Choosing Bodyweight Training Program
Choosing Bodyweight Training Program: How to avoid getting tied up in knots
My bad – taken me months to write an article about choosing bodyweight training program on a blog called Bodyweight Training Program. It is time to set that right.
By now you will know that bodyweight training is a great way to get started with exercise. There is no need for a lot of equipment or the expense of joining a gym. You can begin to improve your strength and health and do it anywhere you have a bit of room. The question is what to start with.
There is a wide variety of training systems out there now – with all sorts of labels and all capable of producing wonderful results. Luckily, with the right approach, you don’t have to choose. You can take the best from different systems and blend them to create your own movement expression. In this post we’ll look at how to do just that.
There’s Nothing New Under the Sun
None of the bodyweight systems out there today is unique. Some are based on long standing practices like martial arts or yoga, while others are more or less repackaged forms of calisthenics, dance, and gymnastics. While these systems may seem quite different from each other on the surface, in reality, they share many of the same elements when broken down into their most basic parts. All they do is move the body in different ways to different plans
The art then is to construct a program that combines these different movements and works for you – with your body and with your mindset.
Choosing Between Different Bodyweight Training Genres
Most bodyweight genres include some elements of strength, flexibility, and body control, with varying emphases on one or another of those elements. What separates one genre from another is its primary focus and rules for practice.
Evaluate those two elements, and choose the genre that fits your goals.
Ask: What is the Focus of the Program?
Whatever movements and transitions are included in any one genre, that genre’s focus is what makes it unique, and is what dictates the rigidity or fluidity of the rules by which it plays.
Some disciplines, such as yoga and many of the martial arts, were primarily designed for inward development of the individual practitioner – i.e., focus on spirit – and therefore concentrate heavily on breathing, focus, and body control.
Other disciplines, such as calisthenics and gymnastics training, are primarily devoted to developing strength and skill.
| Genre | Primary Focus |
|---|---|
| Yoga | Unites the body and mind by linking postures and breathing to improve meditative stamina. |
| Animal Flow | Builds strength and movement “flow” that emphasizes artistic, fluid practice |
| Calisthenics | Builds strength with increasingly challenging variations of classic bodyweight exercises. |
| Bootcamp | Builds strength and fitness through a variety of intense group intervals |
| Crossfit | Builds core strength through high intensity interval training across multiple movements |
These are just examples, and we realize that not all bootcamps or yoga styles are the same. Look at your own intent with training, and see if it lines up with the focus of the system you’re following. If, for instance, your primary goal at the moment is to use movement as a meditative practice, then a calisthenics-based program is unlikely to be a good fit for you.
Ask: What are the Rules of the Program?
While the rules a system follows often stem from its intent, they are actually 2 separate elements you should evaluate when choosing a program.
The rules of a particular practice play a role in determining whether they have rigid structures and sequences, like Ashtanga yoga sun salutations, or if they are more open to interpretation and improvisation, such as modern dance and other systems that pride themselves on creative expression.
| System | Defining Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Yoga | Each style features different postures and ways to move and breathe, some more active than others. |
| Animal Flow | Begins with set sequences, but allows for “call-out” improvisation. All movements are dynamic. |
| Calisthenics | Initially emphasizes increased repetitions with good form. At higher levels, individual style comes into play. |
| Bootcamp | There’s generally less concern with form and progression vs training to exhaustion in efforts to change body composition. |
| Crossfit | Focus is to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges. |
Systems that are purely devoted to building strength in certain basic movements and planes of motion are generally not too concerned with transitions between moves, outside of maintaining safety; whereas movement systems that are primarily designed for their artistic appeal may be more concerned with transitions between movements, movement sequences, and details of body alignment.
Getting clear on your goals will help in making a choice. If your focus is weight loss a program that combines aerobic effort with resistance training will work better. If your focus is improving muscle tone one can forego some of the aerobic effort and focus more on body building programs. If your focus is improving overall mobility something like yoga will be a good fit.
Your goals, as always, will be key in choosing the right program, but there are some other things to take into account.
- Are you a creative person who likes things to be more fluid and open to your own expression?
- Or do you prefer things to be structured and easy to follow?
If you choose a system that’s structured in a way that doesn’t fit your personality, you’re unlikely to be successful in following the system. Be realistic and honest, and don’t try to force yourself into something that doesn’t fit you.
This is all beginning to feel like a bit of a minefield. You could be studying the different techniques for ages before finding one that you really liked and that fitted with your lifestyle and with your psychology. I know for one I hate structured forms of exercise – the idea of yoga is amazing but the practice does my head in.
Maybe it’s better to turn to someone who has already spent those many hours exploring and studying different systems. And if that person has put together a scalable, teachable system that incorporates these elements into one movement discipline that can be used by people who are not elite athletes or movers, then that makes a lot of sense.
One such system is offered by GMB. There focus is to offer a program in which your movement is your own and where you can explore and experiment. And it draws on a wide array of movement found in martial arts, yoga, and gymnastics, to create accessible, well-designed programs.
Original article found on GMB.io
