First step Bodyweight Strength Training For Women
First step Body Strength Training For Women
Body weight training just might be the answer you've been looking for! It's a great
way for anyone to build strength, and you can start where you're at
right now. This is where it all begins!
Ladies, if you're interested in adding more strength training to your
regimen but aren't sure about gym culture or weights, then calisthenics
is the way to go.
Why? The most obvious reason, of course, is that you can train anywhere
you want as opposed to having to navigate the gym. But that's just the
start. Because calisthenics involves getting stronger by moving your own
body, it also has plenty of carryover to modalities like yoga, pole
dancing, and gymnastics. If you want to perform better at every other
activity you do with your body, you'll no doubt find that a little extra
strength will help.
A couple of decades back, people associated the word "calisthenics" with
aerobics routines. Even today, a lot of people still think body weight training is only for sweaty AMRAP circuits. It doesn't have to be that
way! Calisthenics comes from the Greek words kalos, meaning beautiful, and sthenos,
which translates to strength. So make no mistake: You can get stronger
with bodyweight training. Anyone who says you can't probably isn't doing
it right.
Unleash this beautiful strength by learning how to master your own
bodyweight, and you'll never need to add any outside resistance. The
system of progressive calisthenics takes moves like push-ups, squats,
bridges, leg raises, dips, and pull-ups and breaks them down into
variations that even an absolute beginner can learn. As you get stronger
at these basic exercises, you can eventually progress to more difficult
variations.
1 -Incline push-ups and full-ROM push-ups
Push-ups are probably the most underrated exercises for women. Unfortunately, they're also one of the most improperly practiced.
When I ask a new female client to try this movement, they usually place
their hands too wide and high. As a result, when they descend, their
elbows tend to flare out, their shoulders jut forward, and they only go
down a few inches with each rep. Sure, they can bang out a lot of reps
that way, but they're not getting as much benefit as they would from far
fewer reps performed deeper and better. The only problem: Proper
push-ups are far more difficult to perform. Just a couple of them might
be a real struggle at first.
Not to worry—this is relatively easy to fix! If you're unable to perform
a full-range-of-motion push-up on your toes with your elbows in, you
can make the movement easier by practicing an incline push-up and
placing your hands on an elevated surface like a bench or plyo box. By
putting your hands on an elevated surface, you are distributing more of
your weight into your feet, allowing your arms to assist for better
leverage. As you get stronger, the idea is to steadily decrease the
incline until your hands are on the ground for the classic push-up.
If you're unable to perform a
full-range-of-motion push-up on your toes with your elbows in, you can
make the movement easier by practicing an incline push-up and placing
your hands on an elevated surface like a bench or plyo box.
In order to perform the incline push-up with good form, it's important
to find proper hand placement. A good way to gauge this is to align the
gap between your thumb and index finger with the crease in your armpit.
Stand on your toes, and squeeze your legs together to engage your quads
while contracting your glutes and abs. This will prevent any sagging in
your hips.
As you descend, think about bringing your shoulder blades together at
the bottom of the movement and spreading them apart as you press back up
to the top position.
2 -Pull-ups and Australian pull-ups
Pull-ups are an intimidating exercise for most women, but I promise that
when you work up to your first rep, it will be a real game-changer. Not
only is being able to do a pull-up
a phenomenal feat of strength for a woman to aspire to, it can also
help change your body composition—particularly if you're eating a clean
diet, too.
If you are unable to perform a proper pull-up yet, I suggest starting
with the bodyweight row. These are also known as Australian pull-ups
because you need to get "down under" the bar with your body in a
horizontal plane. This makes the pull-up movement less challenging
because you are using your feet as an assist. Also, having your body in a
horizontal plane rather than in a vertical plane provides more
favorable leverage.
These are known as Australian pull-ups because you need to get "down under" the bar with your body in a horizontal plane.
But like regular pull-ups, these aren't nearly as easy as most people
expect. The biggest problem most people make is letting their hips droop
during the movement. After all, it's just an upper-body move, right?
Wrong! Like most calisthenics moves, this is a whole-body movement!
Find a bar around hip height and get underneath it. Grab the bar with an
overhand grip, and place your hands around shoulder-width apart. Extend
your legs out straight, and balance on your heels. Squeeze your abs and
glutes to maintain a neutral spine, and pull yourself toward the bar.
You've completed a full rep when you can either pull your chest to the
bar or at least break 90 degrees with your elbows. Focus on not bending
at your hips as you lower back to the bottom position.
3 -Dips
Depending on your level of fitness, this
exercise can be done in several different ways. The bench dip is a great
place to start before you try parallel bars.
