Can strength exercises using body weight alone work?

ash2008

Hi

the title is pretty much my question. I cant afford the gym right now (or home gym equipment) so ive been following the exercises posted in the independant, which just use your own bodyweight - http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/health-fitness/the-exercises-2018748.html

My aim would be to lose weight - ive read on here this that strength training is better for this than cardio alone.

There are 6 weeks, im just finished week 3..havent really noticed any difference but maybe i should give it more time? (never done strength training before so i dont know what to expect or if this routine is basic or not). Im usually sore after the first day of each week, as each week focuses on different muscles, so i guess thats a good sign right?

amazingemmet

Yes bodyweight can be just as effective, see the above photo for proof, but realistically that plan in the link is pants.

Magic Eight Ball

Emmet beat me to it. :pac:

shootermacg

ash2008 wrote: »

Hi

the title is pretty much my question. I cant afford the gym right now (or home gym equipment) so ive been following the exercises posted in the independant, which just use your own bodyweight - http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/health-fitness/the-exercises-2018748.html

My aim would be to lose weight - ive read on here this that strength training is better for this than cardio alone.

There are 6 weeks, im just finished week 3..havent really noticed any difference but maybe i should give it more time? (never done strength training before so i dont know what to expect or if this routine is basic or not). Im usually sore after the first day of each week, as each week focuses on different muscles, so i guess thats a good sign right?

Cardio to lose weight! Even bodybuilders cycle it into their routines.
if you wan't to improve muscle-tone/size then you need to add weight otherwise you'll not be challenging your muscles.

Funny enough you're muscles may well be more toned than you think. Lose the weight and take a look ^ ^.

Ciaran500

amazingemmet wrote: »

Yes bodyweight can be just as effective, see the above photo for proof, but realistically that plan in the link is pants.

Trevor Coulahan wrote: »

Emmet beat me to it

So these guys don't do weight training?

amazingemmet

Ciaran500 wrote: »

So these guys don't do weight training?

As a rule of thumb no but that depends on the coach at higher levels the guys will use the rings for their ME type work and use a cross-sled or pulley machine for higher volume but this isn't set in stone.

sfag31

Bodybuilders dont do cardio as such, they generally bulk up and lose weight thru diet adjustments. They pretty much frown on endurance cardio such as long runs but favour a bit of high intensity or fast walking.

As always, losing weight (sepcifically fat) means eating less.
If you combine eating less with exercise of any kind then you have to also eat right.
That combination equates to what is termed a change of lifestyle.

Bodyweight exercise will build muscle but you generally have to do high volume which many will find tedious.

rubadub

Ciaran500 wrote: »

So these guys don't do weight training?

Some will do some, there is no fixed rule or anything. One gymnastic coach has books out and a forum, for some exercises he uses weighted vests and has gymnasts hold/attach weights to their feet for doing the likes of leg raises, but there is no traditional barbell/dumbbell work being done. Depending on your definition these weighted exercises can still be classed as calisthenics (wikipedia would say otherwise but I have seen it said on a gymnastic site)

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/article.aspx?ID=269

Trainer/Coach Charles Poliquin wrote:

Many years ago I taught two Canadian national team gymnasts how to bench press. These young men each weighed about 175 pounds and had never performed the exercise before – seriously, they didn’t even know how to load the weights on the bar! Anyway, after just four workouts they both could bench 350 pounds. One of the reasons these gymnasts were so strong is that their sport-specific training is characterized by pauses.

http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode3&articleid=229

Coach Christopher Sommer wrote:

How strong is it possible to become with bodyweight exercises? Amazingly strong. In fact I would go so far as to say, done correctly, far stronger than someone who had trained for the same amount of time with free weights. Want some concrete examples? One of my former students, JJ Gregory (1993 Junior National Champion on the Still Rings) developed such a high degree of strength from my bodyweight conditioning program that on his first day in his high school weightlifting class he deadlifted 400lbs., and this at the scale breaking weight of 135 lbs. and a height of 5’3”.

sfag31 wrote: »

Bodyweight exercise will build muscle but you generally have to do high volume which many will find tedious

That is if you stick to basics, a american footballer Hershel Walker claimed to do 100's or 1000's of pushups, squats, chinups per day and built his physique this way. But you can increase resistance in many ways, there are 1000's of BW exercise variations out there. This guy is a 6'2'' 200lb javelin thrower, if you can do a high volume of these then fair play to you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-zEYIe0EKA

You can stick to same rep ranges if you want to, 8-12 for hypertrophy, if you can manage 12 full ROM handstand pushups or one arm chinups then you can always think about adding weight

This is another ring specialist.

