Bodyweight Exercises are Best

Are body weight exercises best?

In a short answer, yes, body weight exercises are best. Body weight exercises are superior for strength, muscle size and cardio fitness. They also enhance stability, coordination, athletic performance, injury prevention, tendon and bone strength more than non-body weight exercises.

What exercises classify as bodyweight exercises? 

Bodyweight exercises  require movement of the body through space, with or without an external load. Weighted pull ups, weighted push ups, and barbell squats are closed chain bodyweight exercises. You are lifting a portion of your body weight through space, plus the load on the bar or on your back.

For our practical purposes, bodyweight exercises are really closed chain exercises. Exercises where the hand or foot is fixed in space classify as closed chain exercises.

In a closed chain exercise, you move your body toward or away from your hands or feet, which are fixed in space. Think pull ups, push ups, or bodyweight squats.

The opposite of a closed chain exercise is an open chain exercise. In an open chain exercise, you move an object toward your body and your hands and/or feet are moving through space. Think lat pulldowns, leg press or bent over rows.

What are some examples of Closed Chain Bodyweight exercises?

Pull ups/Chin ups

Barbell Front/Back Squats

Weighted Pull ups/Chin ups

Barbell Split Squat

Pistol Squats

Plate Drag Ham Curl

Glute Ham Raises

Ring/TRX Rows 

Weighted Push ups

Bulgarian Split Squat

Weighted Plank 

What makes Closed Chain Bodyweight Exercises Superior to Open Chain Non-Bodyweight Exercises?

Closed chain exercises like the pull up are superior for muscle growth and strength, body awareness, athletic performance, injury prevention and bone/soft tissue health.

 Muscle Growth and Strength

In most cases, closed chain bodyweight exercises are superior to open chain exercises for muscle growth and strength.

These exercises involve multiple muscle groups. Closed chain bodyweight exercises stimulate more muscle mass than their open-chain alternatives.

Because closed chain bodyweight exercises spread the load between multiple joints, they are safer and allow you to train harder with less risk for injury. (Read Do Pull ups Build Muscle.)

Closed Chain Bodyweight Exercises: Athletic Performance

Closed kinetic chain exercises are also better for athletic performance. Closed chain bodyweight exercises for the lower body improve vertical and long jump performance better than open chain lower body exercises  (Blackburn and Morrissey, 1998).

Finally, closed chain exercises improve neuromuscular coordination better than open kinetic chain activities.

Closed Chain Bodyweight Exercises: Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation

Closed chain bodyweight exercises limit stress on joints.

They also help athletes return to sport after injury better than open chain exercises.

Bunton (1993) found that open chain exercises helped patients regain muscle size after ACL injury and reconstruction. However, open chain exercises did not improve joint stability or coordination as well as closed chain bodyweight exercises.

Closed Chain Bodyweight Exercises: Bone Density and Falls Prevention

Closed chain bodyweight exercises strengthen bones and ligaments more than open chain exercises.

Thabet found that post menopausal women who performed closed chain bodyweight exercises improved their bone mineral density. Women who performed open chain exercises did not improve their bone mineral density. 

The women who did closed chain exercises decreased their risk of falls. The women who did open chain exercises did not reduce their risk of falls.

Closed Chain Bodyweight Exercises: Program Design 

You don’t need to completely avoid open chain exercises. Just make sure closed chain bodyweight exercises form the bulk of your program.

Some open chain exercises like the leg press, lat pull down, or biceps curl can be used to bring up lagging muscle groups. These exercises can help you achieve structural balance and build muscle.

Practical Implementation

Closed chain Bodyweight exercises should make up the bulk of any training program.

Open chain exercises can make up the remainder of the program, but should serve a strategic purpose. For example, perform bicep curls after your weighted pull ups to add volume to your biceps or leg press after your barbell squats for extra quad-focused training.

Use lighter loads and higher rep schemes (12+ reps per set) for most of your open chain movements.

Sample Training Programs

Lower Body Training Day:

A1)Barbell Back Squat (Bodyweight exercise) 3 x 6-8 with 3 seconds on the negative portion

A2) 3-5 High Box Jumps. Rest 3-5 minutes between sets.

B) Good Morning (Bodyweight exercise) 3 x 8 with 3 second negative

C) Barbell Step up (Bodyweight Exercise) 3 x 10

D) Dumbbell Drag Curl (Bodyweight Exercise) 3 x 12 reps with 1 count pause at the top

E) Leg Extension (Non-Body weight Exercise) 3 x 15 reps with 1 count pause at the top

Upper Body Training Day: 

A1) Weighted Push up (Bodyweight Exercise) 4 x 8 reps

A2) Weighted Pull up (Bodyweight Exercise) 4 x 6 reps

B) Handstand Push up (Bodyweight Exercise) 3 x 8-10 reps

C) Ring Rows (Bodyweight exercise, add weighted vest if needed) 3 x 12 reps

D1)  DB Bicep Curls

D2) Overhead Tricep Extension 3 x 15 each