What are the benefits of doing strength using only your own body weight?
I'm asking because my sport focuses a lot on exercises that purely use one's body weight and gravity.
>>37960667
it's great for staying small, and not gaining any muscle
Calisthenics are great for actual athletes.
If you're trying to get big though you need to lift weights.
>>37960860
Some of it is great for actual athletes, a lot of it can end up being far more effort than the results justify (particularly the more complicated advanced movements - 'true' oly lifts can have similar problems with athletic training as well). There's a reason so many sports tend towards using simple movements for GPP and save the complicated stuff for the actual sport-specific training.
>>37960667
weight is weight.
diminishing returns on extra reps.
1000 push ups isn't a 5 times as good as 200.
>>37960667
I was doung exclusively bodyweight exercises for a couple of years before I started lifting weights, and found them to be a pretty good base for strength training. These days I don't fancy going to a gym and don't have space for a squat rack at home so I moved my focus back to bodyweight supplemented by some work with a 50lb kettlebell. There are limits to how strong you'll get with bodyweight alone, and how much bulk you can add, if that's something you need or care about, but you can get in pretty good shape with it. Even if you decide to focus on weights, try to work some bodyweight stuff in too in case you lose access to a barbel.
>>37960860
More specifically, I'm asking if bodyweight exercises have any advantages OVER lifting weights. Of course bodyweight exercises will never get you big or anything.
>>37960981
This is a pretty good point actually. I was surprised by how many people don't know how to do exercises when they lack weights (other than pushups and and running). Bodyweight exercises definitely has helped me realise what you can do without weights.
>>37961248
the only advantages are cost and portability
>>37961404
huh, ok. thanks.
bodyweight exercises will allow your body to train itself to work with what it has. ex. doing dips and pushups and situps and curls and whatnot will develop and season your muscles to actually be strong tissues instead of just hypertrophied flesh
>>37961890
Today in "words that seem to mean something bit really don't!"
>>37961890
kys my man
>>37960667
Agility cone drills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRWMRZ_64co
Plyometric exercises, which rely on explosive movement and landing with a bent knee to train quickness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZsOmoNnGwo They were originally developed by Soviet exercise scientists in the 1980s working with their Olympic teams
People here seem to believe that BW exercises are just dips, chins/pulls and push ups. You won't get as big as you would if you lift weights, but you will definitely get strong and have incredible control of your whole body, that is if you actually follow a decent progression for different exercises
pros and cons
cheap easy *GREAT mechanical work with modified intensity
but that great mechanical work can also be it's greatest weakness
if you are not balanced (too heavy/too light, upper vs lower) , experienced (nervous system requires adaptations)
it's a very difficult move and most people will either not get the benefits of the training due to
a being unable to do the work at the proper speed or
b have shit form and have poor motor recruitment due to shit form
TL:DR unless you trained from a child / have proper body "balance" (fat weight, and weight distribution) it's gonna be a upwards battle
but its great when proper form is used with adjustable intensity (speed).
>>37960667
Dips and chins are the best upper body exercises
>>37962354
handstand pushups and planche pushups
>>37961906
>>37961925
wow great form of response and good criticism. you really did a great job at presenting a counter argument.
>>37961948
yeah as an elite gymnast those plyometric exercises look similar to the kind of leg strength I do
>>37961996
good to hear. been training since i was a kid so i think i've got the balance thing down.
>>37961990
yeah as i was saying before, there are a ton of things you can do with your body. like here's the first few i can think of atm:
dips (including handstand dips, dip hops, dip swings)
chicken wings (both straight and piked)
long jumps (or as the plyometrics video calls it: double leg bounds)
hops (both tucked hops and long/fast hops)
press to handstand (both pike and straddle)
body levers (both on ground and bar (straight and bent arms))
uprises (both front and back)
chin ups (both in reverse and normal)
pistols
box jumps
single leg squats
leg lifts (both half and full)
>>37961890
What if I told you that with hypertrophy, some strength also comes?
Hey madmen. What are your views on gymnastic rings? I got some myself about a month ago and sheeit it takes some stability just to do basic exercises
