The Truth About Bodyweight Workouts

May 25, 2011 By Belinda Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, you have been eyeing off bodyweight workout movement with a little skepticism.  I mean, how could it really achieve the physique I want….right?  Curiosity got the better of me so I contacted one of the world’s leading experts in bodyweight workouts, Adam Steer.

You may have heard his name around the traps already, he is super qualified and walks the talk (read: handstand push-ups).  Yep!  Even I was impressed   Don’t worry, we won’t have you doing those but if you are serious about your physique you MUST read this interview.  In fact, I am so inspired by talking with Adam and trying out his new Shapeshifter Program that I am putting together something very special for you (see the end of the interview)!
Bel: Adam you rascal, there is a lot of hype around bodyweight workouts these days.  Everywhere I look there is bodyweight this and bodyweight that with all sorts of convoluted moves that make me dizzy just watching!  As someone who loves the gym, convert me  Why should I be listening to you and what’s so special about your program?
Adam: First off, I’m not sure I’ve ever been called a rascal before. And I think I kinda like it… And as far as turning you into a bodyweight convert goes, I don’t really feel the need to convince you of anything. I’m sure what you’re already doing is very effective. Bodyweight training isn’t something that replaces what you’re already doing. And it’s not something that requires dogmatic devotion. It’s just another tool in your toolbox.
But obviously, I believe it’s a very powerful tool, and one that anyone interested in 360° health and fitness should be using at least to some extent. The most glaring benefits are obvious, and don’t really need much explanation. Bodyweight exercise is 100% portable, so you can take it with you wherever you go and do it whenever you want.
But there’s a lot more to the story. In fact, I could probably fill a book, or at least a booklet, about the benefits of bodyweight. But here are three of the biggies.
Quick Transitions…
You can easily transition from one movement to another with little or no rest when you don’t have to mess around with equipment. This is obviously an advantage if you’re looking to torture fat off your frame.
Imagine smoothly transitioning from max repetition push ups to 30 seconds of rapid fire mountain climbers with no rest in between. By the time you’re finished your set you’ll be panting like a hound dog on a hot Memphis day! But that’s just the beginning.
Easy Transitions Between Movement Patterns…
Bodyweight workouts will turn you into the Energizer Bunny. No, your ears won’t grow. But you will be able to keep going and going. Quickly switching from one movement pattern to another lets you maintain the overall intensity of a set without hitting the unstoppable wall of local muscular fatigue.
So once you’re finished with those push ups and mountain climbers, pop up to your feet and start doing lunge jumps for another 30 seconds. Not coincidentally, this is also the point where you’ll start to hate whoever gave you the crazy idea for this workout…
Potential For Motor Complexity…
Bodyweight exercises are a great way to add truly three dimensional training to your fat burning sessions. This increases the calories you burn, for several different reasons. First, you’re recruiting more muscle by performing innovative full body movements. Second, you’re challenging your nervous system to assimilate movement through new ranges of motion and new patterns. You won’t be as efficient as you are when performing familiar movements, and you’ll need to use more energy to get the job done.
You’ve already taken tens of thousands of steps on the treadmill. Your body has been there, done that. But have you tried the quad squat, the spike press or the v-up? If not, your body is going to have to work twice as hard to assimilate the movement. Which means you burn more fat!

Bel: Alright, so you have my attention.  But I have heard people say there is a limit to the strength gains you can get from bodyweight workouts…..
Adam: To some extent, this is true. Short of adding a weight vest, you can’t increase the weight of your body. So at some point you will reach the limit of pure strength you can build with bodyweight. BUT, 90% of people out there aren’t even CLOSE to that limit yet.
That’s because there are a lot of things you can do to increase the load on an exercise without increasing the absolute weight. You can play with leverage. For example, you can raise your feet on a box during a pike press in order to make it more challenging.
Or you can do single limbed exercises like 1 arm push ups or pistol squats. When you can do sets of 10 pistol squats with ease, we can start talking about the strength limitations of bodyweight exercises…
Bel: What about all people who have movement limitations, hypermobile or painful joints?
Adam: Again, bodyweight is a tool. Some bodyweight exercises will be excellent for people who have joint limitations. For example, I often use bodyweight squats exclusively with new clients until they have perfect form before progressing them to any form of weighted squat. This ensures that the forces on the joint are optimal when we add weight, which is important if there are any sort of pre-existing conditions at the ankle, knee or hip.
However, people with wrist problems often experience some difficulty with bodyweight training because a lot of it is floor based and requires full wrist extension. For clients that are having trouble with this, I often use hex dumbbells to provide them with a neutral grip. Or I use a raised surface like a plyo-box or solid coffee table to raise the center of mass up off the floor, taking some pressure off the wrist, and again place the wrists in a more neutral position.

