Women often complain about their bodies. No matter what size or shape they are, they have a way to find one portion that they are dissatisfied with, and concentrate on improving that area only. That is a rookie mistake, which doesn’t give you the desired result as soon as you wish. Whether you want more shapely legs, or a toned butt or more muscles in your arms, you should be concentrating on building your overall body, instead of sectional exercise. For this, you need to know everything about body weight exercises for women.
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Body weight exercises are essentially strength training exercises which uses only the mass of your body to help you exercise. If you aren’t used to it, navigating your way around the complicated machines and equipment at the gym can get tough. For this, you can even start avoid going to the gym, which ultimately is of o use to you.
Suggested read: Get Your Dream Body With These Easy Home Bodyweight Workout
The advantages of body weight exercises for women are plenty. First of all, you can practice these exercises anywhere, which means you don’t have to give yourself excuses like you are too lazy to travel to the gym. Secondly, these exercises are modifiable to suit your body type, and depending on how you are built or how strong you are, you can train accordingly. Thirdly, body weight exercises don’t focus on one single section of your body. It works on every part, and aids in weight loss in a proportional and balanced manner, so that you can build your dream body, and not just focus on specific parts.
Exercise for Women
You might be wondering why exercises have to be gender-specific. After all, if you go to a unisex gym, you will see men and women doing the same reps, working on the same machines and training in a similar manner.
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However, when you are doing body weight exercises, you have to take into consideration your body. This is especially important when you are a woman, because men’s and women’s bodies are totally different. When you are exercising, you have to make sure that you don’t cause yourself unnecessary injury. You also have to ensure that you don’t work out when you are menstruating, because not only is your body extra exhausted during this period, but there are also major hormonal changes that are taking place in your body right now.
Let us now check out some of the best body weight exercises that are specifically designed for women’s bodies.
1. Elevated pushups
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One of the most underrated exercises for women is pushups. They are great for building your upper body strength and they have make you feel better immediately. However, unfortunately, most people are unable to pushups the right way, because they either put their hands too wide apart, or can’t seem to go up and down without folding at the waist. To prevent this from happening, make sure your hands are parallel to your shoulder. Also when you are going down towards the floor, your elbows should not splay out, and instead should b tucked in.
Doing pushups right can be very difficult. You might even have trouble doing 2-3 pushups in a row in the beginning. However, you have to give your body time to get used to it, after which you will see a miraculous change in your body.
2. Burpees
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Burpees are like a full body workout, except you don’t need any kind of instrument or equipment to do it. They affect all the important muscles in your body including your legs, arms, abdomen and hamstrings. It might be difficult to do burpees at first, but once you get used to it, you will be able to do 20 in a row, which is plenty to get you through the day and work your body adequately.
Your starting position should be an upright standing position, with your hands by your side. Crouch down into a sitting position and place your hands in the floor beside your feet. Use the pressure on your arms to jump backward and get into a pushup position. Then reverse the entire thing by jumping forward again and jumping up into a standing position. The moment you land, you should crouch down again and repeat all the steps.
Suggested read: Get That Coveted Toned Look, With Yoga Exercises
3. Dips
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Dips are also a great exercise, especially for women. They greatly help in toning your arms without exerting yourself too much, which sometimes happens when you use professional grade gym equipment. They affect the triceps directly and build lean muscle in place of fats in your arms and your shoulders.
All you need to do your dips right, is a fat, tall surface, such as a table or a strong chair. Sit facing away from the chair, with your arms placed on the edge of the chair and facing you, and your legs placed away from your body. Use your arms to push your torso upwards, and slowly descend till you make a 90-degree angle with the ground. Make sure your shoulders are straight and taut, and that you don’t shrug when you are going down.
4. Jumping jacks and clap jacks
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As basic as it may sound, doing jumping jacks as a regular part of your body weight workout routine could work wonders in helping you get your dream body. It can be exhausting at first, but it is one of the most effective ways to train all parts of your body. Jumping jacks and clap jacks are excellent natural cardio exercises, and they help build your core strength and stamina. They are also great for women who are trying to get shapely legs, muscular arms and a taut abdomen.
For both of these exercises, your starting position should be standing upright, with your legs parallel to your shoulders. Place your arms in a T-shape, away from your body. For the jumping jack, jump into a straight position with your legs closed and your arms clapping above your head and then jump back to the original at ease position with your arms and legs away from your body. For the clap jack, you should do the same, except, instead of clapping your hands above your head, bring them forward in front of your chest, and go back to your original position.
5. Squats
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People work really hard to train their lower body. They hop from machine to machine at the gym, training for hours in order to ensure that they’re glutes, legs, butts, waist, thighs, and calves are shapely, muscular and toned. However, you can actually work all these parts of your lower body without any gym equipment, and by dedicating only 5-10 minutes of your workout to squatting. Squats are also great for balance and stability, and also improve your posture. They increase your core strength and make your back, shoulders, glutes, and legs look amazing.
To start, place your feet slightly apart, so that they are parallel to your waist. Start to sit with your knees bending forward, and your butt between your legs. In order to keep your spine straight, pull your abdomen in. if you have trouble keeping your balance, you can either keep your arms straight and parallel to the ground, or you can push your toes away from your body a little, till you get the hang of the exercise.
Apart from these basic exercises which stimulate all the important parts of your body, there are a few other exercises that you can practice as well. These include:
Suggested read: 5 Absolutely FUN Ways To Stay Fit, For Women
- Pull ups – for your abs and glutes
- Jump lunges – for your abs, glutes, and thighs
- Bridges – for your back, hamstrings and the posterior chain of your body
- Planks – for core muscle building and abs
- Mountain climber – for arms, legs, thighs, posterior chain
- Superwoman pushup – for abs, lower back, abdomen
- Spot skipping – for calf muscles
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to get in shape. When you are practicing body weight exercises for women, you have to make sure that they are safe, and don’t cause you injury. The ones that I have mentioned above are great for beginners, especially if you haven’t been to the gym, and you are just starting out on your fitness journey. Once you get a hang of these exercises, you can check out a more advanced guide, which will show you an even more intense workout, which can give you the killer body that you have always dreamt of.
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