How To Perform A Full Body Workout With Nothing But Yourself

Full Body Workout With Only Yourself

We all know that to maintain general fitness and health, we need to work out our entire body. However, we often times find obstacles. These obstacles could be things like not having the time, not having the money to pay a monthly gym membership, not having the proper workout equipment, or simply a lack of self-motivation. We are going to start discussing today how to get a full-body workout with nothing but yourself.

Now, prior to us going into detail about the different types exercises that you need to perform, I would like to talk for a brief moment about what I refer to as the four keys to success. In order to succeed in any exercise program, it is vital that you always remember these rules.

1. Continue to breathe – I know, I know, it seems as if this is a no brainer. I mention it though because, as I am sure you will figure out soon, many people will forget to properly breathe while in the midst of an intense exercise. Most of the time you will exhale during the strenuous part of an exercise, and inhale during the easier part. An example would be to breathe in while doing pushups when you are going down, and breathe out when you are pushing yourself up.
2. Be sure to keep proper form at all times – By ensuring that you consistently use proper form you will see more sustainable results and long term success. Often times what seems like gains in the beginning of an exercise program will quickly dissipate and even result in injury if one continues to workout without proper form. I recommend you get a friend or relative to watch and comment on how well you are holding your form during workouts in the beginning to ensure you are doing them properly.
3. Take it slow – In the majority of exercises it is often more successful if you perform them slowly. Now, I do not mean taking long breaks between each rep. However, you should go through the motions slowly. This will work your muscles more thoroughly and achieve more per set.
4. Make your goal to fail – Odd tip isn’t it? Well it is true. In order to improve your overall fitness and health, you will need to fail a lot. Now, allow me to explain that by failing I do not in any way mean giving up because your are aggravated or feeling like you aren’t seeing any changes. By failure I mean that during every workout you should aim to go until you have exhausted all energies that you have. In general, you will want to work out until your last rep feels like it is the last one you would be able to perform properly with proper form. Could this result in injuries? Not very likely if you use proper form and breathing.

What Are The Different Exercise Categories You Will Need To Follow?

There are four main categories you need to concentrate on. These are cardio, upper-body, core (aka midsection), and lower-body workouts.

Cardio

The exercises in this category work on your heart. Cardio is short for cardiovascular. You may also hear

these exercise programs referred to as aerobic. Many people make the mistake of thinking that this only works out the heart. Keep in mind that it will also improve your breathing and many other large muscle groups because you have to use a lot of different muscles to do aerobic exercises which will make improvements there as well. I know, you probably hate the thought of running, right? Me too, so I have found a way to make this task a little less daunting and slightly more fun. After all, if you are having fun in the right ways, you are sure to succeed! So below I have given you two less terrible and more fun options to choose from. The best part is that you will only need to start off doing these maybe 2 or 3 times per week for about 20 to 30 minutes each time.

1. Interval Training – One of the main reasons that most people find running so unattractive is the simple fact that it exhausts you completely from head to toe. Believe me you, it does not have to be this way. Interval training revolves around the concept of working out harder for a shorter period of time to achieve the same, sometimes even better, results. Of course, interval training can apply to much more than just cardio, but that is for another day!
   
   There are many different methods for interval running, but I will give you an example to give you an idea of how it works.
   
   One option is to start with a 5 minute light jog to warm up. Now follow that with 1 minute of full speed running. Now light jog for 1 minute. Run full speed for 1 minute. Repeat that process 7-10 times. End with another 2-5 minutes of light jogging. Again, this is only one method. You could also do something similar to this except instead of running full speed each time, you run a little harder each time, peak speed in the middle, and slowly slow back down. So just look at different interval running methods and choose what is best for you.
   
2. Stair Climbing – This one is an amazing exercise. Many people have seen it on movies, (remember ROCKY) but ignore it because it seems sort of ridiculously overrated by movies like that. But it truly works. Here is how you should start utilizing the stair climbing from outside of a gym. If you have stairs at home, great, if not find some in public. I know, maybe you don’t want to look stupid, so pick a less popular public place if that makes sense.
   
   Okay, now that you have your staircase, you want to run up and down as many times as you can. Do yourself a favor and skip a stair each step if possible. You want to keep count of how many times you go up and down.
   
   Now that you have that number, cut it in half. So if you went up and down 20 times, you have the number 10. Next time you work out you want to run up and down 10 times, stop for a minute to a minute and a half, and do it 10 more times. Continue doing this until you are too exhausted to proceed.
   
   Not everyone goes out often enough to find stair climbing a reasonable option. This is okay. If you don’t have stairs at home, then just remember to take the stairs when the option presents itself to you and run where it is possible up them. 

Upper Body

Here we are primarily concentrating on exercises that target your shoulders, your chest, and your arms. Upper-body exercises are some of the easiest and most popular out there. They tend to me the most popular because in general you will see results must faster. However, they are typically the easiest to perform outside of proper function as well and lead to more injuries. That being said, I want you to remember to take your time and learn proper form as always. Ensure your own success.

As with every workout regime, it is hard to figure up a definite number of sets and reps to do. How many sit-ups are too few? How many push-ups are too many? When do I stop to take a break? All of these questions are well deserving of answers and very important in your fitness and health plan. I am going to give you some guidance on how to find how many is right for you. This is a formula to start with and should you find a better routine, feel free to try it out. Below I will be using sit-ups as an example, but this formula can be used on anything you are doing.

Lie down and perform as many sit-ups as possible. I do not want you to stop because you are tired. I want you to stop because your body will not sit up anymore in proper form. Now, let’s assume you did 40 sit-ups. Divide that by 2 leaving you with 20. So next time you do sit-ups, you will want to do 3 sets of 20 with a 60-90 second break in between each set. If you can do one more set, you should definitely do so. Again, you are aiming to completely exhaust yourself. If these ever get to easy, you should simply add 3-4 more sit-ups to each set to keep challenging yourself and to continue increasing your strength.

So here is a list of upper-body exercises you should concentrate on.

• Push-Ups
• Curls
• Dips

Core / Midsection

These are very simple exercises that target your core muscles, like your abs. Improving on these muscles will also give you a better posture which is just an added incentive. To work out your core, I recommend sit-ups.  Now, I do not mean the everyday regular old sit up. I want you to look into Pilates style regimens and pick out some sit-up style exercises that will suit you. Let me give you a few examples.

• Roll up
• Half Roll Down
• Plank
• The Hundred

Lower Body Exercise

You are probably already exhausted. Having gone through my brief guide here on a full body workout with only yourself, you more than likely find yourself thinking you want to now skip the lower body workout right? Well, do not skip this part. You do not necessarily have to do lower-body exercises to the extreme, but in order to ensure you are not neglecting any part of your body, at least consider adding the following to your fitness plan.

• Squats
• Stair Steps

That is all for today. I will be following up with another article diving a little more into depth about some of these exercises and giving you an idea of what the proper form for each one really is. This will be vital to ensure your long term fitness goals get met. Stay tuned.

Also, on one last note for today, I would like to recommend a great full body exercise program. It is designed by Tony Horton. I am sure you have heard of it. P90X is what I am talking about.  Read this review, if you like it and decide you want to buy P90X, (which would be a great guide to getting you started on your full body workout) then they have a great discount at http://asotvreviews.com.