Bodyweight Exercises for Size and Strength

Can bodyweight exercises build size and strength? They can if you do the right ones, says strength coach Mike Mahler.

I get a ton of emails every week regarding bodyweight exercises. People want to know what are the best bodyweight drills for size and strength.

While, lifting weights will always be the superior way to build brute strength and big muscles, there are several bodyweight exercises that you can choose from to add variety to your workouts or to keep you in shape on the road. My favorites are: Handstand Pushups, One-arm Pushups, Door Pull-ups, One-Legged Squats, Knee Jumps, Headstand Leg raises, and the Mahler Body Blaster.

Lets get into each exercise in more detail: Read more

How Pillows Can Make Your Legs Stronger

Adding a wobble to your leg workout can make your legs work 13 percent harder.

The most unlikely aid to your leg exercise? Bed pillows--they can make your legs stronger. When men attempted single-leg squats while standing on a cushy surface, their hips and leg muscles worked up to 13 percent harder, report Mayo Clinic researchers. Read more

Is Yoga Really Enought to Keep You Fit?

For those who don't like aerobics or lifting weights, the practice of yoga has benefits well beyond flexibility and relaxation. Recent research shows that yoga may also improve strength, aerobic capacity, and lung function.

When it came to the fitness benefits yoga can or can't provide, yoga teacher John Schumacher had heard it all. A student of B. K. S. Iyengar for 20 years and founder of the Unity Woods studios in the Washington, D.C. area, Schumacher was convinced yoga provides a complete fitness regime. But many people, even some of his own students, disagreed. Yoga might be good for flexibility or relaxation, they'd say, but to be truly fit, you had to combine it with an activity like running or weight lifting.

Schumacher just didn't buy it. Read more

Real World Fitness Cuts Stroke Risk

If you can perform ordinary daily activities, such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and kneeling and bending, your stroke risk may be 50% of those who can't perform those activities.

... New research shows that men and women over 40 who can climb stairs, carry groceries, kneel, bend, and lift may be 50% less likely to suffer a stroke than those who can't do those things.

That news, published in Neurology, comes from a study of some 13,600 adults in the U.K.

The study started in 1993. Back then, participants were 40-79 years old; none had a history of stroke, heart attack, or cancer.

Participants got their height, weight, and blood pressure checked. They also reported their history of smoking and later rated their ability to climb stairs, carry groceries, bend, kneel, and lift. Read more

What the study doesn't prove is if that there is a cause and effect relationship between strength and lower risk of stroke, but why wait for the study results to come in? The correlation between functional fitness and lower stroke risk has been demonstrated. That ought to motivate you to keep up your strength training, however much or little you do.

Cardio or Strength Training First?

Many people need to do their cardio and strength training in the same exercise session because of their schedule or need to use fitness center facilities and/or equipment. Even experienced exercisers sometimes ask the question: should I do cardio or strength training first? Unfortunately, no one answer applies to everybody. It all depends on what your goals are. Once you've set your goals, though, it's easy to decide which to do first.

If you're a runner, swimmer, or cyclist (or all three) and strength training is intended to improve your sports performance and prevent injuries, do your cardio before your strength training. If you do strength training first, you will deplete the tremendous amount of energy you need to do hard endurance training. Training for endurance sports is so taxing, in fact, that many athletes don't feel like doing strength training afterwards. Don't go to that extreme, but you do have to be realistic. Your weights and reps are going to be less than what they would be if you hadn't done cardio exercise first. As long as you're putting forth your best effort and making progress, just relax and accept it.

If you're a strength athlete, such as a weightlifter, football player, or thrower, and cardio is intended to give you more endurance for your lifting or throwing and control your weight, do your cardio after your strength training. Your goal is to lift the most weight, the most times that you can, so you need to save the cardio for after your strength training. Doing cardio before will sap your strength.

If you're preparing for a military or law enforcement physical fitness, you need to find out the order of events in the test. Are the strength exercises done before the run and/or swim, or after? Whichever it is, do your workout in exactly the same order as the test is given. If for some reason you can't find out the order of the test, do your cardio after strength training. That's the typical order.

What if you're training for all-around fitness? In that case, alternate doing cardio before strength training and doing cardio after strength training. That will ensure equal development of both cardiovascular fitness and strength; plus, it's more realistic. Primitive humans, who were always in excellent physical conition, usually walked and jogged to the hunt or battle. Then they sprinted and did strength work (spear throwing, fighting, wrestling, etc.). However, often they would have to chase game or enemies (or run from them) afterwards too. On the other hand, sometimes they were surprised by an animal or ambushed by enemies and had to do their strength work first to defend themselves, and then do some cardio afterwards to get away. To be fit the way humans were meant to be, you need to be able to do either cardio and strength training when you're partially fatigued.

I hate it when authors say you have to decide for yourself and won't give a definitive answer, but you can see that this is a question that you really do have to answer for yourself. To put it simply, decide which activity is most important to your goals: cardio or strength training. Do that one first. If it's neither, then alternate doing one before the other. Is that definitive enough?

For a free mini course on how to simultaneously improve strength and conditioning while burning fat, click here. Read my review of the two best bodyweight exercise courses you can choose.