Name: Best Bodyweight Exercises To Build Strength
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Best Bodyweight Exercises To Build Strength

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Currently Trending:AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementkit is no problem with the best bodyweight exercises. As Olympic gymnasts, your local park’s calisthenics crew and huge numbers of prisoners have known for years, you can train pretty much any muscle with just your own body, a towel-sized space on the floor and some ingenuity.In fact, it’s a good idea to build a base of strength using bodyweight moves before you pick up a dumbbell: as well as helping to prevent injury, it’ll improve coordination and proprioception (your sense of where your body parts are in relation to each other), increasing your control over your own movements.Here you’ll learn enough essential bodyweight moves to be able to put together a workout anywhere, whether your goal is fat loss, muscle or performance. Aim to hit a respectable amount of reps in the key moves – press-ups, squats and lunges – and you’ll do better at almost anything.Bodyweight exercises are moves you can do on your own, anywhere at all. Rather than adding in weight, in the form of free weights or machines, the resistance is provided by your own bodyweight. This makes them affordable and accessible, while still being hugely effective for building muscle.Whether you’re a complete beginner or practiced pro, we’ve rounded up the best bodyweight exercises to add to your strength training regime, including top tips on perfecting your form and the reason why each exercise is so essential to helping you move better, get stronger and be as functionally fit as possible.Think functional, full-body strength. Take the press-up: if you do it correctly, you’ll engage everything from your chest and triceps to your core and glutes, teaching the body to work as a unit. Bodyweight moves also lend themselves to circuit-style workouts: because they take minimal setting up, you can shift from one movement to another with zero fuss, making them ideal for high-intensity fat loss efforts. Finally, high-volume sessions can and will build muscle – especially if you use a combination of slow and fast reps to hit all your muscle fibres.One of the other big perks of bodyweight exercises is affordability. With no need to pay out for expensive kit or monthly gym memberships, bodyweight exercises offer an accessible way to start strength training from home.Another benefit of setting the weights to one side or stepping away from the machines is that you’re more likely to focus on perfecting your form. While many strength trainers concentrate solely on seeing how many kilos they can deadlift, taking the time to strip your training back to basics will help you hone in on mind-muscle connection and move through each exercise with greater control.a. Press-upb. Incline press-upc. Decline press-upd. Diamond press-upe. Wide press-upf. Archer press-upg. Divebomber press-uph. Spiderman press-upi. Ballistic press-upj. Clapping press-upPrimary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of press-ups: The classic go-anywhere chest builder will also work your core, as well as teaching you to hold full-body tension… if you do it right. Quality is more important than quantity, so focus on keeping good form each rep and staying straight as a board.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of incline press-ups:&nbsp;This variation is easier than the flat press-up but still teaches you to keep a strong core, so it’s a much better way to progress to the full move than doing press-ups on your knees. Start by doing them with your hands against a wall, then – once you can do 10 clean reps – move down to a table or chair, then the floor.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of decline press-ups: This move takes more strength than the standard press-up, while hitting your upper chest from a slightly different angle for all-round development.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of diamond press-ups: This press-up variation places extra emphasis on your triceps, while slightly changing the stress on your chest to hit it from a different angle. Use it in a superset with regular press-ups for a guaranteed triceps-killer.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of wide press-ups: Though it can be slightly tougher on your shoulders than the regular press-ups – so men with flexibility problems might want to steer clear – this variation puts more emphasis on the chest than the traditional press-up.