I refer to bodyweight exercises as “real life lifting”… In other words; these are exercises which will benefit movements and activities that you conduct on a regular basis.
Many seasoned fitness enthusiasts kind of forget that it’s actually possible to workout without weights and it’s really something that even advanced lifters should revisit, as they will achieve even better results than they are now.
You see, when you’re performing an exercise like the pullup, pushup and dip… as you’re propelling your body up and down, it requires that you not only exert force to get your body up and resist as you lower back down, but you’re calling on all of the smaller muscles that usually lay more dormant during more modern exercises.
These smaller balancing muscles are known as stabilizer or balancing muscles. You have synergist muscles which assist the larger muscles during exercise movement and you also have antagonist muscles which oppose movement, but even these are helpful as they act as brakes when your body is swinging during tough exercise movements.
Think about the pushup movement; your body is suspended on your fully extended arms and on your tip toes. This position is going to require that your core muscles stay rigid during movement or you would collapse.
When you compare the pushup to the modern day bench press exercise, you’ll quickly realize that most of your body is supported during movement and this support will inhibit your core muscles from becoming engaged.
When you pullup, you must prevent your body from swinging back and forth as you pull and lower. Compare the pullup to the modern day at pulldown and once again, you’ll realize that during the lat pulldown exercise, your legs are secure under a thigh support and swinging becomes non-existent.
You may think this is good, but it’s only inhibiting those primary back muscles and secondary arm and core muscles from being activated.
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