6 Body Weight Workouts – No Bars? No Bumpers? No Problems.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Sayler

// Is it possible to improve upon your fitness with no equipment?

Is it possible to get stronger, faster, improve your mobility without the traditional gym implements?
I would have to say yes. It will take some creativity, resourcefulness, and hard work, but it can be done. Here is how – Body Weight Workouts.

I spent a summer after college living in Georgia with very little money to spend on a gym membership. I was in the best shape of my life and was unwilling to let that go. So I had to get creative with my training. One of my first workouts was to find something to sustain my strength training. I took an axe and a hike down to the woods that surrounded my house and chopped down a tree that was roughly 1 foot in diameter. Before all the tree huggers start getting upset, it was a dead standing tree that just had not fallen yet. I chopped and I chopped until I was standing in a pile of wood chips and I started to hear the cracking of the trunk I had been waiting for. When the tree hit the ground blisters were already starting to pop up on my hands, but the workout was only halfway done.

I needed a manageable section of log to use for my workouts. I figured about a 8 foot section would do so I went to hacking. When finished, I was pretty worn out, but the log needed to be moved from the bottom of the hill where I found it back up towards my house. So I squatted down, gripped both sides of the log and deadlifted one end of my new strength training apparatus up to my waist. This is when I realized 8 feet was probably too much. I am bad at guessing the weights of odd objects but I am going to say it was somewhere between Smart Car and Buick. There was no way I would be shouldering this massive thing. So I took another couple feet off the log and worked it down to around a six foot section. This was still very heavy, but I was able to get it up to a shoulder and work my way back up the hill. When it was all said and done I had about a 150-175 pound, very odd object to sustain my strength training for the next couple of months. It could be dead lifted and flipped, shouldered and squatted, cleaned and pressed (very ugly), Lunged, rolled and just plain carried. I did some pretty awesome workouts with that log that I creatively named Woody.

Now I am not saying you need to go out and chop down a tree in order to continue to train but It worked for me. Body weight workouts, training, running, and plyometrics can be very productive as well. Body weight is a piece of equipment that everyone has regardless of income. Here are 6 body weight workout examples of how to train with no equipment.

Body Weight Workout #1:

5 Hand Stand Pushups and 10 Air Squat Jumps. Repeat this for 20 minutes. This workout can build upper and lower body strength and endurance.

Body Weight Workout #2:

10x100yard sprints starting on the minute. To build pure speed, take a little longer between sprints but for general conditioning purposes, if it takes 15 seconds to run, you will have 45 seconds to recover.

Body Weight Workout #3:

Burpee Buildups. Do 1 burpee on the first minute, then 2 on the second, 3 on the third, etc… It is a good one. See how far you can get before the number of burpees takes longer than the minute.

Body Weight Workout #4:

Lunge 400m. Ouch! Need I say more.

Body Weight Workout #5:

Find a hill, sprint up it, walk down it, for 30 minutes or completely cooked through golden brown on top.

Body Weight Workout #6:

Go down to the park, find a tree branch that closely resembles a pullup bar and go to town. Run 400m (roughly) and do 15 pullups for 5 rounds.

Now I realize that these workouts are mostly endurance based and you will have a tough time gaining overall strength with only body weight but it will get you through a short stent of a couple months. You will be surprised at how fast your strength will return after training with no equipment. The key to success with any training program is intensity. It really does not matter what you do, just do it as hard as you can and you will get results. Guaranteed!

All photos from Raw Calisthenics – Check him out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagramfor more bodyweight awesomeness!

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