CanadianBiker32

As it does take some time to drive to the gym to get going. And our gyms our closed due to the "19" at the moment.
Is it possible to entirely just do body weight workout for strength training.

Such as push ups , sit ups, self lunges for quads etc? possible to do and get a almost decent strength all around just from body weight exercises? as in no dumbells at all either?

caloso

I think you'd get 90% of the benefit of the gym from 6-count burpees plus pullups.

alo

You could get a lot of the same benefits, but you would need to be creative with the exercises. Think of exercises for each of the muscle groups.

wolfchild

Yes bodyweight training is very effective for building and maintaining strength and fitness. You don't need gym membership to get fit or strong... I maintain my strength and fitness by training at home with kettlebells and bodyweight exercises. I never had gym membership.

Kat12

Yes, of course. Look up calisthenics, bodyweight exercises, etc. Google and Youtube are full of ideas. Especially now, because all of the fitness sites and channels have been putting out tons of "home" workouts for nearly a year now.

(Just evaluate carefully. There are plenty out there that say "no equipment needed" and then it's "so you'll need a pullup bar, and a box, and a couple kettlebells...")

mrv 

Grant Peterson has a nice list of easy to do exercises at home in his Eat Bacon, Don't Jog book.
You should be able to scroll through the table of contents here: https://www.google.com/books/edition...sec=frontcover

I also like to do a short ride to secluded parks and do calisthenics, or the local high school track, which has a about 41 steps up the bleachers.
Already mentioned: push ups; burpees; mountain climbers; crawl like a bug for 50 yards, that's always tough.....

SapInMyBlood

Muscle ups
Planche
Front and back levers
Pistol squats
Handstands (Handstand Pushups..)

If you can achieve these movements, you don't need to worry about going to any gym
​

The Clumsy Oaf

There is a bodyweight exercise book called Convict Conditioning.
It's pretty effective.

cubewheels

The best bodyweight strength training I've tried is driving big hard gears in steep climbs - while sitted and also out of the saddle in intervals.

If you can't ride outdoors it's also possible to do this in the indoor trainer if you can raise the front end with wood planks so the trainer is tilted upward at least 15% gradient and drive the trainer at high resistance to simulate climbing steep gradient.

Why the upward (climbing) tilted position is essential to both trainer and real bike (by climbing steep hills) is the tilted position effects a weight transfer to the rear and most importantly to your feet, so you can push bigger amount of force before you are lifted off your seat.

In and out of the saddle (standing) intervals is also needed for indoor trainer. Out of the saddle intervals facilitates working out of the core muscles more effectively.

burnthesheep

Even VO2 has conversion of type iib to type iia fibers. And is mostly type iia. Which is best bet for what you describe.

So, what you describe is not strength training. Especially since it's going to be longer than 15 seconds. Here's a handy chart.

sloppy12

kettle bells and "thera" bands can be had at walmart. you can do allot with just those. and its cheaper than one month of gym.

push ups, burpees, pull ups.

cheesesandwich

I use balance board to do some squads, also double up as push up tool. The effort to do push up while balancing can be a bit challenging at first. And pull up bar, That's about it for me.

ARider2

Yes, exercises that use only body weight can certainly be used to build and maintain strength. However, you should also consider other benefits of increasing and maintaining flexibility and balance just using your body weight for stretching and calisthenics. I have been using a home-based approach like this for the last 5 years and I am very pleased with the results. Not only am I stronger but I can see the difference. I like not having to go to the gym as it saves time and money. I do this for about 20 minutes each day and two days a week I supplement my program with another 15 minutes using 10, 15 and 25 pound dumbells. I find the dumbells help me especially with upper body strength in my arms, shoulders and chest.

cubewheels

It used to be less than 15 seconds but I eventually got stronger and now I'm doing more than 15 seconds.

I guess now it's time to use higher gears!

xroadcharlie

I'm sure if you google the subject you will find all you need to maintain a reasonable level of fitness. Might I suggest if you have the room look for used exercise equipment. I like free weights best, Dumbbells specifically, But Ive seen machines somebody paid $1,000's of dollars for go for almost nothing. Some just want to get rid of that monstrosity.

The benefit of dumbbells is you can find a weight that is best suited to your condition. Whether you start curling 20 lbs, or want to be a competitive lifter using 50+ lbs. Same idea with the other 10 exercises I do. When I'm done, a rack of 12 pair of dumbbells and a folding bench take up about 8 sq. ft. of floor space.

wolfchild

Pushing big gears uphill while seated is a sure way to kill your knees...You should be standing up when pushing big gears uphill or just sit down and spin....Also what you describing here isn't bodyweight strength training, what you talking about here is riding a bike. Bodyweight strength training is done off the bike and not on the bike.

Carbonfiberboy 

Thanks for bringing this chart to our attention again. I have a question: I also do low cadence high effort training, though seated on my resistance rollers. I do intervals at from 90%-100% FTP, 2 intervals of 15'-25', rest between 1/2 interval length. My HR and breathing are below AeT at that effort. What zone am I in? BTW, it works for me. Does not increase my 1RM with weights, but does steadily increase how long I can do them, and my muscular endurance on long climbs. So it does change something. I could also do them at 120% FTP though for a shorter duration and with a higher metabolic cost, i.e. training load? I'm pretty sure that the TSS I get from these is not a good measure of training stress. I don't need to rest the day before or after at my current effort. I've done them once a week for 2 months in the early spring, and only then, for many years.

Oh and for post 16. Never had a knee problem, even on long backpacking descents in the mountains. Maybe because I do them? Doubt that though. Old bubbe-meise.

wolfchild

Being able to do these is impressive but it doesn't mean that it will make you good at other things.The amount of time and dedication that it takes to master these movements is way too much for 99% of the people. It's not worth it for what you will get out of it.....It's a lot better to choose few simple and basic exercises which are sustainable long term and which don't require a lifetime of dedication to master.

Carbonfiberboy 

If someone can find a study that showed bodyweight strength work increased the cycling performance of well-trained cyclists, we'd all love to see it. I don't think it exists. There are studies which show that moderate weight lifting does nothing for cycling performance, however.

If all one wants to do is to improve performance using weight training at home, with little equipment, see my posts 22 and 27 in https://www.bikeforums.net/training-...-training.html
Not bodyweight, but just dumbbells. I bought 2 sets of Amazon cheapo dumbbells for ~$120. Getting good ROI.

cubewheels

My knees are fine. My weight training off the bike is actually harder on my knees with "dumbbell lunges" but even with the weighed lunges, I'm not sore after workout.

I get it, but in the simplest sense, we're just looking at the same goal. Better core and leg strength where you can also do on the bike with proper technique done in intervals, particularly involving a steep climb - for the weight transfer to the back and driving big gears.

A steep climb is required, otherwise, you won't be able to put down as much force with big gears without the weight transfer caused by climbing steep gradients.

I still do strength training off the bike anyways. At first it was simply lunges which turned into dumbbell weighed lunges as I became stronger.

::forgot to mention, you can also do the same thing on the trainer to cause a weight transfer if you can raise the front end of the trainer with wood planks for example, and pedal high resistance to simulate steep gradients

cubewheels

I agree. I actually took one of your posts seriously when you suspected I might have inadequate leg strength.

I went for strength training using dumbbells at home, eventually increasing the weight to just above 70 lbs (total weight of two dumbbells). Before I couldn't go up >15% gradients without standing on the pedals, now I can do it sitted as well without the least bit of struggle. Easier work on steep climbs and faster and more powerful sprints. So yep, based on experience, it is important. I used to ignore strength training and glad to have my mind changed on the matter!