Remember when you were in high school and your physical education (PE) teachers—intimidating in their gray, cotton sweats, wielding whistles—made you do push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups? What about those long-forgotten Presidential Physical Fitness Tests, which required you to run different distances for time? Whatever happened to those “old-fashioned” exercises? In home personal training services knows that these vintage exercises still stand on their own for solid overall fitness training.
While free weights and machines can certainly make you stronger, they often target muscles rather than movement. In addition, many free-weight and machine exercises, such as lat pull-downs and biceps curls, are open-chain exercises, which use only one joint as the resistance is moved away from or toward the body using freely movable limbs. In contrast, most body-weight exercises are closed-chain exercises, which use multiple joints as the resistance is moved away from or toward an anchored body part. Closed-chain exercises, which are more functional, result in greater motor unit activation and synchronization and better strength performance compared with open-chain exercises.
As you master your own weight, you will not only look better; you will also learn three-dimensional movement, acquire a greater kinesthetic awareness and become empowered as you perform tasks with your body. Moreover, body-weight exercises make our clients workouts portable, an added benefit for people who travel a lot or for those who have trouble motivating themselves. It allows our clients to exercise in different locations avoiding the idea of becoming boring. We use many of these “old-school” exercises because they are not only beneficial but are still used as tests of muscular strength and endurance.
Chin-Ups
Most likely the first time you did chin-ups was part of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in fifth grade. A chin up is named by bringing the chin up through space, specifically in relation to its position with the bar or other hand grips. This can be either touching the bar (more easily done by extending the neck, though that could be considered cheating) or by bringing the chin over the bar. This is usually achieved most easily with vertical forearms that are close to the body. For most, bringing the chin this high is most easily achieved with a supinated (underhanded, palms-toward) grip. Due to this, the phrase "chin up" has become associated with pulling with this type of grip. Some have delegated the term pull-up to refer to the pronated (overhanded, palms-away) grip. In spite of this, many refer to pull-ups with a pronated grip also as chin-ups, and the supine grip is still regularly called a pull-up.
Push-Ups
If you’ve ever watched people in the gym do push-ups on their own, you’ve probably noticed that few people perform them correctly. That’s because most people cannot press their own body weight. While push-ups, which target the pectoralis major and triceps, may seem like a similar exercise to the more popular bench press, there are differences in how specific muscles are targeted. For example, doing push-ups with a narrow hand position increases triceps and pectoralis major activity, while a wide grip increases pectoralis major activity during bench press. Triceps, not the pectoralis major activity also increases during push-ups if the hands are on a stability ball instead of a bench.
Squats
The squat is among the most effective lower-body exercises, as it incorporates most of the leg muscles working through the kinetic chain. Contrary to popular belief, research has shown that leg position, stance width and squat depth do not affect quadriceps activity. Research found that changing leg position by pointing the toes in, out or straight has no effect on quadriceps activity. In addition stance width does not affect quadriceps activity either but does influence adductor longus activity, with a wide stance (140% of shoulder width) eliciting greater muscle activity than a shoulder width or narrow stance (75% of shoulder width).
Abdominal Crunches
With Americans on a never-ending quest for a flat stomach or six-pack abs, exercise equipment manufacturers have done everything they can to convince the public that buying their products will help to achieve that goal. But before you reach for the Ab Rocker sitting in the corner of the gym, remember that sometimes the old-fashioned way is the best way. There has been enough research comparing abdominal muscle activity from using commercial abdominal equipment versus doing traditional crunches to conclude that crunches are just as effective or better. These researchers found that the Ab-ONE is the only commercial device that elicits a higher rectus abdominis activity than a traditional crunch. They also found that crunches are better than the Ab Scissor, Ab Swing, 6-Second Abs and Torso Track, and are equal to the Perfect Abs Roller. External obliques activity during crunches was higher than for the Perfect Abs Roller and was similar to the results for other equipment.
Despite people’s attempts to target the “upper” and “lower” abs, research does not support the concept that the upper and lower portions of the rectus abdominis can be preferentially recruited. There was no difference in upper and lower rectus abdominis activity between different exercises. The upper-body exercises like the traditional crunch, crunch on stability ball, and ab trainer (assisted crunch) did not provide any greater muscle activity than lower-body exercises like the reverse crunch, leg lowering from a supine position.
50-Yard Dash
This is a test of anaerobic power and sprint speed, the 50-yard dash reflects the ability of the phosphagen (ATP-CP) system to regenerate ATP for muscle contraction. We have our clients run a short, quick sprint lasting from 5 to 15 seconds at near-maximum speed with long rest periods (3–5 minutes) (e.g., 10 x 10 seconds all out, with 3-minute recovery periods). Workouts like these increase the recruitment of fast-twitch motor units and increase the muscle enzyme concentration of creatine kinase, which raises the rate at which muscle creatine phosphate is broken down. Short sprints have also been shown to increase glycolytic enzyme activity since the repetition of short sprints increases the glycolytic contribution to ATP regeneration.
600-Yard Run
A test of anaerobic capacity, the 600-yard run reflects the ability of anaerobic glycolysis to regenerate ATP and the ability of muscles to buffer the accompanying acidosis. We have clients run 45-seconds to 2-minute intervals with a 1:2 work-to-rest ratio (e.g., 6 x 1 minute fast, with 2-minute recovery periods). Workouts like these increase muscle enzyme concentrations of glycogenolysis and glycolysis, which increase the rates of the chemical reactions of those two metabolic pathways. These workouts also increase the muscles’ capacity to buffer acidosis.
1.5-Mile Run
A test of aerobic power (VO2max), the 1.5-mile run reflects the ability of the aerobic system to regenerate ATP. To train our clients’ aerobic power and 1.5-mile run speed, we have them run 2- to 5-minute intervals at the speed that elicits VO2max (near-maximum heart rate) with a 1:1 work-to-rest ratio (e.g., 5 x 3 minutes at near-maximum heart rate, with 3-minute recovery periods). Workouts like these increase mitochondrial volume, maximum stroke volume and maximum cardiac output, all of which together increase VO2max.
Overall Benefits
We use these exercises with our in home personal training services because they have been proven to work! As with so many other things in our lives, newer, state of the art is not always better. Because all people are different and require different type programs do not be concerned if you can’t run 600 yards or 1.5 miles. The object is to get up and start moving! If you want to get stronger, to improve your musculoskeletal function and your anaerobic and aerobic fitness, and to feel empowered by performing tasks with your own body weight, go back in time when you were a child and use these exercises from your high-school PE classes. If you or someone you know would like more information on this subject or our in home and NEW virtual training services click here.
Eric J. Collier
Cronus Health & Fitness
