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Body weight exercises that build muscles and reduce fat!A better option for resistance training exercise is body weight exercise. In this type of exercise, your own body weight is used to train your various muscle groups.
Since your own weight act’s as resistance, no special things are required to perform these exercises. Only a free, airy space having flat, plain floor surface is enough. You can perform body weight exercises in your home or outdoors like play grounds, stadiums or beaches. Benefits of body weight exercises: It improves overall health, metabolism, endurance, muscle strength, size, structure & bone density. Since these exercises require more effort & energy to perform, they consume more calories thus helping us to reduce fat & build muscles. How to perform body weight exercises for various muscle groups: Do this exercise in the form of sets & repetitions like weight training. For example, Say 10 repetitions of push-ups or sit-ups will complete 1 set. Do some warm up & stretching exercises before & after this workout. Give some time for relaxation after the workout. (Relax in Corpse Pose). Add foam rolling to your warm up or cool-down before and after exercise. Foam rolling help to relieve muscle tightness, soreness and increases your joint range of motion. As a result you feel relaxed. Body weight exercises for specific muscle groups: For arms, triceps, chest, shoulders & biceps, forearms: Push-ups: Lie straight on your stomach & chest on the floor. Keep legs straight. Lift your head to some extent & look forward. Now place your palms of the hands in chest level. Look straight & by pressing palms of your hands lift body upwards until hands become straight. Now lower your body by bending hands in elbows completely so chest should touch the floor or at least near it to perform another repetition. While doing so keep toes fixed in one position. To start with, do 5-10 repetitions. Increase repetitions after you accustomed with exercise. Pull-ups/ Chin-ups: Hang onto a single bar or pull-up bar or even a branch of a tree with the help of grip of palms & fingers of the hands. Keep body straight. Take a breath & lift your body upwards until the hands bend fully in the elbows. Now touch your chin to the single bar. Slowly drift your body downwards until hands become straight. Now exhale. This is 1 repetition. Initially do according to your strength. Do not push yourself for more push ups/chin ups as sometimes it may cause injury to your back muscles. Arm Balancing: Sit on the floor by bending in knees if possible sit e in padmasana. Place your palms of both hands besides your body, keep hands straight & by pressing palms lift the legs & buttocks off the ground. Stay there for few seconds initially. After practice, increase duration. This exercise is good for strengthening arms, triceps, shoulders & chest muscles without putting more strain on chest muscles or heart. (Also, Refer Tolasana or Scale pose) For abdominal muscles: Sit-ups: Lie on the back on the floor. Keep hands straight behind your head & feet near buttocks by bending it in knees. Now raise your upper body & hands until they come closer to your thighs &knees. Slowly go backwards & lie on the floor. This is 1 repetition. Initially, do 5-10 repetitions. After practice increase, repetitions up to 20-30 or even more. Plank: Lie flat on the stomach & lift your body up, keep the toes & forearms on the ground. Leg raises: Lie straight on your back on the floor with straight legs. Place your hands besides your body for support. Lift legs slowly straight upwards until they come in an angle of about 90 degrees to your upper body. Now slowly lower down your legs to touch the ground. Initially do 6-8 repetitions. After practice, increase it further to 15-20 repetitions or more. For legs, thighs & calf muscles: Squat: Stand up straight. Keep a distance of 1 ft. or some more between two legs. Keep both hands on the waist or straight in front of you in the line of shoulder. Now bend your knees, keep upper body & hands straight & try to lower your body as far as possible until your buttocks come closer to the ground. Then slowly raise your body & stand up. This is 1 repetition. Initially do 5-10 repetitions. After practice, do more say 25-30 repetitions. Spot jogging: Stand up straight, Keep distance of about 1ft. between two legs. Now raise right leg up to waist level by bending it in knees & at the same time move left hand forward by bending in elbows. Now bring down right feet down on the floor & left hand backwards & raise left leg up to waist level by bending it in knees & at the same time move right hand forward by bending in elbows. Now start spot jogging in the style mentioned above but in quite slower pace. Do this exercise at a speed convenient to you. Initially do spot jogging for about 30-60 seconds. After daily practice, increase time. This is a good cardio exercise & burn good amount of calories. While doing spot jogging do no knock your feet to the floor while landing. Advantage of spot jogging in this type is we get good exercise without putting strain on our legs like running. Calf raises: Stand straight. Slowly raise your toes of both the legs so the heels will rise upwards. Raise heels upwards as far as possible. Now slowly come down to starting position. Keep hands on your waist or straight or sideways in the line of shoulder to maintain balance. Another way of doing calf raises is by using single feet at a time. Do 5-10 repetitions initially. Or Stand up straight. Lift your both hands straight above head & walk few steps on your toes. (Also, refer Tada-asana) Side Sit-ups: Stand straight. Take about 3 ft or more distance between your feet according to your height. Keep both arms straight in front of you in the line of shoulders. Now sit down on right feet by bending the knee. Keep your posture straight. Slowly stand up Repeat the position by changing your feet. |