Why should we learn to love training with our own body-weight? I have found myself more recently reverting back to more basic body-weight exercises in my own workouts as well as with my clients, first and foremost because it has just felt really great!  Somewhere along the lines of constantly training strength through free-weights or machines and then introducing the exciting new TRX into my training, I discovered that I was still struggling with trying to carry my own body-weight.  I thought I was strong pushing those 30lbs dumbbells in a flat bench Dumbbell Chest Press, but why did those body-weight push-ups never seem to get any easier?

The more I shifted my training away from free-weights, machines and focused more on “total resistance X-ercise” with the TRX, and basic body-weight exercises, the lighter I felt overall.  I could literally just toss around my own own body-weight with very little effort and the results in terms of my overall physique have been quite noticeable.!!

Pete McCall wrote a great article titled “Get training with body-weight” and believes we need to take our complicated exercise routines back to the basics with 5 basic bodyweight exercises that can easily improve mobility skills.  These 5 basic movements include:

a) squat

b) lunge

c) Push

d) Pull

e) rotation

If you are a client of mine, have ever been a client of mine or have followed any of my blog posts from the past, you should be familiar with the terms eccentric and concentric Muscle contraction.  One lengthening of the muscle and the latter a shortening of the muscle. While one is lengthening, it is also being loaded with potential mechanical energy and the opposing muscles have shortened in the movement, releasing stored energy in the form of kinetic energy during contraction.  An example of this would be the components of the gait cycle in running.  When running, and the one leg is extended back, the anterior muscles (hip flexors, etc) have lengthened to load up on energy, and the posterior muscles (hamstrings, glutes etc.) have shortened in their contraction releasing any stored energy.

Pete McCall says these actions of loading and unloading happen throughout the kinetic chain as the body moves over the ground driven by the momentum created by gravity and ground reaction forces.

he further explains that bodyweight training focuses on using one’s own bodyweight and the five basic movements to manipulate gravity to load or eccentrically lengthen muscles to prepare for the concentric action of the shortening phase. The fact is that the load on a muscle can be manipulated by changing the plane of motion and the lever action of the arms and/or legs involved in an exercise.

We can therefore be very creative with our own body-weight in the exercises we choose to do knowing these facts.  Just changing the lever of our arms or legs or the plane of motion we can alter the load that is applied to the muscle and not need any free-weights or machines.  This becomes very evident in using the TRX because the further away your feet are from where the TRX is anchored the easier an exercise feels because less of your body-weight is involved to do the work!

Lets Look at sit-ups and biomechanically, how we can make those sit-ups harder by just changing the lever arm.

Biomechanical sit-up # 1 — arms remain by your side as you sit up to 90 Degree Angle with torso

Biomechanical sit-up # 2 — arms crossed at chest as you sit up to 90 degree angle with torso.

Biomechanical sit-up # 3 — fists placed at either sides of temple. Elbows out as you sit up to 90 degree angle with torso.

Biomechanical sit- up # 4 –Arms wrapped overtop of head as you sit up to 90 degree angle with torso.

Biomechanical sit-up # 5 — Arms extended straight up overhead with elbows beside your ears as you sit up t0 90 degree angle with torso.

So you can see from biomechanical sit-up # 1 to biomechanical sit-up # 5 as we have changed the lever arm from being down by your side to way over top of your head and perfectly straight, the load on the abdominals has become a lot more challenging, no free-weights required!!

So back to answering my own question where I thought I was strong pushing those 30lbs dumbbells in a flat Bench Dumbbell Chest press, but why did those body-weight push-ups never seem to get any easier?  Getting back to the basics, I began having to use my entire body overall as one unit to get the work done.  There was never any opportunity to rest muscles when laying on a bench or sitting on a machine.  There is a reason the TRX is called “Total resistance Xercise”!!! Every single muscle is involved!! No wonder my body was responding well!! I couldn’t really be that lazy!!

Learn to love training with your own body-weight!!!

It’s simple!!

It’s effective!!

It involves allll muscles!!

Can be done anywhere!!

Exercise right, and have a great long weekend!!

Candice