So Why “Body Weight Fitness?”

In case you haven’t noticed, the name for my personal and group training work is “Back to Basics Bodyweight Fitness.”  I stumbled through a few names before finally settling on that one.  One may ask, “well, why did you choose that name?”  I’m glad you asked.  Actually, I can answer the question about the entire name by focusing on the “Bodyweight Fitness” part.

In a nutshell, here’s why:

1. Calisthenics are my tools.
2. Bodyweight Fitness can be done anywhere, anytime, and by anybody
3. Many athletes have exclusively used bodyweight exercises for conditioning with amazing results.

The long explanation is below.

1. Calisthenics are my tools.  Bodyweight Fitness is the name, first of all, simply because bodyweight exercises, or calisthenics, comprise the tools that I use.  This includes pushups, pullups, dips, squats, crunches, planks, and MANY variations of everything I listed.  My classes and personal training sessions (coming soon) also include running, jump rope and some plyometrics.
2. Bodyweight Fitness can be done anywhere, anytime, and by anybody.  With bodyweight fitness, you don’t NEED a gym.  You don’t NEED any equipment necessarily (only things I really recommend to clients or students are jump ropes and gloves).  Consequentially, this means you need little or no money to do bodyweight fitness.  Money, or the lack thereof, is one of the main reasons folks can’t (or don’t) join gyms…so there you go; that’s one excuse eliminated.  Also, anybody can do them.  There are always easier variations of exercises to do if some prove to be too difficult.  And this is essentially where the “Back to Basics” part comes from; we’re taking a step back from the machines, weights, treadmills and ellipticals, etc., and using tried and true methods that require only God-given equipment – our bodies.  Don’t get me wrong though; gyms and pretty much all the equipment is cool to me.  I’ve worked out with weights and will again.  However, I will always have calisthenics as my foundation.  With my teaching, I desire to equip every client and student with the knowledge that there are no longer excuses when the equipment you need to work yourself out is yourself.
3. Many athletes have exclusively used bodyweight exercises for conditioning with amazing results.  Over the past 5 or so years that I’ve largely done bodyweight fitness for my own training, I’ve been amazed to find out how many athletes train exclusively with calisthenics.

Gymnasts, for example, are in a sport that showcases extremely high levels of bodyweight strength in various moves that the average Joe couldn’t do (without years of training).  And obviously, they build decent physiques as well.

Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson are a couple of examples of football players who relied on calisthenics.  I don’t think you heard me…football – perhaps the most physical american sport, where the athletes are usually huge from lifting heavy weights.  Herschel Walker was (and still is) known for doing thousands of reps of situps, pushups and pullups every single day, and he is still known today for being one of the sport’s best running backs.

Hannibal for King is a bodyweight trainer in the New York area who is well known for ridiculous bodyweight feats of strength, including strict muscle-ups (no kip at all), levers with leg flutters, and much, much more.  He’s been doing just calisthenics for roughly 20 years, and I believe his results speak for him.

Paul Rudometkin (from The Fortress) is a younger guy who works out similarly to Hannibal.  He started out at a really young age and built an impressive amount of muscle.  He is also a very good communicator in regards to how to work up to various difficult moves, so I refer to his tips often.  Again, results speak louder than my words.

So anyway, there you have it.  This is why I call my business “Back to Basics Bodyweight Fitness.”  Don’t let the “bodyweight” part fool you.  Not only can you get a good workout, but you can add significant muscle, too.