Bodyweight Exercise

Here Are 3 Great Bodyweight Exercises

If you’re looking for a challenge to add to your workout, and you want to use only your bodyweight, then I’ve got 3 bodyweight exercises here for you to try. These 3 are straight from the new bodyweight exercise report.

The endurance sit, where you’re “sitting on air,” will help you to build strength and endurance in your quads.

The superman push-up will challenge you to maintain your balance, tighten your abs, and work your arm muscles from a different angle. It’ll give you great strength and simultaneous muscle coordination.

But if you want really incredible arm strength, do the one arm push-up the way I show you below.

Let’s start with the endurance sit.

With this exercise, what you’re doing is standing, “sitting on air,” for a bit, then standing back up again.

You begin this exercise by standing up, with your feet about shoulder-width apart.

Then, bend your knees and drop down as though you were going to settle into a chair. You don’t have to sit down all the way—just enough so you can feel the burn of your quadriceps muscles holding up your body. When you feel your quads working, hold for 20 seconds, then stand up.

Rest and repeat.

Here are a few pointers to help you out.

• You may not know exactly how far you have to go before you “feel the burn,” so experiment at first. For me, it’s where my quads are almost parallel to the floor. Slowly lower yourself…until you feel the most contraction in your quads. This is where you hold for 20 seconds.

• To put more emphasis on your quads, straighten out your back as much as you can. The further back you can “sit,” the better.

• To help with balance, try spreading your arms out in front of you.

• If you’re concerned about falling back, have a chair in place to “catch” you, or even to sit on when your quads are tired. Also, for a better sense of security, you can also do this exercise with a wall a few inces behind you.

Now let’s get you a strong upper-body by looking at superman push-ups.

If you know how to do standard push-ups (or press-ups, since that’s what they’re called in the UK) then you have a basic understanding of this.

There are 2 major differences that make superman push-ups what they are:

1. Superman push-ups engage a wider variety of muscles, from your arms to your abs to your stabilizer muscles.

2. Instead of your hands out to your sides, your hands are way out in front. This is actually why they’re called superman push-ups, because you have your hands out in front of you, very much like Superman does when he flies.

You begin this exercise by getting down into the push-up position.

But instead of having your hands at the sides, move them out in front of you, as though you’re Superman flying.

Now, do a push-up.

Challenging, isn’t it? Remember not to hold your breath.

Here’s a pointer: When you’re getting used to this exercise, you may find it easier to place your feet flat against a wall. The superman push-up is much more of a forward-and-back exercise than the standard push-up (you’ll know what I mean when you try it). Placing your feet against a wall will help prevent you from sliding.

As you get stronger, try doing this without having your feet against a wall.

Look what happened this morning…

“That’s Impressive.”

Hey, guess what?

I was at the gym this morning (though I could’ve done this at home, with no equipment), and a girl saw what I was doing.

“That’s impressive,” she said.

“Yes, that is impressive,” a second lady said.

What I had just done was a bodyweight exercise that will give you incredible arm strength.

Wanna know what it is?

The one-arm push-up, of course. And I’m gonna show you how it’s done.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that when you’re doing this exercise, you only have 3 points of contact with the floor, instead of 4. That is, instead of both hands and both feet on the floor, only 1 hand and both feet are on the floor. The non-working arm is kept behind your back.

And to maintain your balance, and prevent you from rolling over, you’ll spread your legs wide apart. This will distribute your body’s weight across a wider base, giving you more stability.

To help you get a picture of what this looks like, you can visualize your 3 points of contact as forming a triangle with the floor. So your working hand is the point at the top of the triangle, and your feet (which are spread apart) are the second and third points of the triangle.

To begin, put one hand (which will be your non-working hand) behind your back.

Now, get down into the 1-arm push-up position. As you do so, remember to spread your legs wide apart.

With your one arm behind your back, keeping your body straight, lower yourself to the ground with your one arm, and push yourself up. Remember not to hold your breath.

I bet you can see (or rather, feel) how this exercise will give you excellent arm strength.

Here are a few pointers:

• Don’t lead with, or drop, your non-working side. By that, I mean that if you’re working out your left arm, don’t let your right shoulder come closer to the ground than your left shoulder. Keep both shoulders even and parallel with the floor.

• If you find that you’re not bending your working arm as much, even though you’re still lowering yourself to the ground, then you may not be placing your working hand in the optimal position, or you may be getting sloppy with your technique. Fatigue can cause sloppy technique.

This might happen when you’re getting worn out. Don’t worry if this happens to you before your 3^rd rep. The one-arm push-up is a very challenging bodyweight exercise, and currently, the most I’ve ever done was 10 at one time.

Just remember to focus on proper technique instead or worrying how many you can do. As you get stronger, you’ll be able to do more, with great form.

• Of course, work both arms. I’m right-handed. I like to work my left arm, then finish strong with my right arm. I work both arms equally.

If you want to try a bodyweight exercise that tests your endurance, try the endurance sit.

This Oondi article defines what bodyweight exercises are.