Bodyweight sessions will NOT give you the benefits you really want from your strength training

Over the last month I've had a quite a few conversations with people, and see a lot of posts, about bodyweight training, and so thought this week's newsletter should touch on it.

Before I get into why bodyweight training is far from the best option, I'd like to start by saying I do get why people choose it as their method of training.

It's quick, can do it from home saving time, you don't need to spend on equipment or gym memberships and you can get a good sweat on in a short duration.

However, the biggest health benefits come from strength training 'properly' with weights in a gym aka resistance training and here's why.

1. Progressive overload

This is a fundamental aspect of getting stronger. In a gym setting you can add a small amount of weight, change the exercise, do more sets and reps and progress pretty easily week on week.

Adding weight will be king for strength.

With your bodyweight it is a lot harder to do and control. You can do more sets and reps but long term this will stop. You can also add tempos here and pauses but I can almost guarantee this won't be accurate.

Essentially, long term progress of muscle building or strength won't be achieved with bodyweight only training.

2. Health benefits

Bone density is one of the main reasons why we strength train. we want to build strong bones, especially as we age, to prevent fractures. Bodyweight training will not have the required stimulus in order to improve this. We need the load here through additional weight.

Alongside this, the same can be said for tendon strength too.

3. Movement & mobilty

Most office workers struggle with mobilty, especially around the hips, spine and shoulders. Bodyweight training for mobilty may provide some improvements in the short term (next hour) but in order to make meaningful changes to joints, we need to be loading certain ranges and progressing this over time.

4. Motivation and enjoyment

I will argue with anyone who says bodyweight training is fun. I agree it can make a nice change sometimes but over years (we want to be doing this for years) boredom will kick in and the most likely outcome to that is you stopping.

Going to the gym and see your weight improve week on week or being able to do more complex exercises can be very motivating, adding to your drive to keep going and building consistency.

5. Joint health & fatigue

Most bodyweight training programmes include jumps and in higher volumes. These can be very impactful on the joints, causing issues longer term.

Many people who do home bodyweight exercises do high intensity stuff too. This can be very draining and you'll quickly see energy levels drop as recovery is limited.

6. Muscle activation and strength

Press ups and bodyweight squats will target certain muscles only. On the other side a back squat will challenge your whole body.

Training isn't just about how you look.

Training with heavy load will challenge stability, co- ordination and full body in terms of muscles, plus challenging the core.

Without a fair amount of weight, there will never be enough of a stimulus to create enough of an adaptation or challenge the body.

There are just 6 reasons why I believe bodyweight training will not work in the long term.

I'm interested to know what you think.

What are you experiences with bodyweight training - is it a yes or no?

We shouldn't just be training for any old reason. It should be to get after a goal, or most importantly, for all of us - quality of life.

Resistance training will always be king for this.