Master Your Own Bodyweight and Achieve the Lean, Muscular and Fit Body You’ve Been Waiting For

Bodyweight exercise or calisthenics uses the resistance of your bodyweight against gravity to build strength, muscle mass and endurance without having to rely on fitness equipment or costly gym memberships. They can be done anywhere and anytime and can be incorporated into anyone’s daily routine.

Most people think of bodyweight exercise as just performing popular exercises such as push ups and sit ups, but these exercises are only the tip of the iceberg in the world of bodyweight exercises.

There are numerous ways you can construct a bodyweight exercise program to attain different kinds of results and exercises can be adapted to any fitness level.

Bodyweight exercises can:

        Increase Strength & Muscle Mass by applying the same principles and techniques that you would use if you were using weights and other equipment to increase your strength.

        In order to increase strength, you must continuously make an exercise progressively harder by manipulating its Intensity and Volume.

        Increasing the Volume is achieved by increasing the number of repetitions performed for an exercise. Of course, you cannot do this indefinitely, so you also need to increase the intensity by performing more difficult versions of the basic exercises and altering the position and leverage of your body.

        Difficult bodyweight exercises require you to focus on every part of your body. This focus is defined as “body awareness”. This “awareness” can be developed better with bodyweight exercises than it can with lifting weights, as your focus is on the weight being lifted more than your body. Some examples of bodyweight exercises that require extreme strength and “body awareness” are:

   One arm chin-ups
       One-arm pushups
       One legged squats
       Handstand push ups

      * Increase Muscular Endurance which is the ability to use a muscle group over and over again. Examples are high repetition bodyweight exercises like squats, push-ups, sit-ups, etc.

      * Increase Cardiovascular Fitness through the use of callisthenic exercises and circuit training.

The majority of  bodyweight exercises are performed without any equipment at all, but the introduction of simple pieces of equipment such as a chin-up bar, exercise ball or bench can expand the number of exercises you can do and also make some exercises easier and some much harder. There is also a suspension training system which enables you to perform unique body weight exercises that combine strength, balance and flexibility.  

Bodyweight exercises train the body in the way the body naturally moves and offers a more functional type of strength because when you perform them you are using your whole body as one unit to stabilize and balance you while you do the exercise. Contrast this with bodybuilding exercises that isolate individual muscle groups in their training programs. To illustrate this compare a popular exercises like the bench press as opposed to pushups. Even though both exercises seem similar and target the same muscle groups, the pushup requires you to keep your body tight and tensed to hold it in position, whereas the bench press doesn’t require this as you are lying down on a bench.

Bodyweight exercises can be used to supplement and enhance any other strength / fitness program or sport you play or used as a standalone program to improve all types of physical fitness. The performance of difficult bodyweight exercises can be a pursuit all by itself as some exercises require great strength and technique to master. The achievement of these exercises will give you a sense of accomplishment and pride as some can only be achieved after years of training.