Body Weight Exercises For Extraordinary Strength
Traditional school of thought says gaining maximal strength without external training tools (like barbells or weight machines) isn’t very effective – or even possible.
But based on scientific training principles and real-world experience, the idea that body weight – only training is ineffective for gaining strength and size is, quite simply, 100% false.
This article outlines exercise progressions and a routine to help you build extraordinary strength with body weight exercises.
The exercise selection and workout is based around three core movement patterns that hit all of your major muscle groups – pushing, pulling, and squatting.
Lifting heavy loads at low rep ranges and incremental progression are two of the most important ingredients for gaining strength – and the exercises and workout address this as well.
The ‘Extraordinary Strength’ Body Weight – Only Workout
Workout notes:
- Workout is to be done every other day for a four to six week period
- For each exercise, I’ve listed a ‘progression of difficulty’ … make sure you can perform five sets of five reps of each exercise with perfect form before moving up to the next degree of difficulty. The ultimate goal is to work up to the hardest variation of each exercise.
- Do not go to failure on any exercise – stop one or two reps short and focus on using perfect form.
- Master an exercise before you move up to the next in the progression.
- Do a foam roll/joint mobility/dynamic stretch to prepare, follow the workout with a static stretch, and do cardio on ‘off’ days as needed.
- Do the workout circuit-style, but take as much rest as needed for full recovery and maximal strength application between sets.
Exercise One – The Push Up
difficulty progression:
- knee push up
- regular push up
- feet elevated push up
- lever/shifting push up (see a demo video for this one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR5I65P5ZSE
Exercise Two – The Pull Up
difficulty progression:
- body row/fat man pull up
- band assisted pull up
- regular pull up
- (if weight available allows) weighted pull up
Exercise Three – The One Leg Squat
difficulty progression:
- split squat
- bulgarian split squat
- pistol squat
- (if weight available allows) weighted pistol
In conclusion, a lot of folks think you can’t gain strength using just your own body weight. This workout flips this idea on its head and shows you how to gain extraordinary strength and muscle density using just your own body weight.
Thanks for reading and keep training hard -
Forest Vance, MS, CPT, RKC II
Additional Resources:
The Naked Warrior Book/DVD by Pavel – Covers a complete routine to get super strong using just your own body weight. Useful high tension and power breathing techniques are also covered that not only apply to body weight training but all other training forms as well.
Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade – Useful progressions for achieving advanced body weight skills like the one arm pull-up.
No Gym? No Excuse! – My entire body weight – based training system … includes 12 week program, companion video and much more … the ‘deluxe’ version has a section on training for mass and strength with using body weight and minimal equipment.
