5 Reasons Bodyweight Training is the Best Workout for Busy People

There’s a new gym opening up, and you have a free lifetime membership. This gym is always open and follows you wherever you go. This gym will save you countless hours, working your whole body in the most practical way. If you haven’t guessed, this gym is you.

Bodyweight training is a form of exercise comprised of dynamic movements that use your body weight as resistance. It’s the name of the game for those who want the most effective workout. Instead of deciding whether to be strong, quick or heart healthy, you can literally have it all with bodyweight training without spending countless dollars and hours. Here are 5 reasons bodyweight training is the best type of workout for you:

The 5 Membership Benefits of the New Bodyweight Gym

Free

Americans spend an average of $155 a month on fitness and health. Bodyweight training is free. Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, once said, “if you have a body, you are an athlete.” We couldn’t agree more, Bill! Fitness has never asked for anything more than just your own body, so why spend on expensive protein powder, cable machines, and gym memberships? Let your hard-earned $155 go towards dinner with friends, a weekend getaway or a pair of boots.

Efficient

Think about the time you spend working out at a gym: time spent traveling, time waiting for machines, time between reps that isolate a muscle or two, not to mention the time you need to carve out for core and cardio. Time, time and more time!

Bodyweight training eliminates all of this. You train anywhere you are: the hotel room, inside on a rainy day, outside on a great one — no more time-sucking gym commutes. At the gym, isolated muscle groups are overworked one at a time with long breaks in between, with bodyweight training you’re working multiple muscles simultaneously from anywhere. Finally, no more waiting on all the gym bros hogging three machines at once! Traditional gyms let your core off the hook as machines hold you in place with their comfortable padding. Bodyweight training works your core full-time as it keeps you balanced in your freestanding body. Core day every day? Check! Through it all, your heart works to push you through the dynamic movements, so you can skip the treadmill.

Functional

Bodyweight training is functional — it actually delivers practical results. Functional fitness is on the rise for two reasons: 1) people actually want their workout to improve their daily lives and 2) people’s daily lives are getting too busy to workout.

Bodyweight training is functional because it thrives on compound movements — coordinated movements of multiple muscles and joints. You know what also thrives on compound movements? Life. Almost all of life’s actions — kicking, throwing, sitting and typing, standing and bending, lifting and carrying — require a coordinated effort of many muscles, including the one beating in the middle of your chest. Working a few muscles with a static lift, push, or pull while holding still or being held still is not going to deliver practical results. Make this realization now: 20–30 minutes of bodyweight training can actually help you move with more balance, sit with better posture, and climb stairs with ease. That’s functional.

Tailored

Even after adjusting a sweaty machine to fit your body, you may still be moving in an unnatural and even harmful way. But if someone were to ask you to do a free-standing squat, you would do it in a way that perfectly fits your body’s biomechanics. Machines that lock you into good form may be guaranteeing injury because good form doesn’t just depend on angles and range, but bone length and body proportions. In other words, you instinctively know how to move in your own body, which means that when performing bodyweight exercises, you’ll move in the safest way for you. Additionally, Bodyweight training offers infinite variety to keep you progressing as you get stronger, safe if you get injured, entertained when you bored, and optimized as you get older. Talk about tailored fitness!

Effective

Bodyweight training melts away fat and stress. We’ll say that again: Melts. Away. Fat. And. Stress.

Fat fades fastest when our bodies are constantly burning it — even after our workout. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, EPOC, is the driver of this constant fat burning. The best way to achieve this is through short bursts of vigorous exercise which can be achieved through high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, the poster child of bodyweight training. HIIT also maintains a functional amount of lean and toned muscle.

HIIT can decrease stress levels too. Evolutionarily, stress is a good thing meant to help us survive short-term threats. When the stress response is prolonged, however, disease flourishes, mental health breaks down, and metabolism runs amok. In modern society, we drown in prolonged stress: we spend hours ruminating over how we’ll pay the bills, impress the boss, or gain peer validation. Bodyweight HIIT workouts are a great way for our body to use our stress response in a way it was meant to be used — quickly and physically — giving us the serenity to tackle anything life throws at us.

Your Gym is Waiting

So how do you get started with bodyweight training? You’re going to need some tools: motivation and know-how. Expensive personal trainers can provide instruction and motivation, but that defeats the purpose of bodyweight training being free and flexible. Setting goals, looking up workouts online and writing out a plan is a twentieth-century solution that wastes paper and time. You might consider a twenty-first-century solution: Millie Fit, an app by Twenty Billion Neurons. This app features an AI-powered avatar that guides you through bodyweight training workouts, motivates you to be your best, and offers instant feedback on your form using your device’s camera to see you as you workout. The coach, Millie, can be accessed anywhere, anytime through your smart device or laptop. She guides you through an efficient, bodyweight workout procured by fitness experts. She’ll even make sure you do it in the most effective way by offering motivation and feedback on your form, all while keeping track of your progress and stats. The app is currently in need of testers!

Get early access to Millie Fit!

Your gym is waiting and you now have all the tools. Join today.