Best Body-Weight Resistance Exercises

Focused on building lean muscle?

Both old-school bodybuilders and trending Youtube fitness queens tend to agree on this one point: few tools are more effective than body-weight resistance exercises.

Here are three quick reasons why:

• Two words: core strength. As in body-weight resistance exercises all work to stabilize the one area of the body most critical to your overall strength gains—your core. Developing a strong core enables you to avoid relying too much on your lower back, which in turn helps to prevent injury.
• Working with your own body weight also forces other, smaller stabilizer muscles besides your core to get in on the action, leading to greater overall body strength.
• Since body-weight resistance exercises like the ones below allow you to bypass the pricey gym equipment, convenience is also a key benefit to performing them.

Not to mention how these exercises can be performed just about anywhere, from the neighborhood park to your garage or office.

So now you’re probably wondering which particular exercises we recommend.

We got you covered.

Here are five of our best body-weight resistance exercises that are guaranteed to produce results in gym rats and novices alike.

1) (The Dreaded) Rope Climb.

When it comes to the degree of difficulty, our first entry ranks fairly high.

But don’t let that be any reason to avoid it.

This shoulder-blasting exercise should never be limited to high schoolers in musty school gyms laboring under the cruel tutelage of whistle-blowing taskmasters.

The equipment you’ll need to perform your rope climb is simple enough: one durable 10-20 ft. rope *bolted securely to the ceiling*.

(We also recommend chalking your hands in order to avoid rope burn and keeping plenty of padded mats handy for potential crash landings).

From there:

• Begin from either a seated or standing position.
• Get a secure grip on the rope.
• Lead with your shoulders and forearms as you pull yourself

         skyward (maintaining a tight core throughout the entire process).

Finally—assuming that you reach the top—let yourself down gently in order to avoid rope burn.

Oh, and never stop breathing, because you would never want to pass out while 20 feet off the ground.

2) Glutes, glutes, glutes.

If pressed to boil down the goals of women as it relates to fitness (besides boosting their overall health/self-esteem) to just one phrase it would be this one: building a better booty.

Trust us, we get it, and we think this goal makes perfect sense!

But did you know that in order to achieve it you’ll need to incorporate exercises that involve moving your own body weight?

Youtube personality and fitness queen Heidi Somers demonstrates this in her helpful booty-building video.