Introduction to bodyweight exercises
Ladies want to tone their arms; Men want to grow them bigger. Almost anybody who works out with weights has done a bicep curl in their life. They look good and are the first thing people notice when you tell them (or don’t) that you have started hitting the gym. Well, what if we tell you that you don’t need an expensive gym membership to train those guns and horseshoe triceps.
Yes, you read that right. All you need is your bodyweight and maybe a Pull up bar/ Dip Stand to help perform these exercises. The best part about these exercises is that these exercises not only train your arms but also target other upper body muscles like the chest, back, shoulders and even target the abs, which makes them a complete package.
- Chin Ups:
To perform this exercise, start in a dead hang position from the bar with your arms fully extended. Pull yourself up as your chin clears the bar. Exhale on the way up and inhale when coming down. The exercise can be performed using bodyweight and can be made progressively harder using additional weights in the form of dumbbells or weight plates attached to the lifter. Aim for 10-12 repetitions of 2-3 sets.
- Inverted Row with Supinated grip:
To perform this exercise, position yourself under a bar of waist level height with the chest underneath the bar. Hold the bar with your arms extended and legs straight. The body should form a straight line. Now keeping the chest up and the shoulder pulled back and down, begin the movement by driving the elbows backwards as you exhale. This will lift you up. Touch the bar with the chest and come back slowly to the starting position. This completes one rep of the exercise. Perform 2-3 sets of 12-15 repetitions. To make the exercise harder, elevate your legs or lower down the bar height.
- Dips:
The movement begins by hanging on to the bar in a way that the arms are completely straight and the feet off the ground. The chest should be upright and the shoulders retracted. It's important to engage the core at this point and stabilize the body. The trainee should aim to lower themselves down as they inhale until the shoulders are in line with the elbows. Going for the extra range of motion can be counterproductive when it comes to shoulder health. Push yourself back up to complete one repetition. Repeat the exercise for 2-3 sets of 10-12 repetitions. To make it more challenging, you can use weight plates/dumbbells between the feet and apply progressive overload.
- Close grip Push Ups:
The close grip push ups is one of the push ups variations which emphasizes the triceps a bit more than the regular push ups. To perform this exercise, start in a push up position and bring your hands closer so that they are 4-6 inches apart. The execution and form remain exactly the same as doing a regular push up with the hands shoulder width apart. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fweighttraining.guide%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F11%2Fclose-grip-push-up-resized.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fweighttraining.guide%2Fexercises%2Fclose-grip-push-up%2F&tbnid=ZBolIluAFfwORM&vet=12ahUKEwi0nYeKx6v2AhX7i9gFHW2OA9gQMygBegUIARDdAQ..i&docid=Lcx-kMMxQVPQPM&w=1320&h=880&q=close%20grip%20push%20up&ved=2ahUKEwi0nYeKx6v2AhX7i9gFHW2OA9gQMygBegUIARDdAQ
Aim for 2-3 sets of 12-15 repetitions at the start. Once you are able to reach the target rep range comfortably, you can ask someone to place a weight plate on your back or use a resistance band to make this exercise progressively difficult.
Conclusion
These exercises can be done as a standalone workout as “Upper Body exercises” or as a finisher to blast your arms to get that massive pump. Pick up a couple of movements and try getting stronger by adding more reps as you progress. In case you are able to do 15+ repetitions on these with ease, feel free to add more load to these exercises. Resistance bands, Chains, Weight with belt can all be used to make the exercises progressively harder as you get stronger.
