You often see these gymnasts on TV once every few years during the Olympics and wonder: are they really as strong and powerful as they look? How are they so lean? People work hard to develop their physiques.
They lift weights, run, take aerobics classes, eat right.
But most people will never attain the amazing and powerfully strong physiques of a gymnast.
Why? One of the reasons is that most people fail to realize how gymnasts train: They use their own bodyweight.
Yes, of course, but it's more than that.
They don't just keep doing pushups, pullups and squats all they.
Instead, they do a number of movements that train for passive flexibility, active flexibility, joint preparation, static strength, dynamic strength, and many other aspects of bodyweight training most of us can only dream of understanding.
Gymnastics for the Non-Gymnast But, we as non-gymnasts don't really need to understand all the specifics of gymnastics.
What we do need to figure out is how we can take what gymnasts use to enhance their fitness, and use it with our own training.
Neither you or I have the resources to hire a world-class coach to get us into shape.
If you did, then you wouldn't be reading this article.
You would be with your coach.
The other important thing to note is that the results of a gymnast comes from 30+ hours per week of training on the mat, rings, balance beam, parallel bars, and other drills.
I don't have 30+ hours to train.
And I know you don't either.
So, what we need is to figure out how to use short, intense bodyweight training workouts to give us incredible results.
I have just the thing! But understand that this is just an introduction.
In order to really give you a full understanding and program of how to use bodyweight training to improve your body, I'd have to write an entire book.
Building Strength and Muscle First of all, lets try an understand how one improves his or her body.
Muscle and fat are closely related.
Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, meaning that the more muscle you have on your body, the leaner you'll look The beautiful thing about bodyweight training is that the muscle you pack on will not be the ugly, bulky muscles of a bodybuilder.
They'll look more natural and be more functional.
Functional means that your exercise has greater carry over to daily life.
In other words, you'll be able to lift heavy objects, keep up with your kids, and maintain energy at work.
In order to build a stronger, bigger muscle, you need to add greater resistance to the body.
However, you can't add resistance as easily as you would with weight training, right? Well, the key here is leverage.
Decrease the amount of leverage and you increase the amount of resistance you place on a muscle.
For example, a regular pullup is easier than if you were to perform a pullup with your legs straight out in front of you.
Why? Well, your body weighs the same either way.
But, now, as you perform a pullup, you're also engaging your abdominals.
You'll also feel greater stress placed on your back.
It's really as simple as that! Now, I want you to take this simple principle and start using it with your current bodyweight routine.
Figure out how to decrease leverage with pushups, squats, lunges, bodyweight rows, etc.