Sean Bartram - Bodyweight Workouts for Men

HOW TO USE THIS eBOOK

Bodyweight Workouts for Men is an easy-to-use eBook, featuring 75 exercises that you can perform anytime, anywhereno need for a gym membership, special equipment, or machines.

To navigate through the eBook, use the built-in links on the contents pages. These will take you to the relevant exercise, workout, or program. The first section of the eBook contains background information that will be helpful as you get startedyoull find anatomical drawings identifying the major muscles; get the scoop on nutrition, hydration, and recovery; learn useful functional warm-ups to do before starting a workout; and find out tips and tricks about mastering form.

The exercises themselves are divided into three difficulty levels. The last section in each level gives you a program of workouts to follow for a month; flip to it first to find out what workout to do. Then turn to the appropriate workout page to see the list of exercises to perform for that day. Every exercise section shows exactly what to do step by step, and includes options for more difficult or easier versions.

All of the pictures in this eBook will enlarge if you double tap on them. All of the programs and sets in the workouts also enlarge for easier reading when you double tap on them. To continue reading, simply close the image using the X in the top corner.

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INTRODUCTION

Use the body youve got to get the body you want!

Intimidated by the gym? Short on time or money? Travel frequently? Or just sick of that guy constantly doing bicep curls on the gyms squat rack? Keep reading!

Calisthenics, or bodyweight training, is arguably the worlds oldest form of strength training, and now the hottest! Banish the barbells, build lean muscle, decrease body fat, increase performance, and do it all anytime, anywhere.

As a master instructor, I help people from all walks of life get fit and improve their overall health. My clients include superhuman pro football players, elite field sport athletes, and professional race car drivers. They also include men just like youbusy guys who value every second, and to whom efficiency and economy is just as important as body fat percentage. No matter the goal, Ive successfully used the exercises in this guide to help my clients reach peak physical fitness!

This guide will take you on an incredible journey to a fitter, stronger body using little more than your own bodyweight. Featuring 75 exerciseseach with modifications to meet any ability level36 unique workouts, and a dynamic 90-day plan, Bodyweight Workouts for Men will challenge your perception of strength training and evolve your approach to fitness. I cant promise you it will be easy, but I can promise it will be worth it!

Join the bodyweight revolution!

The first step in your bodyweight revolution is to understand what youre fighting for! Among other things, this chapter teaches you the Big Six exercises that will form the foundation of your training. It also explains the means to make any exercises easier or harder with simple, easy-to-follow modifications.

I strongly recommend digesting the information in this chapter, as it will make all your training more effective and efficient.

What Is Bodyweight Resistance Training?

Bodyweight exercises are strength-training exercises that dont require the addition of free weights such as dumbbells or barbells. The practitioners own weight provides the resistance for the movements.

Examples of traditional bodyweight resistance exercises include push-ups and pull-ups. The beauty of this training is that for every exercise, theres a simple yet effective way to increase or decrease the exercises challenge. Take the push-up, for example. To make the exercise less difficult, you can perform a kneeling push-up. To make it more difficult, you have a multitude of options, from changing your hand positions to establishing stops throughout the motion to elevating your feet. These variations not only increase the exercises difficulty, but also extend the range of motion and recruit more muscle fibers.

In general, increasing the number of repetitions will improve endurance, while strength gains are made by increasing the intensity of the exercise by decreasing leverage, by working at the ends of range of motion, or by adding dynamic tension.

Organizations such as the World Calisthenics Organization and competitions such as Battle of the Bars showcase the elite performance that can be garnered from bodyweight resistance training. Practitioners and legends such as Al Kavadlo, Kenneth Gallarzo, Frank Medrano, and Denis Minin defy gravity on YouTube and other social media sites with physics-bending feats of strength created by utilizing the same techniques presented in this guide.

Despite what an entire industry tries to promote, you do not need to pick up a weight to gain strength, increase lean muscle mass, and improve athletic performance.

Advantages of Bodyweight Resistance Training

Lets be honest. While we work out for the health benefits, a big plus is looking great with your shirt off. Being fit, lean, and healthy boosts self-confidence and makes you want to spend more time training.

I suspect youre interested in decreasing body fat, gaining strength, adding lean muscle, and improving your athletic performance. The exercises and programs in this guide will help you meet those goals.

Adaptability

For years the fitness industry portrayed bodyweight exercise as little more than a warm-up, endurance, or cardio workout. The theory was that gaining strength required lifting heavy, progressively, and with attention to load, not reps. But why cant bodyweight exercises be progressive? Take standard push-ups. Perform as many repetitions as possible in a given time, and its only about endurance. Increase the time it takes to perform each rep, however, and/or the dynamic tension (the muscular force required to execute that rep), and it makes the exercise more challenging and builds both strength and lean muscle mass, just like adding weight to a barbell. Applying these basic principles to every bodyweight exercise allows you to adapt the resistance and force required.

Build Lean Muscle and Burn Fat

Youll work multiple muscle groups at once via compound exercises. The minimal equipment and space required make it easy to transition between exercises, reducing rest time and allowing for a high intensity interval training type of workout. Alternating sets with minimal or no rest forces the body to produce muscle-building and fat-burning hormones like HGH and testosterone. This also stimulates excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC, also known as the afterburn), the measurable increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity intended to erase the body oxygen debt. Fatty acids are released as fuel for recovery. EPOC can boost fat burning by up to 48 hours.