Bodyweight vs Weightlifting
I get this question a lot..
What’s better, bodyweight training or lifting weights?
The truth is, one really isn’t “better” than the other, but there are pros and cons to both. Let me explain..
When you weight train, you can isolate muscles better. For example, if I decide to bench, I can isolate my chest and triceps. All this means is I can directly hit my chest and triceps without activating any other muscle. It’s the only muscle working during that workout.
Now if I do a form of a push-up, not only are my chest and triceps being worked, but my core is more engaged as well. This will allow me to activate more muscles at a time which will also help me burn more calories. It will also force you to learn how to engage multiple muscles simultaneously which will put you more in tune with your entire body as a whole.
So which should I do?
Well if you’re trying to lose weight or tone, I’d say stick to more bodyweight movements and supplement them with weights when you want to isolate a specific muscle more. So for your chest and triceps day, maybe you do 10 rounds of pushups and dips minimizing your rest times, then do some weight training just to reinforce hitting those muscles.
If you’re trying to put on some size, I’d say do the opposite. You need to gradually increase the stress being put on your muscles (progressive overload) so you can break down more muscle fibers, allowing your muscles to grow bigger (hypertrophy). The best way to do this is by increasing the difficulty of workouts by adding weight.
Now yes, you can add weight to bodyweight workouts with a belt or weighted vest. Examples of workouts would be weighted push-ups, pullups, or dips. However, not everyone likes to do this and if you want to isolate muscles better you need to lift weights. So for you, maybe your workout looks more like a typical weightlifting session while throwing in push ups and dips in between sets.
Either way, you NEED to implement both!
If I take someone who benches 300lbs and tell them to do 100 push-ups in a row, there’s a very unlikely chance of that happening. However, if I take someone who does 100 push-ups in a row and tell them to bench 250lbs, there’s a way better chance of that happening. So your bodyweight workouts will help your lifts tremendously, however your lifts won’t help your bodyweight workouts all that much.
By doing both, you will see yourself progress at a much faster pace.. In fact if you HAD to pick one, I’d say do bodyweight training because you can always add weight to them to make it harder… But don’t limit yourself and do both so you can isolate muscles too!
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