercises like plyometric training are used by many elite sporting athletes for improving strength and power. In this article we will explain everything you need to know about body-weight exercises and provide you with several simple workouts for general muscle toning and losing fat no matter what level of fitness you think you are at!

Why Are Body-weight Exercises So Good?

You can do them anywhere, anytime, at your own pace and level, alone or with a friend—even if you and your friend are at different levels and it doesn't cost you a single cent. So often, the reason people do not exercise is simply that it's inconvenient. You have to go to a gym, or go outside when it's raining, or stay inside when it's beautiful outdoors just like the picture above of the girl doing push-ups in her lounge room. With body-weight exercises you do not need to get equipment out and get set anything up. You just do it when it's convenient and sometimes just a 15 minute workout can do wonders for your body, both mentally and physically.

Other great benefits these provide include:

• They work the entire body as a whole with multiple joints all used at once, meaning it strengthens multiple areas
• They are a natural functional movement to perform relate perfectly to practical day to day tasks
• Body-weight exercises are often easier to learn and are generally safer.
• They are easy to progress by applying tempo changes and additional reps
• You require little space and can do these easily within your home

By far the biggest advantage that I see with these is their ability to improve stability of joints in the body.

Why Body-weight Exercises Are Great For Improving Joint Stability

I touched on this quickly in the introduction but I think it is worth explaining this in more detail for many people underestimate the true value of bodyweight training when it comes to strength, stability, and injury prevention.

Firstly I will explain what the closed kinetic chain means. These are exercises where the hand (for arm movement) or foot (for leg movement) is fixed in space and cannot move. The extremity remains in constant contact with the immobile surface, usually the ground or the base of a machine. A good example would be the push up is a closed chain pushing action and the bench press is an open chain pushing action.

Closed-chain exercises are usually much less coordinated and easier for people to find the correct sequential muscle activation to effectively control joint movements. Typically, most rehabilitation protocols begin with closed-chain exercises because of the belief that they not only enhance the body's capability to produce stability, but also allow the muscles to provide the optimal amount of exertion around the joint and encourage proper centration. In all of our advanced online programs for injury and rehabilitation, stability is a big part of the early stages and many of the exercises used are bodyweight. The horsestance exercise for example is arguably the best exercise for back pain as it helps them to learn optimal pelvic and lumbar spine stability in a very controlled position. See the article – Is Horsestance the best exercise for back pain?

What if you are not injured are they still useful? Absolutely, for the benefits these exercises provide the person in pain to restore stability of the joint, are the same ones that will help to maintain perfect alignment so you never get injured! I regularly use squats, chin-ups and push-ups in my training and find it keeps my body mobile enough to handle the more intense and complex exercises with dumbbells and barbells.

This brings me to the next benefit, these exercises are very time efficient.

You Have No Time To Exercise? Not a Problem!

If time is your problem, if you do shift work, you have a baby to look after at home, live too far away from a gym, or simply are a workaholic and have no time to go to a gym, then a body-weight workout is perfect for you! You can achieve great results from this training in as little as 15 minutes with the right plan. Even the busiest person can find 15 minutes and here are a few strategies to keep you do this:

• Lock it in your calendar as an appointment, be specific and lock in the date & time.
• If you are forgetful set an alarmed reminder in your phone in the morning for 30 minutes prior to your workout appointment.
• If you are likely to skip it if you know you have a busy day lock in an appointment for first thing in the morning before your chaotic day begins!
• Lock in your home session straight after work or household chores, while you’re still on a roll!
• Schedule a 15-30 minute session in on a weekend or on your day off when you have a more time than a regular workday

You can find more ideas about how to find time in this article – How to find more time to workout when you are overly busy

Now that you have a better understanding to the benefits of using your own body-weight as resistance what are the best exercises?

Top 10 Body-weight Exercises:

These are in no particular order of best to worst as they are all great in their own way. The most important thing to understand is they work best when used together. I see many people just do push-ups every day and while this is a great exercise it can create problems if abused like this.  Before I go on make sure you download a copy of our Free Report on Functional Training below as this gives you all the exercise instructions complete with pictures of all the exercises I am about to show you.

Always remember technique is everything and more important than how many you do. This is one area that bodyweight exercises are often abused with for they are relatively easy to do so people get reckless with their form. Poor form will always lead to trouble later on so make sure you know what the technique is and never compromise the exercise.

Push up:

This exercise is great for you when done correctly, working on upper body, core strength & neck stability also. Common technique faults are dropping your hips too low and dropping your head forward. Keep the hips and head up aligned and you will get the most out of the exercise.

For more information on the push up see article – Push-ups are the best bodyweight exercise

Squat:

An excellent exercise for leg strength and overall functional movement. Many would rate this as the king of strength training for the numerous benefits it provides. There are numerous ways to regress or progress the current bodyweight squat which we show you in the workouts at the end of the article. The technique with this can be difficult for many to perfect so make sure you watch the video above that explains how to get this right.

For more information on squats read the article – The Top 7 Squats

Lunge:

Many beginners find this very difficult and it can leave you with a significant amount of leg soreness the first few times you do it. A much demanding exercise than the squat in terms of balance and hip mobility the different position targets muscles like the glutes more effectively than the squat. There are many variations of the lunge to use that are extremely exhausting with some of the more advanced versions fantastic for sporting athletes.

