Why You Should Add Resistance To Your Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight exercises are a powerful way to whip your body into shape. Who doesn’t love a workout filled with burpees, squats, jump lunges, and push ups? These moves, and any of their variations, are not only effective, they can be performed anywhere -- at home, on the road, in a small space or large, making them accessible to everyone.

Simply put, bodyweight exercises are strength training exercises that use the weight of your body for resistance against gravity instead of free weights or machines. They can improve range of motion, power, speed, flexibility, balance, and strength.

Bodyweight exercises sound amazing because, well, they are! But at BodyRock we want to let you in on a little secret: if you make one simple adjustment to your routine, you can get even more from your workout.

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By adding a little resistance to the mix, you can completely transform your body, both inside and out. Here are just a few of the benefits you are likely to see:

Boosts Fat Burn

Increasing resistance in your workout will only make your muscles work harder. When your muscles are working harder, they are growing bigger and stronger. Your body uses more calories to maintain muscle than it does to maintain fat. This means, the more muscle you have, the more fat and calories you will burn.

Increases Resting Metabolic Rate

Your resting metabolic rate is exactly what it sounds like. It is the number of calories your body burns when it is at rest. As mentioned above, adding resistance to your workout builds muscle which leads to an increase in calorie burn. This increase does not just take place during your workout, but during the rest of the day as well. Muscular bodies burn more calories than non-muscular bodies, even when doing nothing at all.

Combats Muscle Loss

As we age, we begin to experience muscle loss. For most people, this process begins to happen some time in their late 30s. This loss creates weaknesses that not only make it more difficult to perform daily tasks, it can also increase your risk for type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, injury, and weight gain. None of us can stop aging, but we can slow it down. By adding resistance to your routine, you are keeping your muscles engaged and encouraging them to continue to grow.

Including added resistance in your workout doesn’t mean you have to add a bunch of super heavy weights or complicated equipment. By adding something like the BodyRock Weighted Vest to your routine, you can completely transform your body without having to change much of anything. It will push your body to new levels, making your workout more difficult without impacting your movements or range of motion. Wearing a vest when doing, a step up squat pulse, for example, will cause greater engagement from the large fat burning muscles in your legs. This means not only more tone and definition in your legs but tone and definition all over your body.

It’s an easy change to make. What are you waiting for?

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