How To Design Effective Bodyweight Workouts

To design an effective workout using bodyweight is like the art of cooking; you need to balance it! To have a delicious meal you need the right amount of…

• Saltines or sweetness

• Spices

• Cook time

• Consistency

• Texture

• Color or presentation

• and so on …

This way you can have a mouth-watering meal you can enjoy.

The same thing with formulating bodyweight workouts, you need to consider of exercising every muscle in your body and all range of motions that your body joints, muscles can and should perform.

If all you do for your shoulder is using the computer, remote control, holding the steering wheel and similar “limited range of motions”, you're asking for an injury!

Your shoulders need to move upward (overhead), side to side, and all possible angles within the shoulder range of motion.

Another issue when you want to design bodyweight workouts is training for symmetrical body development.

For example, training your chest and biceps but neglecting your legs and lower back can create imbalance and weakness. Having strong arms but weak and flat butt is also not functional nor an appealing body.

From the top of your neck and all the down to your toes should be exercised to build balanced, functional, and stronger body.

Here's an example of whole body workout for a week …

Day-1 Monday

Bear crawl + push ups

Hi-Low leg crunches

Neck resistance (towel)

Sky diving

Day-2 Wednesday

• Static lunges

• Wood chops

• Side bridge (elbow)

• Heel raises

• Standing butt squeeze

Day-3 Friday

Step up (8-16” elevated object)

Tube rowing (standing)

Bridge (hands)

Vacuum (deep abs training)

Side bridge (elbows)

Day-4 Saturday

Elevated feet push ups (6” and higher)

Crunches + hands rotation

Body weight squats

Scorpions

The off training days you can do aerobic training for 30 -60 minutes of running, hiking, sprinting, cycling and so on.

This is only one example of a weekly based workout. You can tailor your workout for your needs and to improve your body muscle weak links to build well rounded physique.

How many sets, repetitions, rest and speed of movement you should do? If you're a beginner start with:

• 1-2 sets

• 8-15 repetitions

• 60-120 seconds of rests between sets

• Speed of movement can vary depending on type of exercise style.

If your goal is to gain strength more than anything else then you should focus on 1-5 repetitions. And for building muscle size it is recommended to perform between 6-12 repetitions.

My advice is you should alternate between all these repetition brackets, becuase of my experience of personal training for my clients and training myself I know it is the BEST to follow all the above repetition brackets.

Push-up example

1. explosive or plyometric should be as fast as you push your body up (intermediate-advanced level)

2. normal speed can take 2 seconds to push your body up and 2 seconds to lower yourself down…but

3. You can pace yourself even slower/faster to make the exercise more challenging (intermediate-advanced level)

Last point, trust and listen to your body…

- If you get tired during the workout or not focused then maybe it's time for you to take a rest momentarily, regain your focus then continue.

- Should you feel pain during the exercise in that case you should discontinue