One of the drags of working out even when successfully so, is the inconvenience of getting to and from the gym after a hard day of work. Perhaps you worked a long shift, or maybe your nearest gym is out of the way. Maybe the gym is very popular and always packed exactly in the only time of the day you can go. Or maybe you are a traveller, a person constantly on the move or with an aversion to crowded gyms. Then a bodyweight workout is the perfect solution for those with a dislike for confusion or the need for even basic equipment. The simplicity of bodyweight workouts should not mislead anyone to mistake them for basic, ineffective beginners' workouts, because it is possible to turn them into very hard compound like movements by simply playing on the angle of push or lift relative to the force of gravity, and by performing them with one or two limbs at a time, greatly challenging the performer and leading to lean muscle build as a side effect.

One of the drags of working out, even when successfully so, is the inconvenience of getting to and from the gym after a hard day of work. Perhaps you worked a long shift, or maybe your nearest gym is out of the way. Maybe the gym is very popular and always packed exactly in the only time of the day you can go. Maybe you local fitness center is just too fancy and expensive, especially now in this recession and you feel uneasy spending money on fees. Or maybe you just travel a lot for work, and a gym membership is just not convenient. You get the point, you want and need to workout but without the need for a gym or fancy equipment. How can you do this? Well, it is very much possible to get a thorough full body workout by using cleverly your own body weight. The advantages of such a training system are not just in the money saved, but also in time and practicality, since you can perform your workouts wherever you are, making it ideal for travelers as well.

Originally body weight workouts were called Callisthenics (also calisthenics), and consisted of free body movements commonly found in gymnastics, performed on the floor or on parallels or rings, but for your own use they are simply referred to as basic compound movements involving your own body weight as opposed to normal weights. Muscles don't know the difference between a plate or your body, they are both pulled down by the force of gravity and their job is to win that resistance.

However here lays a problem. Body weight is fixed, and so the body weight workout is usually associated with easy warm up movements such as floor push ups as in the marines routines, where you end up using a smaller resistance than performing your usual chest presses, for example. Vice versa, your own fixed body weight could be too much for other movements such as hand stand push ups on parallets (a sort of portable parallels), where you lift your body weight in a movement equivalent to a full range of motion military press. Not many people can perform, say, 1 set of 10 repetition or more of barbell military presses equal to their own body weight in a full range of motion. Other movements such as squat, conversely, would be way too light without a weight on top.

How to concoct an effective body weight workout with such limitations? It is simple, by varying your body inclination to the floor and/or employing 1 or 2 limbs depending on the exercise. For example you can squat on 1 leg (so called pistols) only at a time starting from a step ladder or a chair and going as low as you can get, balancing yourself with your arms stretched out. Try it, it is way harder than with 2 legs, similar to having your own body weight on top of you twice. Then go on to do chin ups for back and biceps, depending on your strength you could do regular 2 arms chi ups or, if it is too much, place a chair under your feet and lower the bar so you virtually do rower with you body parallel to the ground. Use 1 arm if too light. Use 1 arm for chin ups if very strong, find your way. Let's go to chest now. Are push ups too light? Then spread your feet wide apart to widen your base and balance yourself and do 1 arm push ups. Not enough? Raise your feet higher and higher to put more and more weight on your hands and also on your shoulders. Close your elbow to make the leverage more disadvantageous, increase the weight on your hands and shoulders. Carry on until you can perform upside down handstand push ups, first on the floor with limited range of motion, because your head will go in the way, then with full range on 2 parallets or using 2 chairs to go all the way down.

Other movements include parallel dips for chest, and you can find many other variations yourself. You'll be surprised at the efficacy of bodyweight workouts. Think about it. Olympic gymnasts have same of the best and most powerful physiques on earth with outstanding body weight to power ratio. Guess how many barbells and dumbbells they use in their training to get to what they are? You guess it, a big fat 0. They only use their own body weight. But muscles, of course, don't know the difference, they only feel the force of gravity to overcome. And again, look at the wild life: how many wild animals you see training in a gym to achieve the lean, powerful musculature that allows them to prey or flee? Don't laugh, i know it sounds silly, but you get the point. They all do bodyweight workouts, albeit in a different way. Lions and zebras do not use weights and they still have powerful, lean bodies. You cannot beat nature's simplicity.

As for myself I started bodyweight training long time ago and i can tell you that it is a no-contest with gyms. You simply can't beat the overall package of time saved, money saved, overcrowding avoided, weight queuing hassles and so on. I am fitter than in my gym era and can train anywhere in no time at all.

So I hope this opened your eyes a bit on the opportunity to consider such a deceptively simple training system as a valid substitute to weight training, especially if you are a person constantly on the move, a traveler or simply with a dislike for gyms and an attraction for simple,spartan but effective solutions.