The 7 Most Effective Body Weight Exercises You Can Do-NO GYM NEEDED!
Even if you aren’t a member of a gym or have a dedicated workout area in your home, you still have the only tool you need to be in the best shape of your life: your own body. Doing body weight exercises, like squats and push-ups, during high intensity interval training (HIIT) is an extremely effective workout and is nearly equipment free.
HIIT is a method of training in which you perform an exercise at maximum effort for a short period of time, and then follow it with a brief rest period. Repeating this over and over creates intervals of spiking the heart rate up balanced with recovery. Even if you can’t run a mile without resting, you can sprint in place for 30 seconds. The goal is to push your limit, but only for short periods of time.
To get the most out of your workout, focus on exercises that use multiple muscle groups at once. Using multiple muscle groups at once help to raise the heart rate and help you achieve benefits quicker than isolated strength training exercises.
Here are 7 highly body weight exercises that can help you reach your fitness goals. Do NOT do them every single day. It’s best to take a rest day, a weight training day or cardio day in between if you really want to have great results.
Burpee
How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then jump up and clap your hands above your head before bending down in a squat and jumping your feet behind you into push-up position. Lower down into a push-up and then come back up. Now jump your feet forward to your hands, stand (or jump up), and clap. Why it’s effective: The push-up engages your upper body and the hopping gives you a burst of cardio.
Jump Squat
How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your chest lifted. Squat down while keeping your weight in your heels and your knees in line with your toes. Make sure not to drop below your knees. You can add a jump at the top and sink straight down into the squat, or just do a standing squat to begin. Why it’s effective: Squats engage our lower body, which is important for building strength. Lower body muscles make up some of the largest in your body, meaning more calorie burn.
Walk-Out Push-Ups
How to do it: From a standing position with your feet hip-width apart, bend forward at the hips with a flat back and walk your hands into a high plank position. Keep your hands outside your shoulder line to protect your elbows. Maintain a flat back and drop your chest to floor in the push up position. Imagine pushing the floor away from you as you walk your hands back toward your feet, standing all the way up.
Why it’s effective:
Walk-outs are effective upper body movements because they push your muscles and condition them to endure while building core stability training
Lunges
How to do it: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Place your hands on your hips and angle your chest up. Step your right leg far enough forward to sink your body down without your front knee going in front of your toe. Make sure to maintain the same width between your feet as your right leg moves forward. At the same time, allow your back knee to bend toward the floor without actually touching—think of two 90-degree angles in your legs—and then push off your front foot back to standing. You can repeat the same movement stepping forward, and then alternate to the other leg.
Why it’s effective:
Not only do lunges improve your balance, but they strengthen your coordination and also sculpt your lower-body muscles.
Sprints
How to do it: Running sprints on a treadmill or outside is the most simple way to do HIIT because you can do it anywhere at any time. Try 5 to 10 intervals of 60 seconds of flat-out running with 90 seconds of rest in between each interval.
Why it’s effective: Sprints build your cardiovascular endurance and they improve your overall leg strength.
Skater Jump
How to do it: Start with your legs shoulder-width apart, and then hop to one side and balance on one leg, while your other leg is extended behind you. Now switch. As you become more advanced, you’ll be able to touch the floor each time you hop.
Why it’s effective: Skater jumps work to build agility and leg strength in one compound motion.
Mountain Climber
How to do it: Start in a high plank position, with your hands directly underneath your shoulders and your back in a straight line. Without pushing your bottom into the air, engage your core and start to bring one knee into your chest at a time. It should look like you’re running, but on your hands and knees.
Why it’s effective: This move gets a lot done at one time—not only are you working on your cardio endurance, but you’re building abdominal and arm strength.
High intensity interval training combines short, high intensity bursts of exercise, with slow, recovery phases repeated throughout one short 15–20 minute session. It’s done at 85–100 percent of one’s maximum heart rate rather than 50–70 percent in moderate endurance activity. Essentially, HIIT can be done anywhere, doing any type of exercise and is best described as working out like a sprinter rather than a marathon runner.
So get started by trying some of these 7 effective body weight exercises today!
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