Often snubbed, bodyweight exercises deserve a spot in your workouts. Here’s how to make them worth your while.
Do More With is a series highlighting equipment around the Club that can help you reach your fitness goals. In this installment, we highlight the value of your own body weight.
Think of bodyweight training, and moves like lunges, bridges, squats, push-ups, and planks are probably the first to come to mind. As a COACH X, I often see members performing these basic exercises and, when they’re ready to bump up the difficulty, turn to one particular method: adding load.
Heavy weights have their time and place. But in using them as your go-to (or only) progression tool, you’re likely missing out on scores of bodyweight movements that can level up your performance, help you spot weaknesses, and put a fresh spin on your training.
Why Train with Just Your Body Weight
Everyone should be doing bodyweight training, whether you’re brand-new to the Club or an elite athlete. They help you perfect your form and foster mind-muscle connection when you’re learning an unfamiliar movement. And when you are ready to increase their difficulty, you’re forced to get creative, switching up the tempo, adding an element of instability, focusing on one side of your body at a time, or expanding your range of motion. The list of possibilities goes on and on.
Playing with these training variables can support your progress with loaded movements. Say you only ever perform barbell back squats. At some point, you might hit a plateau. But when you supplement the loaded variations with bodyweight pistol, BOSU, or shrimp squats, though, you will help build up the strength (in supporting muscles, including the core, gluteus medius and minimus, and hip adductors) and stability necessary to push through those plateaus.
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The resulting unilateral strength, plus core and joint stability, can translate to injury prevention and enhanced sport performance. For me, bodyweight training helps me better control my own body in space, especially as I move through different planes of motion, when I do jiu-jitsu. The sport involves plenty of dynamic movement but also a lot of time under tension. I need to have isometric strength to maintain stagnant positions, but I also need to be able to explode out of them when they’re disadvantageous. I can build all of these elements of my fitness with just my body weight.
It's a humbling experience. Even a single-arm push-up can feel brutal compared to a barbell bench press. A lot of times, it shows weaknesses in the body that you might not have recognized otherwise. Do that unilateral push-up variation, and you might realize you’re lacking proper core engagement or that one side of your body is significantly stronger than the other — shortcomings that can make or break your performance with weights.
How to Use Your Body Weight for Workouts
In my opinion, at least one exercise in every workout should involve just your body weight. These can be tried-and-true basics, like simple squats, lunges, push-ups, and planks. Then, when you’re ready to level up, try utilizing different rep schemes, tempos, pauses, and larger ranges of motion.
When performing a pistol squat, for example, you might spend three seconds lowering down into your squat, pause for one second at the bottom, and spend three seconds rising back up to standing. With push-ups, be explosive, lifting your hands off the floor (and even adding a clap).
Alternatively, you can add instability. Do your pike push-ups or squats with your feet on a stability ball or BOSU. You’ll have to really engage your core to prevent yourself from wobbling as you perform the movement.
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Not sure where to start? Try a few of my favorite bodyweight variations:
Push-up: Single-arm push-up, archer push-up, push-up plus (a push-up with additional scapular protraction), power push-up
Squat: Pistol squat, shrimp squat, squat jump, tempo squat, squat and reach
Plank: Planche, plank to L sit, single-arm plank, commando plank (a high plank to low plank combo), plank with shoulder tap, side plank, Copahagen side plank, dragon flag sit-up
Lunge: Skater lunge, lateral lunge, curtsy lunge
Hip Hinge: Glute-ham raise, single-leg hip thrusts, power hip thrusts, glute bridge marches, single-leg Romanian deadlift, single-leg Romanian deadlift to airplane, glute bridge marches
The biggest benefit of bodyweight exercises is the freedom they allow. Get creative. Customize your favorite moves. Make them your own. And don’t underestimate their difficulty.
Brandon Lu is a Coach X at Equinox East 85th Street in New York City and has been with the company for 10 years. Lu is a NASM-certified personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist, a Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning-certified functional strength coach, and a certified BioForce conditioning coach. Lu also has a level 1 and 2 certification from Precision Nutrition.