I’ve often preached the idea of training your entire body in one workout. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the workouts I publish on this site are whole body in nature. But, what exactly are the benefits of whole body bodyweight workouts? Well, here are three reasons why you should consider training your entire body in one workout:
1) Build More Functional Strength
Functional strength training has become a popular buzz word in the fitness industry. But, what does it exactly mean? Out of all the interpretations out there, I believe that functional training simply relates to how your body moves. A more functional body means that you are better at performing sport and daily activities.
Whole body bodyweight workouts generally involve compound movements, or movements that train more than one muscle group at a time. Most compound movements have a greater “transfer effect” when it comes to sport and daily life. For example, the motion of a bicep curl is rarely ever used in average daily life.
However, the squatting motion is one of the most commonly used movements in our daily lives. Another common movement is picking things up off the ground and placing them over head. This is why movements such as bodyweight squats are so important.
2) Build More Muscle and 3) Burn More Fat
Compound movements are not only functional in nature, but they also activate a lot of muscle mass. The more muscle you activate, the harder you work. The harder you work, the greater stress you place on the body. This stress causes the body to build up stronger and bigger.
There are numerous hormonal responses that occur when you activate and train a large amount of muscle mass at once. Two hormones that are released both during and after your resistance workouts are Testosterone and Growth Hormone.
Growth Hormone is important because it increases the utilization of fatty acids as well as the breakdown body fat. This means that your body will use fat stores for energy (as opposed to muscle mass) both during and after your workouts.
In other words, more muscle and less fat!
The Easiest Way to Organize your Whole Body Bodyweight Workouts
There are lots and lots of variations you can choose from when designing your own whole body bodyweight workout. But one of the easiest ways to design a whole body workout is Circuit Training. The purpose of circuit training is to keep your body moving and working at all times.
Circuit Training is one of the most efficient ways of training your whole body within a very short period of time. Think about it, if you were to rest 30-60 seconds after each set you performed, you’d be spending more time resting than actually working out.
The biggest misconception surrounding circuit training is that it’s just a fat loss technique that you performing using easy exercises and high repetitions. The truth is that you there are many variations of circuit training and parameters which you can easily modify for strength, mass, and fat loss.
Top Three Reasons to Use Circuit Training
I’ve written about Circuit Training so many times that there is really no reason to keep repeating myself. However, here’s a quick review of why Circuit Training works so well for whole body bodyweight workouts:
- Allows you to work your aerobic system while working your muscles. This translates to a fat burning and muscle building effect at the same time. If you’re burning more fat with your circuit workouts, that means you’ll have to spend less time on the treadmill.
- Remember how compound movements release lots of Testosterone? Well, short rest periods also aid in releasing more testosterone. We already know why Testosterone is so important for overall fitness. Also, long boring cardio sessions lower testosterone levels, so you’ll be boosting Testosterone your levels even more by staying away from the Treadmill.
- The final reason why I love circuit training so much is that it allows my workouts to remain short and sweet. Sometimes I have workouts that last a mere 10 minutes, but these workouts are usually the most intense because I’ve pushed myself to the maximum.
But if you’re really stuck on figuring out how to exactly organize your workouts, then here’s a simple template you can use:
- Step One: Choose a Push Up Variation (Pushups, Hindu Pushups, Feet Elevated Pushups, Dive Bombers, Elevated Pushups, T-Pushups, Spiderman Pushups, One Leg Pushups, One Arm Pushups, Uneven Pushups, Handstand Pushups).
- Step Two: Choose a Pull Up Variation (Pullups, Chinups, Mixed Grip Chinups, Side Side Pullups, Circular Pullups, Commando Pullups, Typewriters, L-Pullups, Gorilla Chins, One arm Chinups, One Arm Assisted Chinups, Assisted Chinups)
- Step Three: Choose a Lower Body Exercise (Squats, Lunges, Squat Jumps, Side Lunges, Boot Strappers, Ankle Grabbers, Hip Raise, One Leg Hip Raise, One Leg Boot Strappers, Tuck Jumps, Squat Tuck Jumps, Duck Walks, Bear Crawls)
- Step Four: Choose number of circuits to perform (usually 2-20)
- Step Five: (Choose rest interval (0 to 120 seconds)
- Step Six: Choose repetitions for each exercise (1-100)
The following is a sample workout showing how all the steps fit together:
Perform 3 rounds of (Step Four):
- Hindu Pushups, 10 reps (Steps Two and Six)
- Gorilla Chins, 5 reps (Steps Three and Six)
- One Leg Boot Strappers, 20 Reps (Steps Four and Six)
- 30 Seconds Rest (Step Five)
If you’re ready to incorporate bodyweight training as part of your fitness plan, then you should check out Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. Coach’s Adam Steer and Ryan Murdock show you how to use unique bodyweight movements to lose fat, build muscle, increase strength, improve athletic fitness, and enhance longevity.
