Weights vs bodyweight exercises

Here are a few questions I see cropping up time and time again, and I hope this article will help settle them once and for all:

• - How does weight training compare to bodyweight exercises? 
• - Is bodyweight training effective for muscle building?
• - Can you get stronger without lifting? 
• - Which is better for getting into shape?

Photo credits: Flavio Simonetti, German natual bodybuilder , and Yuri van Gelder, gymnast (source: Raymond Nieuwenburg; transferred from nl.wikipedia)

Start Bodyweight on reddit

I have been finding it increasingly difficult to answer all the questions asked through this website, as well as the facebook group and my personal messages.
I decided to create a subreddit, as a forum of sorts to support the Start Bodyweight routine.
The forum format is more appropriate to questions and answers than a blog, and it will give followers of the program a chance to interact and support each other.
Feel free to post about your progress, to share your thoughts and suggestions about the program, and make sure to support new users.
http://www.reddit.com/r/startbodyweight/

Embodied knowledge and bodyweight training

Long Jump, 1887, Eadweard Muybridge

As I walked down the street, the stranger nodded at me almost at the same time as I nodded back. There was a moment of instant recognition, the way riders usually acknowledge each other when they come across another motorbike on the road; a shared experience.

I am no great fighter, but I have trained in boxing and a few other martial arts, and I can usually recognise a fighter, less by the distinctive marks their face sometimes carry, but rather by the way they move, and look at other people and gauge and assess them… This particular guy was clearly a boxer.

Similarly, a dancer will move in a particular, almost inexpressible way that makes them easy to spot: a certain poise and grace. Long distance runners, sprinters, gymnasts, climbers… all have distinctive movement patterns honed through countless hours of drilling the same motions. A tacit knowledge that is carried within the body, and constantly accessed even in the ordinary movements of daily life.

Get lean with bodyweight exercises

This is the story of this site’s banner: the story of an article that was never written. And it all started with my cat!

I must confess, I have limited amounts of energy: I let work get the better of me quite easily, and when I get busy, my whole life seems to collapse. Winter and springtime are always a busy time for me.

Around this time last year, I realized the winter months had taken their toll: I’d fallen into a slump, my training had virtually become non-existent, and I’d piled on a few pounds. At 80 kg (176lbs or 12 ½ stones) I was the heaviest I’d been since I could remember.

It was then that I decided I could actually make the best of a bad situation: I could use this opportunity to write an article on how bodyweight strength training could be used for weight loss. I would put together a 12 week program, and I would document my progress with weekly pictures. No fake before and after pictures here, no photoshopping: just clear weekly photos, from the same angle, illustrating my progress.

Twelve principles of bodyweight training

1. Master your body

It’s not about how much you can lift, but whether you can move and control your own bodyweight in the first place.

2. Progressive overload does not discriminate.

It does not matter if you lift iron or your own bodyweight ; for the same weight lifted (or equivalent mechanical disadvantage) your strength gains will be the same!

3. Stay out of the comfort zone

Work on your weaknesses: chances are, you’ve been avoiding certain movements and patterns all your life simply because you weren’t very good at them. This will create imbalances in the long run, and stall your progress. Venture out of your comfort zone: it’s the only way to grow and improve!