There’s always something crazy going on in this industry. At any moment, there’s a maniac in a weight room taking a dangerous lift and a shady businessman in an office finding a way to turn dirty profits. The posts you find here in my log are the musings of a mashed-up meathead — the reactions I have as I spend my whole life watching this industry. I will share my thoughts with you here, unedited, uncensored, unfiltered, and Under The Bar. If you are offended by profanity - do not read this.
Six body-weight movements that should be part of every strength program ...
These body-weight exercises are listed in no particular order. The reason I put this together was there are many body-weight exercises that based upon their progressions, can be a fundamental part of any strength training program. These exercises can be performed by the most basic beginner at the lowest level possible. I used many of these exercises for personal training clients of mine that I had years ago that hadn't touched a weight their entire life and were 50, 60 years old. I've also used them with kids. They can also be used for the most advanced lifters in the sport of bodybuilding, powerlifting, and strongman and other professional athletes.
These exercises include ...
Barbell push-ups
When I say barbell push-ups, I'm talking about putting the barbell into a power rack where the barbell won't move. The reason I did not say push-ups is I don't want an open palm position. This places strain on the wrists and it also takes the forearms, to some degree, out of the movement.
I like body-weight movements that I can progress upon. I'm not saying you can't progress upon a push-up, but you can progress further upon a barbell push-up where your hand is holding onto a barbell. A lot of people may not be able to lay on the floor and get one repetition with a barbell push-up. They can start on their knees. If they can get a repetition on their knees, then you simply just put the barbell in the J-cups and take it up higher in the rack. You can take it up to a high enough amount to where they're kneeling on the floor, and the J-cups are at chin level. All they're basically doing is pushing themselves away from the rack.
That would be the easiest progression. Then you just progress down from there. To progress up on the harder end is when you can start to incorporate putting your feet on a box behind you, so your legs are higher than what your hands are. Chains around your back. I've seen some lifters do up to 300 pounds worth of chains crisscrossed over their back for these barbell push-ups. You can incorporate weight vests as well. There's a vast difference between the very, very beginning easy progression and the high-end, top progression.
Split Squats
I'm going to list this body-weight exercise as split squats but it actually takes the form of a lot of different single-leg type movements. The lowest progression would be a low box step up. Then, you would move the step up from there. From there, you can progress onto a backward step lunge to where you are in a standard position and you bring one leg back and squat down the one leg ... Progressing into a front step lunge ... Progressing into a Bulgarian split squat where you have one leg positioned behind you on a stand and then squat down. Then, you can start progressing it onto using weight vests, chains, or even barbells for the bar Bulgarian split-lunge, or walking lunges, or just regular lunges. Once again, a wide range of variations through progressions to be able to work from the very, very beginner level to the highest, most advanced level.
Glute-Ham Raises
* some other progressions can be read and see HERE
Yes, I do understand that you're going to need a bench to be able to do this. I do understand that holding somebody's ankles and having them do a manual hamstring curl, is not really the same thing as a glue-ham raises, but sticking the glut-ham raise in there because this lift is what I feel are the best body-weight exercises to incorporate into a strength building program. With that in mind, I do feel a glut-ham raise is better than a manual hamstring curl because the knee drops at the same time as the hip moves so you're getting the hamstring contracting from both origin and insertion.
The very basic level of this would be to elevate the front end of the glute-ham so it's higher than the back end, allowing for leverages to move the client much easier than they would be able to move themselves. If you're using a floor glute-ham, such as Brian Schwab's floor glut-ham bench, then you would use bands attached around the top of a power rack to be able to deload. The progression going up is you can begin to raise the back end of the glut-ham so more weight is being shifted forward. Med balls can be held. Chains can be held. Yoke bars can be put around the back. Cambered squat bars can put around the back. You can progress to insane levels here as well. Once again, you're able to begin at a very very little, small basic level to a very high, advanced level through this movement.
