Brief bodyweight workouts done on a daily basis are an excellent training option for anyone who is striving to improve their overall strength and condition. These workouts can be performed in addition to the regular powerlifting or bodybuilding workouts that are done within a week. Many powerlifters, bodybuilders, and recreational lifters do not like the idea of daily bodyweight workouts because they believe it will interfere with the recovery process. This is a valid concern as it is possible to overdo it with any type of exercise. The key is to start with a little daily exercise and gradually build up the workload over time. When done correctly, daily bodyweight exercises will improve your over-all conditioning and recovery.
Three Basic Bodyweight Exercises
I recommend three basic bodyweight exercises including, pushups, squats, and suspension strap pull ups. When starting out with these exercises, just do two to three sets of ten reps for each exercise, but do them five to six days per week.
Two to Three Circuits that Include One Set of Each Exercise
If you rotate through a circuit of one set of each exercise, you can move from set to set without resting between sets. When you work out in this manner, you should be able to do two circuits, which equals two sets of each exercise in three minutes; or you can do three circuits, which equals three sets of each exercise in five minutes.
Add One Set Every Six Weeks
Your goal is to add one set to each exercise every six weeks for at least eighteen weeks. This will add up to five to six sets per exercise at the end of eighteen weeks which is enough for a lot of lifters. If you add a set to each exercise every six weeks for a year, you will be doing about ten sets per exercise by the end of the year. Ten sets may be way too much for a lot of lifters, but if you are both light and strong, you may find that you can handle ten sets without any problem, assuming you take your time to gradually work your way up to it.
Adding one set to each exercise every six weeks may seem slow in terms of how often you add sets, but the idea is to add sets without ever feeling wiped out. You will only be able to do this if you give yourself plenty of time to allow your body to adapt to each increase in workload. If you add sets too fast, it will begin to interfere with your recovery. Your eventual goal is to be able to do at least five sets of ten reps for each exercise while completing your workouts within ten to fifteen minutes.
Vary Your Exercise Form
Even though I recommend just three exercises, I would vary the way that you perform the exercises from set to set. For example, you can do pushups with a narrow hand spacing, a medium hand spacing, or a wide hand spacing. You can also keep your elbows wide to the side, or you can keep your elbows tucked in to your side. Each variation is going to hit your chest, shoulders, and triceps from different angles. When doing squats, you can vary the width of your squat stance by using a narrow stance, a medium stance, a wide stance, or a sumo stance. You can also vary the direction you point your toes, and you can vary the angle of your upper body by leaning forward or by remaining as upright as possible. In addition, you can purposely allow your behind to drift back while maintaining vertical shins, or you can do the opposite by allowing your knees to drift forward as far as possible (a knees over toes squat), and you can include sissy squats as well.
When using a suspension strap for pulling motions, you can vary your body angle and the spacing of your hands and elbows as you pull. If you have never used a suspension strap or a TRX, a couple of videos are posted below that will provide several variations of back exercises that can be done with a suspension strap.
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Another option that you can use with bodyweight workouts is to cut the week into two parts, and do about six sets of ten reps for each exercise during the first three days of the week, and cut back to just three sets of each exercise the last three days of the week. If you are doing the bodyweight workouts in addition to weight training workouts, you would do your heaviest lifting during the portion of the week when you are only doing three sets per exercise of bodyweight exercises.
By gradually working your way up to daily bodyweight workouts, you will find that they improve your over-all fitness including your cardiac function. The workouts will also enhance your workload tolerance, your recovery ability, and they will burn fat. If these physical benefits are something you would like to pursue, the use of daily bodyweight workouts will provide you with an excellent option for helping you to accomplish this. May God bless your efforts with the best of training.
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