Whether you’re new to strength training or looking to add new moves, your own body might provide the perfect resistance to help you get fitter faster. Body weight training builds muscle, burns calories, and with just a mat and some floor space at FitClub, can be done anytime by anyone. If you’re still not convinced, FitClub has three reasons to start bodyweight training today.
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Bodyweight training helps burn belly fat. Belly fat is not only an annoyance but also detrimental to your health. When cardio workouts are combined with bodyweight training, the end result is often a loss of belly fat. Reducing your body fat also reduces your likelihood of developing certain cancers and diabetes. You don’t have to commit to a life of constant abdominal work to benefit from bodyweight training. Any strength training will help you maintain a toned and healthy physique.
Bodyweight training builds more muscle than other forms of strength training. According to the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, bodyweight training can help you increase lean muscle mass more quickly than any other form of strength training. When you use only your own body weight to strength train, you are forcing your body through a limited space, causing more muscular gains. Just as you would with other forms of strength training, you can add challenges to the moves to keep increasing your body’s need to adapt. When pushups at your current weight begin to feel too easy, you can easily add reps or try wearing a weighted vest to increase the resistance. Likewise, while a squat is a bodyweight exercise, adding a dumbbell in both hands increases the workload on your body while you get fitter faster, primarily using your body’s own weight.
Functionality matters, too. You don’t just want to lose weight and build muscle, right? You also want to be better at doing the things you love doing. Whether you’re a runner that wants to build speed or a parent that wants to be able to carry their children with less effort, bodyweight training builds functional fitness. For example, the more lunges or squats you do, the better you’ll be able to move through your day to day functions. With more frequent bodyweight training, you’re likely to see improvements in your balance, agility, and core strength in your everyday life.
Ready to get started? Unlike many other forms of exercise, you probably already know how to do many bodyweight activities. Pushups, lunges and squats are all bodyweight training exercises that can be easily incorporated to your regular workout. Perhaps you can interrupt your treadmill workout to throw in a round of squats to increase your muscle mass and calorie burn without straying from your favorite workout.
If you’re completely unfamiliar with the proper form, it is advised that you talk to a personal trainer in order to avoid injury.
