Top 10 Best Bodyweight Exercises to Improve Muscle Strength

Personally, I prefer to train with my own bodyweight instead of using special gym equipment and training machines. Also, i prefer to train in nature instead of going to the gym. I guess that using special equipment for training might be useful for people who want to gain muscles quickly and focus on specific parts of the body. I aim more for the general strength and flexibility of the body. You can read more about my gymnastic split training here or my way to backhandspring here. I don't care much about the appearance, more about the usefulness of the muscles. So here are my favorite and, in my opinion, most efficient exercises. Note that I am not a professional and all the information here is based only on my own personal experience. Use at your own risk.

10. Jumping

As simple as it sounds. This can be a good exercise to train your legs, core, and even the whole cardiovascular system. Jump just at one place, with both legs or just on one leg, jump over obstacles, jump as high as possible lifting your knees as close to your chest as possible, use a rope, squat down and then jump, etc.

9. Press the Wall

Stand in front of the wall, lean against the wall or the tree with your hands in front of you, touching the wall. While pressing the wall, move your feet away from it and slowly move lower and lower. Your goal is to get as low as possible without touching the ground with your chest. Then also move slowly up again. A great core and hands exercise.

8. Wall Sit

Just sit down, lean against the wall, relax. Except, keep your bottom in the air. Make a 90-degree angle on your knees and sit as on an invisible chair. The thighs start to burn pretty soon.

7. Crab Walk

Sit down, bend your knees, put your hands on the ground, lift up, and walk around. At first, this seems easy, but after a while one can feel the muscles of the hands and shoulders. Quite a funny exercise to do.

6. Climbing

Either using a pole in a gym, but even better, using trees. This can be dangerous, so always climb slowly, inspecting every branch you are going to hold or stand on. Climbing the trees can activate many different muscles according to the current body position. No need to climb high, it§s not about the height but more about the various configuration of the branches and usage of the muscles. Even climbing one small tree can be performed in many ways and variations that strengthen different muscles.

5. Handstand

This might sound too crazy to some people, but standing against a wall is not difficult and is also quite safe. The only problem is fear. Keeping your hand up for a few moments in the handstand is a great way to strengthen the hands, especially the shoulders. No need to be there for a long time, just a few seconds. A cool thing, and not that difficult, is to do a handstand push-up while leaning against the wall.

4. Pull-ups

These can be done in many variations, each strengthening slightly different parts of the hands and back. Try putting gripping the bar from above or under, put your hands wider or closer to each other, etc. A nice variation and personal goal is to do the muscle-up where you push yourself above the bar to straight hands. Be careful though, tree branches sometimes break in the forest, always inspect the branch if it's solid enough. Trust me, personal experience.

3. Crunches

Simple and efficient way to work on the abs. As a martial artists I usually add two punches with each movement upwards. Sit-ups are also a nice alternative.

2. Plank

Quite a popular stationary exercise that significantly strengthens the core and also helps to build up the endurance and patience with training. This exercise is sometimes not that difficult physically, but more mentally due to the lack of movement and action. From my own experience, 2 minutes is enough with more repetitions. Sometimes I do 5 with fewer repetitions, but it feels like useless torture sometimes. You can always make it harder, for example, by pressing the hands against the legs so that the whole core contracts.

1. Pushups

The most common and well-known bodyweight exercise and yet the most efficient. It helps to strengthen the core, hands, and even the back. If you're bored, try some variations with hands wide apart, close or even overlapping, one front and one back, with clapping in front or behind you, using just one hand, etc.

I hope you found some interesting exercises here that will help you to stay fit and healthy. Here is a video of some stationary exercises that can be easily trained in nature:

Keywords: training, calisthenics, workout, nature
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