"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
|
| |
Exercise The Right Way - The Back Squat
Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that ...
Relieving Stress with Exercise... and Losing Body Fat in the Process!
Feeling stressed out lately? Don't worry, there is a simple and incredibly effective solution -- one that will help you lose weight in more ways than you might think! Relieving Stress with Exercise Research has proven that relieving stress with exercise ...
The Dramatic Effect Of A Stretching Exercise For Golf
A stretching exercise for golf is capable of revolutionizing the quality of any individuals' game. In fact there is no single genuine golf exercise program that does not include stretching exercises. That is how critical stretching exercises for golf ...
|
|
|
|
| |
Some people love bodyweight exercise and some people hate it... similarly, some people think bodyweight exercise is valuable to a physical fitness training program, and others don't.
I believe that bodyweight exercise is not only the best method to start a physical fitness training program... but I believe that it should remain an active part of any well balance physical training program.
Let's look at bodyweight exercise from three different perspectives... from the beginner just getting started, from the experienced weight lifter that neglects bodyweight exercise and from the bodyweight exercise only crowd.
1. Bodyweight Exercise For Beginners
Most commercial gyms will prescribe an exercise regimen of strength training, usually in the form of machines, and cardiorespiratory endurance training, normally in the form of stationary "cardio" equipment.
This is a generalization of course... but these two types of training are the predominant forms of physical training in most gyms, regardless of how they are put together.
Notice... bodyweight exercise is missing.
Answer me this... should a beginner with no prior experience with physical training start by jumping right into resistance training with free weights or machines, or would they be better served by learning more about the movement of their bodies by using bodyweight exercise?
Physical training allows you to improve the body by supplying increased stimulus that is not normally found in your daily lifestyle.
For the beginner, bodyweight exercise is the logical place to start... because most beginners are actually going from a state of complete inactivity to a state of activity.
The beginner has not even scraped the surface of what their body can perform without resistance... and should therefore strive to make improvements using bodyweight exercise first.
Once the beginner has made sufficient gains and reached an improved state with bodyweight exercise... then they can add resistance.
2. Bodyweight Exercise For The Experienced Weight Lifter
Many people with a great deal of experience and expertise in physical training completely neglect bodyweight exercise... or believe it to be ineffective.
They notoriously use all types of resistance training methods... while neglecting bodyweight exercise all together.
I propose that the goal of any physical fitness training program is to improve performance that can be used to meet the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence.
Many of those challenges will be met by the effective control and movement of your own body... and not the movement of other objects through space.
And what is the best way to train the improvement of body movement and control of your own body... that's right, bodyweight exercise.
Here is an example...
Many people that have trouble doing a push up will focus on the bench press with hopes of improving their push up numbers... with limited results.
If you want to be able to do more push ups... do more push ups!
The point is this, the improvements you will see from physical training are specific... so if you want to see improvements in a bodyweight movement, use bodyweight exercise to do so.
3. Bodyweight Exercise For The Bodyweight Only Crowd
As you can already tell, I am a strong advocate of bodyweight exercise... but not exclusively.
There are various physical fitness training programs that use bodyweight exercise almost exclusively... like Yoga or Pilates.
While I have no problem with these forms of training... I believe they can take you only so far on the road to physical fitness excellence.
We must remember... Yoga exercises are performed in conjunction with meditation and Pilates was originally developed as a form of rehabilitation for war veterans.
The point is this... bodyweight exercise only programs will only take you so far, and then some form of resistance training must be applied to see further improvement.
In Conclusion...
Bodyweight exercise is an important part of any well balanced physical fitness training program.
If you are just getting started... bodyweight exercise is the perfect place to start.
If you have notoriously neglected bodyweight exercise in your training... add it to improve the physical abilities you have been neglecting.
If you only use bodyweight exercise... diversify your fitness training program by adding some form of resistance training.
In this way, each group can optimize the use of bodyweight exercise.
Do not underestimate the importance of bodyweight exercise... Use it effectively and in the right proportion to meet your goals, needs, abilities and limitations and meet the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence.
About the author:
Eddie Lomax is a strength, conditioning and fitness coach and founder of Optimum Physical Training. We recommend his book Unchained Bodyweight Workout.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 'Sit-up. Scream. Rest.' Self-confessed exercise phobic Tanya Gold puts ... - Guardian Unlimited
How fit am I? Fit enough to lift a doughnut to my lips. But how fit am I really? I don't have a step in my flat - I ate it - so I go into the hall and step on and off - 104 times. My heart rate afterwards put me in the below average category. I can ...
Showing entries for Category: exercise - San Francisco Examiner
University researchers who study obesity have found that married couples gain more weight as the years of marriage progress. On average, a couple married ten years weighs fifteen to twenty pounds more than they did on their wedding day. There are two ...
How fit do you think you are? - Guardian Unlimited
If you're not a gym member, or don't obsessively wear Lycra and heart monitors while pounding pavements, how do you know how fit you are? Do these DIY tests at home and use them as a guide to your general fitness level, and to identify areas that you ...
China urges stepped-up efforts toward global arms control and ... - Xinhua News Agency
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday called on the international community to step up efforts to reinvigorate the global arms control and disarmament process. Wang Qun, head of the Chinese delegation and ambassador for disarmament ...
Music 'boosts exercise endurance' - BBC News
Few gyms in the country come without a pounding soundtrack, but Dr Karageorghis, who has been researching the link between music and exercise for two decades, said that many may be allowing the "wrong" music to reach the ears of their customers. His ...
Crisis increases financial dependence - Detroit News
I was talking to friend in New York City the other day about the financial crisis, and she told me about a scene she had just witnessed in the lobby of the Warwick Hotel. Four Swedish tourists, who had been on a shopping spree, fueled by the still ...
The homework debate rages on - Detroit News
It is a pretty cool thing, a kid looking up in the sky each night for the moon. That's what Morgan Walter, 9, has been doing during this month that journeys from summer into autumn, bringing along with it all the thrill and dread of elementary school ...
|
