Bodyweight or "Natural" exercises should form your Foundation for Fitness!

There are a number of bodyweight movements one can do that will develop, all at the same time, endurance, strength, flexibility and breathing power. Think of running uphill: what movements are your legs making? Now do a single, complete squat using nothing but your own bodyweight. The leg movements you made are similar to taking two steps uphill. Do freesquats for 20 minutes, and you have just done the work of a vigorous run, in a space no larger than two square feet!

Do a divebomber pushup. Don’t stop after each repetition, but perform it over and over and over again, like you were exercising at a rowing machine. Stop counting. If you like, have someone else count for you. The thing is to lose yourself in the rhythm, something long-distance runners understand. When you are in the Zone, you feel like you can just keep going and going and going forever. This is what you want to do with bodyweight calisthenics.

Do we need weights to get strong? Why does pulling a cable or lifting something heavy make us strong? The truth is you do the work that gets you stronger, not the weight or the cable. Your muscles are contracting, and that is what causes the strength gains, not the weights. You could say the weights have an indirect effect on strength gains (lifting weight causes ------->contraction, which causes ------->strength). Having said that, can you do contractions without weights? Of course you can. Use your mind to make yourself stronger. This is what Eugen Sandow meant when he said, "Realizing that the brain governed the muscles, I brought the whole force of my will-power into work, and kept at it day after day. The result was magical. I grew strong rapidly and surely, and came to the conclusion that my life's work was to teach men the benefits - nay the necessity - of Physical Culture." Check this guy out--he had a magnificently chiseled physique, and though he wasn't huge, was the strongest man on earth in his time.

Train for endurance and you will reap strength, flexibility, endurance, breathing power, and all the benefits of a vigorous cardio workout. It really must be experienced to be understood.

Bodyweight calisthenics are the BASIC natural system. That is, you should train yourself in these movements First and More than all the other natural exercise systems, to set the best overall Foundation. The reason is simple: with bodyweight movements you are putting a lot of different muscles around your body to work simultaneously. This makes you Stronger, Faster than if you tried to exercise each muscle in isolation, as in weight training. The harder you train in bodyweight calisthenics, the more you’ll have to work with when you do muscle control, self-resistance, and stretching, for example. Set a good bodyweight calisthenics program for yourself and stick with it.

There are many good bodyweight programs out there to choose from. The best thing you can do is study as many of them as you can, and develop your own style. Be careful not to favor only a few exercises, though. Strive to master as great a variety of bodyweight exercises as you can expose yourself to, so that your entire body is fully conditioned. Keep an open mind, and understand you will always learn more things to further your game, to improve your style.

To get started, browse through the exercises below.

Upper Body Calisthenics
Lower Body Calisthenics
Core Exercises
Neck Exercises
Finger Exercises

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Pssst!! For a Special Bonus Bodyweight Exercise (one of the best, actually), check out these articles:

BURPEES: The Best Whole-Body Conditioner by Ross Enamait

BURPEES: The Ultimate Cardio by Matt Wiggins

Excellent Burpee Vid

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