Body Weight Exercise
Body weight exercises have been around since what seems like the beginning of time. Sometimes I think that we tend to make fitness way too complicated. If you are of a certain age you might remember doing calisthenics in high school gym class. I know I do.
What your gym instructor was doing was using your own body weight to aid you in your exercise. This is what push ups, squats, jumping jacks and all of those other basic exercises were designed to do.
Back in the day if you were considered “in shape” or “fit” you didn’t have a bloated or puffed up look to your physique but rather you sported a slim but toned look.
I don’t know about you but I think it might be time to get back to basics but with a twist.
Body weight exercises have been really updated for the fitness fanatics of today. However you can always start your body weight workout program with the basics that you remember from way back when.
If you are in fairly decent shape though you can try a bit more of a challenging body weight exercise for instance the burpee. If you don’t know what a burpee is you can google it and find plenty of videos about it. It will challenge you more than you think it will….don’t believe me try to do 20 or more your first go at it.
The cool thing about body weight exercises is that you really don’t need any equipment, just your body. You can research body weight exercises online and start with exercises or routines that you find or with a bit of imagination you can design you own routines.
You can make your body weight routines as challenging as your fitness level allows. You can focus on certain muscle groups or do very complex full body combination movements (my favorite) to get the biggest benefit out of your time spent working out.
Bottom line…working out doesn’t have to get complicated. Body weight exercises are one of the safest, best resistance, most effective workouts that you can do.