Place your hands behind you on a bench, with fingers pointing toward you
and legs extended forward. Be careful not to shrug your shoulders as
you lower yourself toward the ground. At the bottom position, your arms
should be in a 90-degree angle before pushing yourself back up to the
starting position.
4 -Squats
Too often, people train their lower body using a complicated routine
where they travel from machine to machine for an hour or more.
Meanwhile, everything they're looking for could be achieved by simply
getting better at the squat! It's the most fundamental exercise you can
do for your legs and butt, and everyone should practice it, plain and
simple.
The legs and glutes are the primary movers in the body, and when you
train your lower body right, it makes you stronger and faster. Get
better at squatting, and you'll get better at moving, period. It's also
great for improving your posture, back, hips, knees—you name it.
Get better at squatting, and you'll get better at moving, period.
Experienced yogis know the power of squatting. That's why malasana,
the squat, is a fundamental part of so many yoga routines. But in my
experience, nearly all of us—yogis included—can still benefit from some
dedicated squat practice outside of class.
Even though squats are a lower-body exercise, they are still a
total-body movement. Besides strengthening your gluts, hamstrings, and
quads, working to stabilize your spine throughout the movement even
works your abs! But as with the other movements here, many women feel
like they need to start with more challenging variations like pistol
squats. I recommend starting with the standard body weight squat and
sticking with it until you can bust out smooth, controlled sets of 20
reps with ease.
Start with your feet about hip-distance apart with your toes turned
slightly out. As you lower yourself slowly to the bottom position, push
your knees out to track your toes and sink in between your legs.
Contract your abs as you lower in order to keep your spine straight. If
it helps with your balance, extend your arms forward as you lower and
then bring them back to your sides as you stand. Finish the rep by fully
extending your hips at the top position.
5 -Lying Knee Tucks
Abs are made on the floor! When these are executed with good form, they
can really smoke your midsection. I prefer them to crunches or sit-ups
because knee tucks involves less cranking of your neck and use your
lower body to create resistance instead.
Begin by lying on your back with your knees tucked to your chest and
arms at your sides. In order to practice this exercise with good form,
start by eliminating the arch in your lower spine. Roll your pelvis
backward so your low back makes contact with the ground, and maintain
this position throughout the entire exercise. Slowly tense your abs as
you extend your legs outward, then draw them back in toward your chest.
6-Bridges
First step Body Strength Training For Women
Body weight training just might be the answer you've been looking for! It's a great
way for anyone to build strength, and you can start where you're at
right now. This is where it all begins!
Ladies, if you're interested in adding more strength training to your
regimen but aren't sure about gym culture or weights, then calisthenics
is the way to go.
Why? The most obvious reason, of course, is that you can train anywhere
you want as opposed to having to navigate the gym. But that's just the
start. Because calisthenics involves getting stronger by moving your own
body, it also has plenty of carryover to modalities like yoga, pole
dancing, and gymnastics. If you want to perform better at every other
activity you do with your body, you'll no doubt find that a little extra
strength will help.
A couple of decades back, people associated the word "calisthenics" with
aerobics routines. Even today, a lot of people still think body weight training is only for sweaty AMRAP circuits. It doesn't have to be that
way! Calisthenics comes from the Greek words kalos, meaning beautiful, and sthenos,
which translates to strength. So make no mistake: You can get stronger
with bodyweight training. Anyone who says you can't probably isn't doing
it right.
Unleash this beautiful strength by learning how to master your own
bodyweight, and you'll never need to add any outside resistance. The
system of progressive calisthenics takes moves like push-ups, squats,
bridges, leg raises, dips, and pull-ups and breaks them down into
variations that even an absolute beginner can learn. As you get stronger
at these basic exercises, you can eventually progress to more difficult
variations.
1 -Incline push-ups and full-ROM push-ups
Push-ups are probably the most underrated exercises for women. Unfortunately, they're also one of the most improperly practiced.
When I ask a new female client to try this movement, they usually place
their hands too wide and high. As a result, when they descend, their
elbows tend to flare out, their shoulders jut forward, and they only go
down a few inches with each rep. Sure, they can bang out a lot of reps
that way, but they're not getting as much benefit as they would from far
fewer reps performed deeper and better. The only problem: Proper
push-ups are far more difficult to perform. Just a couple of them might
be a real struggle at first.
Not to worry—this is relatively easy to fix! If you're unable to perform
a full-range-of-motion push-up on your toes with your elbows in, you
can make the movement easier by practicing an incline push-up and
placing your hands on an elevated surface like a bench or plyo box. By
putting your hands on an elevated surface, you are distributing more of
your weight into your feet, allowing your arms to assist for better
leverage. As you get stronger, the idea is to steadily decrease the
incline until your hands are on the ground for the classic push-up.
