Using your bodyweight as the resistance in training is one of the most important tools.
I like barbells. I love kettlebells.
But if I had to pick one and only one tool it would be my own bodyweight.
Why?
You can build just about everything you need with it.
- Strength
- Endurance
- Coordination
- Flexibility
- Mobility
- Stability
- Speed
- Agility
- Power
And a great looking body.
Now don’t get me wrong other tools are great and unless you’re always on the road and can’t travel with much you do have options with tools.
But that brings up another benefit. Anywhere and anytime with no equipment (except some sort of bar for hanging exercises).
You tend to get better in tune with your body then with many other tools and exercises, at least in my experience, although this largely has to do with your intention and mind WHEN doing the exercises.
But bodyweight exercises do have some drawbacks. I explain those here.
In fact, I rarely see anyone, let alone those who tout bodyweight exercises as the Holy Grail of training, make mention of this one fact.
And then there is the matter of progression. Its hard enough for most people to understand when you’re talking about weights, but bodyweight exercises can make it even trickier.
Lots more for you on these and more when you sign up here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If I had one training tool it would be bodyweight exercises and if I had only four exercises they would be these FOUR…
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise by on May 16th, 2011. Comment.
If you missed part 1 click here where kettlebell training was discussed.
Today we’ll move onto bodyweight training.
For some reason I’m known as a bodyweight guy. Maybe that’s because I do hand balancing and acrobatics. Maybe because of my crazy Ultimate Royal Court Challenge.
The truth is I love bodyweight exercises. They can be used to build all kinds of strength you need, not to mention endurance, mobility, flexibility and coordination.
The fact that you don’t need any equipment more than a bar to hang on for some and you are ready to go.
Some people say weights wreck your joints or don’t build true strength. While certain weighted exercises don’t work for some people, this is far from a universal truth. And I’m not sure what true strength specifically is in this phrase.
For these reasons I regularly include various bodyweight exercises into all my workouts, along with the barbells, kettlebells and more.
Each tool has its advantages and disadvantages. If you become a bodyweight only guy (been there) then you miss out of what other tools can provide you. The same is true if you just train with kettlebells or barbells.
There is one area that bodyweight exercises do miss that few people recognize.
There is just no way to replicate a deadlift motion or some sort of picking an object off the ground. Kettlebell swings are a similar movement too.
For squats you can do squats including one leg versions. For pressing or benching you have all manner of pushups including handstand variations. For rows you have pullups and inverted rows. But for deadlifts?
Many bodyweight guys argue that bodyweight exercises are more natural. In many cases this is correct. I’ll take a pullup over a lat pull down any day of the week. But you can’t tell me lifting a heavy object off the ground isn’t natural and doesn’t have uses.
So if you are a bodyweight only guy I encourage you to correct this with some sort lower body pulling movement.
By doing so you can have a well balanced program and strength.
On the flip side you have people that only lift weights. I encourage those of you in this camp to add in some bodyweight exercises. With a few well-placed exercises into your training you’ll gain that much more benefit.
What typically happens with bodyweight exercises, assuming you move past the very basics, is that you gain more coordination and control of your body (which helps more when you do lift weights).
In essence, you learn how to move better.
I believe bridging is one such area many would do well to add in. Handstands is another even if you never work on the balancing aspect.
The real trick to bodyweight exercises if progressing with them. Although sets and reps are easy to add, for many you can’t just add weight. Instead you need to manipulate the intensity in other ways.
I’ll be teaching all of the above and then some at the Super Human Workshop.
Plus as a special bonus, those that signup will get my unreleased Advanced Bodyweight Training Course which is going to be a 6 DVD set.
To get more details and sign up go here.
It’s a really cheap price with a bunch of extra goodies thrown on top to sweeten the pot. Be sure to sign up before March 31st for the early registration price.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, workshops by on Mar 18th, 2011. Comment.
Today I want to talk about two different sorts of Convict Conditioning and which one you might want to try.
I know a guy who recently got out of prison after spending just a couple months inside.
We got on the subject of working out while he was there and the stories he told me where ridiculous. This is close to an actual overheard conversation he heard:
“Let’s see, we did chest and arms yesterday so today let’s work our pecs and biceps. And then tomorrow we’ll go big and do some benching and curls.”
Zero leg work. Zero back work. In my opinion, the bench press and curls can be part of an effective program. PART. Not the whole damn thing!