Also bear in mind these athletes want to keep a high strength to weight ratio, so in their training protocol they are aiming to MINIMISE hypertrophy, they want to be as small as possible, pretty much the opposite of bodybuilders. If you want to maximise hypertrophy you can just change your sets, reps, resting, diet etc to suit your own goals.

ash2008 wrote: »

I cant afford the gym right now (or home gym equipment)

Check out these sites.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/grunt.html
http://www.rosstraining.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=157&sid=f1525106bf3582ca32b1175fcc8c0a9f

I also gave tips on making rings here.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055458383

J-Fit

sfag31 wrote: »

Bodybuilders dont do cardio as such, they generally bulk up and lose weight thru diet adjustments. They pretty much frown on endurance cardio such as long runs but favour a bit of high intensity or fast walking.

As always, losing weight (sepcifically fat) means eating less.
If you combine eating less with exercise of any kind then you have to also eat right.
That combination equates to what is termed a change of lifestyle.

Bodyweight exercise will build muscle but you generally have to do high volume which many will find tedious.

Very strange. You must know some new age bodybuilders because the ones I know all do long slow distance and lot's of it. They swear by it and have been very reluctant to change to the more anabolic interval training prefering instead to stay within their "fat burning zone". Maybe the penny is beginning to drop.

sfag31

J-Fit wrote: »

Very strange. You must know some new age bodybuilders because the ones I know all do long slow distance and lot's of it. They swear by it and have been very reluctant to change to the more anabolic interval training prefering instead to stay within their "fat burning zone". Maybe the penny is beginning to drop.

Yes. "long slow distance" - whats that exactly - A mini marathon or a long slow jog.
To me a fast walk is the same a slow jog - ie H/R around twice the resting rate - depends on fitness of course. A slight sweat.
Those that gain muscle tend to be paranoid about losing it so they dont take chances. I'm told a H/R at around 80%+ (thats a regular run on treadmill for me) will burn too much muscle.

And duration - I'm thinking about an hour.

My opinion is gleaned by muscle building diet advice that I previously subscribed to, plus forum reponses. The could be wrong!.

Are you saying your guys do 10 miles runs regularly? I'm curious? What H/R?

sfag31

rubadub wrote: »

Some will do some, there is no fixed rule or anything. One gymnastic coach has books out and a forum, for some exercises he uses weighted vests and has gymnasts hold/attach weights to their feet for doing the likes of leg raises, but there is no traditional barbell/dumbbell work being done. Depending on your definition these weighted exercises can still be classed as calisthenics (wikipedia would say otherwise but I have seen it said on a gymnastic site)]

... and the other message.

All what you say is no doubt true and interesting info for me, but its clear the the O/P is a beginner and need beginners advice - no?
Is he really likely to succeed in his bedroom with out professional instruction?

rubadub

sfag31 wrote: »

All what you say is no doubt true and interesting info for me, but its clear the the O/P is a beginner and need beginners advice - no?

Not sure what you are getting at? You said bodyweight exercise had to generally be done in high volume to build muscle and I was pointing out how this is not the case (i.e when it is not generally the case), you change resistance just like you would with free weights, it is a common misconception people have and I wanted to clear it up. The OP being a beginner means the basic exercises will do them fine too but they will have to change, just like people do not keep deadlifting the 30kg barbell they might have started with, -that would indeed be tedious. And in basic I mean easy, it is not like the more demanding exercises are very complicated. I have done 75+ pushups before, but I can very easily reduce my numbers to the rep range I want, like 12, by simply putting my legs up on a table.

sfag31 wrote: »

Is he really likely to succeed in his bedroom with out professional instruction?

