Bodyweight Exercises | Bodyweight Workouts

Bodyweight Workouts

Bodyweight Workouts | Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight Exercises vs Machines

Are bodyweight exercises or machines for fat loss better for you? Many people seem to flock towards the machines and getting an expensive gym membership. Do you really need it or will bodyweight exercises be all you need to lose fat and build some lean muscle.

Craig Ballantyne has the answer to whether or not you need machines for fat loss or whether bodyweight exercises will do the trick.

Bodyweight Exercises vs Machines for Fat Loss

Let’s talk about bodyweight exercise alternatives–can people really get a good fat burning workout just using their bodyweight and a set of dumbbells?

The answer is yes.

They don’t need fancy machines or expensive gym memberships?

No.

There’s nothing magical about machines. And to be honest with you, machines are only designed for the “average sized” person. So if you are short or tall, you are really out of luck.

If you train at home, or on the road while traveling for business, you’re not going to have access to fancy equipment. You might have to “get by” with only dumbbells and your bodyweight.

But since you only have a short amount of time to workout, say 3 sessions of 45 minutes per workout per week, it is a big help if we can pair dumbbell and bodyweight exercises together in our workouts.

(Hey, I’ve tried training a client on a Bowflex…and we spent more time trying to set-up the machine for different exercises than he did using it. Eventually we got him to get a set of powerblocks to avoid the hassle.)

On the other hand, there are dozens of bodyweight exercises we can use for bodysculpting for the lower body, abs, and upper body that require no set-up at all.

Craig Ballantyne’s favorite Bodyweight Exercises

a) Spiderman Pushups

b) Any single leg exercise (from single-leg squats, to split squats, to the many types of step-ups I use, to all the lunges you can think of)

c) Total body ab exercises (I try to avoid crunching motions – bodyweight crunches are limited in effectiveness, so I prefer to use total body ab exercises like mountain climbers)

d) Close-grip Pushups (these work a woman’s arms better than any triceps kickback ever will)

e) Lying Single-Leg Hip Extensions for the butt

f) Chin-ups for arms (and there’s even a really cool way for men and women to do assisted chin-ups if they are just starting out on this exercise, and I’m not talking about those expensive, gigantic assisted pull-up machines)

Best Bodyweight Exercises

One of the best uses of bodyweight exercises are in fat burning bodyweight circuits. These circuits are a great replacement for regular cardio and even for intervals.

Take 3 upper body bodyweight exercises and alternate them with 3 lower body bodyweight exercises. Rest 1 minute and repeat 3-5 times for a 20 minute bodyweight workout. Bodyweight exercises are great for all us desk jockeys, because it improves our mobility and reduces upper body tension.

Bodyweight training gives you fast fat loss, at no cost, and without the need for a 2nd garage in your house to store all the equipment. You can take your bodyweight workouts outside in the summer, on the road when you travel, and even on holidays so that you don’t miss a workout.


Pick up your Turbulence Training Bodyweight Exercises Manual Today!

Don’t waste a single second in the gym,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS – But you say you don’t have time? If she does, you do!

“I bought turbulence training because I just started working, and time had become an issue, working 70 hours a week with a family of five kids, making every minute count is a definite priority. The workouts are great, easy to follow and I’ve lost 15 lbs since Jan.
Thanks so much for this great program.”
Christine, Washington State

Pick up your Turbulence Training Bodyweight Exercises Manual Today!

“I have been doing your workouts for a month or so now, and already I am getting better results than I got with 6 months of personal training last year!”
Dr. Matt Freedman
Discover Chiropractic Center
North Hollywood

“I’ve been employing Turbulence Training with my clients for some time now, and I can say that they are delighted with results, not only because of the fat they burn, but also because of the time they save. Program is great for busy people – basic, most efficient principles in comprehensive and practical form. And I can add from personal experience, Craig is real professional and great guy in conducting business with his clients and associates.”
Davor Krudna., Martial Arts Instructor and Conditioning Coach,
Croatia

I have been using bodyweight exercises for some time now working out at home with just some dumbbells and a bench. When I use to workout at the gym I always had to wait for machines and the machines restricted my movement. You actually work more muscles when you are using free weights and bodyweight exercises. My body feels a lot stronger because of the bodyweight exercises I am doing.

Pick up your Turbulence Training Bodyweight Exercises Manual Today!

