Two common barriers for people who want to
exercise and get in shape are a lack of time and
money needed for fitness.
Who has the time to
go to the gym, or buy expensive equipment, or
take long bike rides?
Well, if those are the things stopping you,
you’re in luck.
It takes no equipment to get a great workout
and get in shape, and with one or two pieces of
simple equipment, you can turn that great
workout into a fantastic one, you magnificent
beast, you.
And with little or no equipment required for
a fantastic workout, you can do it at home, or
wherever you are. Even if you’re in solitary
confinement.
It’s hard not to find time for this type of
workout — you can do it while watching TV, for
goodness sake!
The Pros and Cons of Bodyweight
Exercises
Using just your bodyweight, you can do a
large number of challenging exercises. I
designed a workout that I do when I can’t make
it to the gym, for example, and I can testify
that it’s incredibly challenging (more on that
below).
If you add just one or two pieces of
equipment: a dumbbell, a kettlebell, a jump
rope, a medicine ball, or a chinup bar, for
example, you can increase the challenge even
more.
Now, I’m not putting down lifting weights — I
truly believe in lifting heavy weights when you
can, but there are tremendous benefits from
bodyweight exercises as well:
- No gym fees or need to buy expensive
equipment.
- You can do the workout anywhere,
anytime.
- Most exercises involve many muscles
working in coordination, resulting in great
overall fitness and strength.
- For people who are just starting with
strength training, bodyweight is often more
than enough to begin with. And it gives you
a good foundation of strength you can build
on later.
Bodyweight exercises aren’t the only thing
you should ever do, however, for several
reasons:
- After awhile (a couple months perhaps),
they aren’t all that challenging. You’ll
need to continue to build your strength by
adding weights. You can do that with some
simple equipment (see below).
- If you don’t have at least one or two
pieces of equipment — a chinup bar or a
resistance band perhaps — some muscles don’t
get worked out as much as others. That’s not
a problem over the short term, but over the
long term you’ll want to make sure you get a
balance.
I suggest starting with bodyweight exercises,
and then slowly transitioning to a combination
of bodyweight and weight training to get a good
balance. And even if you’re doing a complete
weight training program, you can always use
bodyweight exercises anytime you can’t make it
to the gym.
My Workout — Just a Sample
What follows is a little workout I’ve been
doing recently when I can’t go to the gym — it’s
just a collection of exercises that use compound
muscles and joints to give me a total-body
workout with nothing but my bodyweight and my
chinup bar.
However, this is not the only workout you can
do — not by a long shot. This is a sample, but
you should look at the next section for a much
wider variety of challenges.
How to do this workout: do a
bit of a warmup — jumping jacks, jump rope, or
just jogging in place for a few minutes will get
your heart rate going. Then do the exercises in
order, for 30 seconds to two minutes (depending
on what kind of shape you’re in), with as little
rest in between as possible. If you’re new to
exercise, feel free to rest fully between
exercises, but if you’re in decent shape, doing
them one after another is a great workout. Like
me, you’ll probably have to stop to catch your
breath a few times — it’s a tough workout!
- Pullups (palms facing away from you).
Chinup bar required .
- Pushups. As many as you can . Do
modified pushups if you can’t do full
pushups, with your knees on the floor. If
those are still too hard, do wall pushups,
leaning against the wall or a chair.
- Jump squats. Basically you squat down
until your thighs are parallel to the floor,
then jump up as high as you can, and repeat.
- Bicycle crunches. I don’t normally
recommend crunches, but these use a good
combination of core muscles.
- Jumping lunges.
- Burpees.
- Hanging knee raises. Chinup bar
required.
- Hindu pushups.
- Russian twists. , but you don’t need to
use the medicine ball as shown.)
- Diamond pushups.
- Chinups (palms facing toward you).
Chinup bar required.
Create Your Own Awesome Workout
Now that you’ve seen my sample workout, you
can create your own by picking whatever
exercises tickle your fancy. Just choose 5-12
exercises and do them all, either with or
without resting. Once that gets easy, do a
second circuit.
A few suggestions:
-
Choose
a variety of exercises that work out all the
parts of your body. Don’t do all variations
of pushups, for example. You should be doing
some pulling exercises (like pullups), some
lower-body exercises, like lunges and
squats, and others that work out all of your
body, like burpees.
- If you want a real challenge, mix cardio
exercises (see below) with the strength
exercises.
- If you have some of the equipment listed
below, definitely use them. Or buy one or
two pieces of equipment … but there’s no
need to rush out and buy a whole bunch of
things. You can get a great workout without
equipment, at least for awhile.
- If you’re just starting out, take it
easy and gradually build up. Don’t get
discouraged, and don’t overdo it!
- As you get stronger, gradually add
weights. Dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells,
and medicine balls are some good ways to do
that. It’ll take a couple months of
bodyweight exercises, though, before you
really need to move to weights.
Basic bodyweight exercises
There are many, many variations of bodyweight
exercises, but here are some of the more common
ones:
- Pushups (there are many variations —
Hindu pushups , dive bombers, diamond
pushups and others)
- Burpees
- Squats (variations: jump squats,
Hindu squats )
- Lunges (variation: jumping lunges,
side lunges)
- Chair dips
- Planks (variation: side plank)
- Crunches - my favorite: bicycle crunches
- Bear crawl - crawl quickly on hands and
feet
- Lateral barrier jump - jump sideways,
over an obstacle
- Isometrics
- Plyometrics
Exercises requiring minimal equipment
You don’t need to buy all of this equipment,
but if you have any, these are great. Or buy one
or two pieces in order to add an extra challenge
to your workout:
- Pullup bar: Chinups, pullups, hanging
knee raises
- Resistance band
- Medicine ball
- Kettlebell
- Dumbbells
- Tractor tires — there are lots of
exercises where you flip tires, jump through
them, etc.
Cardio exercises
- Jumping jacks
- Jump rope - requires jump rope, of
course, but it’s a great workout
- Side shuffles
- Touchdowns
- Run 800 meters (or a mile)
- Interval running
- Rowing (requires a rowing machine)
- Other cardio exercise machine if you
have it
