Body Weight Exercises
Bodyweight exercises build a strong base. Our body requires certain kinds of movement to be fit and healthy, and that is why one must move every day. Exercising for at least 15-30 minutes every day keeps our body in good shape.
In the modern sedentary lifestyle, we all sit for long hours without having much movement. We need to understand that the human body is not meant to sit for such long hours working in front of a screen.
We need to take breaks now and then to keep ourselves fresh. This will keep our bodies healthy for a long time. You can perform stretching or breathing exercises during intervals.
Bodyweight exercises use your own body as resistance. There were no gyms in the past for weight training. People used to use their body weight to perform activities.
The exercises listed below cover every muscle in the body; one needs to perform at least these six exercises to be fit.
1. Plank
Planks are one of the best exercises. These activate almost every muscle in the body. Planks are steady exercises that have zero movements. According to your strength and endurance, you need to be in the plank position for some time.
There is no risk or injury in this exercise. Be careful if you have any medical issues related to the abdomen area, like a hernia. If so, consult a doctor or physician.
How to do a plank?
- Get in a pushup position.
- Keep your elbow down on the floor shoulder-width apart.
- Keep your body straight for a few seconds or minutes as per your strength and endurance.
- You can keep your abs engaged more where you will be slightly in a bent position. Here your abs will be focused more than the other muscles.
- You can try it in a pushup position too.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
2. Bridges
Bridges are exercises for the backside of the body. The lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves get trained in the bridge position. If you have a weak lower back or glutes, you should do this exercise to solve your problem. The bridge is also a yoga pose.
This pose opens the chest and hip flexors.
How to do bridges?
- Lay down on the ground or your yoga mat.
- Keep your palms firm on the ground, slightly away from the body.
- Push your hip up towards the ceiling.
- Stay here for a few seconds or minutes. Or you can also do it as a pushing exercise with about 10 to 15 repetitions or so.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
3. Pushups
Pushups, as you all have heard of this exercise, are one of the best exercises for the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The chest, triceps, and front delts of the shoulder, along with the lateral delts, are the pushing muscles in the body.
Pushups also help exercise the core making it strong. The standard exercise where ever you go is pushups. There are different variations in pushups like the regular pushups, wide grip pushups, narrow grip pushups, diamond pushups, one-arm pushups, etc. These variations focus on different muscles. (1)
The wide grip pushups train your chest more than your shoulders and triceps. The narrow grip pushup trains the shoulders, triceps, and upper chest. The diamond pushups target mainly your triceps but also your chest and shoulders.
How to do pushups?
- Come in a plank position.
- Place your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor.
- Go down by bending your elbows.
- Now, push up.
- Repeat this movement about 10 to 20 times according to your strength and endurance.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
4. Pullups/Chinups
Pull-ups is an exercise for your back and biceps. They act as pulling muscles in the body. Pull-ups increase your grip strength. If your back is weak, you will not be able to carry backpacks or pick up any kind of heavyweight from the ground. If your back is fragile, it increases the risk of injuring the spine.
There are different variations of pull-ups. Regular pull-ups are those where you hang on to a bar or any tricky thing which you can grip using your palm and fingers and pull your body up.
If you can’t do at least one pull-up, you can try Australian pull-ups. Australian pull-ups are done on a low-height bar, where you keep your body at an angle, feet on the ground, and pull up towards the bar. This increases the strength of the back, biceps, and forearms.
Doing this for some days or weeks by decreasing the angle between the body and the ground, you will be able to do a few pull-ups. Now, you can increase your pull-up repetitions by doing a negative pull-up.
A negative pull-up means going up and coming down slowly, as slow as you can. This will increase your strength even more, which will result in more reps in the coming days. (2)
How to do pullups?
- Find a bar or anything rigid that is high enough to hang.
- Hold on to the bar in a pronated grip (palms facing front/wrists rotated outwards).
- Look up to the bar. Keep your chest open, lifted, and slightly facing upwards so there is a slight bend in the spine( this activates the upper back muscles).
- Now, pull up.
- See how many reps you can do.
- Repeat it 2 to 3 times.
How to do chinups?
- Find a bar or anything rigid that is high enough to hang.
- Hold on to the bar in a supinated grip (palms facing backward/wrists rotated inwards).
- Here, you may hold your hands slightly closer than in pull-ups.
- Look up to the bar.
- Now, pull up till the chin comes to the bar or crosses it.
- See how many reps you can do.
- Repeat it 2 to 3 times.
5. Squats
A squat is an exercise to strengthen our legs, lower back and glutes. It increases the overall strength of the legs. There are various types of squats that you can do:
The standard squat focuses on the quads, hamstrings, and glutes equally. The sumo squat focuses more on the glutes and a little bit on hamstrings. But it also exercises the adductors or inner thigh muscles, which are harder to target while doing a traditional squat.
How to do squats?
- Place your feet between hip and shoulder-width apart.
- Toes slightly turned outwards.
- Keep your spine comfortably straight throughout the move.
- Start the squat movement by bringing your hips backward like sitting on a chair.
- Further, bring down your body by bending your knees and lifting your chest.
- Do not bend or slouch your spine. The spine should be straight throughout the movement.
- Go as low as possible. Make sure your knees do not cross your toes when seen from the top. If they cross the line, you may hurt your knee. Check this, especially when doing weighted squats.
- Now push your body up.
- Do this movement as many times as you can.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
6. Side Planks
Side planks work similarly to planks. Side planks activate your muscles on the side of your abdomen area, that is, your obliques. There are two types of obliques, internal obliques and external obliques. These are the muscles whose fibers are in a slanting direction.
Obliques help you in rotating your torso. If you have love handles, exercising and building obliques may help eliminate the fat in that area
How to do side planks?
- Come to the plank position.
- Now rotate your body towards either side and come on one elbow.
- Keep your other hand stretched upwards, resting on the body, or keeping your palm on the waist.
- Keep your body in a straight line.
- Be in this position for a few seconds or minutes.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
Another way to do side planks:
- Sleep on either side of the floor or on your yoga mat.
- Come on one elbow, arms perpendicular to the floor or at a slight angle.
- Push your hips up till your body makes a straight line.
- Be here for a few seconds or minutes.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of this exercise.
Why do you need strong core muscles?
Your body requires a certain amount of core strength before planning for weight training or any kind of high-intensity training. Most of us, in today’s world, have a weak core. If you are a person who is physically active throughout the day, you may have a good body. But still, you have got to start your fitness journey by building a solid core.
Core muscles are the muscles surrounding your stomach area. These muscles are the balancing muscles in our body. When you lift heavyweight, do specific complex exercises, or play a demanding outdoor sport, your core muscles need to be strong.
A strong core prevents hernia. A hernia is when an organ pushes through an opening in the muscle or tissue that holds it in place. This may be very painful. So, you need to have your core strong. (3)
Another reason for building core muscles is it gives an excellent shape to your waist and belly. Everybody loves a flat tummy, especially if you have six-pack abs and defined obliques; you look fantastic.