The lack of access to a gym shouldn’t hold you back! Common reasons like “I don’t have a gym” or “I can’t afford equipment” shouldn’t stop you from prioritizing your physical health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the renowned Arnold Schwarzenegger reminded us, “Bodyweight, or freehand, training is the oldest method in the world. Gladiators and Vikings didn’t have gymnasiums.” Bodyweight exercise can be an excellent choice for your fitness routine. Not only is it convenient, but it may, in some cases, be more effective than conventional weightlifting for improving overall fitness. The primary reason may lie within the body’s control center: the central nervous system.
Understanding Strength and Muscle
Muscle is responsible for strength by producing contractile force. A muscle shortens, pulling on the bones, which creates motion about a joint. The more force produced to shorten a muscle, the greater the strength in that given movement. It is not necessarily the size of a muscle but how much force is used to shorten that produces strength. In other words, big muscles do not always produce high amounts of strength. This is how individuals with smaller physiques, such as the legendary mixed martial artist Bruce Lee, who weighed nearly 140 pounds, could perform great feats of strength and power. It is theorized that the efficiency of communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the working muscles is what is responsible for producing greater amounts of strength.
How the CNS Influences Strength
The brain and spinal cord send signals, known as action potentials, down the neurons to the muscle(s) they innervate with to communicate with the muscle. Upon receiving a signal, a muscle fiber will contract. The greater the signal, the greater the ability a muscle can shorten. Put simply, the more signals a muscle receives from a nerve, the more strength it can produce.
Greasing the Groove: Mastering Movements
So, how can we influence our nervous system to produce more of these signals? One way is to perform countless repetitions of a specific movement. For instance, to get really good at pull-ups, one must perform lots of them. Pavel Tsatsouline, the famous coach who pioneered the popularity of kettlebell training in the West, refers to this as “greasing the groove.” This is where bodyweight training comes in. Bodyweight training is great for workouts involving high repetitions due to a lack of extra resistance from a weight.
Let’s revisit our pull-ups for an example. Choosing not to add weight to your pull-ups will allow your body to perform more repetitions. Even though you are not creating as much muscle damage (the primary catalyst for muscle growth), you are creating more opportunities for your body to “learn the movement” or “grease the groove.” Each repetition integrates the movement into your central nervous system, developing a “mind-muscle connection.” This integration allows your nervous system to send more signals, enabling greater control and thus greater force production in that movement, making you stronger over time.
Key Movements for Bodyweight Training
After learning how bodyweight training can help produce strength by creating a strengthening communication between the nervous system and the working muscles, what are some ways to perform bodyweight training? As with any strength training program, we must focus on a few key movements: pushes, pulls, rotations, isometric holds, and single-limb movements.
For bodyweight training, some of the most popular movements include squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, trunk twists, and planks. Starting with these exercises forms a great foundation for those just beginning in bodyweight training. Over time, as your body adapts to the workload, try varying different factors to make the exercises more challenging. Increasing the number of sets and repetitions is commonly used but is not the only factor that can be varied. The speed of the exercise, body positioning, and performing an exercise unilaterally, such as a one-handed push-up, are also great ways to increase the difficulty.
Now that you’ve learned why bodyweight training is effective and how to implement it into your fitness routine, you can train anywhere, anytime. There are no excuses! Keep in mind that mastering the art of bodyweight training does not happen overnight. It takes time and dedication. Consistency and discipline are key to practicing these movements.
Start off with each of the six basic exercises at a difficulty level suitable for you, and incorporate more challenging variations as your body adapts and gets stronger.
Now get after it!
While many have come to appreciate the convenience of working at home, the impact it can create on a sense of routine is far-reaching. When you head into the office for the day, it can be easier to honor that me-time in your schedule to squeeze in a group fitness class or work out in the onsite fitness center. When you are working from home, the distractions of the dishes in the sink, laundry in the dryer, and kids trying to complete homework can compete for those precious spare minutes of downtime you have between meetings and work obligations. 