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Bodyweight Cardio

Bodyweight Cardio is an excellent alternative to using cardio machines or regular cardio classes you would find at a gym. The bodyweight cardio workouts include strength and interval training within them. Even know they are a great workout do they burn as many calories as running at a fast pace during exercise?

Here is Craig Ballantyne the author of Bodyweight Cardio Workouts to tell you the truth about bodyweight cardio.

Truth About Bodyweight Cardio

By Craig Ballantyne
Turbulence Training & the Bodyweight 500 Workout

Bodyweight Cardio 3The truth about Bodyweight Cardio is that it has the worst name in Turbulence Training history. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I put that label on it, but I’m not 3 workouts deep and pretty much stuck with it.

A better physiological description would be, “Bodyweight Interval Training” or “Bodyweight Metabolic Conditioning”.

I call bodyweight circuits a hybrid of strength and interval training. The bodyweight exercises used in these particular bodyweight workouts are not so intense that they will cause you to gain muscle, but neither would you be able to work as hard as you can during sprint training.

You won’t burn as many calories in 30 minutes of bodyweight cardio as you would in 30 minutes of running at a fast pace. Truth be told, only kettlebell training has the ability to burn as many calories within a workout as running at a hard pace.

Think about this…each pushup you do must burn less than 1/3 of a calorie. After all, if you do 100 pushups in 3 minutes (that’s my score in the Martin Rooney 3-minute pushup test), there’s no way that I’m burning more than 15 calories per minute (not when running at a fast pace only burns 16-20 calories per minute).

So in terms of “within workout” calorie burning, bodyweight cardio does not beat regular cardio.

Bodyweight Cardio Metabolic Conditioning

That said, because bodyweight cardio is a combination of resistance training and interval training, you should get greater post-workout calorie and fat burning benefits.

And knowing what we know today about metabolic resistance training, and based on Alwyn Cosgrove’s description of the two types of MRT that he gave us, it is easy to place bodyweight cardio in the metabolic conditioning category (higher reps, less soreness from a session, sustained high heart rate).

As Alwyn said, “Your body doesn’t really know what it’s doing, all it knows is that it gets your heart rate up.”

So the key and challenge is to create bodyweight cardio workouts that put the greatest demand on our cardiovascular systems (to burn a lot of calories within the workout) while taking advantage of the depletion results from the interval-like and resistance properties of bodyweight training to increase the between-session calorie burn (like we get from regular weight training).

To do this, we should use the non-competing exercise rule we use in our TT workouts. If creating a circuit, going from a lower-body exercise to an upper-body exercise is most appropriate, as is focusing on as many single-leg exercises as possible.

The “Big 5″ circuit approach works well for this:

Squat, Push, Pull, Single-Leg, Total Body Ab, as does the Big 6 (addition of a jump exercise at the start) and Big 7 (further addition of a sprint type exercise at the end of the circuit).

Bodyweight Cardio for the Lean Look

Bottom Line: Bodyweight cardio will help you get that lean, athletic look, even when you don’t have access to any equipment.

You won’t build a lot of muscle, but you can burn quite a few calories and lose body fat almost as fast as with any other TT workout (of course, there will always be people who respond to this workout at extreme levels – and that’s why you need to experiment and find out what works best for you).

Click Here for the best bodyweight cardio workout manual on the planet.

Give up the old cardio routines and get off that treadmill that’s only giving you a lower body workout. You body wants more from you. With Bodyweight Cardio you’ll get a total body workout and it’s a lot more fun then the motonious cardio machines.

Click Here for the best bodyweight cardio workout.

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Fat Burning Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight Exercises are a great way to workout at home. You can get in great shape as well as save time commuting. Bodyweight Exercises are great for fat burning. With bodyweight exercises you body is free to move naturally unlike working out with machines. If you are looking for a bodyweight exercises challenge then work your way up the the bodyweight 500 workout.

Here is Craig Ballantyne to give you some fat burning bodyweight exercises you can do at home and at the gym.

Fat Burning Bodyweight Exercises

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training & Bodyweight 500 Workout

By using only dumbell and bodyweight exercises, you can burn fat and get lean at home. You don’t need fancy machines or pricey equipment to lose stomach fat.