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of archer press-ups: By shifting your centre of mass from one side to the other at the bottom of the press-up, you’ll work your chest across a greater range of motion than in almost any other move, prompting it to grow – while also keeping your shoulders in shape.Primary muscles: Chest, triceps, shoulders, coreBenefits of divebomber press-ups: This move, beloved of wrestlers, puts more pressure on your shoulders than the traditional press-up, and done in high reps it’s also an excellent test of cardio. Mix it into your workouts for an occasional challenge.Primary muscles: Chest, triceps, coreBenefits of Spiderman press-ups: By taking one foot off the floor you’ll force your stabiliser muscles to work overtime, as well as activating your core in order to stabilise your torso. For best results, keep the reps slow and controlled, and your body parallel to the floor throughout.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of ballistic press-ups: By focusing on explosiveness you’ll target your body’s fast-twitch muscle fibres, which is good news whether you’re planning to throw punches or rugby balls. Either do sets of this move on its own, or superset it with normal press-ups to take advantage of the fact that you’re firing on all fibres.Start in a press-up position and descend into the move quickly, then explode upwards so your hands leave the floor.Catch yourself softly on your hands before dropping into the next rep.Primary muscles: Chest, tricepsBenefits of clapping press-ups: This move adds a clap to the ballistic press-up, forcing you to add height to each rep. It’ll also build coordination. Feeling confident? Add a second clap.a. Air squatb. Jump squatc. Pistol squatd. Lungee. Reverse lungef. Jump lungeg. Split squath. Single-leg Romanian deadliftPrimary muscles: Quads, glutesBenefits of the air squat: One of the most fundamental human movements, the squat works every muscle in your legs, making it ideal whether you’re getting stronger for a marathon or trying to burn fat. It’s one of the first moves you should learn.Primary muscles: Quads, glutesBenefits of the jump squat: By focusing on explosiveness you’ll target your body’s fast-twitch fibres, helping you to burn fat or sink three-pointers. Use these alone, or superset them with squats and lunges to fire up your muscles before the bigger moves.Primary muscles: Quads, glutesBenefits of the pistol squat: Because you’re putting all your bodyweight on one leg, the pistol is one of the best pure strength-building moves you can do for your lower body with just bodyweight. It’s incredibly tough, but if you can master it you’ll know you’re both strong and mobile.Primary muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstringsBenefits of the lunge: Though the squat is arguably the best lower-body builder, using squats in conjunction with lunges is even better because it will keep your lower body in balance, ensuring one side of your body doesn’t get stronger than the other. Building unilateral strength with lunges is also good for everything from sprints to five-a-side.Primary muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstringsBenefits of the reverse lunge: Apart from providing a different stimulus to your legs, reverse lunges are easier to do well when you’re fatigued, making them safer than regular lunges in circuits or supersets.Primary muscles: Quads, glutes, hamstringsBenefits of the jump lunge: Explosive strength off one leg is important in almost every sport. These also work well combined with other leg moves. For a giant set, do squats, lunges, jump squats and jump lunges for 10 reps each.Primary muscles: Quads, hamstringsBenefits of the split squat: Although it’s useful as a beginner move – taking some of the coordination aspects out of a lunge – the split squat can also increase the time under tension on the legs, making it a solid leg-builder. Don’t extend your leg all the way up on each rep.Primary muscles: Hamstrings, glutesBenefits of the single-leg Romanian deadlift: By challenging your balance, and providing a stretch to your hamstrings, the single-leg RDL provides a perfect introduction to more advanced moves – or an ideal warm-up before doing deadlifts.a. Plankb. Decline plankc. Side plankd. Side plank stare. Crunchf. Reverse crunchg. Side crunchh. Crunch reachi. Leg raisej. Bicycle crunchk. Russian twistl. V-sitm. Pike crunchn. Mountain climberPrimary muscles: CoreBenefits of planks: Your core muscles enable you to keep your body stable and straight, and the plank teaches them to maintain tension while improving your posture and working your abs. You should be able to hold this move for two minutes before doing more advanced abs training.Primary muscles: CoreBenefits of decline planks: By changing the elevation of your feet you’ll put more training stress on your shoulders and change the angle your abs are working at, making the move tougher. For an even tougher variation, do