Bel: OK, I have of girls wanting to know how to build lean, functional muscles that aren’t over bulky.  How can your program help them?
Adam: First of all, it’s really hard to get bulky. Even guys who WANT to get big have to work dang hard at it. So gals shouldn’t be too worried about gaining too much muscle on a resistance training program.
But bodyweight in particular is a perfect training method for building what I call a functional  physique. Because you’re moving your body in three dimensions and in very primal movement patterns, you end up building a very “natural” looking physique.
I  really believe there is such a thing as a primal “archetype” physique both for men and  for women. The more we train in alignment with how our caveman ancestors moved, the closer we’ll come to that naturally appealing physique.
Our programs are also a deliberate mix of resistance exercise with fat burning cardio elements. That means you really shift the look of your body — losing fat in all the right places while you tone up the areas that give you the feminine shape you want.
Bel: Hmmm, very interesting.  Can you help my executive clients that travel a lot for work?  They are always asking me for hotel room workouts crikey!
Adam: Yeah, all our stuff can be done in a space that allows you to lie down and spread your arms and legs out to the side. I haven’t run across a hotel room yet where there wasn’t at least some corner of the room where you can do that.
A lot of my personal training clients are business people. And I always send them packing with one of our bodyweight programs when they hit the road. Surprisingly, most of them come back STRONGER and LEANER after their trip. I think part of that is just due to switching things up and hitting their fitness from a different angle for a while.
Bel: Awesome stuff Adam.  Before you go, please tell us a little about YOUR personal story (I always find it inspiring to peek behind the scenes).
Adam: It really all began with my grandfather. I’ve been into training since my early teens, when he got me a membership to his gym to “keep me out of trouble” — his exact words.
I loved sports and had a knack for them, but I was a bit of a chubby kid, so I immediately latched onto the whole idea of strength, conditioning and fat loss.  And given my genetic “talent” for weight gain, I also became fascinated with the theory and practice behind controlling body composition.  This benefits my clients a lot, since I’ve looked into and tested tons of stuff over the past two decades.
In the realm of sports, my first passion was basketball.  But at 5’6” I didn’t have any illusions, so I applied myself to Laser sailing in the summer and skiing in the winter.  Skiing later lead me to discover my passion for teaching and coaching, and I became a full-time ski pro at the age of 18.  This eventually transitioned into taking care of dryland training for ski athletes I was working with, into training people on the side part-time for fun, and eventually to a thriving business as a trainer.

However, a few years back I was feeling pretty beat up.  I was strong and looked good, but I knew something wasn’t right.  The little aches and pains were starting to accumulate and injuries seemed to be more common and last longer. So I started digging into things like joint mobility, flexibility, myofascial release and things like that.
I discovered and got certified in a few different systems and techniques. And through that process I also developed a great respect for bodyweight training and what could be accomplished with it. One thing lead to another, and I kinda became known for the bodyweight training I was doing with my clients.
I’m not dogmatic by any means. And I don’t think that bodyweight exercise is the only way to go. It’s just a tool in the box. But it IS a very powerful tool. That’s why my business partner Ryan Murdock and I decided to start the bodyweightcoach.com website.
So that’s a brief rundown of my evolution. Nowadays I spend my time training a handful of long-time clients here in Quebec City and spreading the word about good training practices via the website and our online training programs including our revolutionary Shapeshifter Body Redesign Program next Tuesday.
Woahh so there you have it!  Adam offered me his Shapeshifter Program to try out so yes, I have been taking a rest with the weights and putting my body to work in ways I never dreamt possible.  Heads up, get ready to sweat, stretch and feel muscles you never knew existed.  Not to mention the post workout soreness.  Adam’s program will get you lean AND shape your body no matter what level you are at and even if you are a hard core gym junkie.  Mix it up and see for yourself!
So stay tuned for details of Shapeshifter and remember that I have put together a very special bonus for all of you who are interested in this program.
Any comments or questions please post below and talk soon

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