28
November
2020
|
07:57 AM
America/New_York

What Really Happens to Your Body When You Do a Body-Weight Workout Every Day

Livestrong discusses the effects on the body when performing a body-weight workout every day according to experts including HSS exercise physiologist Chelsea Long MS, CSCS, and others.

"Body-weight exercise is a form of resistance training," explained Long. "It breaks down the muscles so they can build back stronger." While external weights aren’t used, there are things one can do to make body-weight exercises more challenging as the body adapts and gets stronger. Long suggested altering rep and set counts, adding in plyometric moves and increasing the amount of time you hold a certain position.

By adding in cardio intervals, or progressing some strength moves into plyometrics (such as doing jump squats instead of regular squats), these are easy ways to turn body-weight sessions into more intense cardio. However, jumping also puts a lot of stress on the joints, cited Long, so you may run into some issues if you're doing plyometrics every day. "You can mix them in on some days, but plyometrics should only come after proper form and a baseline of strength have been established,” she advised.

While any activity can be beneficial for weight loss, it is also dependent on what your baseline is before starting this daily habit, said Long. "You want to increase your normal amount of activity for the day in order to reach your weight-loss goals," continued Long. 'If that's through body-weight training, then that's fine."

Giving your body time to recover is an essential piece of the fitness puzzle. A little residual soreness or muscle tightness isn't necessarily a bad thing. But if you're so sore that you feel it going about everyday activities, that's a sign you could use a recovery day, said Long.

Read the full article at Livestrong.com.