Staying SAFE, SANE and STRONG has never been so easy. MAXIM fitness guru ALEXA TOWERSEY gives us the lowdown on bodyweight training …
Lifting MORE WEIGHT or lifting the same weight for MORE REPS are the most surefire ways to build size and strength. But what happens when a global pandemic means you’re stuck at home with just your own bodyweight and a couple of random household items to work with? Can you still get results? The very notion that bodyweight movements can build muscle, improve strength and produce cardiovascular gains might seem incredibly foreign to some of you, especially if you grew up watching your folks at home don their fluorescent spandex for their cheesy Aerobics Oz Style workout DVD’s. The truth is, bodyweight exercises can be extremely effective – when done correctly.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Here are some of the key concepts to make bodyweight training at home more efficient, effective and interesting.
ISOMETRICS
There are 2 types of Isometric training:
- Yielding is when you pause during an exercise and just hold the weight to produce an isometric contraction in your muscles. Thinking holding mid squat or pushup or chin above the bar in a pullup.
- Overcoming is when you are trying to move an “immovable” object, stimulating the maximal amount of muscle fibres possible. Think of pressing or pulling against any fixed household item/structure as hard as you possibly can for as long as you can.
ECCENTRICS
All of your favourite exercises have both a concentric and eccentric phase to them. The eccentric portion of a lift is usually the “lowering” portion – i.e. pulling yourself towards the ground in a squat. We’re about 20% stronger during the eccentric phase of an exercise, which is why you may be able to do full controlled negatives to a dead hang in a pull-up, but are unable to pull your chest back up to the bar for the next rep. Eccentrics are really useful in this regard when it comes to bodyweight movements, because we can effectively create more time under tension and forcing our muscles to work harder for longer means more size and strength.
UNILATERAL EXERCISE
From a muscle building standpoint, the major benefit of incorporating these exercises (aside from addressing any imbalances or weaknesses), is that not only do you have to recruit your core and stabilizing muscles to help keep you balanced throughout, but the energy expenditure for using this additional firepower is far greater. Think lunges, Bulgarian Split Squats and Cossack Squats.
ONE-AND-A-HALF REPS OR PARTIALS
Building muscle with only your bodyweight all comes down to creating as much time under tension as possible. Partial movements in the middle of a rep do exactly that, by extending the time you’re actually working. Ideally we want to spend as much time in the point of the lift where we are at our weakest and having to use the most effort. An example of this would be pulling yourself into the bottom of your squat, rising up to the halfway point, going back down to full range and then driving up to full extension for one complete rep.
TEMPO MOVEMENTS
The slower you go, the harder it is. You think a pushup is easy, try doing consecutive reps at a 5151 count tempo – this translates to a five second eccentric or lowering phase, a one second pause at the bottom, a five second concentric phase (pushing back up to the top), and a one second pause before starting the next rep.
PLYOMETRICS
These are great for developing speed, power, balance, agility and co-ordination. They are essentially the more explosive or jumping variations of your normal bodyweight repertoire. You can use them in lower reps directly after a SLOW strength based movement (same muscle group), or in higher reps for strength endurance and conditioning in a finisher.
TOP TIP
Given that your exercise selection for each body part is more limited, aim for full body workouts each session, and get creative with your variations of each.
THE WORKOUT
Here’s a bodyweight training example utilising some of the methods outlined above…
A1. 8-10 Tempo Pushups – 5151
A2. 45 secs Superman Isometric Hold
45-60 secs rest; 4 rounds
B1. 15 x 1 ¼ Squats
B2. 45 secs RKC Plank – squeeze everything as tight as you possibly can
45-60 secs rest; 4 rounds
C1. 24 Low Ceiling Walking Lunges (stay low throughout so you’re never fully coming up to give your legs a break)
C2. 30 secs Doorway Press (stand in the centre of a doorway with your hands pushing out against the sides as hard as possible)
45-60 secs rest; 4 rounds
D1. Tabata Burpees; 20 secs AMRAP; 10 secs rest; 8 rounds
TOP TIP
If fat loss and/or conditioning is a goal, try using a plyometric based movement as a “finisher” at the end of each of your sessions. I like Tabata sets for this. The rules of engagement are simple. Pick an exercise – squat jumps, split jumps, mountain climbers, burpees are all good choices. Do as many reps as you can in 20 secs. Rest 10 secs. Repeat for 8 rounds in total – 4 minutes has never seemed so long!
For the full article grab the March 2021 issue of MAXIM Australia from newsagents and convenience locations. Subscribe here.
