Bodyweight training – it has definitely become one of the latest crazes in the fitness industry. While some people call it a “fad”, I definitely think bodyweight training has it’s time and place to be used. Especially if you want to save time and/or money. (More on that in a second.)
I use a lot of bodyweight exercises in my own training (push-ups, inverted rows, parallel bar dips, chin-ups, just to name a few) and recommend you do as well. Push-ups, inverted rows and other bodyweight exercises provide benefits you can’t get from a barbell or dumbbell.
For example, not only do you work your shoulders, chest and triceps with push-ups, but you also work your core and a very important, but less known, muscle – the serratus. It’s important to train the serratus to help maintain and improve shoulder health. The serratus muscle is worked at the top of a push-up, when you “spread your shoulder blades apart” at the top of the movement.
Here’s a video I shot last year at a park that demonstrates a bodyweight workout that you can do with a swingset.
Note: Yes, I like to say “keep your butt and stomach tight” a lot in this video.
Now that you have a great workout to do at the park with your kids (or dog), let’s move on to some of the advantages of bodyweight training.
There are two more main benefits of bodyweight training:
1) You save money. When you train with just your body, you don’t need any equipment or a gym membership.
2) You save time. Performing a bodyweight workout at home (or anywhere, for that matter) saves time because you don’t have to drive to and from a gym, wait for equipment, etc.
Those are a couple of the reasons why bodyweight training is a great way to train during the holiday season. There are no excuses not to train during the holidays. You can save money, save time, and still build a better body using bodyweight workouts. So absolutely NO EXCUSES.
If you know you are going to be very busy this holiday season and that getting to the gym on a regular basis will be difficult, then I highly suggest you give bodyweight training a try.