8 Facts About Body Weight Workouts: Fitness and Strength Training without Weights or Gym Membership!

In the past I used to enjoy working out in a gym. I would spend about 60-90 minutes going throught my routine 2-3 times a week - it was motivating and fun working out around other people.

However, that feels like a different lifetime now - I did not have family and kids back then... Now - with a small child at home - my priorities are different: I want to be as efficient as I can with my time, and going to the gym just does not seem like an efficient way to get exercise any more. Bodyweight exercises combined with some running fit the bill perfectly...

I want to do my workout quickly and move on to other things!

I think working out at home is the perfect solution for many people who don't have time or money to go and join the gym. With running and bodyweight exercises you are finished with your routine by the time your neighbour gets to the gym!

So why aren't more people doing it? Most people who think about exercising at home get quickly discouraged thinking they need bulky, expensive equipment. Also, a huge issue seems to be with motivation...

And so most people just join the gym or quit exercising altogether.

The fitness industry wants you to believe that you need an endless range of equipment to reach your workout goals - treadmills, elliptical trainers, chest press machines, leg curl machines and other contraptions, but....

--DO NOT believe it!---

It is possible to reach your fitness goals with nothing but your own bodyweight!

Body weight exercises can help you build strength, muscles, improve endurance, cardio health, lose weight and fat - while also protecting you from injuries. You may not realize that, but you already have everything you ever needed to get in shape. Your own body weight and some knowledge and motivation are enough to ensure fantastic results and a lifetime of peak fitness

With body weight exercises, you prime your nervous system to increase freedom of movement and assimilate new skills more rapidly. If you only work out in the gym with machines, you may be toned and ready to put on that swimsuit, but are you ready to lift your child out of the car seat in the back of your car or place that heavy water bottle onto the dispenser without hurting your back?

You may not realize that but probably the most important indicator of true strength is how you handle your own body weight. Because exercise machines do all the stabilizing work for you, your muscles get stronger, but your body doesn't learn to do that stabilizing work for itself. So you get injured easily - when you fall down or dive for that fly ball - because your body does not know how to move to handle the situation correctly.

Body weight training will help protect your body from such injuries.

Exercising using your own body weight is suitable for both beginners and advanced athletes - it can be as easy or as challenging as you wish. And variety of exercises is much greater than just the usual push-ups and sit-ups.

PLUS, it gives you flexibility to train ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, on your own schedule.

1. Portability and convenience. You can do them wherever you are, whenever you want. Extremely important!
2. Huge time saving. No need to drive to the gym and back. Extremely important!
3. Anyone can do it: beginners, intermediates and advanced athletes. Body weight workout can be as tough or as gentle as you want it to be.
4. Great variety of exercises. Sometimes people who try the body weight exercises are discouraged by lack of variation. After all, you can only do so many push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks until you're bored to tears. But with some imagination and research, you can find a great variety of exercises, that will make your workouts FUN, so you'll be looking forward to each workout.
5. Money saved. No gym memberships, no expensive exercise equipment for your home training room.
6. Build strength and muscles. Increase your metabolism and lose weight naturally without artificial metabolism boosters. Need I say more...
7. Learn to better control and balance your own body weight. The key to body-weight exercise is integration. It's about teaching all the muscles to work together rather than isolating them to work independently. You also prime your nervous system to assimilate new skills more rapidly. The
8. Even if you decide to keep your gym membership, or purchase home equipment for exercising (such as a rebounder mini trampoline,or an elliptical or treadmill) you can use body weight exercise routines for when you travel or don't have time to get to the gym.

1. Running - I just put on my running shoes, step out of the house and run/walk for 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week;
2. A few minutes of working out with dumbbells and squats that I keep in my bedroom for a few minutes 2-3 times a week, and ...
3. Body-weight exercises for a few minutes a few times a week.
4. ...and I'm DONE.

For me, the real benefits of this type of routine is that it's something you can do almost anywhere, any time. It definitely beats most other exercise methods, and is much cheaper than paying those exorbitant liposuction prices :-). Can probably help you get rid of cellulite, too.