Find Your Fitness: Bodyweight Exercises

Whether you’re brand new to fitness or you’re a seasoned athlete or fitness buff, bodyweight exercises can be a great way for you to work out if you don’t have access to free weights or machines – or, if you don’t quite feel ready for them yet.

There are all kinds of bodyweight exercises, ranging from beginner to advanced, and you can really get a full-body workout just from doing bodyweight work alone.

An Upper Body Workout: Push-Ups

To start on the easier side, for a good upper body workout you can do pushups.

They’re one of the most commonly known bodyweight exercises, but they do work. Depending on how you angle your arms, you can have a more chest-intensive workout or a more triceps-intensive one.

You can also adjust your body’s angle relative to the floor to make it more or less difficult, depending on what you need. These can be done anywhere, so they make for a perfect upper body exercise using bodyweight.

A Lower Body Workout: Squats

When it comes to legs, squats are king. Many times you’ll see people doing them with crazy amounts of weight, but bodyweight squats have their purpose, too. By focusing on your form and not the amount of weight you’re using, bodyweight squats tend to help you gain the muscle memory you need while also still developing your legs quite a bit.

If you need more difficult variations, you can do things like one-legged squats if you’re really strong enough.

A Back Workout: Pull-Ups

Pullups are a fantastic exercise for your back, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Pullups can actually be fairly difficult for some people – especially those who are overweight and not particularly strong. There are all different kinds of grip positions that you can use from things like chin-ups to wide grip pull-ups, but focus on the standard ones at first before you try to move around too much.

The only downside to pullups is that you do need a stable bar to hold onto that’s high up enough for you to pull yourself up with it. For the very advanced fitness enthusiasts, there’s a version of the pull-up known as a “muscle-up.”

This involves doing a pull-up, getting your whole upper body over the bar, and then pushing yourself up even further by doing a dip. This is a very difficult bodyweight exercise that not a lot of people can do, but if you can, it can do wonders for your strength.

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No matter what level you’re at, bodyweight exercises can always be viable if you adapt them for you.

Loving Life — The Reboot!

Dominique

This article provides general information and discussion about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this article, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having.