Hanging Leg Raises
Let's just define this as just being leg raises. The hanging leg raise is what I would define as the best because with that movement, when you have a lot of things going on to where you're opening up the hip flexion. You're stretching the abdominal wall at the start of the movement because of it's distraction because of the gravity. As you raise your legs up, using a straight leg, if you could bring your legs all the way up to the top of the bar, you're getting full flexion. It's pretty much everything in the abdominal region as well as some stretching of the spine and an eccentric contraction of the spine on the way down.
Not everybody is going to be able to start with the hanging leg raise. They're going to have to start with knee raises, using a bench, leaning back, holding the bench, bringing their knees into the torso, kicking back up, or they will serve the hanging leg raise where all they're going to do is to pull their knees up. Then, from there though progress into the straight leg raises and then they can go on to straight leg raises with weights being held between the feet.
The Squat
The squat is a fundamental basic exercise. It's also a body-weight exercise. For a lot of clients that I had to work with, that was the one exercise where everything began from was the barbell push-up and the squat and then everything would branch out from there. With the squad, some people would have to start with just a basic box squat because they didn't have the strength to be able to maintain proper position when they did a regular standing body-weight squat.
The very lowest progression of that would be some type of box squats where you would be able to stop them and change the body position to be in the right position for them to come back up for them to be able to get them up off of the box. Possibly, move into a goblet-squat or some type of kettle-bell goblet-squat, up to a weight vest squat, then onto a barbell squat. Then, we know where you can go from there.
Extensions
The best way for me to define the extensions is much like the barbell push-up the extensions are going to go in a power rack or if you don't have a power rack and all you have in your gym is a Smith machine you can use the Smith machine the same way. Put it at about waist level. Step back. Grab the bar like you going to push-up but, instead of doing a push-up, just drop-down like you going to do a tricep extension to your chin or nose, and then tricep extension back out.
The progressions from this can start at the high level. I've had people where I've had to start them at eye level and then, obviously, as you move down to the floor position or the bottom position in the rack, or the Smith machine, the harder it's going to get. You can bring your feet up again as you did with the push-ups and start adding weight vests and so forth.
Honorable Mentioned
There are a of couple exercises that I have mentioned as honorable mentions that really don't make my list but I'm going to include them because they do make a lot of other people's lists. The reason they don't make my list is, over my three decades of training, one question that I've always asked lifters that have been in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s is, "What exercises can you no longer do?"
As we age, and as our training age, increases, movements get taken away from us. Maybe not all of us, but the majority of us, movements get taken away. It's like the gods of Valhalla's way of smacking us with a dose of reality. Every so often, you realize, "Oh shit, I can't do this anymore." There's a couple of body-weight movements that every single time I've asked this question, they've always been on the list.
Chins and Dips
While I think these are great body-weight movements, I do have to ask why everybody with a very long training age can no longer do them because of either shoulder problems or elbow problems. Because of that, those are two exercises that I personally always try to avoid or do not use very frequently in my training program. There are a lot of barbell exercises that they would mention as well which I can save for different post at a different time but I do feel from a body-weight standpoint, I understand why a lot of people put these in there. There are progressions for each of these as well.
With the chins you can use progressions of somebody behind helping you to deload the other person. There's machines to help do deload the person. There's bands to help deload the person. There's also the fat man pull up which isn't exactly the same thing as a chin and is a movement that I really, really do like. That's when you put the barbell on the power rack at about waist level, maybe lower, lie on the floor, and pull your chest to the bar. I absolutely love this exercise because it allows you, and teaches the client, to pull their elbows back as far as they can when they train their lats and to try to get the bar to touch their chest. It's a great reinforcement tool for power lifters and it's also great for bodybuilders because they need to learn how to pull the elbows back. I actually don't see that as being a chin, but it is part of a chin progression for those who cannot do chins.
For the dips, as far as the progression goes there, it's pretty much the same. You have the machines. The can allow you to take the weight off. You have the ability to use bands to be able to deload. You have the ability for somebody to stand behind, tuck their hands, and you can put ... Kick your feet back, put your feet in the hands to be to push-up that way. You can also do quarter reps, half reps, and work until you can do full reps. There are some seated dip machines as well.