Bodyweight exercises are strength training routines that use bodyweight to build muscle than external weights.
So how effective is bodyweight exercises for building muscle? Here are 5 ways bodyweight exercises help to build muscle.
Access
Unlike weight training which requires a dedicated gym to practice, bodyweight exercises make use of the person’s own weight to build muscle. Hence it is more accessible and is not limited by unavailability at any point in your training. This makes it the cheapest and best way of building muscle and ensures that accessibility is the not the hurdle to muscle building.
Strength
Bodyweight training increases strength and hence the easiest way to build muscle. Strength training is an essential part of muscle building and by using bodyweight you achieve dual benefits. The main principle of strength training is applying resistance to make muscles contract and increase their endurance power. Increasing resistance will proportionately increase the strength too. Lunges, leg squats, pushups and sit ups are some of the bodyweight exercises that double up as strength exercises.
Weight Loss
One of the important aspects of building muscle is also losing weight. Bodyweight training achieves this step also. Using your muscles makes you burn fat and lose weight. Bodyweight exercises treat the complete body whereas many other forms exercise body parts in isolation. The amount of fat burnt using body weight is therefore more than isolated exercises.
Flexibility
Exercises that use body weight also increase flexibility of the body. The core strengthening exercises that form a part of the bodyweight training give fluid movements to the muscle groups and the holding positions give flexibility to them in addition to strengthening them. Since these exercises are slow paced, ligament tears and injuries to the muscles are avoided.
Least Expensive
Using bodyweight for building muscle is the least expensive of all the exercises. The only things you need are dedication and sticking to a set routine. Though simple things like mats, exercise balls and medicine balls are used, they are not imperative, at least not for the beginners. What is more, these exercises are for all age groups. Since only body weight is utilized, learning the right technique will eliminate even the slightest risk of injuries.
All these reasons demonstrate how effective is bodyweight exercises for building muscle.
