Health & Fitness
Blog Post: The Benefits of Body Weight Exercises
No more excuses. You don't need a gym or expensive equipment to get in shape! Try these body weight exercises and get the results you are looking for.
There are many great benefits to using your body weight to help you exercise. There are a ton of different exercises that involve using your body weight and body control to perform a movement, for example, a standard push-up. Body weight exercises will help you to lose weight, build lean muscle, build strength, flexibility and endurance. By doing these types of exercises you will improve your overall health and fitness levels.
Other exercises that utilize machines tend to isolate a muscle group working more on bulking the muscle. This might make your muscles look "pretty," but in terms of the functionality and actual strength of the muscle, it can be lacking if all you do is machines during your workouts. By doing body weighted exercises, you work the entire body strengthening it to the core.
Body weight exercises are also known to be metabolic exercises because they have the ability to elevate the heart rate as well as being great fat burning exercises. Some great examples are squats, squat jumps, jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers (rock climbers). Try doing that workout routine three times through at 30 seconds a piece and you will see what I mean.
Body weight exercises are also great to build quality lean muscle mass. Exercises such as the pull-up are considered by some to be one of the most important back exercises you can do. Other great upper body exercises you can do are inverted rows, push-ups, dips and hand stand push-ups.
Try including these types of exercises in your strength training and weight lifting routines and you will see a major increase in your overall fitness level.
Jessica Unbewust
co-owner
ferrum fitness
