Adventures in Exercising: Bodyweight Exercises
For our Perfect Madness Balance month of January I have decided to focus on exercise. I don’t want to engage in the resolutions of old, but instead I want to change my entire approach to physical fitness. I want to discard the days of body punishing and box ticking. I want to indulge in exercise. I want it to be a gift I give myself. In order for this mind shift to occur, I need to first find exercises I take pleasure in doing, so each week I will try a new form of exercise and report back my experiences, including a rating from 1-5, with 5 being the best experience possible.
This Week: Bodyweight Exercises
What is it:
Bodyweight exercises are very popular right now, and are clearly the Zumba of 2013, and the CrossFit of 2014. They are strength exercises that do not require a gym, weight machines, or free weights. Your own body provides the resistance and weight needed. When done in quick repetition a cardio training aspect can also be included.
For my first bodyweight exercise (BWE) experience I used a video from buzzfeed sharing the 12 exercises that will change your life. Though a simple google search will provide an endless supply of BWE for you to choose from. I did 20 repetitions of each, or held poses for 20 seconds, and repeated for 3 rounds in total, with a short break in between to catch my breath. The whole work-out only took me 20 minutes.
Benefits:
- Can be done anywhere at anytime
- Free
- No equipment needed
- Easy to learn
- Fast
- Great for when traveling or for parents of young children who want to exercise in random locals like play parks
- Easy to change-up and keep fresh with so many routines available online
- Used new and many muscle groups
- Made my baby laugh at me, especially the jumping squats
Drawbacks:
- Felt more like work than fun part way into the second round, so slightly more akin to the body punishing exercise I would like to avoid
- Very sore the next morning
- Constant attention to the task at hand required, which prevents socialising with work-out partners, or time to lose yourself in your thoughts
Rating:
4/5. It is clear to see why bodyweight exercise is trending as the top fitness activity for 2015. I have been an avid fan of “stop-drop-and-yoga” for years, so the ability to perform bodyweight exercises anywhere without any equipment appeals to me. The fast paced movement got the heart racing, and the muscles burning almost immediately. Though I loved the intensity of the workout, and will continue to incorporate into my fitness routine, I think less rounds and more frequent is the way forward, to ensure the activity is still fun.
See the other Adventures in Exercising here:
Main photo by Nick Kenrick.
