The best tool is YOU.
All training starts with your body (initiated by your mind). Any attempt to manipulate a weight is simply your body moving under a load. A squat is YOUR body doing a squat. A barbell squat is a way of increasing the weight of the movement (the load). Your body is the tool. Your mind is the driver. Master your tools and you will master your abilities.
In other words, Master Yourself.
I always see young trainees doing millions of curls and lat pulldowns when they can't do one bodyweight pullup. The same ones doing heavy benches when they can't pop out a few pushups, and doing heavy barbell quarter squats when they can't do full range air squats. Why is this? Because achieving proficiency of one's own bodyweight is hard, uncomfortable, and often doesn't look as cool as loading up a million kilos on the leg press machine. Also, in most bodyweight exercises, you can't sit down, and we all seem to love sitting down when we work out.
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| If Jason Statham does it, it must be awesome. |
I always see young trainees doing millions of curls and lat pulldowns when they can't do one bodyweight pullup. The same ones doing heavy benches when they can't pop out a few pushups, and doing heavy barbell quarter squats when they can't do full range air squats. Why is this? Because achieving proficiency of one's own bodyweight is hard, uncomfortable, and often doesn't look as cool as loading up a million kilos on the leg press machine. Also, in most bodyweight exercises, you can't sit down, and we all seem to love sitting down when we work out.
"But Eddie, I can already do pullups, pushups, and hundreds of air squats, don't I need weights to make it more challenging?"
Not necessarily. By changing other intensity parameters, you can make almost any exercise more challenging.
TEMPO
Try doing air squats slowly. I mean REALLY SLOWLY. Try a 10:10 cadence (10 seconds up/10 seconds down) til failure, and I promise you will feel the pain. You can also do them explosively by adding a jump.
UNILATERAL
Ok, so you can do a pullup. How bout a one-armed pullup? No? One arm pushup? Still no? One leg squat? A resounding no from 99% of the population. Lemme ask you this, what's the use of being able to bench 200 kilos if you can't do a single one arm pushup?
LEVERAGE
Try doing a pushup with your hands about a meter in front of your chest, the so-called superman pushup. Very hard. Or a front/back lever. Equally hard. By manipulating the angles to put your muscles at a disadvantage, you can increase the difficulty.
ADVANCED EXERCISES
Once you achieve mastery of the basic movements, take it to the next level. Combine a dip and pullup to make a muscle-up. Subtract legs from the equation and turn a pushup into a planche. Lift your legs up when doing pullups and it becomes an L-sit pullup. The possibilities are endless.
Try training like this for a few months. I guarantee you'll feel stronger, more athletic, and in more in control of your body. If you want bigger muscles add slow cadence movements. Muscle growth is a function of time-under-tension as well as absolute load lifted. To maintain skill in other lifts, do one day a week where you practice them. I have one day a week at the gym where I press and deadlift, and despite only doing it four times per month, have made progress!
Before you dismiss bodyweight training entirely, think of those who use little or no weights but have amazing physiques: gymnasts, dancers, and sprinters to name but a few.
WHERE TO START?
Here are my favorite bodyweight training resources in no particular order:
Also, some hilariously awesome inspiration..
Now go work out!
Peace
Peace
