Summer Season is Approaching
As bikini and sun bathing season is coming up fast, you might begin to start to panic because your body is nowhere where you want it to be! If you are worried you don't have time (or the money) to start a gym membership to get your body in shape, or you don't even know where to start when you look at machines or the free weight section, fear no more!
Here are five bodyweight chest exercises for the lazy, for the simple, and for those looking for results without difficulties.
#1 Pushups, Pushups and more Pushups. Static Pushups.
There are so many different types of pushups, rather than just the standard. These different variations not only test your strength, but also test your skill and mental capacity to hold form.You can do pushups at an incline:
Or you can challenge yourself to do a pushup at a decline:
For both the incline and decline, the amount of the angle is up to you and changes with each person and the strength and capacity of the athlete.You can scale down to something easier, such as a wide pushup:
There is also different places you can place your hands, such as a diamond pushup. This type of form works different sides of your chest muscles.
You can do a pushup with your your knees on the ground. Tailor the exercise to your level, and execute the perfect pushup. Of course, this “exercise” is just going back to the basics.
#2 Moving pushups
You can do a crossover power pushup or one where you use a step and go up and down in between pushups.
You can move side to side, like a crab walking and do pushups in between.
If you are a bit more advanced, and not afraid to fall on your face, you can try your luck, and be careful(!) with a clap pushup or a plyo pushup: (Read this article: Shoulder pain When Doing Push up)
Another great moving pushup is the T-pushup. This is when you make yourself look like a sideways T in between every pushup.
You can also do a deltoid tap push where you tap your shoulders in between pushups.
Another great moving pushup are spiderman pushups. This is a full body pushup, moving your arms and legs.
#3 Dips
If you are getting tired of doing pushups, you can move on to a great bodyweight exercise called the dip. These are usually associated with working the triceps, but can also take your chest muscles to a whole new level. The difference between the tricep dip and a chest dip is the way you lean and the range of your elbow.
These are usually for more advanced, but can be adjusted so that people of any fitness level can easily execute them.
Here is a site - Stronglift.Com telling you the perfect form to execute dips on parallel. If you are more of a visual person, you can watch this video of how to do chest dips:
#4 Ring Fly drills or TRX
Instead of heading towards the intimidating weights or mundane machines, every bodyweight exercise can also be completed using the TRX suspension training tool, or Rings if you are at your local CrossFit area. These chest exercises can be easily executed through chest flys using the rings or the TRX. Watch that form though!
This exercise is executed at a slight incline, as if you were to lean forward far enough to fall, but your hands hooked through the TRX in front of you while your arms are extended are the only things saving you.
Watch your grip and push your hands outward, letting yourself fall down until your chest is almost parallel with your hands. Of course the angle that you are in, and how far you go down varies with your skill set, strength and fitness level.
Here is a guide for the chest fly on the rings:
Here is another guide for the chest fly being completed on the TRX:
#5 Push up Hold
If you also like to challenge yourself and maybe enjoy a bit of pain (the good, working out kind!!), this exercise is a great step to finding the true you underneath it all, whether it is your pectoral muscles about to show, or your mental strength about to be tested.
Though you might be upset we are leading you back to the pushups, this exercise has a lot less reps and a lot more static. Not only does it work your chest, but also core, shoulders and arms.
This isometric exercise calls for you to hold a pushup position for as long as you can. Of course, there are various theories on how many reps or sets you can do, or different lengths of time to hold the push up based on your strength and level of fitness.
This can also be called a plank push up, or formed into one. In the push up hold, you lowered yourself down into the lowest point of a traditional pushup. But with the plank pushup, you change the position of your arms to modify your push up ready position into one for a plank.
The variation of how long you hold the plank for can depend on your fitness level or the results you are trying to accomplish. Here is a video demonstrating how to do a plank pushup:
Round Up
We hope you enjoyed this list of easy and simple bodyweight exercises to help you get ready for the summer! Depending on where your fitness level is and what you are capable of at this moment, you can find an exercise for you, just in this list!
These exercises not only are great to add on to an overall workout, but can help you feel confident and heighten your body image before you head to the beach!
Please share your reaction, more exercises you know of or would like to try in the comments below. Also feel free to share the article to your friends and family, keeping them fit or getting them in shape for the summer is also important! Working out is also easier with friends, so the more of them who know these exercises, the better!