Top Bodyweight Exercises That You Can Perform Anywhere, Anytime

August 12 2014

Top Bodyweight Exercises That You Can Perform Anywhere, Anytime

Who says you need a gym membership to receive a full-body workout? Using nothing more than your own body’s weight, you can burn calories and build muscle. Known as bodyweight exercises, these exercises 

Push-ups

Arguably, one of the most powerful chest-targeting bodyweight exercises are push-ups. Push-ups target the chest, triceps and shoulders, and best of all, they can performed without any special weights of equipment. Just plant yourself face-down on the floor, keep your core tighten, and lift your body down and back up.

Note: changing the width of your hands will result in different muscle groups being targeted. Try shifting from a wide to narrow hand position and vise-versa.

Planks

If you aren’t incorporating planks into your regular workout routine, you’re missing out on a killer core-strengthening exercise. Planks are performed in a similar manner as push-ups, only with a few subtle changes. Rather than spreading your hands out open, keep them balled into a fist and hold yourself up using your forearms.When performing planks, you don’t want to lift your body down and up like a push-up. Instead, hold yourself in the “lifted” position for as long as possible.

Leg Raises

While we’re on the subject of core-strengthening workouts, we should mention leg raises. Leg raises are performed by lying with your back on the floor and lifting your legs (parallel to one another) as high as possible. Hold this position for as long possible, lower your legs, and repeat.

Leg raises are great bodyweight exercises that target the abs and hip flexors. From the moment you lift your legs into the air, you’ll feel almost every muscle in your core tighten.

Squats

Contrary to what some people may believe, you don’t need dumbbells or a weighted barbell to perform squats. You may not receive quite the same results, but your own bodyweight can be be used to perform squats. While standing upright, bend your legs at the knees to lower your body down. Stop when your thighs are almost parallel to the floor, at which point you should return to the standing position.

Other Bodyweight Exercises:

• Crunches
• Russian twists
• Calf raises
• Human flag
• Bridge
• Lunge
• Back extension
• Burpee
• Hyperextension
• Handstand

Push-ups photo courtesy of Helen Cook via Flickr Creative Commons.