body weight training

From my experience, a program of body weight exercises is the absolute best way to get in real shape in the shortest time possible. In this Squidoo Lens I'm going to explain why this is, as well as well as outline a simple routine made up of TWO bodyweight exercises that will get you in amazing shape in no time flat.

First of all, I want to look at two sports which in some way epitomize the power of bodyweight workouts. These sports are wrestling (and by this I mean real wrestling, not the phony stuff you see in the WWE) and Gymnastics. Both sports require real athletic ability, by which I mean they utilize strength, flexibility and stamina. Gymnasts never touch weights and focus on body weight training exclusively. Although some wrestlers may use weights to complement their training, the person I'll be talking about soon does not. However, let's focus on the gymnasts first.

Christopher Summers was a gymnast and is now currently a gymnastic coach. In his book "Building the Gymnastic Body" he tells this story. After finishing up his competitive career, Mr. Summers was looking for a new way to train. His gymnastic background had focused entirely on body weight training to one degree or another. He decided he wanted to try a more conventional approach, like weight lifting. He'd never lifted weights before. What would happen if he tried them?

So one day he walked into a gym and started lifting. What happened? To his amazement, he was out lifting every experienced weight lifter in the room! He was absolutely smoking them! These were some of the lifts he did that day:

Double bodyweight dead lift
Military press with 110% bodyweight
Chins with 50% of his bodyweight for reps
Dips + 60% of his bodyweight for reps
75 pushpus in 1 minute
wrist curls with 110% bodyweight
Run a mile in 5:37 seconds / 11:30 two-mile run
Ran 20 miles on the spur of the movement.

Obviously, he was in fantastic, animal like shape. So, what conclusions did he come to? Amazingly, he didn't make the connection that his previous experience with gymnastic body weight strength training had gotten him to this point. Instead, he thought "If I'm this good now, what will happen if I start weight lifting full time? What will happen if I start training properly? Imagine how good I could be then!" So, he completely gave up his program of gymnastic bodyweight exercises and instead started to lift weight full time. The result? After some initial gains as far as lifting heavier weights go, he became Sore, stiff, slow, tired and his natural athletic ability began to fail him. What was going on?

Eventually, Chris got smart and realized that it was his gymnastic training that had given him his superior athletic ability all along. He went back to it and before long his body returned to normal. Chris now know what was best training style was, namely training with your own bodyweight. However, WHY was this. In Chris's opinion, it was because gymnastic training, correctly applied, involves whole body movements that force the body to perform as an integrated unit. I would agree with this assessment.

Another athlete who requires superior strength, stamina and flexibility is the wrestler. Karl Gotch was a real wrestler who actually wrestled at the 1948 Olympic Games. Later, he turned professional when professional wrestling was a real sport. He relied on body weight training to keep him in tip top shape. These are this thoughts on training:

"I don't like weight lifting for wrestling", says Karl. "I believe you should do gymnastic type exercises that use your own bodyweight. Take a gymnast, for example. he is the only athlete, that, without weight training, when given his own body weight and asked to press it overhead, will go BANG and press it without any problem. You've got to look at the animals in the wild. That's what I did. I watched how they moved around and figured out how to do similar movements. When I was growing up in Belgium, a doctor friend of mine took me to the zoo to observe the animals. He said that they were the ones who knew how to train. He was right. So I started to put together a way of training ... but I don't want to take credit for it. How can you take credit for exercises and ideas that are at least 3000 years old?"

The bodyweight exercises that Karl is talking about are most likely Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats, which I'll explain below. Before I do however I want to tell you a story about Karl and weight training. In order to make sure that he wasn't missing anything with weight training, Karl trained with weights for a year exclusively. The result? While he could achieve some impressive lifts (700 pound squats and 400 pound bench presses), he, like Chris, lost his natural athletic ability as well. More specifically, he lost his stamina. What's the point of having muscles if you get tired after 10 minutes of intense activity? Karl didn't report the severe athletic decline that Chris did, but I suspect this is because he was still getting superior body weight training from all the wrestling he was doing. Still, the key point is for truly balanced athletic performance, bodyweight exercises are the way to go. Karl puts it this way. Weight Training gives you "Counterfeit Muscles", meaning muscles that may look good, but are worthless when it comes to DOING anything. If you want an attractive yet functional physique, body weight training is the way to go.

Below are two bodyweight exercises that you can do exclusively to get in superior shape in no time. They are Hindu Pushups and Hindu Squats. I remember the first time I tried these exercises. Boy, are they tough. I could barely do 5 hindu squats or 5 hindu pushups. What was worse though was that my body felt so non functional. My body just didn't feel like it was working together. Most likely, unless you have a gymnastic or wrestling background, this is how you're going to feel as well. Don't let it concern you. Just do what you can and know that your body WELL respond to this form of body weight training quite rapidly. Do what you can on day one and then come back the next day and try and do the same or one more. A good goal to shoot for is 50 hindu pushups and 100 hindu squats. Good luck!

Hindu Pushups:

1. To get into the ready position to perform a Hindu Pushup, start in the "up" position of a regular pushup with your feet spread wider than shoulder width.
2. Walk your hands backwards so that your butt is in the air, your arms and legs are straight, and you are looking back through your legs. From the side, your body should resemble an inverted "V"
3. Start bending your elbows so that your body comes forward. Your hips will come down towards the floor. Before your head hits the floor, however, start to arch your spine so that you are looking towards the ceiling. Straighten your arms.
4. You should exhale as you are looking at the ceiling
5. Keep your arms straight and push your butt back to the starting position while inhaling.

Hindu Squats:

1. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms extended out from your chest parallel to the floor.
2. Breathe deeply, filling your lungs as you clench your fists and pull them towards your chest.
3. Keeping your back as straight as possible, lower your body by bending your knees. As you lower your body, you should extend your arms downward as well, behind your back if possible. Start to exhale the air from you lungs.
4. Toward the bottom of the movement, you should come up on your toes, keeping as straight a spine as possible.
5. Straighten your legs by pushing off your toes and swinging your arms forward. As you rise, press your heels to the floor and raise your arms to chest level, parallel to the floor.