photo by littlemissy
I've always wondered whether or not lifting weights should be put off until I can become better at lifting my own body weight. As of right now, I can only do a few regular push-ups versus doing several on my knees. I cannot do a pull-up and my overall upper body strength is pretty weak. This being the case, should I even bother lifting weights until I meet my body weight exercise goals?
Is one superior over the other?
Depending on who you ask or where you read, you'll discover that some people advocate all body weight training, while others say that lifting weights is the only way to go. In my opinion, neither training is superior over the other because they both offer their own set of benefits.
Why I plan on using both
Even if you can't do one push-up, I think it's important to still strength train with weights while progressing with body weight exercises. One main reason being that our bodies need variety. If we do the same types of workouts day in and day out, the body is no longer challenged and won't progress.
Both types of exercises build strength, however, I feel that lifting weights builds muscle and increases strength much more effectively in comparison to body weight workouts. I think body weight exercises are great for burning fat when used as interval training. If you're looking to increase strength, then lifting weights can get you to your goals faster where as body weight exercises can help keep you lean.
Just for fun, check out a true example of overall strength below:
Jack Lalanne's Finger Tip Push-ups:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s an interesting issue! Alwyn Cosgrove says he expects everyone in his gym to be able to do bodyweight exercises before lifting weights that are heavier than bodyweight. I can see where he’s coming from.
But a lot of it is to do with the type of exercise and which parts of the body it involves. If you have weak upper body strength but strong legs, you might find push ups really difficult but be much better with barbell squats.
So I agree with your approach of doing both – although I think that bodyweight exercises are often underrated!
Interesting post.
I’d have to say though if you can’t do one pull it is possible to improve this by doing less than bodyweight lat pull down exercises but the same can’t be said for a bodyweight exercise like a squat. If you can’t do a bodyweight squat then there is no way could perform a weighted squat. Therefore you’d be better off improving the bodyweight version first.
I suppose it all depends on the goal of the weight training. Many people weight train because they can move their bodyweight they train to move more than their bodyweight.
So, if you can’t move your bodyweight in the first instance you wouldn’t be able to strength train effectively.
I agree that bodyweight training is ideal for cardio and burning fat, but, it is useful for much more than this. Who says that bodyweight training can’t involve more complexed angles and additional weight to increase the average force exerted upon the muscles?
I agree that a combination of both methods is ideal but i feel , like you, that bodyweight exercises are much underrated.
Bodyweight exercises are great, if you can do them in the right way. I guess its tough for the most, first you have to have the strength and balance to do those exercises. Starting up with weights and then combining both into your exercise schedule is like best thing to do.
I think it’s important to incorporate as many different types of resistance into your program as possible. With that being said, I also think that it’s important that you only perform body weight exercises when you have built up enough strength to perform them with perfect form.