Spring Training and Bodyweight Muscle Building

Spring is here! At least in some parts of the country, and even if you are still nursing hot cups of steaming beverages and shivering in your thermal underwear, summer is not far around the corner.

That means more activity and less clothing, which means now is the perfect time to start shedding pounds and packing on some muscle! Fortunately, with bodyweight exercises you can do both, and because it's a busy life, you can keep it simple.

If you have mastered doing 20-30 pushups without much effort, then you are ready for this upper body workout. If not, work on basic, wide hands and close hands pushups to failure and beyond (*see below) until you can.

For those who are ready, do the following exercises, resting about 2 minutes after you have gone to failure and beyond.

*Failure and beyond: When your muscles cannot do another rep of the exercise. You then switch to an easier exercise, such as regular pushups or pushups on your knees, each one to the same degree of failure. If you feel excessive strain on your wrists while doing pushups, consider purchasing some inexpensive pushup stands to relieve the pressure.

Pushing to failure and beyond is how we are going to build some spring/summer muscle, and develop greater body awareness at the same time. You can build muscle with bodyweight exercises, and performing this routine as described will leave you no doubts.

*For these three exercises, when you reach failure, switch to regular pushups to failure, and finally pushups on your knees to failure. As always, warm up your joints with mobility exercises and joint rotations before 'going heavy.'

∞There are no set reps. Go until you can't go any more.∞

Exercise 1: Divebomber Pushup

In this video, she recommends only doing 5 divebomber pushups. But remember, you are going to absolute failure (whether that's 2 or 20,) then switching to regular pushups and then to pushups on your knees.

Do these with minimal momentum, maintaining muscle tension throughout the movement.


Exercise 2: Scorpion Pushups

A good rule of thumb when doing scorpion pushups is to imagine your are trying to touch the heel of the reaching foot to the opposite shoulder. Do these with minimal momentum, maintaining muscle tension throughout the movement.

Exercise 3: Hands to Hips Pushups

As with the other exercises, do these with minimal momentum. Keep the body rigid (as if you'll have a choice!) the entire time and avoid 'bouncing' up and down.

That is your entire chest, shoulders and triceps workout for today! In addition, you will be doing extensive core work and activating the lats quite a bit to stabilize your movements.

How many sets of each should you do? That depends. If you go to complete failure as described, you may not need to or be able to do anymore. 

If you feel you can, give it a try. However, work harder on the second set; really push for those last reps.

***If you want a great read and a handy comprehensive bodyweight fitness reference by your side, I highly recommend this book:

You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises

Core, Legs, Triceps BW Workout Routine

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Today's workout is courtesy of the pain in my shaking legs for two hours after I was finished. It stems from two things I enjoy when working out: A lack of any pre-determined sets and reps, and exercises that flow together in a seamless fashion. A little further explanation:

My bodyweight routines tend to have a loose structure with a general goal in mind. For example, this workout I wanted to do several sets of pushups, work squats until my quads screamed and get warm enough to do some yoga poses. The overall goal was to go until my muscles, in particular my triceps, chest and legs, were spent. Here was the result, more or less...

Warm-up: Sun salutations, half moon to both sides and back, sun salutations then immediately to...

Modified Hindu Push-ups: Upward facing dog to child's pose. Then:

Pushups: This started as regular pushups, then progressed to walking pushups. Like this: Do a pushup,  walk both hands one 'step' to the right, do a pushup. Then repeat on other side. Always do a pushup in the center.

Quad Sit-ups? From resting on your knees with your butt on your heels, use your quads to pull your body up to kneeling. Keep the glutes and stomach tight. Sit back down and repeat.

When you can't do another, immediately pitch forward and do more of the pushups as done above.

When you have had enough of this (I lasted about three rounds for ??? reps) do:

Pushup to Extended Side Arm Plank: Do a pushup and press up into an extended side arm plank. That is, the arm on the bottom and top are extended. Repeat on both sides until you can't do another one.