For more information on lunges read the article – Lunges are great for fitness success

Horse-stance:

As we discussed earlier this is a great stability exercise and good one for beginners. There is less demand for strength and more for stability and core control. The key here is to straighten your knee & opposite arm while keeping an upright posture, this will maximise the core work and strength benefits of your arm.

Inverted row (if have a bar or straps):

This is one of the exercises that requires some form of equipment. A strong bar to hold onto is all you need. If you don’t have access to this you can use a strong, heavy table to hold onto instead, or a stable horizontal fixed bar outside. The key with this exercise is to keep the hips high up and look up as you pull, so your head doesn’t fall forward. This strengthens the arms & back muscles.

Chin-ups

This is a very tough exercise and many might find this too hard which is fine so stick to the inverted row if that is the case. Again this is one of the exercises that does need some kind of bar or straps to hold onto. I used to use the bars in the local school or kids playground and many parks these days have an area where you can do these. Arguably the best upper body exercise.

See article – Why Chin-ups are so powerful to your core

Single leg deadlift:

In our ratings of the 20 best exercises of all time this was number one! An awesome exercise to improve balance on one leg and hip control, a very powerful exercise for people of all ages and abilities! The key here is to stick your butt back on the way down and tip forward, rather than bending the knee.

Lower abdominal:

Don’t be fooled by this exercise for while it looks very easy many people really struggle with it. Putting your hands behind your back is a good guide to feel your back move into neutral while you’re doing the exercise ensuring your core is working effectively. Keep your head on the ground and your shoulders back to maintain correct posture throughout.

Deadlift:

Many might question why this is shown as a bodyweight exercise as it really does not improve strength at all and seems very easy. We include this exercise as a way to learn how to lift things from the floor with good technique to prevent back pain. This particular movement is the most common way we see a bulging disc develop and often it is because of poor coordination and not knowing how to bend correctly. If you can find any type of object to pick up off the floor this will be fine as it is all about learning how to lift things in the correct positions. Make sure as you go down to grab the object, keep your butt back and chest up, doing this will keep the slight curve in your lower back, so it isn’t rounding forward!

See article – Which deadlift version is best for you

Step up:

This is the first exercise that becomes a fitness challenge as much as a strength challenge. All you need is a stable chair or a bench to stand on and this is a fantastic way to improve leg strength, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness at the same time.

Okay so that we have all the exercises how do you put it all together in a workout?

3 Bodyweight Workouts to Challenge You

Here three workouts that increase in difficulty as you improve. This shows you how easily you can progress bodyweight exercises to increase the demand on the muscles without needing any equipment. The sets and reps you use for these workouts are often 2-3 sets x 10-15 reps however you can manipulate these depending on the exercise. For example you may be able to complete 20 push ups but you only need to do 6 prone cobras.

Another great way to increase the difficulty is to perform the workout as a circuit where each exercise is completed one after the other with no rest between sets. This not allows you to get the workout completed quickly but also produces high levels of fatigue as the muscles are being constantly engaged and eventually exhausted.

For more information read our detailed article – 4 Unique ways to use circuit training

My advice is to keep it simple with 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps with a rest between each set until you master the exercises. Once you have mastered them progress to a circuit format.

Workout #1 - Beginner’s workout:

This is a great workout for a beginner to start with and the main focus is on improving posture and getting used to the fundamental movement patterns used with the upper & lower body. It is very important to master technique before advancing too quickly to the next level to fully prepare your muscles and joints of the more advanced work to come!

Workout #2 - The Intermediate level:

Once you have mastered level one and have some of the simple foundation movements perfected it is time to progress to some more advanced exercises and skills. This time around we introduce single leg and lunge exercises that demand high degree of balance as much as strength. We also get our first look at lateral movement which is something many people really struggle with.

Workout #3 The Advanced level:

Once you feel you can complete the intermediate workout effectively you are now ready to take on the advanced level workout. The difference here, instead of advancing it through higher reps, sets or lowering rest time, this workout changes the speed. The speed increase tricks the muscles by having to not only move instantly explosive on the way up of the movement, but to catch you as you land. The muscles are forced to work much harder as your body-weight has now increased as it is on the move! It basically has to slam on the brakes as hard as it can to stop you. A good way to spice things up by improving your power, aerobic fitness and muscle tone. This program is a real fat burner!

How Many Times Per Week Should You Do These Workouts?

All of these workouts used almost every muscle in the body which will create some damage that the body must have time to repair. This means that you MUST ensure you have at least 48 hours rest between workouts. It is important to allow enough time to fully recover otherwise the value of the training is compromised. The quality of the workout is of most importance, not how many workouts you do. This is a mistake that many make with this type of training by overdoing it thinking more is better and putting their body through too much fatigue.

Want Even More Ideas?

For tons of great ideas of how to put these exercises together in many challenging workouts make sure you get a copy of the Little Black Book below. This has over 100 detailed programs with exercises, sets, reps, rest and tempo all done for you and broken into specific chapters to make it easy to reference what you need. The ultimate tool and resource for you to get the most out of your training. Click here to see more and get your instant PDF copy.

Summary

I hope this article has given you a better appreciation to the true value of body-weight exercises and a stack of ideas of how to structure them correctly in a workout that is relevant to your current level of ability. They not only provide your body with improvements in stability and strength that are really great fun when you know how to use them. And the best part is they don’t take up much time and can be done almost anywhere. What are you waiting for? Get started now!