There is really an infinity of bodyweight exercises. Push-ups, squats, lunges, abs, lats, rotations, Jumping Jacks. Some are really basic, while others require greater effort and intensity.
Bodyweight exercises are a very effective workout to improve muscle tone and strength and to maintain a good general state of fitness without great difficulty. These are exercises that can be performed at home or outdoors that do not require the use of special tools because only body weight is used to do them.
In any case, the important thing is not to overdo it and start with a workout suited to your athletic condition and your goals.
Bodyweight Exercises To Do At Home
10 minutes of well-performed bodyweight exercises every day and with good intensity can be enough to improve metabolism, burn calories, and increase the strength of the musculoskeletal system.
The bodyweight exercises that we propose can be easily performed at home provided you have a sufficiently large surface. All you need to train at home are a pair of trainers, comfortable clothes, and a fitness-specific rubber mat.
- Jumping Jacks: Jumps in place that require coordination of arms and legs. When the legs are spread, the arms remain stretched upwards. With feet together, the arms are placed along the sides. It is a perfect exercise to warm up and prepare your body and heart for training.
- Push-up: This is a repeated push-up exercise. It is performed with the knees touching the ground if you do not yet have the right strength in the shoulders and arms. Otherwise, the toes rest on the ground and the pelvis remains raised. A complete exercise for shoulders, arms, abs, and back.
- Crunch: is a classic exercise for the abdominals. It is performed lying down, back to the ground, and with knees bent in front of us, on the ground, or raised. The shoulder blades come off the ground and the hands extend above the knees to promote abdominal contraction. The arms are folded behind the ears with the hands just touching the head. You do not force the neck, but the effort is concentrated in the central part of the body.
- Step-up: another great classic of bodyweight training. Technically, a specific tool would be needed, but you can make do with a chair, another type of support, or the steps of a room. You go up and down from the support at a rate proportionate to your strength. A great exercise to strengthen the quadriceps and tone the glutes.
- quat: This exercise works the quadriceps, biceps, glutes, and all the large muscle groups from the pelvis down. It consists of push-ups performed with the legs slightly apart (shoulder width) with the toes pointing outwards. The arms are straight in front of us and the thighs bend to the line of the knees. Back and neck are straight, gaze fixed forward.
- Plank: is one of the most used isometric bodyweight exercises to strengthen the whole body. It is performed on the ground, positioning itself along an ideal straight line that goes from the ankles to the shoulders. The position is maintained by being raised off the ground on the tips of the feet and with the elbows resting on the ground. The goal is to hold out in the position for as long as possible. The more complex variant is to stay with your arms straight rather than your elbows on the ground.
Bodyweight Exercises For Weight Loss
If, in addition to wanting to stay in shape by toning your muscles, the goal is to lose a few extra pounds, then the effort will have to increase. Also, in this case, there are specific free-body exercises that can be combined with those just described. Obviously, it will be important to adopt a healthy lifestyle and a balanced, low-calorie diet. But let’s see some indications of the most suitable exercises for those who want to lose weight.
- High Skip: It’s the classic ride on the spot, but low impact. It consists in bringing the knees up to the navel. The knees are high and touch the tips of the hands. Excellent for warming up the whole body at a slow pace and for burning fat at a more and more sustained pace.
- Lunges in place: These are great exercises to strengthen the muscle groups of the thighs, front, and back. They can be performed by taking a step forward and bending with the opposite leg that touches the knee on the ground or with legs apart by simply performing the flexion movement. In any case, the effort is concentrated on the abdomen, legs, and buttocks. Also perfect for better balance and flexibility.
- lateral lunges: combined with the lunges in place, they represent a valid free body exercise to stretch the muscles and also work the lateral muscle bands of the legs and inner thigh. They are performed by carrying out a wide side step and shifting all the weight on the supporting leg, alternating right and left. In recovering the starting position, the supporting leg pushes and contracts the quadriceps, abdominals, and glutes.
- Quick punches: start from the half squat position and contract the abdominal muscles. The exercise consists of punching in the air with both arms bent and hands at the level of the chin. The higher the punch frequency, the more physical effort is increased and calories burned.
Bodyweight Exercises For The Elderly
Although it is a valid rule for all lovers of the physical and sporting activity, especially at a certain age it is important to warm up before starting any exercise.
In fact, with stretching, the muscles and joints of both the upper and lower part of the body will be activated and the heart and lungs will prepare to support the effort. Pay close attention to the perception of pain and stop in time. Graduality and constancy also play a fundamental role in this case, but in this case, the other password in the execution of the free body exercises is slowness.
- Head and neck rotations and bends. Starting from the sitting position, with the shoulders relaxed, the trunk and the head well aligned, lateral neck rotations are carried out, downwards and upwards, bringing the chin closer to the chest. Turn your head left and right. Tilt the head sideways towards the shoulder line, first to the right and then to the left. Alternatively, you can also help with your arms.
- Alternate lifts: from the standing position, the knees are raised alternately, bringing the legs to navel height. After a few minutes, you can also combine the lower lifts with those of the arms, always alternating left and right. When the right arm is raised, it brings up the opposite knee and vice versa.
- Back and arm stretches: starting from a sitting position, legs apart and feet firmly planted on the ground, you stretch forward as if to tie your shoes. Gently and slowly, it is so great to stretch first towards the left foot, then the right, and finally forward, towards the center. This exercise allows you to relax the back, and open the lumbar, cervical, and dorsal vertebrae.
- Torso push-ups: from the standing position, with legs slightly apart and bent on the knees, hands on the hips. Small bending of the torso is performed first to the right and then to the left. Always with the legs slightly apart and without moving the legs, the torso is always rotated to the right and left. Useful for improving posture and flexibility of the upper body.
It goes without saying that physical activity is important for all ages. Feeling good and staying fit is a goal that we should try to pursue day in and day out.
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