I’m trying to get better at body weight exercises (ie do more of reps of them). What is a good way to go about this? I’ve been told that a person can do one set of a body weight exercise daily and not suffer any conseqeunces. Is this true?
A couple of methods that work are:
Ladders: I’ll use pushups for an example.
1 x 20
1 x 25
1 x 30
1 x 35
And so on until you feel you can’t complete another set.
GTG (Greasing the Groove)
Do a few sets throughout the day. Three to five sets is good. When doing your sets throughout the day stop around 1-2 reps before failure.
I have used both when using bodyweight exercises. I have seen good improvement from both methods.
Dragonvash offers good advice. Another method is to take your one set max, divide it by two then do four sets of that amount.
Ladder sets are a different thing. It’s used best with a fairly difficult bodyweight exercise like handstand pushups or chins, not pushups. Also, having a training buddy is great.
Do a chinup. Rest a bit, or let your buddy do his single chin.
Then do two repetitions. Rest, and watch your partner do his double.
And so on.
When you’re two or three reps before failure, you stop right there.
Start over with one meager repetition.
Work your way up until you’re again two or three reps short of failure which will happen faster this time.
Repeat until you’re exhausted and cannot do three good reps.
That is a ladder set.
It allows you to really work up a good volume without burning totally out.
Have fun-
Schwarzfahrer
Personally, I’ve found better results using the ladders for higher rep exercises and GTG for the harder lower rep exercises.
I do agree with you on a partner. It definitely makes ladders go by much faster and you can help motivate each other.
Just my opinion.
[quote]bluestreets wrote:
I’m trying to get better at body weight exercises (ie do more of reps of them). What is a good way to go about this? I’ve been told that a person can do one set of a body weight exercise daily and not suffer any conseqeunces. Is this true?[/quote]
If you want to do more BW exercises, then try adding a bit of weight for some of the sets. Grab a backpack and load some books or a couple of small weight-plates. Or, go buy some ankle/wrist weights. Training with an extra 5-10-15 pounds to push-ups/pull-ups/etc will make just BW workouts seem much easier.
[quote]Melvin Smiley wrote:
Dragonvash offers good advice. Another method is to take your one set max, divide it by two then do four sets of that amount.[/quote]
Okay I know it’s been awhile since I replied to this topic. Sorry for bumping it back up. First and foremost I want to thank you all for the help. Concering what you said Melvin, how often would I do those 4 sets a week?