Body Weight Workouts
Clients at Pat’s Gym usually come in about twice a week, but for those occasions they can’t make it in, I’ve create workouts they can do on their own anywhere. Using your body as weight is extremely functional and can be very intense. You can get a great body weight workout in 5minutes or an hour depending on your time constraints and goals.
Some examples of body weight movements that I use at Pat’s Gym are lunges, pull-ups, pushups, squats, rows, sit ups, burpees, handstand pushups, knees to elbows and step-ups. There are many different variations of these exercises that can be done depending on a client’s individual limitations.
People assume body weight workouts will be subpar. The truth is body weight movements can help you achieve power, strength, endurance and mental toughness.
There are many ways to combine different body weight movements to create challenging workouts. A few examples include the 100-rep challenge, ladders and tabata. For the 100-rep challenge, pick any body weight movement and try to get 100 reps on that exercise as fast as you can.
When crunched for time, the single best body weight movement is burpee pull-ups. Start in a standing position, drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground, kick your feet back while lowering yourself into a pushup, jump forward and return your feet to the squat position while straightening your arms, then jump up as high as possible from the squat position into a pull-up. This is a total body exercise, and you will be screaming for oxygen after 10 of them.
