Bodyweight Exercises, Do they have their Part?

The Forums New to training
1

I am just wondering exercises such as push-up, burpees, squats, lunges, pull-ups, chin-ups etc using only bodyweight has their part in a sprinting program?

also, doing these exercises with weight, refering to push-ups and chin-ups, would using a backpack with weights benefical?

i am mainly wondering this because of the articles read on www.rosstraining.com.

i know i have had a thread about this before and i got some replies saying that he is conditioned for boxing while i want to be conditioned for 100m, but he said on the site that his workouts are beneifcal to any athlete. and i sent him a email asking and he said to do a mixture.

your thoughts

2

I think they are useful. There have been posts on this in the past. Try searching for “depletion pushups” and bodyweight tempo.

3

depends on how you use them. doing a 100 push ups probably no, falling from a height and landing in a push up postion yes. the later has a greater training effect than a maximal bench press. body weight squat no, depth landing yes. there are others but the explanation on those are a bit greater.

4

Yes you can use them for general conditioning in a similar way to extensive med ball work.

5

also, if you have no axcess to weights for some reason, there is no reason not to do them, give you a bit of endurance - some people just have none.
Mind you, if you can rep out 100 like James says above, adding intensity like he says would be more benificial. And if you can rep out like that doing chin ups, that would be awsome to see. Back when i was 10-15kg lighter and working a lot on chin ups, we would attach 20kg via rope and weight belt, that worked well.

6

i dont like doing regular push-ups, i like either doing box push-ups where you have your hands on two boxes and have your chest go lower than the boxes. or i do the box push-ups with weight, make them more challenging.

i have a question, could a bodyweight circuit, or something similar, take over tempo for a little bit? the reason i cant do tempo is that its magpie swooping season in Aust, and there are nests everywhere around the town i live in, and you cant go anywhere without being swooped. and magpies are dangerous. so can circuits and www.rosstraining.com style of training take over tempo for say a month or two? please dont flame guys, i am just wanting to learn

7

magpie season. awsome. Can you get to a gym? use a treadmill for your tempo.
also, up here in Qld, magpie normally only upset cyclists?? if you consistly running around the oval, magpies normally leave joggers along. Perhaps take some raw mince with you to feed the birds? if you are kind, they should respond. if you chuck rocks, they will in turn attack.

8

nah i use a home gym and the closest gym is 60km+ away, so i am unable to use a tredmill.

9

Short answer is yes. Use the searching function. This has been discussed at length.

10

I was also wondering about the benefits of using body weight, circuit type exercises. In CFTS it says they use them in conjuction with tempo runs as a conditioning tool. However, is the type of strength that specific to sprinting. Not so much in terms of the musclesbeing used, but how they are being used. To benefit from any body weight exercise, many reps need to be down, each of which require a small amount of force (relatively speaking). Is this a close enough replication of sprinting for the training mode to be beneficial?

11

A lot of guys now have been incorporating bodyweight exercises first for beginning strength athletes. Then they progress them to free weights learning proper coordination of main exercises.

Some use them in their regular workouts, the most popular bodyweight exercise in routines now is probably the chin-up.

12

The chin up is slightly different, as it is always going to be harder to rep chin ups out than most other body weight exercises. I know over here in the UK a lot of coaches, particularly the traditional ones (mileage til Christmas, then increase the track work) use a lot of body weight exercises for athletes no matter the training age. I’m just not sure I see the benefits of this. CFTS advocates using these exercises in the warm up to increase blood flow, but in terms of strength development for an athlete whol already lifts, is there a benefit? WHat other benefits does this style of training bring?

13

Just done a bit of research and found in CFTS it says calisthenics can develop body control and stamina. Guess it pays to read a bit more before asking-sorry guys! Am I right in guessing this sort of work would be done predominantly in the GPP?

14

All aspects of training, ie speed, strength, tempo, conditioning, accel etc are done throughout the training year, just with varying emphasis.

15

Yeah I understand that, so my question is, would these calisthenics have more emphasis placed upon them in the GPP?