BENEFITS OF BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES

Gyms now have machines to work every muscle in your body, so you would think that you don't have to ever do anything else. Why force yourself to learn anything else. Is there actually any benefit to incorporate body weight exercises into your workouts. Body weight exercises can incorporate more muscle groups than machines and also they improve on other areas like our flexibility and core strength.

If we are seated on a machine that only isolates one muscle group our full body is not engaged and body weight exercises force us to keep our entire body engaged. It improves our mind to muscle connection and improves toning our body by stabilizing more of our abdominal muscles. If you have a physical job, your job requires your body to gain functional strength. Lastly, there are very small muscle fibers that are not engaged using machines only, and they are only used when performing body weight exercises.

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MY TOP 5 BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES:

1. PUSHUPS: Pushups rank high on my list for many different benefits. Pushups give you amazing upper body strength and tone, but they even help you with core strength and fat loss. In order to properly perform pushups your lower body and core has to be aligned with your upper body. This forces you to use your entire body to perform pushups correctly. If you are able to do higher reps, more than 20 per set, you'll notice that you really have to focus on exhaling and that exhaling promotes fat loss.
2. SQUATS: Squats are the only exercise that can use every muscle in our lower body. Yes, I am sure we have heard it time and time again. However, squats do deserve the recognition for their amazing benefits. Squats improve your weight loss goals, building lean muscle, improving hip and knee mobility along with increasing your natural growth hormone levels.
3. PULL-UPS/ CHIN-UPS: Pull-ups and chin-ups are among one of my favorite exercises for physical and mental toughness. They are not easy and not for beginners, however if you can accomplish them you will gain a huge sense of accomplishment. Pull-ups work more muscles in your back than any other exercise. NO machine can replace what they do or even come close; and that is why it is still a major performance exercise for the military.
4. LUNGES: Lunges not only help you gain lower body strength, but they also improve the balance and coordination of your lower body. As we age we may have issues with balance and lunges will improve that cognition. You will also gain better hip flexibility and if you are a runner it improves your calf, ankle and achilles strength.
5. DIPS: Dips often get overlooked when compared to other exercises, but dips are an amazing exercise. There are 2 ways of performing dips. One is using dip bars which are more challenging and work our triceps and chest where your entire body is elevated. The other using a gym bench or chair that mainly builds our triceps. Both offer great benefits and will improve your upper body strength.

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HOW TO ADD BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES TO YOUR WORKOUTS:

Body weight exercises can be their own workout or you can add them to your existing workouts. You can simply add pushups, dips and pullups on your upper body workouts, while adding lunges and squats on your lower body workouts. You can also make them your primary source of strength training while incorporating dumbbells to add more intensity to your workouts.

Body weight exercises will not only add strength to your entire body, but they also improve the way you workout. I like to add pushups to all of my upper body workouts and typically pullups on my back and shoulder workouts. Lunges and squats I perform on every leg workout and it is something I do to with clients as well.

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