Body Weight Workout Program - Week 5

I’m into week 5 of my “get out of the gym and enjoy the great outdoors” body weight workout program.

For those catching up, several weeks ago I decided that I was bored with my gym rat routine and decided to try a new approach to keeping in shape.  No more fancy machines, no more racks of dumbbells, and no more treadmills or stationary bikes.

So I’ve been focusing on body weight exercises and outdoor endurance activities to keep fit.

I will say that leaving the weights and machines behind took a leap of faith.  After all, we’re taught that to build and maintain muscle, you need to tailor a program to use weights and machines to focus on the individual muscles of the body.  Typical workout plans include performing a series of sets using a specific machine or free weight exercise to force the growth of a particular muscle.  Bicep curls for biceps, bench presses for chest, etc.

And it works.  You can develop a muscular body utilizing this muscle isolation approach.  You can get big biceps, ripped abs, and broad shoulders.  You can marvel at how much your bench press increases as you progress.  And you can look good in those jeans and t-shirts.

But what you aren’t doing is building real world strength.

As I get older, I’m less concerned about building big biceps, washboard abs, or pumped up pecs.  I’m more focused on building strength and endurance that will help with some of the more mundane activities I engage in on a day to day basis.  I want strength and endurance that will help me carry a three year old boy for a mile back to the house after he’s fallen asleep on a beach walk.  I want strength that will help me move that couch up and down the stairs while my wife makes up her mind on where it should go.  And I want the strength and endurance to keep up with my buddies on a basketball court.

The typical gym weight and machine routine isn’t going to help much in those areas because it focuses on working muscles in isolation.  Real world strength is developed by working core muscle groups together.

You develop strength, endurance, and coordination in performing exercises that work multiple muscle groups together.  Core strength.  Real world strength.

That’s where the body weight exercises come in.  I’m currently doing a “boot camp” program that really pushes me.  It mixes exercises such as push-ups (some variations I’d never seen before), dips, squats, and other body weight movements to work multiple muscle groups at once.  Really unique.  And some of the exercises push me harder than any weight routine ever did.

So, I’m in week 5 and can honestly report that I’m in far better shape than I’ve been in in awhile.  I’m working muscles I haven’t worked since the old calisthenic days back in college.  And I am definitely faster on the basketball court, less prone to collapse after 4 quarters, and even have developed a better shot.

Real world strength.

I’m ready to tackle that couch now.

If you’re interested in learning more about real world strength and how you can escape gym rut, here’s where I got all my information and routines.

Body Weight Workouts and Real World Strength

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Body Weight Workout Benefits

In my previous life, I used to travel quite a bit. I’d be living out of hotel rooms 3-4 days a week and it was usually a different city every time. In other words, aside from getting to become intimately familiar with the DFW airport, I was always having to adjust to being in a different place. This meant finding places to get a decently healthy meal and trying to find a local gym or health club so I could maintain some semblance of a workout schedule.

After awhile I just got tired of hunting down a reasonably close fitness center and paying astronomical guest fees just to get access to what was typically a low quality gym with inferior and often broken down equipment.

I decided to forego the weekly gym hunts and instead focus on developing a body weight workout routine that could be done in a hotel room, or even better, somewhere outside. But I also wanted some variety that would give me some exercise choices beyond simple push-ups, body squats, and crunches.

So, I did some homework.

And what I discovered, is that being a gym rat and focused on workout routines around machine movements and isolated free weight exercises does not at all prepare you for a full body weight workout.  Using isolated and restricted ranges of motion in resistance training is great for building strength in specific muscles, but does very little for improving strength and endurance in real world motions.

And that’s where the typical health club workout falls short.  So much focus is put on working muscles in isolation, that developing real world strength is neglected.

What is “real world” strength?

Real world strength is what it takes to perform in sports like gymnastics and wrestling, or full body activities such as combat or moving furniture.  These activities don’t rely on specific muscles.  Instead they require the coordinated use of groups of muscles to accomplish a goal.  They require body awareness in that, for example, to successfully carry one end of a heavy couch up a flight of stairs, you must know exactly what each contributing muscle is doing at any given time.

It’s knowing to shift the weight when rounding corners in a narrow stairway turn.  It’s bending your knees to brace for that final lift over the banister.  It’s coordinating virtually every major muscle in your body to get that couch up the steps.

You don’t get that type of exercise while sitting on a bench doing bicep curls, or even laying on your back doing dumbell presses.

Body weight exercises take weights and stabilizing benches and chairs out of the picture.  Effective body weight workouts require the coordination of multiple major muscle groups of the body.

In order to perform body weight exercises such as one-legged squats, handstand push-ups, and bridges, you have to be focused on every part of your body.

Working with weights and machines in the gym is great for focusing on specific muscle groups, one at a time.  But body weight workouts focus on the entire body and more effectively develop strength and coordination across the core.  These are the types of exercises that will develop the strength, coordination, and endurance involved in our everyday activities such as throwing a ball, swinging a golf club, or helping a friend move a couch up a flight of stairs.

I started working with body weight exercises because of my travel schedule.  But even now that I don’t travel and have full access to my health club, I still make body weight workouts a key part of my routine.  It has improved my flexibility, overall strength, and especially my mad skillz at wrestling with a rambunctious three year old.

Want to learn more about body weight workouts?  You can get fit and build muscle with body weight workouts..

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