Elephant Walkout: At this point the memory gets hazy, so this may not be the exact order. However, these are great for the core. Stand up straight, reach your hands straight to the floor and walk out as far as you can go. All the way to a Superman plank if possible. Walk back the way you came. Do this several times and try to progress to:

Iron Cross Plank: Once fully extended, or close to it, walk your hands out to your sides. The goal is to have them parallel with the shoulders and the arms still extended. The reality is it will probably take you a while to do it that way! But try just the same. It's fun, and effective.

Now at this point you may feel like you need a break, but don't stop for water just yet! Instead, bring your arms in, drop to your elbows, keeping them extended in front of your shoulders, and press off the floor. These are basically triceps extensions, adjust your arms to place the emphasis on the triceps.

I can't tell you how long this went on for, or whether or not I left out some exercises. But this is how I finished:

Balanced Leg Extensions


Stand straight with hands on hips. Bring your right knee up as far as you can (your chest is ideal). Make your other leg strong and press it into the ground. From here, extend your right leg straight out in front of you. Try to hold it for at least 3 seconds.

Without putting the leg down, bring your knee back to your chest, turn the hip over and push the leg out to the side as straight as possible, driving with the heel. For you 'tae kwon do fans, this is a side kick.

Bring the knee back to the starting position and press it straight backwards. Hold each position for several seconds, and always struve to keep the leg at waist height.

With all three positions done, you can lower the leg to the ground. Now repeat on the other side. Remember to move slowly and in perfect form. Think 3 seconds to extension, 3 seconds hold, 3 seconds back to flexed position.

Do as many sets/rounds of these exercises as you need to get a thorough workout. Push yourself to get the best results. Feel like something is missing? Throw your own favorite in between these movements! Especially if it flows.

For more on the Elephant Walk-Out, click here:

 Bodyweight Workout Routine: Whole Body Conditioning

For more on pushup variations, read these:

MosLadder: The Mother of All Chest Workouts???

Every Pushup Exercise you can Think of and the Celebrities Who do them

Bodyweight Mobility and Core Exercise Routine

Today is all about increasing mobility and strengthening the core, from the glutes and lumbar, to the abdominal wall and obliques. Beginners stick to the low number of sets, reps and timed rounds.

The Good Morning-Just as effective without weight

Warm-up: -Good mornings x 20 (Place hands behind neck or extend in front of you. Keep hamstrings and glutes tight as you bend to waist level and back up.)











-Bikram style Half Moon Pose: Right 10s, left 10s, backward 10s

Half Moon Pose

-Joint Rotations: Neck, shoulders, arms, hips, each leg, knee and ankle.

Then: Do 2, 3, or 4 rounds of the following; no rest between exercises; 1 minute between rounds.

Cossack Squat + Full Squat Sit:  Sit for 5 seconds in each position, repeat 5-10 times.

You don't need the chains yet

Full squat sit, just like these guys

Then:

Birddog: x 10-15 reps with 2-3 second pause in extended position. Start in pushup plank position, arms straight. Bend the right leg, then extend left arm while lifting right leg as high as you can. Switch sides and continue until you reach the required number of reps per side.

Go immediately to your right side and do:
Starfish: On your side, push up onto side elbow, or side extended arm plank. While holding this position, lift the outside leg straight up and hold, like a 'starfish.' 5-10 reps with 3 seconds hold each rep.
Switch sides to complete the exercise.

Then:

Straight Leg Sit-Ups:

On elbow, or extend the arm.

Lay flat, extend legs and arms, tighten your stomach and sit all the way up, continuing forward to stretch your arms towards your toes. Hold the stretch for three seconds, lay all the way back down and repeat.
6, 10 or 15 reps.

Beginners/Intermediates can stop here, or continue to:

Straight Leg Lifts to Reverse Crunch: Lift straight legs together for leg lifts, bend knees at top of movement and squeeze knees towards chest. 3 seconds up and 3 down, repeat 10-20 times.

Push yourself, but don't go to the point of pain. Move slowly into new exercises and engage core at all times.