3 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do at Home
January 12, 2012, By Ed Scow 0 comments
I have a confession.
I hate commercial gyms. My disdain is one of the big reasons I opened a private training studio (the other was I wanted to keep all the money). I don't like random strangers watching me train, and I don't want to worry if the exerciser before me has a weird skin disease sitting in the pool of sweat he left on the bench. I might sound like a germaphobe, but I have my foibles and you have yours, and one of mine is worrying about the germs left behind by hundreds of gym-goers on the equipment and benches.
Blech!
The good news is you don't have to join a health club to get a quality workout. You can save your money, and the drive time, by doing these simple bodyweight versions of common gym exercises, and you'll accomplish a lot more.
1. Any chest/bench press can be swapped for some type of push-up.
I understand that guys love slapping weights on a bar and banging out a few sets of bench press, and I understand that Monday is universally known as "chest day" in the gym, but save yourself some time and energy and swap that, and any other gym-based chest exercise, for the push-up.
Are regular push-ups too boring? Okay then. Do decline push-ups, push-ups with shoulder touch or one-leg push-ups. Place your feet on a stability ball and do a push-up/jackknife combination or put your hands close together and do close-grip push-ups (which are GREAT for your triceps).
There are a bazillion varieties of the push-up, and each one has its own unique flare that hits your upper body a little bit differently. Some are particularly good for your abs, some work your shoulders a bit more than your chest and others force your shoulder-stabilizing muscles to go bonkers.
You can even wrap a resistance tube around your upper back and place the ends under your hands to get extra resistance, or if you have a backpack, put some junk in it, strap it on tight and use it as extra resistance (or buy a weighted vest).
If you told me I had to choose between doing bench presses or push-ups for the rest of my life, I would choose push-ups every time because they're awesome, and they don't lock your arms into a fixed plane of motion like a bar, which isn't a good idea if you have shoulder issues (like most guys).
The beauty with push-ups is that you improve—in terms of strength as well as the number that you can do—very quickly, much quicker than adding weight to your bench press. Also, there are many, many variations to keep you interested.
NEXT: Swap pulldowns for chin-ups.
