Body exercises, need some ideas

[lostfoxeh]

I'm a huge fan of bodyweight exercise, and I'm wanting to make a routine. What I'm asking is what are some body exercises that I can put in my routine.

Stuff I already know:
push-ups (several variations)
pull-ups (several variations)
dips


This is where I need help getting more stuff to add. What I'm trying to do is get a plan on paper so I'm not making stuff up once I get out side so that I can make better use of my training time.

[Jackamaideshwang]

Pistols, front lever, back lever, leg raises, handstand pushups, pretty much any gymnastic skill you'd be able to use so look some up. Also have a look at Mr Puma, he does some pretty sweet stuff. I think nordic ham raises or something, bodyweight stuff for legs isnt too common, aside from plyometrics and the like.

[Birch]

Lying pullups, flags, duck walks, calf raises, hanging leg raises, Russian twists, forearm curls...
EEEEEEE this would be easier if you told us if you have any equipment... pull up bar? parallel bars? steps? etc

[lostfoxeh]

I have a pull up bar, and parallel bars, monkey bars, and these hurtle like bars, except they're a bit to high to hurtle over and they are fixed to the ground. I'm not sure what they are for but I use them like a balance beam...

[stefano]

Squat jumps, russian duck walk, single arm pushups,prone pedestal, single leg squat, split jump, scissor jump.

[Seiji]

Horse Stance, grows roots!
Why don't you experiment, try out things for fun... Try doing some awkward position, they usually end up as an exercise anyways :p Also, watching old kung fu movies is a great way. A lot of them have training sequences (usually exaggerated) which you can actually do. I HIGHLY suggest 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The best training movie ever. Almost the whole middle part of the movie is training.

Youtube is an excellent source of exercises. I'm making stuff on my youtube channel if you're interested. I have no equipment for working out besides a punching bag, stairs, and my bunk bed, so I pretty much live off of body weight stuff. Although, I do have resistance bands and dumbbells, but I rarely use them. SeijiiNakamaru is the channel.

[bingor]

Some other things to look into is plank, glute bridges, w/ a stability ball you can do things like hamstring curl, back extension, full rom situps etc. Natural glute-ham-raise or manual hamstring curl are also something to add to the mix. There's some cool bodyweight skills tutorials on the beastskills.com site.

[Ewasiuk]

Horse Stance, grows roots!

Great for martial arts stance training and static endurance but not so much for strength :wink:

[Aiden Bloodaxe]

Manual labour until you're able to afford gym membership.

[Ashtar]

Aidan has a good idea there. Jobs involving a lot of ladder climbing (try stocking a big store at night shift) or lifting stuff around (construction?) are good. Watch Clannad, the main character climbs poles.

Natural glute-ham-raise
The glute-ham raise is the perfect example of why bodyweight exercises are not always more 'natural' or 'instinctive' than lifting weights or even some machines.

Leg pressing a sled is more natural a movement than a glute-ham raise.

[Ewasiuk]

Leg pressing a sled is more natural a movement than a glute-ham raise.

-GHR > leg press(notice how I didn't capitalize leg press because it's not important at all)

-Squat > leg press

[Ashtar]

Squat>leg press>GHR. In terms of things you might actually need to do in the wild, a leg press is more transferable.

Your observing that squats are better was fucking stupid because I never insinuated they weren't.

Furthermore, your observation about capitalization is stupid. GHR needs to be capitalized anyway because you made it into an acronym. As does squat because it's the start of a sentence/paragraph.

[Aiden Bloodaxe]

It doesn't always matter which movement is more 'natural', although that is almost always the case. GHRs are quite a useful exercise.

[anfeyd]

Yes Ashfag, strength is a very general thing. Squatting and leg pressing will probably bring about the same results if you're only wondering about 'things you need to do in the wild.'

In this case the exercises are so non specific it doesn't really matter a great deal.

[Ashtar]

It doesn't always matter which movement is more 'natural', although that is almost always the case. GHRs are quite a useful exercise.This is what I was getting at, I think it's really useful too, just saying that it doesn't matter what's natural or what's bodyweight or whatever, but purely about usefulness.

The GHR is unusual, and it probably helps people do unusual things, such as flips (I am not sure if back or front...) which are not actually useful in the wild unless you're trying to frighten bears with them, but are incredibly useful as an athletic feat to entertain people.

[bingor]

If you look at a glute ham raise being done on the ghr bench, starting with a back extension you'll see that its a bw variant of a deadlift, it utilizes hip extension to complete, its the only way to train the muscles that are responsible for picking up stuff on the floor and bringing it to the waist, the thing is with this setup you don't actually pick up anything but the weight of your torso. I called it a natural ghr in my post because not everyone has access to ghr bench, so the next best thing is that, also called a nordic hamstring curl. In terms of bw, squats, pistols etc are great, but they barely hit the posterior chain, the idea here is to prevent muscle imbalance.

