How effective is body weight training/exercise?
I’ve been lazy about going to gym not on the weekends. I thought it might be good for me to do body weight exercises with a mat, but I’m not sure how effective they are.
I know of course that one doesn’t necessarily need a gym to work out, but I’m not sure how effective it can be.
I would like to lose a little weight/maintain it as I think my metabolism is beginning to slow (darn getting old!)
If I can increase my strength for when I do go the gym on the weekends, I’d like to be able to lift heavier weights.
I hope this is more specific?
July 27th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
What is the overall goal? Define effective?
Anything that places a load on the muscle to create tension will be effective to a certain degree.
So body weight, free weights, machines, etc anything that is a potential “load” and can be applied to create “tension” on the muscle will cause responses in muscular skeletal system and central nervous system.
As for how effective that depends on the conditions in which you are training as muscle develop specifically to their environment.
Physiologically speaking, the muscles will adapt to the way you train them. In sport science, scientist refer to this as “The Principle of Specificity”(1).
Really, body weight can still be effective for strength training if that is your goal.