TURN UP THE HEAT:

By TAKU

Making body-weight exercise more efficient and effective

At T.N.T. we feel that getting the most from your strength training is more about how you use the tools you have rather then what those tools are. If you become totally fixated on one form of training; Sand-Bags, Resistance Bands, Free-weights, Machines, Kettle-bells…You may feel at a loss when you find yourself unable (for whatever reason) to use your favorite tool.

No matter where you go, there is one form of resistance you always have available to use, your body-weight. Some folks love body-weight exercise and don’t want to ever use anything else. Others feel that body-weight exercise is boring, or not hard enough to get the job done.

Which ever group you belong to, those who love to do body-weight exercises or those who feel that they are just not that hard; I am going to outline a technique that will supercharge your body-weight training and make any body-weight exercise much more of a challenge.

I call this technique: Static-Dynamic combo sets. By making this small change to the way you perform your body-weight exercises you will find that they become much more challenging and productive. Lets use the body-weight squat for our example:

First perform a static free squat or wall squat for max time (up to 120 seconds). Then immediately proceed to doing full range body-weight squats in the following manner:

Lower your body slowly towards the floor taking 3-5 seconds to get to the bottom position. Pause and hold the bottom position for 5 seconds. Then return to the top position, again taking 3-5 seconds. Once you reach the top do not rest there, immediately begin lowering slowly for the next rep. Repeat until momentary muscular failure.

Along with squats, I have applied this technique to the following body-weight exercises:

Split Squats Push-ups Dips Chins Recline pulls Sit-ups

With just a little thought and creativity you’ll soon find that this method may be applied to almost any conventional body-weight exercise. 

Take your body-weight exercise to the next level.

Enjoy the burn.

TAKU’s NOTE: This technique is basically a way of adding pre-exhaustion to body-weight exercises without needing an isolation movement. Try adding these Static - Dynamic Combo sets to your favorite body-weight exercises. Remember moving to a single limb option is another way to manipulate load with body-weight exercises. Combine the static holds, and continuous tension with controlled cadence, non-lockout reps and see just how high you can Turn Up The Heat!