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The Many Benefits of Bodyweight Training

1 Practical Benefits

For starters, bodyweight training has a ton of practical benefits that a lot of other types of exercise just can’t deliver.
For starters, bodyweight training doesn’t require any equipment or tools. As we’ll see later on, there are some items that can help you to get more from your training and a pull up bar in particular is highly advisable. Nevertheless though, this still isn’t a requirement by any stretch and you can get away without one. Even if you do go for a pull up bar, this is something that can fit into your doorframe and that won’t set you back more than $5 at a push.
This right away is something that gives bodyweight training a big advantage. This means that you don’t have to spend any cash to get started with it and it means that you can do it anywhere. A lot of people like to use bodyweight training when visiting hotels and other places they can stay and you can even do this kind of training when you’re camping!
But this also makes it much easier to get started in your own home. The fact of the matter is that many of us can’t afford to invest in expensive gym equipment like bench presses or squat racks and most of us don’t have the room anyway!
Then there’s the fact that having lots of equipment means it’s actually quite a lot of work in order to start training.

If you’re going to be using dumbbells, barbells, a bench, a kettlebell… this means that you’re going to have get all of that equipment out and set it up to use. That might not sound like a big deal but if you live in a small space it can involve quite a lot of work and it can add 10 minutes to you training. Bearing in mind that you need to pack it away again, this can be the difference between a quick, spontaneous workout or not having time to train at all.
With bodyweight training, there’s nothing stopping you from getting a quick 5 minute workout in even when you’re waiting at the bus stop. And as we’ll see, this is a really great way to train as it means you’re no longer spending most of your day sedentary and going all-out for just one hour. Using bodyweight training we can be much more tactical and versatile in the way we train and when we train.

2 Physical Benefits

Another thing to consider is the way that bodyweight training can impact on your body. Of course any type of exercise should help you to get fitter, stronger and leaner… that’s rather the point!
But what bodyweight does better than any other type of exercise is to help you build a powerful ‘strength to weight ratio’. This basically means that you can become very strong without gaining a lot of extra weight.
At the same time, bodyweight training is very active. The very nature of it means that you’re using your whole body when you do that kind of training and that means that your heartrate goes up, you burn more fat and you improve your energy levels.
When you workout at the gym, a lot of the exercise you’ll do actually involves lying down! You’ll lie down while you perform the bench press for instance and you’ll sit down while doing bicep
curls a lot of the time. This will get your heartrate up to around 80 – maybe – but press ups are far more active and can get it up to 110 and above.
Better yet, bodyweight training teaches you how to use your whole body to become more agile and quick. Bodyweight training often includes elements of balance, of flexibility and of explosive power – and all these things contribute to improved health and performance across the board.
If you want to be fast, lean, light and powerful – then nothing quite beats bodyweight training.

3 It’s Fun!

Believe it or not, bodyweight training can be a lot of fun. We’ve already seen that it’s much easier, more practical and more active than weights training. But at the same time, you’ll find that bodyweight training helps you to learn cool party tricks, skills and abilities that make it so much more worthwhile. If you get really good for instance, then you can start to pull of feats of strength like one-armed pull ups, clapping press-ups and even handstand press ups. This is incredibly rewarding and gives you an awesome sense of progression.
Bodyweight training is also a lot more versatile than other types of training and it lets you work out in different ways that almost feel like games. You can do bodyweight training outdoors, or you can do it using some kind of ball or other tool to turn it into a sport.