If you have dumbells, you can do even more fat burning bodyweight exercises, and increase the challenge of your bodyweight exercises. If you don’t want to go to a workout center anymore, then don’t worry, you can burn fat at home.

Plus, by exercising at home, you’ll get your workouts done in the same amount of time as it would take to drive to the gym and back. Talk about a time saver!

Here are 27 exercises you can do at home to lose fat and build muscle, helping you burn belly fat and get 6-pack abs.

By putting these exercises together into supersets, you can get a total body resistance training workout done in only 20 minutes. Follow that up with 15-20 minutes of interval training, and you’ll have the best belly fat burning workout you can do in only 45 minutes.

Boring aerobic exercise is not necessary for fat loss. Let’s take a look at these fat burning, minimal equipment exercises you can do in a small space in your own home.

Lower Body Bodyweight Exercises

Here are the lower body exercises you can do to boost your metabolism and build a better butt and legs.

1. Squats

2. Stability Ball Leg Curls (don’t worry, these stability balls are super cheap, and you can get them for only $20 at almost any department store)

3. Lying hip extensions

4. Lying single leg hip extensions

5. Split Squats (aka. the stationary lunge)

6. Split Squats with your back foot elevated 6 inches

7. Reverse Lunges

8. Forward Lunges

9. Stepups

10. 1-Leg Squats

Many of those calorie-burning exercises can be done with dumbells as well, if you need to increase the challenge. If you want to build muscle, you’ll need to use dumbells as well.

There are many more lower body exercises you can do without machines. And its the same story with upper body exercises as well.

Upper Body Bodyweight Exercises

To work your arms and your chest, you can do all sorts of pushups.

1. Regular pushups

2. Close-grip pushups

3. Pushups with your feet elevated

4. Pushups with one hand elevated

5. My favorite, most difficult pushup, “Spiderman Pushups”

6. And beginners can start with either Incline Pushups or Kneeling Pushups.

If you have a bench and a set of dumbells, you can do…

1. Dumbell chest presses

2. Dumbell incline presses

3. Dumbell shoulder presses

And there are many variations of those you can do as well.

Back Bodyweight Exercises

Training your back is trickier when exercising at home. If you have an adjustable pullup bar, you can do:

1. Inverted Bodyweight Rows (aka. Reverse Pushups)

2. Chinups

3. Pullups (these are overhand grip and harder than chinups)

Of course, I’m leaving out many variations of these fantastic exercises.

If you don’t have a bar, you need to use dumbells, and can do:

1. Dumbell Rows (there are probably a dozen different ways to do dumbell rows)

2. Dumbell Rear-Deltoid Raises

Finally, we’ll finish with ab training exercises you can do at home. Let’s ignore situps and crunches, since they aren’t the best use of your time, and can damage the low back.

Bodyweight Exercises for Abs

I avoid crunching type ab exercises in my programs and use static endurance exercises, like:

1. Planks (and side planks)

2. Mountain Climbers

3. Stability Ball Jackknives

4. Stability Ball Rollouts

5. The Ab Wheel (yes, this infomercial gadget is actually useful!)

So that’s at least 29 fat burning bodyweight exercises you can do at home. But in fact, simple variations in technique, or adding dumbells, or changing hand position can actually give you 101 exercises you can with this list to help you burn belly fat and sculpt your body.

Bodyweight Exercises Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training.

 

Give Bodyweight Exercises a try with the Turbulence Training Bodyweight Exercises Manual.

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Bodyweight 500 Workout Craig Ballantyne

Have you done the Bodyweight 500 Workout yet? Well Craig Ballantyne, the creator of the bodyweight 500 workout is going to share his experiences that he had while doing the bodyweight 500 workout. Warning: This Bodyweight 500 Workout isn’t for beginners. You should start with a shorter version and work your way up to the Bodyweight 500 workout if you haven’t done it before.

Craig Ballantyne Does Bodyweight 500 Workout

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training Bodyweight 500 Workout

Bodyweight 500 Workout

I remember the day I completed the Bodyweight 500 Workout for the first time. It was a warm, muggy afternoon in September, and I started by taking a few deep breaths, rubbing my hands together, and mentally preparing myself for the challenge ahead.

And then I launched into it, not 100% sure what to expect. After all, not only was it my first time doing this workout, it was the first time anyone had ever completed the bodyweight 500 workout. So I was my own guinea pig. What if it turned out to be too easy? What if it was too hard? What if I couldn’t even finish my own workout?