[Ashtar]

No, the bodyweight version of a deadlift or a good morning is a standing hip flexor stretch, which you can do one-legged if you want it to be harder.

A GHR doesn't even deserve to be called a bodyweight movement, it uses odd equipment. Not like how chinups use equipment either, but a serious odd piece of machinery I can't think of an equivilent in nature for.

It has nothing to do with the deadlift because your feet aren't on the ground. The amount of work it does on your back and glutes is neglible. It's not superior in any way to a standing hamstring stretch or doing a back extension on a 45degree incline.

The main purpose as I can see it is hamstring activation, which it does do in concert with the glutes and back, but the hamstring is the main thing hit.

The difference between this and standing stretches is that the hamstring is more shortened when you do it. This basically makes it the bodyweight version of a leg curl. The fact that there is movement at the hips and the back is free isn't really that important.

Also, strong people tend to do these weighted too, so if it's okay to weight a GHR then it's okay to weight a standing hamstring stretch (a good morning or deadlift). Hamstring activation exercise, basically.

When it comes to isolation-type stuff, the difference between open/closed chain movements isn't as important as with compound movements, so it's a neat move, but you can hit the hamstring with leg curl machines too. Maybe the movement is similar to a backflip or something, I have no idea, is that why people like it?

Or is it because they think it's good to be about to fall on your face and catch yourself with your hands? Can't you drop from standing into a pushup for that effect?

[bingor]

A "natural" ghr(w/o equipment) and a legitimate ghr(w/ equipment) are similar, but they are not the same. The legitimate ghr is similar to a deadlift in that it trains hip extension, the natural ghr is equivalent to a hamstring curl, but they are not the same.

As for how the original one is comparable to a deadlift, it's in that it mimics the movement and action of lifting a "weight"(in this case your whole upper torso) up away from the ground. Also this isn't about whats more "effective" when it comes down to either bw exercise or weightlifting, its just a suggestion, especially since the posterior chain gets neglected.

As for odd equipment, if your talking about the natural ghr it ain't hard to find something to anchor your feet under, even better is to have someone hold em down for ya. As for only targeting the hamstrings, well that's the point, glutes get hit doing simple stuff like glute bridges, and unless your goal is to increase a deadlift pr, weekend warriors are better off training strength-endurance for the lower back, something like the "bird-dog" do fine for that.

Once again, the idea behind training the backside is to prevent imbalances. Blah blah blah basically all the crap I typed up in my previous post...

[Ashtar]

I know they are not the same. I did not say they were the same.

The legitimate GHR does not 'train' hip extension. Yes, you use your hip extensors, but I really doubt they're going to experience any notable tension compared to when you're using them to deadlift.

It does not mimic a deadlift because the direction of force is totally different. With a deadlift, the tension is pushing through your feet into the ground. With a GHR the tension is going through the back of your heel or achilles tendon or wherever it is you are being anchored to do the lever movement.

In regards to odd equipment, what I mean is, while in the modern world there are things like people to hold your feet, or a couch or whatever, it's just really not a functional movement that would actually accomplish anything in nature. How often does a beast happen to perfectly pin both ankles and you do some GHR to try and choke it or something? More likely, doing so would cause their claws to dig in further, sever the tendon, then your legs are crippled and it eats you.

Training the backside to prevent imbalances is fine (I believe that's what I say a lot...) and training hamstrings is fine too, but all the people spending time getting set up on their fancy GHR movements instead of doing a hamstring curl machine, I think they're imagining more benefits than they're probably getting.

More lower back endurance is good, but you can get it easier from other movements which are more stable and let you focus more on the back.

[tpvlyrm]

When limited to exercising without free weights or odd objects, I use isometrics a lot. Pushing and pulling against immovable objects, essentially. There are countless different positions and ways of doing this, using corners, walls, ropes and bars, the floor, and anything else that won't move. I prefer holds up to about 2 minutes. Anything under 30 seconds is too intense and doesn't make me feel good.
They're good, but because they make you surprising strong afterwards, and feel energised, their significantly fatiguing nature can kind of creep up on you.

[blueeyedgirl]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q80yumhU-Eo&feature=PlayList&p=9BDD70AF6CA3DB1D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37

[Ashtar]

Objects do not need to be immovable to be doing isometrics with them. You really should have some system of measurement with isometrics to get an idea of the minimum you're pressing, since you won't know the maximum. That's why they do isometric presses against a power rack bar and stuff.