Free Workout – no membership costs, and no equipment costs

The ROI is infinite – no cost, the weight is free, no commuting, and always available.  “WHAT IS IT?” you ask.  It is bodyweight lifts.  We all know of at least a few of them, as our gym instructor in high school accessed our grades based on them.  For example, the number of pushups, pullups, dips, and sit-ups were used to gauge our fitness and grade.  I vaguely recall struggling with pushups and pullups and being depressed about my performance.  At the time, I thought that upper body strength was some innate ability – either you are born with it, or not.  Now I know it something that can be achieved through deliberate training. 

            To summarize, the cool thing about a bodyweight workout is that the weight is always with you, literally.  So there is no excuse not to work out.  These exercises will end the naysayers that make excuses like, e.g. “I don’t have a gym nearby”, “I can’t afford a membership or weights”, “I don’t have time”, or “I am always traveling.”  So let us outline some basis for us to begin the best ROI workout.

            First, should I aim for a lot of reps? Probably not. It is better to work on strength rather than endurance. We can use physics to adjust the weight to make the exercise more demanding on the muscle – e.g. pushup (normal), evaluated pushup, one-handed pushup, etc.  Second, do I need many exercises?  Probably not, just focus on the core movements for building strength. Third, should I workout every day?  Probably not.  It typically takes a day or more for your body to recover from a strength training routine – typically, most programs have a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday workout, with the others days for rest and recovery.  Okay, how many exercises are necessary? Maybe 3 -6 per workout, with 3 sets per exercise.  So what are the exercises?

1. Push-ups (builds up chest, triceps, and front delts); handstand pushups (shoulders) 

2. Chin-ups & pull-ups (upper back and biceps) 

3. Pistol Squats (lower body)

4. Crunches, Hanging Leg Raises, Front Lever Pulls (Abs)

5.  L-Sits, and Back Bridges (Back)