The POWER of Bodyweight Exercise (How I Stopped Lifting and Got Stronger)

Not quite 20 years ago, I went through a pretty brief power-lifting phase. I wanted to get big and strong and thought it would be interesting to see how much I could transform myself. I probably wasn't nearly committed enough but I did make some pretty decent lifting gains. I think I had doubled my bench press. A co-worker of mine at the time asked if I could help him move to a new apartment one weekend and I was actually excited to do it, just to see how much different it felt to carry around boxes and furniture with my new guns. Strangely, it wasn't that different. I still struggled with the heavy stuff and my gym strength didn't seem to translate. At the time, I was pretty darn ignorant of how everything worked - I had a bigger chest and arms and everything but no core strength. I was only good at lifting perfectly-balanced things in single planes of motion, which isn't as analogous to the activities of daily life as I had assumed. I just figured, big weights, bigger muscles equaled a stronger me. There is also a whole muscular endurance component that I was completely unaware of too.

I continued lifting for years afterwards but not as consistently and not with the goal of trying to increase my single rep maximum or lifting particularly heavy in general. Instead, I became a little more rounded with the focus on other things, including cardio. I discovered that while I couldn't lift nearly as much for a small amount of reps, I felt stronger in general.

As I got more and more into boxing and with a significant weight loss goal back 10 years ago, I lifted even less consistently and my resistance training became mostly hitting a heavy bag as well as some staple bodyweight exercises. Then finally, over 2 years ago, I stopped lifting entirely, other than my own body weight. The strange thing is, I feel even stronger than ever, even at age 47.

No matter what your personal goals are, every health & fitness organization, including the CDC, recommends some resistance training for all Americans. This does not mean that we need to lift weights, push/pull bands or cables or really use any equipment at all for this training. Of course my favorite type of resistance is still punching heavy bags but really, we are all equipped for resistance training naturally. We can all make significant gains in strength and bone density simply by using our own body weight.

Now if you are looking to build lots of bulky muscle, you are going to need additional weight and a different kind of training regimen. But as mentioned earlier, this does NOT necessarily translate into strength and you would be surprised how jacked one can get from bodyweight training only. It can also be far more effective because it can be done any time, any place, sporadically as opposed to a single gym session. That being said, there are many different variables that must be tuned properly to make these exercises effective. Reps, sets, rest time, frequency, etc.

So what bodyweight exercises should you do? It depends a lot on your particular fitness goals. I did a video once showing what I think the best 5 exercises are for boxing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHcYuoH128Q - but there are so many others that this list is hardly indicative. I also didn't mention core stuff here, which is not just critical for boxing but also for functional strength.

If you want to get at least a little jacked, you would be amazed what you can get out of just push-ups and pull-ups. I consider both of those the best single movement exercises there are. They are literally all I do consistently, other than hitting a heavy bag, which is also a significant contributor. Now of course there are no short cuts, nothing comes easy, and pull-ups are extremely difficult. The average person cannot even do one.  During the peak of my power lifting stage, I couldn't come anywhere close to pulling myself up either. I could increase my lift on the lat pull machine but this did not change the bottom line. Here is another video that shows how I struggled my way into doing one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrO42Sab2Ls&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6VPOZedyHhvx-h7ueGosHc3&index=1

Of course push-ups and pull-ups are focused on the upper body but you hit your legs, hips and glutes simply enough with jumping. Lunge jumps, squat jumps, split squat jumps, narrow squat jumps, broad jumps and high jumps will build that explosive strength as well as cardio. I know that jumps are not for everyone but there other good options, like just a static split squats or better yet, if you have anything elevated that you can put your foot on (like a bench or chair), the Bulgarian split squat is an amazingly effective exercise you can do with no weights at all. Then if you have a bench or stairs, just basic step-ups will work pretty well. Both front and lateral. Combining a lunch to a step-up isolating just one leg will surprise you too. Even basic walking lunges can get tough real fast!

Then there is core. Just about every core exercise is good and something everybody should do. You just want to make sure you are well-balanced, in terms of working all parts of your core and all planes of motion.

As I have said many times, not every body is the same. Not everyone responds to training the same way. And the best workout is always the one you will actually do. You have to like it, at least a little. If pumping iron really is your thing and you are getting results and not getting injured, great! But I know we can all benefit a lot from bodyweight training and build more muscle than we might think, as well as prevent/avoid injuries. You just need a comprehensive program that is going to challenge you to get results. Don't forget shadow boxing either, as a great way to improve your boxing skills and burn calories!