Advantages of body-weight exercise

Body-weight exercises, also known as callisthenics, have gained popularity in recent years due to their effectiveness in improving strength, flexibility, and overall fitness without the need for equipment or gym memberships.

“All exercise is beneficial. But even stacked up against other types of workouts, body-weight exercise has a lot to offer. Not only does it provide an excellent work­out, but it can also help you overcome some common excuses for avoiding exercise,” said an article by Harvard Medical School. 

It couldn’t be more convenient

No matter where one is, they can start exercis­ing anywhere, anytime—in the bedroom when waking up, in the kitchen while waiting for water to boil, or in a hotel room when travelling. 

With body-weight exercises, one might want a few props, such as a chair, bench, or counter to modify some moves, but these are all items that you have on hand.

The intimidation factor is low

One can do these exercises solo. It is not needed to walk into a gym full of buff exercisers and complicated-looking weight machines that require adjustments and may still not fit you properly.

It’s effective.

Research published in the journal Physiology and Behavior found that, as a form of resistance training, body-weight exercise helps build muscle “independent of an external load.” But it does more than that. When Polish researchers looked at the effects of 10 weeks of body-weight exercises on various physical fitness parameters in a small group of young women, they found improvements in seven out of nine of the parameters.

The biggest gains were in aerobic capacity, with a 33% improvement. Muscle endurance, particularly in the core, increased by 11%, while lower-body power posted a 6% gain. Even flex­ibility was better after the training.

You don’t necessarily have to do a lot of it.

While it’s good to meet the Physical Activity Guide­lines, smaller amounts of body-weight exercise can also deliver results. In a small study of active people in their 60s, Japanese researchers found that a work­out consisting of eight simple lower-body exercises increased the participants’ muscle strength and power by about 15% after 10 months.

That may not sound like much, but during this stage of life, strength and power are often declin­ing. What’s more, the participants achieved these gains by doing only six workouts a month.

It provides “functional” exercise

Most body-weight exercises work multiple muscles at once rather than training an isolated muscle or muscle group, as many exercise machines and dumbbell exercises do. Therefore, body-weight exercises are considered more functional, using more muscles and joints at a time, engaging balance and, and mimicking everyday activities.

It can be adjusted to your fitness level

 It may not be obvious how to do this at first. When one is using their body as the weight, they can’t just remove 10 or 20 pounds as one can with machines or dumb­bells. But there are ways to modify moves to decrease or increase the resistance. One can adjust body position—for example, doing push-ups against a wall rather than the floor—or can change the number of times they repeat an exercise or modify the pace they’re working at.

It’s good for your health

Literally thousands of studies have shown that the more one moves, the lower the risks for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, multiple types of cancer, joint pain, and Alzheimer’s disease. Exercise can also lift a person’s mood, reduce stress level, and improve sleep. Body-weight exercise is no exception.