Believe it or not, you can perform weight lifting without weights or any gym equipment. As a matter of fact, many training experts agree that the use of weight training equipment may slow down the process of your muscle development because the use of machines and weights requires that you be in a specific location.
If you want to make the most out of your weight training for strength, there’s one thing you need to understand – the 5 laws of body-weight training.
#1 – The longer your body, the better
When you increase the distance between your target muscles and your body, you actually decrease your mechanical advantage. This means that the more you lengthen your body, the harder your exercise becomes.
To do this, keep your arms raised above your head whenever you do your squats, lunges, sit-ups, and crunches. If you find it too hard, then you can place your hands behind your head instead to split the distance.
#2 – You can work more muscles by moving further
By doing more work, you can build more muscles. Obviously, when you do weight lifting without weights, the only way you can increase force is by gaining more weight, but this isn’t something you want to do! Hence, you should move a greater distance during each rep so that you could increase your work output.
#3 – Eliminate the bounce to increase muscle involvement
Every time you lower your body during weight exercise, the elastic energy builds up in your muscles. When you get rid of the bounce, your body is forced to recruit more muscle fibers so that your body can move again. You can do this by pausing for around 4 seconds in the down position of your exercise. This amount of time is enough for all the elastice energy of your muscles to be discharged.
#4 – Moving in 2 directions is always better
When you add a rotational component to any kind of exercise that you do, you can instantly work more muscles. Doing this allows you to fully engage not only your core, but also the muscles that you want to develop. You can do this by simply twisting your torso to the right or left whenever you do your sit-ups, push-ups, and lunges.
#5 – Muscles compensate more when it has less contact with the floor
When your body is not in contact with a surface, it becomes less stable, and this makes your exercise harder and a lot more muscles are activated. To do this, you should hold one foot in the air during any exercise, such as squats, pushups or deadlifts. You may also try doing pushups on your fists or fingertips.
By using these tips for weight lifting without weights on a regular basis, it won’t take long before you see great results on your muscle and strength.
