Safe and Effective Bodyweight Exercises for Everyone

Low load training for in-gym and at-home training is easy and effective when you follow a few key guidelines.

The first thing to remember about bodyweight training and putting together a routine is that the degree of difficulty or lack-there-of an exercise is determined by the body’s relationship to gravity and exercise mechanics.

The seconds thing to remember is that for bodyweight training to be effective it must be intentional. It has to be thoughtful in execution and use strategies like peak contractions that aid to focus on working muscles.

When putting together a routine start by selecting the exercises that are appropriate for the exerciser and his or her goals. Exercises can range from squats to lunges to lumbar flexion to advanced exercises like burpees, etc. and far beyond.   

A sample superset routine might look like:

The routine above is a whole-body routine common to general fitness and where bodyweight methods are used for general health and wellness goals. It also shows a higher volume paradigm recommended for bodyweight training and in particular for women over 40.

Powerful programming strategies include:

• Best results are with methods to muscle failure (Lasevicius, 2022) where appropriate. This would constitute an intermediate to advanced way to train.
• Use paired exercises. Paired exercises are exercises that are done together, typically back-to-back, and share similar joints, muscles used, and muscle patterns of activation.
• Use super set, two exercises back-to-back or block methods - three sets of one exercise followed by three sets of a different exercise for example.

When it comes to making exercises intentional, try these strategies to increase the time that a muscle is working or under tension.

• Use sets to failure or until mechanics are compromised.
• Try high-volume training.
• Increase the duration of an exercise, like an isometric contraction.
• Use peak contraction; stop and squeeze a muscle at the mid-point of the movement.

Bodyweight training can be an effective way to increase fitness and a fun way to exercise at-home and outdoors. The key to success lies in exercise selection and execution, using a variety of training techniques to focus workouts and improve results.

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References

Lasevicius T, Schoenfeld BJ, Silva-Batista C, Barros TS, Aihara AY, Brendon H, Longo AR, Tricoli V, Peres BA, Teixeira EL. Muscle Failure Promotes Greater Muscle Hypertrophy in Low-Load but Not in High-Load Resistance Training. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Feb 1;36(2):346-351. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003454. PMID: 31895290.

Author Biography

Amy Ashmore, Ph.D. holds a doctorate in Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is located in Las Vegas, NV.