What are bodyweight exercises?

As the name suggests, bodyweight training involves undertaking a series of strength training exercises using only your own body weight as resistance against gravity. This means there's no need for weights or machines, just your own body… and gravity of course!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT?

1. They're incredibly simple. As there's no kit involved, you can do them anywhere and at any time. Plus, you don’t need to spend time between exercises setting up the next piece of equipment, as there isn't any, which means you maximise your time spent working out.
2. Bodyweight exercises involve compound movements using many joints and muscles. As a result, the workout combines cardio and strength training, helping you build muscle and burn calories. Research has shown that your raised metabolism from working out lasts for hours, even after you stop exercising.
3. Bodyweight training is easy to adapt to any fitness level. Too hard? Do fewer reps. Too easy? Do more reps or adapt the exercise slightly to make it trickier. If it turns out a particular exercise isn't right for you, there are plenty more to choose from that will give you similar results.
4. Compound exercises also strengthen your core which can improve your posture and performance and help to protect against back problems.

Are bodyweight exercises good for building muscle?

If you’re looking to bulk up and increase your muscle mass, then bodyweight training can definitely help, but to really see improvements when building muscle, you need to consistently be pushing and challenging your body through exercise.
Usually, we’d recommend integrating increasingly heavy weights, like dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells, to overload your muscles. However, this is about bodyweight workouts - so what about if you don’t have access to free weights or workout equipment?
The challenge with bodyweight workouts is that you’re limited to your body weight, and this typically doesn’t increase at the rate you need to build muscle. Fortunately, this doesn’t need to hold you back from building muscle. If you’re keen to bulk with bodyweight exercises you can:

1. Increase reps - keep extending the time or number of repetitions that you’re performing each movement for as it will make them more challenging for your muscles.

2. Try different, more challenging variations - do you usually do regular push ups? Why not challenge yourself to one armed push ups to increase the amount of work your body needs to do to stabilise?

3. Increase time under tension - by slowing down each movement, your body spends more time under strain which helps to promote muscle growth.

Can you do bodyweight exercises every day?

You may be wondering how often to do bodyweight exercises. Tthe good news is that you can do them as often as you’d like, although don’t forget to take rest days as they are crucial in preventing injuries and aiding recovery!
The wide range of different bodyweight movements you can try means you can alternate your focus on different areas (upper body, lower body, core etc.) on different days across the week, or if you’d prefer, you can tackle one full body bodyweight workout and focus the rest of your week on different training styles.