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Fit and Fine by Kamal Singh CSCS: Bodyweight vs weights
What are the pros and cons of these two schools of workout regimes? And which one should you look at adopting?
Before the pandemic and the various lockdowns that followed, most of us took the easy availability of gyms for granted. After all, more and more gyms were opening everywhere, all with the latest and newest machines and implements. Gone were the days when gyms in Indian cities were dank, smelly places with rusty and rudimentary equipment. As trainers and trainees, we were spoilt for choice! Then the lockdowns happened and most of us did not know what hit us.
Along with the growth of gyms, there has been an upsurge in only using the body for increasing strength and muscle mass. This movement is referred to by different terms but the most popular one is Calisthenics. Most of us, who preferred lifting weights to improve muscle and strength generally pooh – poohed the bodyweight only guys. This was primarily because we all started with push-ups, pull ups, and body weight squats and then progressed to lifting weights. We also knew that body weight exercises are difficult to progress. But the pandemic lock down has forced us to re-look at bodyweight exercises.
The pros and cons of bodyweight exercises
There are distinct advantages of just using your own body weight to strength train. There are some very obvious ones but I have discovered some unique ones which I did not really understand till the lockdown happened.
•You are never in the gym. You can work out anywhere and anytime. For the people who find gyms stuffy, bodyweight exercises can be done in the open air, public parks or in the privacy of the bedroom.
•Bodyweight exercises do not over load the body like weights do. So, recovery is faster and easier. This is the reason that these exercises can be done almost daily. The high frequency leads to quick gains in fitness and fat loss, if that is what you are looking for.
•The entire body gets trained. A famous coach, Dan John said, “the body is one piece” and calisthenics really emphasize this point. A push up does not just work the chest or arms, you also train the core, the lower back and to some extent the legs.
•High repetition calisthenics not only improve muscle and strength but also provide a unique conditioning effect. Just look at a superbly conditioned wrestler and you will understand what I am saying. Wrestlers are known for doing hundreds of push-ups and squats in a single workout which results in a functional sort of stamina along with strength.
•Moving your body through space while doing high repetition calisthenics creates an amazing mind-body link. This is known as proprioception and will easily carry over to any sport. The more you are aware where your body is in space, the better you have control over it and better you will perform on the playing field.
And here are some of the cons:
•Bodyweight exercises are difficult to regress and progress easily. Initially you might be too weak to properly do a full push-up from the floor, especially if the trainee is overweight! Then as you grow stronger, simple push-ups become too easy.
•In case you need to work on a particular body part while recovering from an injury or trying to strengthen a weaker muscle, it is not possible to do so as isolating a body part while doing bodyweight exercises is next to impossible.
•More often than not, the only way to progress bodyweight exercises is to do more and more repetitions. Lots of repetitions done over a period of time can result in injuries.
•Since you are limited to just using your body, some people can get bored doing the same exercises over and over again.
How to use calisthenics to gain muscle and increase strength
High volume is the way to go when using bodyweight exercises. Think in terms of doing hundreds of repetitions in a workout. Here is a sample workout –
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 squats
Do this is a circuit – each circuit would have 5 pull ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. Most people can do this work out in about 60 minutes. The aim would be to reduce that duration as you become fitter and stronger.
These days I like to mix and match weights with bodyweight exercises. Lift heavy to gain strength with weights and use body weight exercises to build strength endurance. This is the best of both the worlds.
Now go and do it.
Kamal Singh is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has been coaching for 15 years
From HT Brunch, June 25, 2022
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