The 3 Most Effective Exercise Moves That Don ’t Require Equipment

If you have access to a gym, there’s nothing wrong with using exercise machines. But it’s also a good idea to sometimes forgo equipment and use the weight of your own body to work out. Here’s why: While machines tend to isolate specific muscle groups, “a lot of body-weight exercises force you to control your movements and stabilize yourself, and to do that you need to recruit and train a lot of different muscles,” says Chris Gagliardi, a certified personal training and weight management specialist with the American Council on Exercise. It’s a good workout for your brain, too, since body-weight moves often require more concentration than machine-based exercises. “To put the different pieces together and execute these moves properly, you have to stay focused, engaged and present,” he says. “A lot of machines don’t have that cognitive component.” Stepping off the machines also gives your body a chance to make different shapes and move the muscles that machines might miss. “With most machine-based exercises, you’re moving along one plane—either forward-backward or side-to-side,” he says. “With body-weight movements, you hit multiple planes, so you have the ability to train not just different muscle groups but also how the body moves.” These are the three best exercises that require nothing more than your own body weight, according to Gagliardi. Burpees How to do them: Start out ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Exercise/Fitness Source Type: news