Bodyweight Exercises

Losing weight and getting in shape are not the same thing.  Warren Sapp, at over 300 pounds, was quicker and more agile than people half his size.  And Nicole Richie lost a lot of weight, but clearly does not look in shape.  Getting in shape will generally melt away the excess fat you’re carrying around.   Combining a well-planned routine with a proper diet will heolp you lose (fat) weight and get in shape the quickest.  Now, how can you lose weight without dieting?

Losing weight is a very simple equation: burning more calories than you take in == weight loss.  So the idea is to burn more calories throughout the day than you take in.  The more calories you burn, the faster the weight comes off.  But, the more calories you burn, the more stress you put your body under.  And stress will eventually break your body down, unless you give it sufficient opportunity to rest.  This is the idea behind “split day” routines in weightlifting.  Working your biceps hard every day does not give yor body enough time to restore the muscle tissue and get rid of the lactic acid that builds up in the mucsle tissue, and eventually your biceps will cramp up or tear.  Ouch!

Bodyweight exercises, on the other hand, do not tear up muscle tissue and, by keeping the flow of blood to the body part being worked unimpeded, can get rid of the lactic acid buildup a lot quicker.  A great routine to lose weight quickly is to do pushups every hour during the day.  Now, that’s impractical for most people.  But it demonstrates that bodyweight exercises don’t need as much rest time as weightlifting.

There are also bodyweight exercises that focus on working your heart rate and increasing blood flow.  Jumping jacks, for example, have almost no other purpose other than to get your hear rate up into the target zone as quickly as possible.  Jumping jacks are also easier to do than jumping rope for a lot of people, from a coordination point of view.  And they just feel better than squats.  They can also be done at the beginning of your routine (as a warm-up), at the end (as a cool-down), or in between exercises (to keep your heart rate up).  So incorporating jumping jacks into your exercise routine is another easy way to lose weight.

So one way to lose weight without dieting is to begin a program of bodyweight exercises.  Another way is to change your eating behavior.  Not the foods you eat - but how you eat them.  Don’t eat anything after 8 or 9 at night (taking your work schedule into consideration, of course).  Plan on eating something every 2 or 3 hours during the day.  The “in between” snacks should be healthier foods, not brownies and cookies.  Well, every now and then is okay.  Drink water instead of diet sodas.  And if water is boring, drop a mint or 2 into the bottle for flavor without adding unneccessary calories.  Learning a little bit about nutrition will help also.  It’s not necessary to get a Ph.D. in Dietary Science, but understanding why spinach is so important or why diet sodas may actually cause you gain weight will help you decide what foods to eat.

Jumping on a fad diet may help you lose weight in the short term.  Most studies show that people don’t stick to the diets, and that most people will gain that weight back.  But changing your behavior so that you consistently maintain or lose weight because your activity level and manner of eating - combined with eating better - have you burning calories consistent with how many you eat is the best and healthiest way of weight control.  Plus, your energy level will soar, your moods will level out, you’ll be happier, and you’ll win the office football pool every week.  Well, the office pool thing may be a little much.  But you will be able to make better picks.

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What’s the first thing you think of when someone says “bodyweight exercises“?  Probably pushups and squats, right?  And when someone else says “sit ups,” you say “Ugh! I hate sit ups!”  Because everyone hates situps.  They’re hard.  They hurt.  They’re embarassing (depending on what you ate, and when).  And they aren’t all that effective.  But you have to do abdominal exercises, because a big chest and big shoulders with a big belly still looks FAT.

So how can you work your abs without doing situps or using equipment (because that’s one of the focuses of this blog: bodyweight exercises without equipment).  Well, one of my favorites - and the one that has given me consistent and quick results - is the V-up.  This is also called the Jack-knife.  I like it because it hits all the muscles of your abs AND throws balance in the mix.

The exercise itself is simple to describe:
    1.  Lie on your back, with your arms extended over your head
    2.  Keeping your legs straight, raise them up.  At the same time, pull your chest up, keeping your arms straight.
    3.  Keep bringing legs and chest up until legs and arms are both pointing straight up, and only your butt is on the floor.
    4.  You should now look like a V or a folded Jack-knife.
From this:

     |_______o___

To this:

       |   \  

        \    o

          \   /

            =

    5.  And back down, to repeat over and over, to flatness.

Like I said, I especially like the fact that this exercise requires you to maintain your balance, so the obliques and the small muscles up and down the back come into play.

This is a pretty advanced exercise.  If you can’t do it right away (don’t feel bad - it’s an exercise the Navy SEALS use during their training!), build up to it:

    1.  Lie on your back in position #1

    2.  Keeping your legs straight, raise them up 6 inches off the ground and hold for 10-20 seconds.
    3.  Lower and repeat.

I try to do these every day.  Talk about igniting the “fire in the belly!”  The V-up is an exercise that will hit your abs hard, but won’t wear them out for the rest of the day.  And it is easily integrated into your daily fitness routine.  Plus, I am sure there is a component of setting your chi in motion (if you believe in such stuff.  The V-up is ideally situated to stimulate your tan tien and start the flow of chi.  But I digress…)

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