In this article, we will look at four ways to change training with your own weight to increase its effectiveness for gaining strength and improving your body structure. In addition, we will give you some nutrition tips to support your workouts.
Are self-weight training effective?
Before we dive into the subtleties of increasing the intensity of training with your own weight, we will dispel one popular misconception — that such training is suitable only for “beginners” and can not provide serious results. This is a completely baseless claim.
It is based on the assumption that training with your own weight is less effective than strength training, since you do not exert yourself as much. Obviously, the last statement is true. However, this omits the fact that training involves more than just gaining strength.
There are different types of power. And if training with your own weight is really not the best option for increasing the result by one repetition, then they can be incredibly effective in improving muscle endurance and metabolism. In addition, they can significantly increase the time of muscle tension, ensuring muscle hypertrophy and improving such indicators as stability, balance and coordination.
Don’t underestimate training with your own weight. If you “lack” them, then you just need to increase their intensity. You need to change the exercises so as to increase their complexity. In the long run, simply increasing the number of repetitions will not be effective in training with your own weight.
Four ways to Optimize your Own Weight Training for Muscle Strength and Volume
There are a few simple changes that you can make to your own weight training to gain strength and increase muscle hypertrophy.
Change the pace
A certain pace of exercise is a great way to increase the time of tension of the desired muscle groups. You should set a target time for performing the exercises and stick to it to increase the time in tension. By increasing this time, we load the muscles more and strain the muscle fibers, which can increase hypertrophy.
To set the tempo, use the following four-number diagram to set the target levels for performing the movements. For example:
Temp: 4110
4 seconds-eccentric force/downward movement
1 second-pause at the bottom
1 second-concentric force/upward movement
0 seconds-pause at the top
For more hypertrophy, increase the time for eccentric and concentric effort. To gain strength, extend the pauses.
Do one and a half reps
Another great way to increase strength and tension time is to do one and a half repetitions. The implication is that you do a full repeat, then another half-repeat, and count it all as one repeat.
For example, doing push-ups you go down in the normal way, then do not rise to the top just to the middle,and then go down again , and then a rise. And it all counts as one” one-and-a-half ” repeat. An incomplete repeat can also be done at the beginning of a general repeat. For example, when squatting, you can go down to the middle, stand up, then perform a full squat, and count it all as one repeat.
Training with your own weight on power
Training with your own weight is very effective for increasing power. The necessary exercises are safe and involve almost no risk of injury, as they can be easily changed as necessary. For example, you can change the height of the jump when squatting with a jump so that you jump to a convenient height for you to avoid injury.
To increase the power when training with your own weight, simply add an element of increased body distance from the point of contact (ground). When doing push-ups, push off from the floor so that your hands leave the ground. When squatting and lunging, jump up until your feet are off the ground.
To increase the difficulty and power of your own weight exercises, slow down the eccentric phase until it comes to a complete stop, then quickly perform the concentric phase. For example, when squatting with jumps, go down slowly and stop, keeping control of the body, then push off the ground sharply and powerfully.
Endurance training with your own weight
In addition to increasing repetitions, how else can you increase muscle endurance when training with your own weight? Here are two great ways to achieve this.
First, do the combined movements. To do this, simply combine two or more exercises. It’s like doing a circular workout, where you do one exercise after another in a deliberate and purposeful way, but there are some small differences. With a combined movement, one complete repetition consists of repetitions of individual exercises.
For example, one squat, one push-up, and one lunge count as one total rep. This approach is convenient because the total number of repetitions is reduced.
Secondly, limit yourself in time. This is a relatively simple change. Focus not on the number of repetitions, but on the time. To increase endurance, you need to do more in the same period of time.
Let’s say we want to increase the endurance of the lower body and for this we decided to do squats and lunges. Usually we will set a goal for repetitions with the allocation of time to rest. When you focus on the time we will just keep doing the exercises, occasionally pausing to rest. For example, with a goal of 15 minutes, you need to do a squat and lunge constantly, resting only when you have no strength left at all.
Four Nutrition Tips for Training with Your Own Weight
Since training with your own weight is effective for developing strength, improving physical fitness and body structure in the vast majority of trainees, they deserve the same attention to nutrition as regular training.
We will not discuss the subtleties of nutrition before and after training. Let’s just take as a basis the fact that we need sufficient recovery and energy to make progress. Many fall into the trap of delusions about training with their own weight: “They are so simple, they can be done more often and do not think about nutrition after training.”
This logic can lead to some problems, so it is definitely worth eating well and maintaining the body. If you regularly do thoughtful workouts with your own weight, then use these three tips.
1. Maintain consistency
At first, this advice may seem strange, but try to keep the same meal schedule and diet as with normal strength training.
The simpler, the better. Eat natural and high-quality foods, try to make your meals rich in nutrients.
2. Remember about protein
Supplements can help with intense training with your own weight. As with traditional strength training, protein is important for muscle recovery and growth. If you don’t feel like you’re eating enough protein every day, try a protein shake that gives you the right amount of calories and essential nutrients.
3. Try Creatine
Creatine is an excellent supplement for increasing strength, endurance and power. Although weight training may not seem as heavy as traditional strength training, creatine can still be useful if you want to improve your overall fitness.
Creatine is easily absorbed. In addition, it is one of the few supplements on the market, the benefits of which are described in many studies.
4. Consider taking BCAAs
If you want to enrich your diet with amino acids and are looking for a delicious drink that will provide the body with essential amino acids and help in the fight against hunger, then you should definitely consider BCAAs, or branched chain amino acids. They can help increase your intake of leucine, an amino acid thought to play a role in muscle protein synthesis.
Note: Before you start a new type of training, change your diet, or start taking new supplements, you should always consult your doctor!
General recomendations
Training with your own weight is an effective way to increase your strength, power, endurance, and overall tone. Do not think that they are suitable only for beginners. Be creative and increase their complexity — and they will be effective for you, too. Treat them like regular workouts and don’t forget about proper nutrition and adequate recovery.
Read more: 3 MAIN RULES TO GAIN MUSCLES