Why practice bodyweight training?

Bodyweight training is an essential component of Fit Forever. Fit Forever takes a multifaceted approach to fitness by including several disciplines in an effort to improve health and longevity. We develop well-rounded attributes through the dedicated study of human movement. Bodyweight is an essential component of that study. Bodyweight training enables us to use the resistance offered by our weight to explore our ability to control our bodies with a lowered risk of injury. This journey of physical self-discovery can also be beneficial to overcoming resistance in other areas of our lives as well.

“Before you can learn to overcome the resistance offered by weights, you must first learn to conquer it within yourself.” –Shawn Mozen

It was Shawn Mozen of Agatsu who taught me that it is only through a solid bodyweight practice that we can really develop the conditioning and control necessary to achieve our goals in other forms of training. For example, you must learn to perform a proper squat without weights before you can learn to squat heavy loads with a barbell. Bodyweight training is your foundation. That is why we begin kettlebell training without kettlebells. We practice the mechanics of the movement before picking up the kettlebell. If the form isn’t there, we keep practising the movement until we get it. We must address our weaknesses before we begin movement under load. If your form breaks down under load, you need to remove some weight and assess the issue, return to bodyweight training and rebuild a solid foundation.

Building simple foundational movements and progressing to more complex ones will challenge your strength, mobility, flexibility, and endurance.

It is also fun to combine bodyweight with equipment training such as kettlebells in one workout. In this way, we can continue working at a high degree of intensity, even when fatigue kicks in. Any exercise where you are carrying weight overhead for example, can lead to injury once you reach the point of failure. There is no risk when you fail on a bodyweight exercise.

Bodyweight exercises incorporate many muscle groups at once and have the additional benefit of demanding core strength. The level of difficulty can be adjusted by number of repetitions, changing the amount of leverage, performing an exercise on an unstable platform, changing the pace (and adding pauses at various points throughout the movement), doing an exercise on one arm or one leg. Or by taking an exercise and adding increasing levels of sophistication.

Of course there is also the obvious benefit to bodyweight training - convenience! You don’t need equipment so you can work out anywhere, any time: Indoors or outdoors, in a hotel room, by the beach, at home. 

"Use the body you have to build the body you want."- Mark Lauren, author of You are your own gym

So join the ranks of ancient warriors, the modern military and many others who have benefited from training without equipment. Overcome your resistance to exercise, and try a class at FitForever and discover the range of possibilities of your body's movement!