Five Unique Exercises To Perform In Your Bodyweight Workout

Plyometric push-ups. To do a plyometric push-up simply do a normal push-up but when you come back up you use extra explosive strength to vault yourself up off the floor. So you are still in the push-up position – just in the air! The most advanced version of the pylometric push-up involves performing a clap mid-air. But simpler versions can just include only raising the hands off the ground and not the feet. Work your way up to the mid-air clap versions.

Burpees. A burpee is used for both strength training and as a cardio exercise. Start the exercise in an upright standing position and then lower yourself into a squat with your hands on the ground. Then push your feet behind you to manoevere into a push-up position. Now move your legs forward back into the squat position and jump up in the hair with your arms raised above your head. Burpees literally work out all body parts and are great for developing explosive strength.

Remember to integrate these exercises into the bodyweight workout.

Decline Push-Ups. To do a declined push-up place your feet on an elevated object such as a box or a chair. Your arms should be on the ground as usual. You will then lower your upper body towards the ground at a steeper angle than a normal push-up. This puts more of a focus on the lower part of the chest. It is always a good idea to mix up the widths of the push-up grips so that all areas of the chest muscles get in a decent workout.

Stretching Neck Tilts. This exercise is more of a stretch and is good to do in your warm up and warm down sessions. It is very simple to do. Simply stand u p right and rotate your head to the left as far as you can go and hold it in that position for a few seconds. The tilt your head in the other direction as far as you can go and hold for a few seconds. With any stretching exercises, 8 seconds is a good target to aim for in terms of the period that you hold the stretch for. The neck is a very important body part in fitness workouts since most exercises require the neck to be involved in some format. A neck is also essential for all round stability of your body and therefore it should be treated with care and neck tilts are a great way to slowly warm up your neck before your bodyweight workout or weight lifting session.

Dumbbell Pullover. This dumbell chest exercise is similar to a lieing down tricep extension but is adjusted to focus on working out the chest muscles. Lie flat on a workout bench at hold a single dumbbell in both arms above your chest with a slight bend at the elbows. Slowly move the dumbell backwards and behind and over your head so that it then drops down slightly below the level of the bench. You should feel a nice deep stretch across your chest as you do so. When you have gone as far as you can then slowly return to dumbell to the starting position, whilst making sure that the elbows are still locked in their slightly bent position. Be careful not to overstretch yourself on this exercise and only go back as far as is comfortable, whilst still feeling a nice stretch across those pecs.

For more information on these exercises, check out the build muscle without weights website.