Body Weight Workouts - Portable Exercises To Build Muscle Mass

Some of the most effective yet simple exercises do not need equipment. We have such a rise in awareness when it comes to 'trendy' fitness regimens but somewhere along the way it seems body weight exercise have become classified as 'old school'.

Whatever you want to call it, it works! Achieving a few levels in fitness such as strength, lean muscular development and muscular endurance is only the tip of the benefits iceberg!

Women tend to avoid these exercises more than their male counterparts simply because they have been brainwashed to think they are the weaker sex and so many do not even try yet working with my women clients and making them try these has empowered them once they see they are capable of achieving these movements with a bit of effort and patience.

What happens if you are unable to directly perform some of these body weight exercises?
Then you progress toward them by using a spotter or a chair under your feet for the pull and chin ups, stay on the knees for pushups or use a ball, and keep feet on the floor to learn your tricep dips and slowly progress to putting those feet up. For the keeners you can use a ball under your feet rather than a bench, that will really tip the difficulty scale! Shapefit has your exercise demos available at the following links.

• Body Weight Workouts - Push Ups
  
• Body Weight Workouts - Bench Dips
  
• Body Weight Workouts - Pull Ups
  
• Body Weight Workouts - Chins

These exercises condition your body overall and also gets your heart rate up which in turn results in a few benefits internally. Push ups hit the chest for the main muscle group utilizing the triceps for assistance. By bringing the elbows closer to your body you can intensify the effect on the tricep.

Tricep or Bench Dips mainly target your triceps and are an excellent exercise. Pull ups are done with a wide overhand grip and target the lats and back with biceps assisting. Chins target the biceps and mid back. This exercise is quite an impressive achievement especially for women who are naturally weaker at this.

I would suggest starting off with as many body weight reps as you can get and slowly increase each week as your body adapts. Try these twice per week for 2 sets and increase to 3 sets as you get better. You may want to split them up and do pushups and pullups on one day with tricep dips and chins the next time, giving 24 hours rest between these days. These exercises can be used for a push pull combo or done on regular straight sets.

For the advanced and well experienced you can vary and increase the difficulty of these exercises by adding weight on weighted belts, on your back for the pushups or even adding weight to the lap for the bench dips.

These are foundation exercises which should be utilized within your training program here and there. Stay Fit with Shape Fit and Body Rush Personal Training!

By Linda Cusmano