Fortunately, I started strong. I did all 50 Prisoner Squats without rest, and felt pretty good. I get nice and deep on the squats, but I don’t go as fast as some other people. But overall, I know I’ve done a lot of work already when I get through this exercise. Plus, I focus on keeping my elbows up and shoulder blades together so that I work my upper back muscles.

For the pushups, I did the same. I cranked out all 50 in a row. Now let me just say, you don’t have to do it that way. Feel free to do 30, rest, and then finish 20 more. Or do 10, rest, and repeat that 4 more times. Or do 10 sets of 5. Whatever gets you to 50.

Then I moved on to the 25 squat jumps. I put everything I had into the jumps, and didn’t hold anything back. And that’s how you have to be when you are in a challenge against yourself. Land with bent knees and explode back up as quickly as possible.

At this point, your quadriceps are tired from the squats and the jumps, so you move onto Stability Ball Leg Curls and crank out 25 of those. Your abs have to work for body control, and your hamstrings will be under a lot of tension. Don’t let your legs cramp up. I must admit, I slightly lost my balance here, and had to break my set up into 17 reps, a small break, and then 8 final reps.

Next up, 50 Stability Ball Jackknives. And I must say, I was very surprised to complete all 50 without rest. This wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Great! Onto the next exercise…

…which was step-ups. I did 25 reps per side. Nothing crazy here, just good old fashioned leg work. Now onto the 2nd half of the work, where you do a lot of pulling exercises, starting with 25 pullups. This is where you slow down the pace a bit, after all, there are not many people that can do 25 straigth pullups. I did a couple of sets of 8, then some sets of 4, and then a single to finish off my 25.

Then I moved to 50 forward lunges, doing 25 for each side. Not too bad, but my legs were getting tired. Time to fry the upper body. First, 50 close grip pushups. I did 30, 10, and then a final 10 reps. Tired! But I had to do 50 inverted rows next. So I did a set of 15, 10, 10, 10, and then 5. Your upper back muscles will be working.

Now we are on the home stretch. Up next, I did 50 regular bodyweight squats, and then moved to the final exercise, which slows you down again. This time, it was 25 chinups. I did 4 sets of 5, a set of 3, and then a final set of 2 reps to finish it all off.

And so endeth the initial Bodyweight 500 workout. All of that was done in 27:30. So far, quite a few people have beat me, and I know I could do better now that I have this benchmark to work against. Overall, the top time from any TT user is 22:03. Can you beat that?

Bodyweight 500 Workout Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training

Bodyweight 500 Workout Summary

The Turbulence Training Bodyweight 500 Workout is a revolutionary new way of burning bodyfat using bodyweight exercise competitions. The challenge of the bodyweight 500 workout combined with the multi-muscle exercises will burn a lot of fat and calories, and will keep your metabolism increased for hours after exercise. However, the full Bodyweight 500 workout program is not for beginners. There are separate bodyweight programs for different fitness levels. You can start with the Bodyweight 100, then graduate to the 200, and then the 350 before finally earning your right to try the Bodyweight 500 workout.

Take your time working up to the bodyweight 500 workout. You can set your goal or try to beat Craig’s time. The Bodyweight 500 Workout is a great workout for anyone that is in to competitions and wants a challenge.

Order the Bodyweight 500 Workout

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Bodyweight 500 Workout

The Bodyweight 500 Workout was created by Craig Ballantyne as a new way of burning bodyfat using a bodyweight workout competition. He created this Bodyweight 500 Workout to resemble the 300 workout from Men’s Health Magazine but without all the fancy equipment that people don’t have in their home gyms. This Bodyweight 500 workout is more accessible for the average person working out at home that likes a competition.

I’ll turn you over to Craig Ballantyne to give you the scoop on the Bodyweight 500 Workout.

Bodyweight 500 Workout

Bodyweight 500 Workout

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
TurbulenceTraining

The Turbulence Training Bodyweight 500 Workout is a revolutionary new way of burning bodyfat using bodyweight exercise competitions. The challenge of the bodyweight 500 workout combined with the multi-muscle exercises will burn a lot of fat and calories, and will keep your metabolism increased for hours after exercise. However, the full Bodyweight 500 workout program is not for beginners. There are separate bodyweight programs for different fitness levels. You can start with the Bodyweight 100, then graduate to the 200, and then the 350 before finally earning your right to try the Bodyweight 500.

