Does being able to do more pushups increase your lifespan? Despite the seemingly humorous nature of the question, recent scientific attention has been directed toward improving our ability to forecast lifespan. One study suggests that your ability to complete pushups quickly and effectively may indicate your cardiovascular disease resistance.
Pushups have been linked to improved health outcomes, from reduced BP and BG to lower LDL and HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Plus, it's not just pushups. It's becoming increasingly difficult to deny the connection between bodyweight strength and overall health.
There is no place where you can't do bodyweight exercises.
A bodyweight workout can be done anywhere, from the living room to the garage to the park, as long as your toddler (and dog) will allow it.
It is crucial because a lack of consistent effort is the leading cause of workouts falling short of expectations. Strength training is excellent, but it will only do you good if you can use the weights when you need to.
The portability of bodyweight exercises makes it easier to maintain a regular exercise routine over time. Consistent attendance is where the magic of training occurs.
By eliminating barriers (such as getting in the car and driving to the gym), establishing and maintaining a routine of any kind becomes much more straightforward.
For this reason, having a choice that includes fewer barriers can be crucial to your success, whether you dedicate just one or two training days to bodyweight-only exercises or base your entire program on bodyweight movements.
There is no place where you can't do bodyweight exercises.
A bodyweight workout can be done anywhere, from the living room to the garage to the park, as long as your toddler (and dog) will allow it.
It is crucial because a lack of consistent effort is the leading cause of workouts falling short of expectations. Strength training is excellent, but it will only do you good if you can use the weights when you need to.
The portability of bodyweight exercises makes it easier to maintain a regular exercise routine over time. Consistent attendance is where the magic of training occurs.
By eliminating barriers (such as getting in the car and driving to the gym), establishing and maintaining a routine of any kind becomes much more straightforward.
The option to train with only your body weight for a day or two, or to base your entire program on bodyweight movements, can be a game-changer.
Lifting weights with one's body is an effective way to gain muscle mass.
Excellent research by Brad Schoenfeld indicates that even advanced weightlifters can gain muscle with nothing more than their bodies.
Do you want to know the key? The goal is to push your muscles to the point of exhaustion. Muscle gain can be maximized with either lower reps (and more weight) or higher reps (and less weight), according to Schoenfeld's study (and less weight). The most important takeaway, however, was that when adding less weight, you still need to work your muscles to failure, even if that means performing 25–35 reps or more.
During our workouts, many of us will randomly stop a set short of complete failure or choose a rep range (8-12 reps). It is more straightforward to gauge with barbells and dumbbells, but you'll want to know your actual rep max before switching to bodyweight exercises.