If you're unable to perform a
full-range-of-motion push-up on your toes with your elbows in, you can
make the movement easier by practicing an incline push-up and placing
your hands on an elevated surface like a bench or plyo box.
In order to perform the incline push-up with good form, it's important
to find proper hand placement. A good way to gauge this is to align the
gap between your thumb and index finger with the crease in your armpit.
Stand on your toes, and squeeze your legs together to engage your quads
while contracting your glutes and abs. This will prevent any sagging in
your hips.
As you descend, think about bringing your shoulder blades together at
the bottom of the movement and spreading them apart as you press back up
to the top position.
2 -Pull-ups and Australian pull-ups
Pull-ups are an intimidating exercise for most women, but I promise that
when you work up to your first rep, it will be a real game-changer. Not
only is being able to do a pull-up
a phenomenal feat of strength for a woman to aspire to, it can also
help change your body composition—particularly if you're eating a clean
diet, too.
If you are unable to perform a proper pull-up yet, I suggest starting
with the bodyweight row. These are also known as Australian pull-ups
because you need to get "down under" the bar with your body in a
horizontal plane. This makes the pull-up movement less challenging
because you are using your feet as an assist. Also, having your body in a
horizontal plane rather than in a vertical plane provides more
favorable leverage.
These are known as Australian pull-ups because you need to get "down under" the bar with your body in a horizontal plane.
But like regular pull-ups, these aren't nearly as easy as most people
expect. The biggest problem most people make is letting their hips droop
during the movement. After all, it's just an upper-body move, right?
Wrong! Like most calisthenics moves, this is a whole-body movement!
Find a bar around hip height and get underneath it. Grab the bar with an
overhand grip, and place your hands around shoulder-width apart. Extend
your legs out straight, and balance on your heels. Squeeze your abs and
glutes to maintain a neutral spine, and pull yourself toward the bar.
You've completed a full rep when you can either pull your chest to the
bar or at least break 90 degrees with your elbows. Focus on not bending
at your hips as you lower back to the bottom position.
3 -Dips
Depending on your level of fitness, this
exercise can be done in several different ways. The bench dip is a great
place to start before you try parallel bars.
Place your hands behind you on a bench, with fingers pointing toward you
and legs extended forward. Be careful not to shrug your shoulders as
you lower yourself toward the ground. At the bottom position, your arms
should be in a 90-degree angle before pushing yourself back up to the
starting position.
4 -Squats
Too often, people train their lower body using a complicated routine
where they travel from machine to machine for an hour or more.
Meanwhile, everything they're looking for could be achieved by simply
getting better at the squat! It's the most fundamental exercise you can
do for your legs and butt, and everyone should practice it, plain and
simple.
The legs and glutes are the primary movers in the body, and when you
train your lower body right, it makes you stronger and faster. Get
better at squatting, and you'll get better at moving, period. It's also
great for improving your posture, back, hips, knees—you name it.
Get better at squatting, and you'll get better at moving, period.
Experienced yogis know the power of squatting. That's why malasana,
the squat, is a fundamental part of so many yoga routines. But in my
experience, nearly all of us—yogis included—can still benefit from some
dedicated squat practice outside of class.
Even though squats are a lower-body exercise, they are still a
total-body movement. Besides strengthening your gluts, hamstrings, and
quads, working to stabilize your spine throughout the movement even
works your abs! But as with the other movements here, many women feel
like they need to start with more challenging variations like pistol
squats. I recommend starting with the standard body weight squat and
sticking with it until you can bust out smooth, controlled sets of 20
reps with ease.
Start with your feet about hip-distance apart with your toes turned
slightly out. As you lower yourself slowly to the bottom position, push
your knees out to track your toes and sink in between your legs.
Contract your abs as you lower in order to keep your spine straight. If
it helps with your balance, extend your arms forward as you lower and
then bring them back to your sides as you stand. Finish the rep by fully
extending your hips at the top position.
5 -Lying Knee Tucks
Abs are made on the floor! When these are executed with good form, they
can really smoke your midsection. I prefer them to crunches or sit-ups
because knee tucks involves less cranking of your neck and use your
lower body to create resistance instead.
Begin by lying on your back with your knees tucked to your chest and
arms at your sides. In order to practice this exercise with good form,
start by eliminating the arch in your lower spine. Roll your pelvis
backward so your low back makes contact with the ground, and maintain
this position throughout the entire exercise. Slowly tense your abs as
you extend your legs outward, then draw them back in toward your chest.
6-Bridges
