Training with Body Weight - an Effective Way to Improve Fitness

We were not meant to do cardio on elliptical trainers. Performing the same repetitive cardio motion again and again results in to too much wear and tear. Its wiser to utilize bodyweight exercises to build our body while burning fat and strengthening the muscles. Training to control your body is the first step in becoming more athletic, and bodyweight training accomplishes this goal.

In this article, I am going to cover two main types of exercises that work the two problematic parts of the body - the chest and the abs.

Abs:

Abdominal curls are the best exercise for developing strong, flat abdominal muscles. Follow these guidelines to do the abdominal curl:

STEP 1: Lie on your back comfortably on the floor, bend your knees until they form an angle of 90 degrees. Fix your arms across your chest, so that the each hand holds the opposite shoulder, and push the elbows against your chest.

STEP 2: Begin the work out by contracting your abdominals and pushing your lower back into the floor, closing out the hollow between your lower back and the floor.

STEP 3: Constrict your abdominals, and steadily raise your shoulders and upper back off the floor. Coil your spine until you can't go up any more. Hold this position for about 3 seconds and gently return to the floor. This is one rep.

Do 15 reps each day, after a warm up.

To exercise the oblique muscles (the ones at the side of your abdominals) put your self in a similar position as the abdominal curl. Lift only one shoulder instead of both shoulders. After you perform the abdominal curl in the same fashion as described above, return to the floor, and repeat the same movement with the other shoulder. Do 10 on each side.

Chest:

Pushups are a splendid upper body exercise that utilize the body's own mass to build a firm fitness underpinning. They improve strength, equilibrium and steadiness by developing the key muscles such as the pectoralis major in the chest, the deltoids or shoulder muscles, the scapular muscles and rotator cuff, the triceps located on the back of the upper arm and the upper back muscles.

Follow these guidelines to push yourself up to perfection.

STEP 1: Lie chest-down with your hands at shoulder level, palms flat on the floor and slightly more than shoulder-width apart, and your feet together and parallel to each other.

STEP 2: Look forward. Do not look down towards the floor. Keep your legs straight and your toes tucked under your feet.

STEP 3: Straighten your arms as you push your body up off the floor. Keep your palms fixed at the same position and keep your body straight.

STEP 4: Exhale as your arms straighten out. Pause for a moment.

STEP 5: Lower your body slowly towards the floor. Bend your arms and keep your palms in fixed position. Make sure you keep your body straight and feet together.

STEP 6: Lower your body until the chest touches the floor. Do not to bend your back and inhale as you bend your arms.

STEP 7: Pause for a moment. Now repeat steps one to seven.

Utilizing your own body weight to achieve fitness is convenient and is at no cost. However, once you are brawny enough to handle your own body weight, you can't add any more resistance without turning to devices such as free weights.