Skip These BS Bodyweight Drills Like Santa Skips Naughty Kids’ Houses
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the number of folks out there who continue to peddle BS bodyweight drills for the sake of making you sweaty, sore, and better at taking a beating to your joints and soft tissues — yet do NOTHING for your strength and paltry little for your conditioning.
While there’s a practically infinite number of bodyweight drills out there — same with kettlebell, barbell, dumbbell, sandbag, etc — there are only a chosen few that deliver 80% of the results you’re after, with their specialized variations filling in the remaining 20%.
Here are a few you can put on the “Naughty List” for 2021:
Burpees
Useless and annoying. If you do them for low reps like they were intended, however, they can be valuable as a power endurance drill. The very inventor of the Burpee, exercise physiologist Royal Burpee (yes, that was his name, lol) even said that 4 in a row was enough.
I’ll go one step further and recommend 0 in a row.
Flutter kicks
Great for making your midsection (and possibly low back) feel sore without actually giving you any enhanced skills — like, you know, the ability to brace your midsection harder for heavier squats, presses, pullups, etc.
If you want the same “sucker punch to the gut” feeling but with some ACTUAL results, you can’t do much better than dead bugs — so do those instead.
Jumping Jacks
We know that one of the best ways to tie your body together to function better is through the gait pattern — opposite arm and leg moving forward or backward at the same time.
Jumping Jacks are the literal opposite — flinging your limbs out to the side and “untying” you. Just march instead (or, if you have the ability, sprint — preferably uphill)
Mountain climbers
In what other athletic move do your arms stay stuck in position while your legs move willy-nilly and you don’t even go anywhere? Again, great for getting a burn in your shoulders and maybe your abs, but zero carryover into anything else.
Skip these and crawl instead.
In fact, if you wanted to be REALLY minimalist, you could simply ditch ALL of the bodyweight conditioning moves you do and replace them with crawling, deadbugs, and marching, then go back in a month and test your numbers in all of these movements and I can guaran-damn-tee you’d have improved in every one of them.
Hell, you may well have improved in your favorite kettlebell and barbell moves as well!
Not only do these natural movements ACTUALLY improve your strength and conditioning, but they improve your movement, coordination, and physical toughness as well.
Even cooler: they can actually make you leaner as well!
I’ve had students do these and other movements for a few weeks and come back to rave about how they improved their:
- Squats
- Kettlebell swings
- Double kettlebell jerks
- Turkish Get Up
- Kettlebell snatch
- Pullups
- Pushups
Etc. etc.
Makes sense if you think about it: these moves help you to recapture your ability to move the way you were made while reinvigorating your Soft Machine to take charge and once again become the badazz unit it was made to be.
So if your workouts have gone soft, limp, and disappointing, toss these moves in as finishers at the end of your training and watch as the needle starts moving on your progress once more.
And once you see some progress, you’ll probably REALLY wanna put the pedal to the metal.
Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, a great way to do that is with my free ebook The 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge.
If you’ve got at least a kettlebell or two and 9 minutes to spare, my 9 Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge will show you how to take loaded carries and some of my other favorite full-body, no BS “non-exercises”, like crawling, and ratchet up your strength, boost your physical vitality, ramp up your resilience, and unlock your natural human movability — quickly, easily, and effectively.
Best of all: you don’t have to put your current workouts to the side; you just tack the 9 Minute Challenge on to the beginning or end of your training and BAM — you’ll be unlocking new and exciting levels of strength you never even knew you had in you in no time flat.
Check it out here => www.alekssalkin.com
Have fun and happy training!
Aleks Salkin
Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin is a level 2 StrongFirst certified kettlebell instructor (SFG II) and an Original Strength Instructor.
He grew up scrawny, unathletic, weak, and goofy until he was exposed to kettlebells and the teaching and methodology of Pavel in his early 20s, and took his training and movement skills to the next level upon discovering Original Strength in his mid-20s.
He is currently based out of Omaha, Nebraska where he spends his time teaching students online and in person, as well as spreading the word of strength, movement, and healthy living.
He is the author of the popular free ebook The 9-Minute Kettlebell and Bodyweight Challenge as well as numerous articles scattered around the farthest-flung reaches of the web.
Find him online at www.alekssalkin.com
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