Whether you’re a seasoned athlete with a lot of experience working out, or you’re a couch potato and your definition of “high intensity” is brisk walking from the fridge to the living room, there is a workout that you both can do depending on the “intensity” - bodyweight exercises.
What are bodyweight exercises, anyway?
Bodyweight exercises are exercise routines that essentially use a person’s own weight as a resistance to gravity. This means you only need yourself to workout, no need to go to the gym or train with fancy equipment. You just need you and your willpower to get moving. You don’t need any membership, no need to buy anything and no need to drive anywhere. It is a type of workout that you can do (almost) everyday, save for recovery days to give your body the chance to rest. In addition, the intensity of the bodyweight workout that you do can be customized according to your fitness level. You don’t even need to have loads of free time to do it! Some bodyweight workouts can be done in as short as 15 minutes.
Hopefully, that ticks majority of the items in your “I-can’t-because…” list.
Doing bodyweight exercises has a ton of benefits. It helps build strength and endurance so you won’t have to lose your breath everytime you run a single flight of stairs (which you really should do because seriously, do you really want to be with several people in a crammed elevator space? yikes). It also helps balance and mobility, and if you’re consistent, you’re very likely to see results!
Pumped-up yet? Here are some bodyweight exercises that you can try:
Planks
Planks are simple exercises designed to build stability and increase strength. It may look easy, and it may be easy to hold the pose for a few seconds but doing a plank in correct form for a long period may be difficult, especially for beginners. That’s okay! You can always start with shorter versions and increase the time as you go along. Another good thing about plank is, you can do it whenever and wherever! Try doing one for every hour you’re working and you won’t even notice you’ve done 8 minutes worth of planks in a day. If you get tired of doing the usual plank, you can try other varieties to make your routine more interesting and challenging.
Push-ups
Push-up is a very popular exercise. This is one exercise almost everyone has heard a lot of times in their lifetime. While everything thinks they can do a push-up, not a lot of people execute push-up in the correct form. To be fair, it does require a certain level of strength and can be difficult for the first few times. There are push-up variations that can be done by beginners though, so nope, still no excuses! If done correctly, push-ups can help a great deal in increasing muscle tone and strength, as well as improve cardiovascular health. Who doesn’t love a stronger heart? So drop and do 20!
Squat
Squats are an amazing exercise that work a lot of your upper and lower body muscles. While some people use squats as punishments, the muscles you develop doing this form of exercise actually helps you and make you stronger as you do normal activities everyday like walking, running, or carrying heavy items.
Similar to the suggestions above, squats can be done anywhere and anytime! How about after you do the one minute plank, you add in a one-minute squat as well? Your stronger core and your healthier weight will surely thank you after.
Burpees
Okay, agreeably, this one might be a tad challenging. But who doesn’t like a good challenge, right? You are not born a quitter, and a burpee shouldn’t make you one! Burpees can be intimidating and can make you want to tap out, but once you know the benefits, you might just have enough energy to do one more rep. Burpees offer a full-body workout, ladies and gentlemen. It makes your muscles stronger and builds endurance in both upper and lower bodies. On top of that, a burpee done right works the muscles in your legs, buttocks, hips, abdomen, arms, shoulders,and chest.
A 125lb person who does 20 burpees for 1 minute burns approximately 10 calories. If you add this to the number of calories you burn doing all the above exercises for 1 minute daily, how much do you think that would add up in a week? A lot.
Itching to add more bodyweight exercises in your routine? Here are a few more ideas to add to your list. Go ahead and get your body moving and your heart racing with these body weight exercise suggestions. Don’t forget to increase the intensity as you become more pro and used to the beginner levels. Give yourself a little self-love by taking care of yourself more and actually moving. 2021 is just around the corner, don’t you want to leave all those unwanted and nasty bad habits behind and start fresh with better ones?
Hero Image by Meghan Holmes on Unsplash.
