Bodyweight Exercises vs Weight Training
Bodyweight exercises involve using your body’s natural resistance to train muscles. Weight training utilises machines or free weights to build strength. Which technique works for you depends on your individual fitness goals. While bodyweight exercises help with flexibility and core strength, weightlifting is a good way to gain muscle mass. No matter your preferred method, using the proper equipment is a top priority. Orbit Fitness is a leading provider of gym equipment and accessories to suit all your home gym requirements.
What’s the difference between bodyweight exercises and weight training?
The difference between bodyweight exercises and weight training is that bodyweight exercises, or calisthenics, uses your own weight as resistance. Regular weight exercises use free weights or machines to add resistance to your movements. Calisthenics involves equipment like pull up bars, resistance bands, and parallettes to effectively train the body.
On the other hand, weight training includes dumbbells, leg curlers, kettlebells, and more. Both bodyweight and weightlifting can be incorporated into your workout to increase strength and burn fat. However, depending on your strength, skill, and fitness goals, some workout techniques may be more beneficial than others. While bodyweight exercises focus on strength and endurance, weightlifting leans more toward increasing muscle mass.
What are the benefits of bodyweight exercises?
The main benefits of bodyweight training include flexibility, core strength, and balance. It also allows you to work with little to no equipment just about anywhere. Home exercise has been especially popular after the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw entire populations homebound without their local gyms and parks. All you really need for bodyweight training is yourself, but incorporating bodyweight equipment into your workout routine may help add a level of difficulty and increase the physical benefit of the exercises.
Without needing machinery, you could workout from the comfort of your own home without spending your paycheck on a gym membership. Another benefit is improved flexibility. The motions of bodyweight training, like lunging and squatting, may increase your range of motion. In the same way, these exercises, along with wall sits and planks, help train your core and improve balance. Another advantage is that bodyweight exercises are typically easier for beginners–there’s less equipment and risk of injury involved.
Can bodyweight exercises target specific muscles?
You can target specific muscles with bodyweight exercises with the right techniques. Although science is still making up its mind on spot reduction, certain exercises may train muscle groups during a workout. Chin ups, for instance, are great for training biceps, whereas diamond push ups are the go-to for triceps. However, weight machines are generally more effective at isolating muscle groups. This is because bodyweight exercises, although able to focus on different areas of the body, typically engage the entire body while working out. exercises are typically easier for beginners–there’s less equipment and risk of injury involved.
What are the advantages of weight training?
Weight training comes with a variety of benefits including easy scalability and increased muscle mass. Exercising with free weights of machines allows you to add more weight as required, modifying your lifting capacity to make the workout easier or harder. With bodyweight training, you’ll need to constantly change your routine or modify exercises as your body adapts and overcomes physical challenges.
Our bodies only provide a definitive amount of resistance, you’re likely to plateau and find it hard to progress further. This is what makes weights so advantageous for building muscle. When you repeatedly apply pressure to your muscles, it causes microtears in your muscle fibres. When these tears fuse, they enlarge the muscle, increasing size and mass.
Does weight training burn more fat than calisthenics?
Calisthenics is more effective at burning fat than weights. This is because it involves movement of the whole body, which uses more energy during the workout. However, using weights may lead to increased fat burn after the workout is finished. This is because your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the pace that your body burns calories when resting, is influenced by several factors, including muscle mass.
Since weightlifting actively works to increase your muscle mass, it makes sense that your BMR would improve as you gain muscle. While bodyweight exercises may not burn as much fat after you’ve stopped exercising, it provides a more timely benefit. You could do a high intensity bodyweight workout and experience caloric decrease right away, but with weightlifting, it takes time to build muscle and start experiencing the effects of increased BMR.
Is calisthenics or weight training better for strength building?
If your goal is to build strength, both calisthenics and muscle training might work in your favour. On the one hand, using free weights and machines adds more pressure to your muscles and builds mass. On the other, bodyweight exercises are great for functional strength, improving your overall mobility and fitness. Calisthenics is best implemented as part of a regular routine for long-term results.
With weights, you can build strength and muscle in a short period of time. A great way to maximise your strength training is by combining both bodyweight and regular weight exercises in your routine. Benefit from increased muscle and improved flexibility and balance at the same time. You can do this by combining techniques on the same day, or do them on alternating days. Since both techniques put pressure on your muscles, ensure you don’t go overboard and cause strain or injury.
What is the best workout equipment for bodyweight exercises?
The best workout equipment for bodyweight exercises includes pull up stations, chin up bars, dip stations, and vertical knee raise stations. This equipment provides excellent support for your workout routine, helping you target muscles and turn your living room into a home gym without compromising on space. Pull up stations are used to train arms, shoulders, and lats.
They typically come with a variety of grips to adjust the difficulty of your exercises. Chin up bars can be placed in doorways, so you don’t have to worry about buying a full station or machine, and it’s packed away when you’re done. A dip station is a set of bars that you rest your full bodyweight on using your arms. This helps develop your pectoral and tricep muscles. Knee raises target your lower body, aimed at building strength and muscles in your abdominal area.
Great bodyweight exercises start with reliable equipment. Orbit Fitness is the largest supplier of fitness equipment in Western Australia. Our seven retail outlets in Osborne Park, Cannington, Booragoon, Joondalup, Malaga, and Bunbury, offer a wide range of equipment for all your fitness needs. With over 39 years of experience, we know a thing or two about good home fitness solutions. If you can’t make it to one of our stores, our bodyweight equipment is eligible for Australia-wide shipping. Chat with the friendly Orbit Fitness team to find out more about our bodyweight equipment, or explore our range of gym weights to add another level to your home gym routine.