Well his aim was

ash2008 wrote: »

My aim would be to lose weight

So I would say yes, I succeeded with home equipment without hands on professional instruction.

sfag31

rubadub wrote: »

Not sure what you are getting at? You said bodyweight exercise had to generally be done in high volume to build muscle and I was pointing out how this is not the case (i.e when it is not generally the case), you change resistance just like you would with free weights, it is a common misconception people have and I wanted to clear it up. The OP being a beginner means the basic exercises will do them fine too but they will have to change, just like people do not keep deadlifting the 30kg barbell they might have started with, -that would indeed be tedious. And in basic I mean easy, it is not like the more demanding exercises are very complicated. I have done 75+ pushups before, but I can very easily reduce my numbers to the rep range I want, like 12, by simply putting my legs up on a table.


Well his aim was

So I would say yes, I succeeded with home equipment without hands on professional instruction.

Sorry I didnt get that from your post.
What I read were examples used by leading American coaches working with surpreme atheletes. Your quotes refenced weighted vests, tying weights to your feet, thowing javelins.
Seriously the poster doesen't want to spend money so this kind of advice is a little over the top - no?

Your trick about the legs on the table - thats more like it (although it sounds tricky?) - can you post more of the same or link him to a routine that will get him going with bodyweight exercises that involve more methods and fewer reps.
That, I imagine, would be more useful. I'd be interested myself.

rubadub

sfag31 wrote: »

What I read were examples used by leading American coaches working with surpreme atheletes. Your quotes refenced weighted vests, tying weights to your feet, thowing javelins.

Yes, that was really in reply to the other poster asking if the gymnasts pictured use weights. Its a common myth that you are very limited with BW exercise, I have even seen it said by "professional personal trainers" on other sites who only had basic pushup/squat/pullups mentioned. I was just giving ideas of what these high level athletes might be doing to get to build such a physique, and that there would only be a few people in the world who could do some exercises -i.e. you can change your leverage with BW to get extreme resistance with NO added weight at all. In fact one move on rings, a victorian, was at one time thought to be physically impossible but some guys are doing it now.

sfag31 wrote: »

Seriously the poster doesen't want to spend money so this kind of advice is a little over the top - no?

That guy just happens to be a javelin thrower, no need to get a javelin! the rings are very basic and versatile equipment, I gave links on how to make his own, could be made for under €20. A backpack with books in it is a cheap weighted vest, no need for high cost stuff. The first link has some very good ideas.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/Grunt/grunt.html

sfag31 wrote: »

Your trick about the legs on the table - thats more like it (although it sounds tricky?) - can you post more of the same or link him to a routine that will get him going with bodyweight exercises that involve more methods and fewer reps.

Its not that tricky some call them pike pushups, I also do them on the stairs, legs up on the stairs, hands at the bottom, this way if you go to failure you just rest yourself down on all the stairs.

Heres the pike pushups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTnMUg-iqkE

heres pushups variations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsDpvsWmBDY

and more advanced some of these are very hard though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N7nCLt3UJA

here are lots of beginner/intermediate ring exercises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjyRdlhc2bo

This next one is a member here, Transform, who is a personal trainer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkhwmRUD3iI

For legs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpgn6eRtsdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Ek6hwSWns

leopardus

The website "beastskills.com" has great bodyweight exercises with various progressions to difficult final postures.

sfag31

fair nuff. cheers for that.

ash2008

thanks everyone who replied and for posting the vids. Im a girl actually so some of them look a bit difficult for me:p but the Transform vid i can def do so i think ill get started on that on first. Went out and bought some resistance bands too:)

shootermacg

Cheers for the vids Rubbadub. I'd love to get the garage sorted and buy a power rack and some rings. Oh well if I ever win the lottory ^ ^.


The pushups vids were cool too, but tbh the guy doing em wasn't the biggest kid on the block. Guess it depends on what goals you have in mind.
I wouldn't mind those frames he was using for the body weight exercises, looked kinda home made.