In recent years, I have become more attracted to bodyweight exercises, using only the body’s weight. In contrast, I have increasingly questioned the value of weightlifting at a gym.

At a typical gym, you see rows and rows of exercise machines that specifically target and isolate certain body parts. In addition, many weightlifters have devised free weight exercises to work specific body parts that seem to ignore the bigger picture.

Let’s think about it. Before the 20th century, folks got into shape with bodyweight exercises for hundreds of years.

Look at the physical cultures of China, Japan, India, and Europe before the 20th century. In many places, quite sophisticated bodyweight exercise philosophies sprouted in those places. Only in the 20th century did the modern version of weightlifting come into being.

Unfortunately, most people now overlook the value of bodyweight exercises. Whatever happened to the centuries of knowledge built up over bodyweight exercises? Unfortunately, it seems that, with the arrival of weightlifting, all that previous knowledge has been ignored. Never mind that many of the “strongmen” of the late 19th century developed their physiques through bodyweight exercises.

Why spend hundreds of dollars in membership fees to lift when you can arguably get more benefit from bodyweight exercises?

For example, while the bench press works the pectoral muscles, pushups do much more than exercise the pecs. You are working more than the pecs in doing pushups (and remember there are endless variations of the pushup). You also work the core, hands, forearms, shoulders, back, abs, and glutes. You can do them anywhere, and they don’t cost you a cent. No wonder every military organization in the world uses pushups in basic training. Pushups are just but one example.

I have picked up several books on bodyweight exercises over the years.

While they contain many exercises, they are disappointing because they all miss one element.

The missing element is that it doesn’t give you the progressions needed for a comprehensive exercise program. However, I recently bought the Kindle version “Convict Conditioning”  by Paul Wade through Amazon. Like many who bought this book, I was not impressed with the title of the book, especially considering the cost.

I read through it as quickly as I could. The bottom line, this is a brilliant book on bodyweight exercise. The author makes a powerful and persuasive case for bodyweight exercises and recommends incorporating 6 bodyweight exercises.

They consist of pushups, leg raises, pull-ups, squats, the bridge, and the handstand pushups. He lays out a series of progressions for each exercise that anyone can do. In addition, he lays out various programs ranging from beginners to advanced, with a strong recommendation that everyone starts at the beginning and works their way up.

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He counsels strict form and performs the exercises in a slow controlled manner and without using momentum. Think of a guy bouncing a bar off his chest during the bench press. He especially advises taking the long view when getting into bodyweight exercises, particularly when it comes to strengthening the tendons of your joints.

Side note: You can do a fair number of exercises with a stick, body weight or otherwise.

All in all, this is the best bodyweight exercise book I have read to date, and I’m quite enthusiastic about it. I highly recommend it.

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