it with your feet in suspension trainer straps.Primary muscles: ObliquesBenefits of side planks: Shifting onto one side hits your obliques harder than the traditional plank. Put them together into a superset: 30 seconds of plank, 30 seconds on one side, 30 more seconds of plank, and a final 30 seconds on the other side.Primary muscles: Obliques, shouldersBenefits of the side plank star: This variation of the side plank – popular with yogis – demands more coordination and balance than the standard position, and it’s more challenging.Primary muscles: Upper absBenefits of crunches: By keeping things more slow and controlled than the traditional sit-up, the crunch targets the core rather than hip flexors, while minimising stress on your lower back. It’s gone out of fashion, but still has a place in your routine.Primary muscles: Lower absBenefits of reverse crunches: Without a pull-up bar, the reverse crunch is one of the few moves that targets the lower abs. Use it together with the standard crunch for an abs double whammy.Primary muscles: ObliquesBenefits of side crunches: This move works your abs and obliques in one motion, while building the twisting strength that helps in numerous sports.Primary muscles: Upper absBenefits of the crunch reach: This move forces you to keep the form strict, increasing the tension on your abs and the contraction at the top of the move.Primary muscles: Lower absBenefits of leg raises: One of the few bodyweight moves that targets the lower abs, the leg raise also strengthens the lower back, preventing injury.Primary muscles: CoreBenefits of the bicycle crunch: This move is a three-in-one: keeping your legs elevated targets the lower abs, but the crunching and twisting motion also targets the upper abs and obliques, while helping with rotational strength.Primary muscles: CoreBenefits of the Russian twist: This rotational move works your obliques and entire core to give you a strong foundation for athletic performance.Primary muscles: CoreBenefits of V-sits: Most people do this move explosively, but if you can do it slowly and under control, it’s a sign that you’ve built serious abs strength. Still jerking your way through the movement? Regress to the pike crunch and work your way up.Primary muscles: CoreBenefits of the pike crunch: Though most abs moves are prone to a bit of cheating, it’s hard to do that with the pike crunch – it’s almost self-correcting. Do it with your arms and body straight, and it ensures all the focus is on your abs.Primary muscles: Core, shouldersBenefits of mountain climbers: This move can be done for speed and fat loss with high reps and short toe-touches on the floor. But by adding a twist and bringing your knee across your body, as shown here, you’ll work your abs.a. Half burpeeb. Burpeec. Tuck jumpd. Broad jumpPrimary muscles: Quads, hamstrings, shoulders, coreBenefits of half burpees: This go-anywhere cardio move is the perfect way to build conditioning quickly with minimal technique requirements or risk of injury. And it’s impossible to cheat, or get wrong. Get on the floor, get up and jump, and make sure you do the clap.Primary muscles: Quads, hamstrings, chest, shoulders, coreBenefits of burpees: The stricter version of the burpee adds a muscular element to the workout, bringing in some extra chest and arm work alongside the cardiovascular hit. See if you can do 100 reps over 10-12 minutes – that in itself is a solid day’s workout.Primary muscles: Glutes, quads, hamstringsBenefits of tuck jumps: Whether you jump onto a box or bench or just jump up off the floor, this move will build explosive power – or, if you do it for reps, cardio endurance. Remember to get your knees as high as possible.Primary muscles: Glutes, hamstrings, calves, coreBenefits of broad jumps: Jumping for maximum height or distance will build explosive power, but going long is less risky than trying to land on a box. As a rule of thumb, you should be able to broad jump at least your own height.Get fit for life with Men's Fitness and save today! 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Currently Trending:AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementkit is no problem with the best bodyweight exercises. As Olympic gymnasts, your local park’s calisthenics crew and huge numbers of prisoners have known for years, you can train pretty much any muscle with just your own body, a towel-sized space on the floor and some ingenuity.In fact, it’s a good idea to build a base of strength using bodyweight moves before you pick up a dumbbell: as well as helping to prevent injury, it’ll improve coordination and proprioception (your sense of where your body parts are in relation to each other),...

Best Bodyweight Exercises To Build Strength

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