This day and age with the onslaught of fads creeping into the industry the concept of training with Bodyweight Exercises gets well and truly overlooked. At Body Planners, we know how versatile bodyweight exercises are, and understand how they can work as a stand alone training session, or serve up a tasty warm up or finisher to a workout.

Here are just 5 reasons why Bodyweight Exercises can help boost your gains;
1. Quick, Efficient and Effective.
Because most bodyweight exercises can be done literally on the spot, they really do make for quick, effective anywhere, anytime workouts. Big complex exercises such as lunges and squats, press ups and pull ups (and their variants) all work the major muscle groups and core muscles rep by rep. This is good to develop basic muscular strength and endurance in a short time frame.
2. They require better balance and flexibility.
And as a result, they can improve your balance and flexibility. When you perform movements muscles work in groups and pairs, one will be the main driving force, others will assist, and stabilise. With machines it’s easy to just jump on and move the pin and BOOM, attack your reps and sets. With Bodyweight Exercises you don’t have that luxury because you don’t have the seat to hold your weight when you do your row, of the back rest to push against in your leg press. Your body has to provide the stable platform to maintain good form, and act as a firm base for your other levers to push from.
3. Control and Variety.
With machines, the only way you can perform a movement is by doing only what the machine allows, but there are lots more ways to stress a muscle than machines allow. The body moves across 3 planes of movement, it bends forwards and backwards, it flexes side to side and it rotates, yet 90 to 95% of gym machines only stress your body in a ‘facing forward’ kind of way. With Bodyweight Exercises there’s no limit to which way you can move provided it is done so under control and in a safe manner. The better your movement is, the better it will get, adding to the functionality and flexibility of muscles as explained above.
4. Anywhere Anytime.
As mentioned above in point 1, they can be done anywhere at any time, all it takes is a bit of bravery and a bit of imagination. Yes, it sounds a bit ‘American’ going to your local park and pushing out your sets, but it is a really good way to take in the outdoors, and smash your fitness goals for the day.
5. They help lose body fat.
It is well documented industry wide that Bodyweight Exercises help build a lean body. Switching from exercise to exercise in the form of a circuit will help develop functional strength and push up your heart rate which will help your cardio respiratory fitness. They won’t make you maximally strong, but they are more productive when it comes to building a lean body than long bouts of monotonous cardio, all of which faces the same way.
Don’t shun the thought of a Bodyweight session, they carry more clout than you might think when it comes to building up that calorie deficit (you need this to lose weight). At Body Planners we know and understand the effectiveness of Bodyweight Exercises, and it’s for that reason they creep in to PT, Lift and 45 sessions at every level.