This is a big controversy in health communities: Are body weight exercises or weight lifting better for your health and building muscle? Although both fitness training approaches have their advocates, this is a case where bringing both approaches together leads to more benefits than using either separately.
What Are Body Weight Exercises?
Body weight exercises, sometimes referred to as calisthenics, are exercises in which your body weight is the source of resistance. This includes basic exercises like burpees, push-ups, and all manner of dips, lifts, squats, and jumps.
The benefits of body weight exercises are that they are easy to do without any equipment, are easier on your joints, and can be scaled up as you get stronger to create a uniform progression of training.
What Is Weight Training?
Weight training is when you attempt to build muscle by adding in additional weight. This may include dumbells, barbells, ankle weights, weight machines, and others.
The advantage of weight training is that it’s often easier to build muscle quicker, but this often comes at a price. Not only can you put serious strain on your joints and muscles, you may also end up with more uneven muscle development, especially if you only have access to a few types of weights.
Combining Approaches
If you are looking to get a truly fit appearance, lose weight, and get genuinely healthy, it’s best to combine body weight exercises and weight training. Utilizing both approaches allows you to get the advantages of each so you can build muscle faster and in a healthier fashion.
It also makes your workout more flexible and varied, which is good both for weight loss and for building muscle.
If you would like to talk to a doctor about which exercises might be best for weight loss and athletic conditioning, please contact Med-Fit Medical Weight Loss Center in Denver today.