Advanced Bodyweight 500 Workout

So let’s discuss the advanced Bodyweight 500 workout in more detail.The workout is perfect for lean, athletic, advanced exercisers who have no trouble doing 10 or more pullups. After all, in the final Bodyweight 500 challenge, you have to do 25 pullups AND 25 chinups in the same workout. If that’s too much for you, start at the Bodyweight 100 workout and work your way up. This could be your toughest workout challenge ever, however, it is essential to include competitions and challenges in your fat loss program. This helps inspire you to perform better and stay motivated. You’ll avoid fat loss plateaus and build a lean, athletic body with low body fat. Always keep on improving your performance – which often leads to more fat burning. Alwyn Cosgrove likes to talk about how training for performance will lead to an improved physique, even if the individual was not focusing on changing their body. And I always like to suggest trying to achieve one new personal best each workout…that way, you are always improving performance and avoiding dreaded plateaus. Take your time going through the Bodyweight 500 workout. Split the reps up into chunks if you need to, but complete all repetitions for an exercise before moving on to the next. And you won’t need any cardio to finish up this workout. This workout is enough to burn the fat and feed the muscle.

The complete Bodyweight 500 program features 3 unique workouts to do during the week to in preparation for a weekend bodyweight 500 workout challenge – eventually working up to a 500 rep bodyweight workout!

300 Workout

The 300 workout – featured in Men’s Health magazine in 2007 – was great for motivation for people that live on competition. If you know anything about that workout, you know that it was designed as a right of passage for some of the actors in the 300 movie. And that’s what the new Bodyweight 500 workout is…a right of passage for men and women that want advanced fat loss. So if you’re one of those people that needs some competiton and an end goal to keep you on track, the TT Bodyweight 500 workout is for you.

But for most people, the 300 workout was difficult to do because it includes a lot of equipment typically not found in home gyms or commercial gyms. So you couldn’t do the kettle bell clean and press or box jumps.

That’s why I came up with the Turbulence Training Bodyweight 500 workout. This is a 500 repetition workout performed using only bodyweight exercises. No weights are needed. It’s still challenging, it will still burn fat, and it will still help you achieve the body of a Greek Warrior. The great thing is that you can do it in any gym.

Don’t get me wrong, the 300 was one tough workout. But like I said, I think I’ve put together something that is just as tough with the Bodyweight 500 workout, and easier for more people to do at home. Obviously both are advanced workouts…and you shouldn’t do either unless you are as fit as a college athlete.

TT Bodyweight 500 Workout

  • 50 Prisoner Squats
  • 50 Pushups
  • 25 Jumps
  • 25 Stability Ball Leg Curls
  • 50 Stability Ball Jackknifes
  • 50 Step-ups (25 reps per side)
  • 25 Pull-ups (NO substitutions)
  • 50 Forward Lunges (25 reps per side)
  • 50 Close-grip Pushups
  • 50 Inverted Rows
  • 50 Squats
  • 25 Chin-ups (NO substitutions)

Whew! Where you are really going to slow down is with the pulling exercises. That is a lot of chinups and pullups and rows to do in one workout. But you will have such an arm and shoulder pump after the workout it will blow you away.

Bodyweight 500 Workout Videos

WARNING! WARNING. This is a very advanced workout. So don’t do it unless you are already fit.

If you aren’t super-fit, but want to work up in a challenge, I have an alternative for you. Start with the following workout, called the Bodyweight 100. Please note: This is still not a beginner workout.

Bodyweight 100 Workout

Here is the bodyweight 100 workout. Do the 100 workout on a Saturday. After 7 days, try it again, doing it two times. One week after that, try doing it 3 times. Then you could be ready for the Bodyweight 500 workout in the fourth week.

  • 20 Prisoner Squats
  • 20 Pushups
  • 10 Jumps
  • 10 Inverted Rows
  • 20 Forward Lunges (10 reps per side)
  • 15 Close-grip Pushups
  • 5 Chin-ups or Inverted Rows

Both of these bodyweight workouts will put turbulence on your muscles and help you burn fat and boost your metabolism without slow boring cardio.

Bodyweight 500 Workout Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit TurbulenceTraining

Order your Bodyweight 500 Workout

 

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