Body-Weight Training Program
Remember when you were in high school and your physical education (PE) teachers made you do push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups? What about those long-forgotten Presidential Physical Fitness Tests, which required you to run different distances for time? Whatever happened to those “old-fashioned” exercises?
While free weights and machines can certainly make your clients stronger, they often target muscles rather than movement. In addition, many free-weight and machine exercises, such as lat pull-downs and biceps curls, are open-chain exercises, which use only one joint as the resistance is moved away from or toward the body using freely movable limbs.
In contrast, most body-weight exercises are closed-chain exercises, which use multiple joints as the resistance is moved away from or toward an anchored body part. Closed-chain exercises, which are more functional, result in greater motor unit activation and synchronization and better strength performance compared with open-chain exercises (Augustsson et al. 1998; Brindle et al. 2002).
9-Week Body-Weight Program Training is the same for the first 2 weeks of each 3-week cycle, with the third week used for recovery and adaptation. Do these workouts 2-3 times per week. As you progress, initially increase volume (# of reps with body weight), then decrease volume and increase intensity (by adding additional weight) and recovery period.
Weeks 1 and 2
chin-ups: 2 x 10 reps with body weight (or weight-assisted machine), with 1-minute rest
squats: 2 x 10 reps, with 1-minute rest
push-ups: 2 x 8–10 reps, with 1-minute rest
Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 20 reps for each, with 1-minute rest.
Week 3 (Recovery)
Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 1 and 2 for each exercise.
Weeks 4 and 5
chin-ups: 2 x 15 reps with body weight (or weight-assisted machine), with 1-minute rest
squats: 2 x 15 reps, with 1-minute rest
push-ups: 2 x 12–15 reps, with 1-minute rest
Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 30 reps for each, with 1-minute rest.
Week 6 (Recovery)
Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 4 and 5 for each exercise.
Weeks 7 and 8
chin-ups: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight (or of weight lifted using weight-assisted machine), with 90-second rest
squats: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight, with 90-second rest
push-ups: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight, with 90-second rest
Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 20 reps with 105%–110% of body weight for each, with 90-second rest.
Week 9 (Recovery)
Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 7 and 8 for each exercise.
