Make Calisthenics and Body Weight Exercises a Big Part of Your Workouts
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By Sal | January 5, 2011
The effective use of calisthenics and body weight exercises are kind of a lost art of the fitness world and many trainers don't take advantage of the amazing amount of variety that they can provide for training sessions. These simple exercises - jumping jacks, squat thrusts, leg drives, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, body weight squats and lunges for starters - can provide a challenge for clients at all fitness level and should be a regular part of your clients' workouts.
Harriet is doing modified squat thrusts with 15-pound dumbbells and Joan is doing jumping jacks with a 15-pound weight vest. If anyone feels like complaining or thinks that these exercises are too hard for people to do, Harriet is a grandmother and Joan is not, but she could be.
A couple of sets of jumping jacks and squat thrusts are a great warm-up for any client, or add the other basic cals to the mix and you have all the ingredients you need to construct an efficient and effective workout, especially if you have half-hour sessions in your schedule. Using calisthenics, and all their varieties, in your sessions shows your clients that you are creative and that you can use a variety of methods to improve their fitness level.
Calisthenics and body weight exercises offer a wide-range of benefits, from improving strength to increasing muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. As a matter of fact, I recommend using cals and body weight exercises in place of distance running and equipment-based cardiovascular exercise. Performing 20-25 minutes of these exercises with the proper work to rest ratio are far superior to twice the time jogging or using a piece of cardio equipment. Traditional forms of cardiovascular training to are one-dimensional in that only the lower body is really involved and offer no strength training benefits.
Also, cardiovascular exercises such as jogging, whether on a treadmill or on the road, place a tremendous amount of stress on the body, while calisthenics and body weight exercises provides cardiovascular benefits with little if any impact. When you consider that jogging places reactive forces on the body equal to 1.5-2 times body weight for each stride taken, you'll realize that calisthenics and body weight exercises offer a superior training opportunity.
Calisthenics can be done in any room in the house or in a gym, do not require any special equipment and can be modified for all ability and fitness levels. As a trainer you need to include these exercises in your arsenal and show your clients how they can benefit from performing them in your sessions and when they exercise on their own.
You can read more about the calisthenics and body weight exercises in my book, "How to Make More Money as a Personal Trainer."
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