And the worse part was he said three people in the whole place could bench 225 lbs or more. You’d think if you only did a couple exercises you’d at least get good at them.
And most would do heavy cheat curls with…80 lbs. I wish I could show you his imitations of their atrocious form. And moving from barbell curls to preacher curls to isolation curls and so on. The advanced guys might…MIGHT do a few one arm rows.
When my friend was doing pullups (yeah I know, a real ‘out there’ exercise) one inmate asked him if that worked the shoulders. He was the only guy doing pullups in the whole place!
This whole conversation started when I showed him Convict Conditioning, a recent publication from Dragondoor. On the cover is a man in the middle of doing a one arm handstand pushup. Must be very different penitentiaries for this colossal chasm of difference in training.
Considering I do lots of training with bodyweight exercises (and have my own courses devoted to two of the moves found inside – bridging and handstand pushups) I bought the book and read through it. In it Paul “Coach” Wade takes you through 6 exercises which lead up to some impressive feats. These include:
One Arm Pushups
One Leg Squats
One Arm Pullups
Hanging Leg Raises
Stand-to-Stand Bridges
One Arm Handstand Pushups
Each exercise is broken down into ten progressive steps. These steps take you from remedial exercises (usually the first 3-4 steps) up to these advanced moves.
That’s a real important thing most people don’t grasp. Making bodyweight exercises progressive isn’t as easy as throwing another plate on the bar. And in all training progression is the name of the game. So I have to applaud the effort of systematizing the progression as its laid out in this book. I don’t 100% agree with every one in here (for example some jumps in steps are small and some are real big) but overall it’s really good.
Now, I can do four of these moves but was particularly interested in the progressions he used for the other two, as they are exercises I‘d like to do one day. (I’ll let you guess which of the two exercises are quite a bit more difficult then the others.)
For anyone wishing to do the same I recommend getting Convict Conditioning and applying what you learn inside. It’s well worth it.
Even if you just did this routine you’d be fairly well off. Of course you really should add conditioning work as well and hand and neck training but besides that it’s a great program.
Anyone who wishes to train should master their bodyweight to some degree before touching any other training tool. You don’t have to be able to do all six of these moves but being at steps 5 or 6 in the progressions would not be a bad idea.
You can get Convict Conditioning by clicking here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I would never recommend a product I do not believe it and use myself. That being said I will be paid a small commission if you buy this book by clicking on the links on this page. After all I am running a business here. For the price its an excellent value.
P.P.S. Be sure to also check out this follow-up post on Convict Conditioning Routines.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise by on Jan 6th, 2010. 9 Comments.
Today I’m going to give you a tough kettlebell and bodyweight exercise workout.
I first came up with this workout after hearing reading about Bud Jeffries’ concept of Yardstick Conditioning in Twisted Conditioning 2 several years ago.
I wanted a way to combine kettlebell exercises with bodyweight exercises in a single intense workout that would test overall conditioning as well as build muscular endurance. I picked four exercises that I felt where foundational and ones I wanted to work on. Those exercises are:
Double Kettlebell Jerks
Pushups
Bodyweight Squats
Kettlebell Snatch
(When I originally did this it involved hindu pushups and hindu squats, although when I started doing this workout again recently I’ve done the regular versions of pushups and squats.)
Each exercise is done for 5 minutes straight. Then without a break you move onto the next exercise in the order listed.
The goal is obviously to do the highest number of reps in each exercise.
But another big goal is to get to the point where you can do the exercise without dropping the bells or getting out of position for the whole five minutes. This means you can only rest with the kettlebells in the rack or overhead position for the jerks, and just overhead with the snatches. You can do as many hand switches as you need with the snatches.
On the pushups you stay in the plank position (much easier to maintain five minutes of hindu pushups). With squats its easy to go all five minutes so recently I added cables, a portable power jumper from lifeline, to make them harder.
Of course, in the start do as many sets as you need to do the whole five minutes.
For the kettlebell exercises I use 24 kg bells. You’ll want to start lighter especially if you have no experience with long sets. Eventually I’d like to work up to 32 kg bells. That may take awhile. I shouldn’t have to say it but technique is real important here.
I would recommend only doing this workout once per week mixed in with your other training. And each time you do it you seek to add just a few more reps to each exercise.
It’s a challenging workout. But rewarding and if you enjoy bodyweight exercises and kettlebells it’s a great way to work on those fundamental exercises.
Give it a try and let me know how you do.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Nov 16th, 2009. 2 Comments.







