How to Get Fit With Gravity
The fitness industry has produced another machine that will no doubt find its way into most gyms. A gravity machine - looking something like a hack squat machine and leg press - is being used in group sessions as well as individually.
There are other ways to make gravity your workout partner - and here are some of the best.
The Squat
Most people think: Big guys, big weights, hurt knees. It doesn't have to be this way. The squat is one of the most functional movements you can do (how many elderly people do you know who struggle to get up out of a chair?).Squats (without weights - sometimes called "Air Squats") are a fantastic movement to master. When done rapidly with high repetition, the movement will have you gasping for breath and begging for a break from the lactic acid build-up.
Instruction and Inspiration (video): The CrossFit Air Squat
The Push Up
There are many many variations to this basic exercise. Like many exercises, it can be done in intervals (such as the tabata - do as many as possible for 20 seconds, then rest 10 seconds. Repeat 8 times).Instruction and Inspiration (video): 19 Push-up Variations
Pull Up / Chins / Jumping Pull Up
If you cannot do a straight pull up - then jumping pull ups are a good bet. Even if you are jumping off a box - you are still working against gravity to move your whole body up a few feet.This is one exercise where you do need equipment - namely a bar.
Instruction and Inspiration (video): Jumping pull up, Kipping Pull up.
The Rest
- The Sit up (with variations)
- Plyometrics - Box Jump, Tuck Jump (more)
- Walking Lunge (downloadable video at CrossFit)
- Burpees (variations)
- More... add your body weight exercises below...
As the body-building style of workout has taken hold over the last few decades - these basic bodyweight exercises have been neglected.
Do we really need another machine?
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What a great post. Not for the machines but for the exercises. :-)
I tell people all the time that there is no need to buy expensive equipment or join a gym. You can accomplish anything that you can do with weights by using just your body weight. The first time I did 100 push ups was one of the most joyful days I've had in the last 15 years.
I tell people just starting to lose weight that the best workout they can do initially is squats and push ups.
:-)
Brian
ReplyMy favorite exercises are pistols (one-legged squats) and handstand pushups. During my pushups, I place my hands on chairs so that I get full range of motion.
ReplyThank god they came up with that new machine! My mother was running out of things to hang laundry on in the basement.
Actually, I'm sure the machine works well enough but it's quite easy to exercise against gravity without it as your post explains so I can't imagine it will be very lucrative.
But what do I know. If the guy who invented the treadmill had asked me to invest in his product I would have been like, "What?! Nobody is going to pay money for a machine that they can walk on! Are you out of your mind? People already have something to walk on, it's called the ground."
ReplyDr.J is right - the video Jan pointed us to opened my eyes. I wonder what use we could put to StairMasters? Elliptical Trainers? Hum.
ReplyI don't know what to do with Elliptical Trainers, but I'm sure the Stairmill (the StairMaster's grandpa) could be used as part of an ingenious device. It could drop something that would then make a ball roll to a bunch of dominoes that would then fall on a miniature see-saw and then...
ReplySix body-weight exercises to work everything:
1. Push-ups
2. Handstand push-ups (against a wall)
3. Pull-ups (need high bar)
4. Horizontal rows (need low bar)
5. One-legged squats
6. Single-legged deadlifts
All you need is one of those $20 pull-up bars. They typically come with two sets of brackets, that you can have it set for high and low (to work each of the pulling movements).
If you can't do a one-legged squat or deadlift, you can do them on two legs for the time being. Push-ups can be done from the knees. Dips (using the backs of two sturdy chairs facing one another) can be substituted for handstand push-ups, but it is not recommended. This is because some classify dips as a horizontal push, and push-ups have already got that covered.
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