There are two primary things you need to do in order to lose weight: 1. Eat a healthy diet and 2. exercise!
While you might think of exercise as an expensive activity which requires a gym membership or fancy equipment, the fact of the matter is that it can be done at zero cost. In essence, all you need in order to exercise is the weight of your body.
In this article, we’re going to discuss just how the weight of your body can help you to lose weight. Without further ado, these are the 10 best bodyweight exercises for weight loss.
The Best Bodyweight Exercises
The following exercises are terrific for not only weight loss purposes, but for physical endurance and muscle-building purposes as well. Let’s get into them!
1. Dips
Targeting the shoulders, triceps, pectoral, and upper back muscles, dips are a great exercise for both muscle building and weight loss purposes. This exercise can be performed with varying levels of body weight, allowing different numbers of reps to be performed each set.
To do dips, you will need two stable, parallel bars, or, at the very least, a piece of furniture that you can hold onto. Grab onto each bar, lowering yourself until your elbows bend. Once you’ve gotten to the lowest point possible, push yourself back up.
The more dips you can do, the more calories you will burn, resulting in weight loss.
2. Burpees
Arguably the best bodyweight workout for weight loss, burpees are extremely physically demanding. This exercise hits every muscle in your body, and also gets the heart pumping at quite a rapid rate. It offers a good combination of muscle building, endurance, and weight loss benefits.
Burpees are performed by repeatedly breaking down into a squat position, then breaking down into a push-up position, then breaking down into a squat position from a push-up position, then jumping from a squat position into a standing position. Doing this over and over again will have you breaking a sweat in no time.
3. Push-Ups
Regardless of who you are, you likely know what push-ups are. There’s a reason that you were made to do push-ups in gym class: they work. Push-ups offer terrific weight loss benefits as well as muscle building benefits, targeting the shoulders and pectoral muscles, primarily.
To do a push-up, extend your body across the floor, placing your hands on the ground shoulder-width apart with your toes shoulder-width apart as well. From that position, you simply push your body weight up with your arms, going up and down with your back as straight as possible.
4. Pull-Ups
For some, pull-ups can be a challenge. For others, they are a great bodyweight exercise. This is due to the fact that they involve almost all of the body’s weight, necessitating that you work quite hard to perform them.
To perform a pull-up, you’ll need some sort of overhead bar. You can buy pull-up bars online, or utilize a bar at your local playground. Simply grasp the bar with an overhand grip, and pull yourself up until your chin can touch the bar. Go up and down, repeating the exercise until you can’t anymore.
5. Squats
If you want to get a great leg workout at home, you need to do squats. Squats offer endurance, weight loss, and muscle building benefits, targeting the glutes, the hamstrings, and the quads.
Squats are performed by placing your feet shoulder length apart. From that position, bend your knees while maintaining a straight back. You should bend until your upper leg is parallel to the ground, and then push yourself back up into a standing position.
6. Lunges
Another great leg exercise is lunges, an exercise that promotes muscle growth as well as endurance and weight cutting. Lunges can really get the heart pumping, becoming increasingly more difficult to perform as they’re performed.
To do a lunge, start in a standing position and step forward. As you step forward, bend down as if you’re going to land on your knee. However, instead of landing on your knee, bring it 2 to 3 inches from the ground, and push back up. Alternate legs as you go, stepping forward until you no longer can.
7. Step-Ups
Another solid leg exercise is step-ups. This exercise targets the calf muscles, primarily.
Step-ups necessitate the use of a sturdy box upon which you can put all of your weight. This box should be around half a foot to a foot tall. If necessary, you can also use your steps.
To perform the exercise, you simply step up onto the elevated area, then step back down, alternating legs as you go. Doing this for a prolonged period of time will offer serious results.
8. Wall Sitting
Wall sitting is one of the best muscular strength exercises. However, it also works terrifically for weight loss.
This exercise is fairly simple to explain; you simply find a wall, bend your knees until your upper legs are parallel to the ground, and place your back against the wall. Then, remain in this position until you no longer can.
9. Mountain Climbers
Mountain climbers are one of the best full body exercises there is. Mountain climbers are strenuous and effective. It will only take a few seconds before you’re breaking a sweat with these.
To perform mountain climbers, start off in a push-up position. From there, extend one of your knees up toward your chest. After this has been done, push that knee back to the starting position while bringing your other knee to your chest, repeating this motion over and over repeatedly.
10. Bear Crawls
Like mountain climbers, bear crawls hit every muscle in the body, and do a great deal to promote weight loss. Bear crawls are simple to perform correctly but are quite challenging to perform for a prolonged period of time.
You simply bend over, place your hands on the ground, and crawl with the use of your hands and feet.
Learn Other Weight Loss Exercises
Now that you’ve learned about some of the best bodyweight exercises for weight loss, perhaps you’re interested in learning about other weight loss exercises? If so, Weight Goal Fast has you covered.
Our site is loaded with information about weight loss, offering exercises, diet tips, and much, much more.
Learn about some other weight loss workouts now.
