Body weight workouts are a great option when you cannot get to the gym and perform your regular weight training workout. Adding body weight workouts into your training routine enables you to burn extra calories and train other areas of the body that normally do not get trained. However, use caution when adding body weight workouts into an already full training schedule. Allow at least one day of rest a week to prevent over-training.
Bodyweight Exercises
Body weight exercises often target multiple muscles groups making them effective at strengthen the entire body with just a few exercises. When you are unable to make it do the gym for a regular weight training workout, you can supplement using exercises such as dips, pull-ups and push-ups to train the upper body. Lunges, split squats and step-ups are body weight exercises to train the lower body. Perform three sets of each exercise for 12 to 15 reps each with limited rest between sets for total-body workout.
Bodyweight Fat Loss Workouts
Body weight workouts are beneficial when trying to lose fat weight, because they are easy to perform at a high-intensity level. Exercises such as burpees, mountain climbers, squat thrusters, jumping jacks and high knees running in place are all high-intensity body weight exercises that help your body burn fat. Combine these high-intensity exercises along with some of the lower-intensity body weight exercises and perform in a circuit for 15 reps each with no rest between exercises. Complete the circuit three time resting one minute between each circuit.
Boot Camps
Boot camp style workouts are a great way to supplement your existing weight training workout. Boot camps style workouts are body weight workouts that can improve muscle conditioning, enhance aerobic capacity and help control body weight. Boot camps use a combination of calisthenics such as push-ups, squat thrust, punches and kicks throughout the workout to keep the heart rate up and strengthen different muscle groups. Additionally, the average exerciser burns approximately 9.8 calories per minute during a typical boot-camp workout, which equals nearly 400 calories during an entire 40-minute boot-camp video, according to the American Council on Exercise.
Sample Training Schedule
Use body weight workouts to supplement your current weight training program. A sample training schedule including both weight-training and body weight workouts could look like this -- On Monday, Wednesday and Friday perform regular weight-training workouts, on Tuesday and Thursday perform a body weight workout, and on Saturday perform a boot camp workout.
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