Bodyweight Exercises.

[Salty]

Legs

Squats
Start off with the king of leg exercises, the squat. Everybody should be doing these on a regular basis, as they provide the majority of the power for your legs, without good leg strength you have no power. So basically do your squats.

Firstly start with your legs approx shoulder width apart, lower your ass to the floor while maintaining your posture. As you get closer to the floor I suggest raising onto your toes while keeping your back straight, then use your toes to push your body back up. The lower you go the greater the benefit of the exercise, your only cheating yourself if you do them half assed.

One-Legged Squats
A variation of the squats used to build power and strength. When you first try these you will probably find them quite difficult and probably fall on your ass. So it's probably handy to do them next to something where you use it to balance or assist you, such as a chair.

You start with one leg on the ground, hands and other foot slightly in front of your body. As you start to lower yourself to the floor bring your arms out in front of yourself along with the leg not doing the squat, this is in order for your body to balance. By the time you reach the floor; your squating foot should be up on your toes and your arms/other leg fully outstretched in front. Use the power of your leg to return to starting position and you have done it.

One-Legged Deadlift
This one you start in a similar position to the one legged squat, except with the opposite foot elevated and the foot slightly behind your leg. As you lower your body to the floor, do not maintain the same posture as the squat, but instead lean forward with your arms extending. At the point as which you finish is where the knee of the opposite leg is just off the floor and the calf is parallel to the floor. Return yourself to the starting position and repeat.

Ass Raisers
Lie on your back, one foot flat on the ground, with the other fully extended off the ground. Using your planted foot, push your ass into the air so that your extended leg and body become aligned. Lower yourself to the ground and repeat.

Lunges
I's sure everyone knows what to do here, Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with hands by your sides, keeping your body upright with good posture, Step forward with your right foot. Plant your right foot firmly as you lunge forward. Your right thigh will become parallel with the ground. Do not allow your right knee to extend over your right foot. Your left leg will be extended with the knee slightly bent and your heel raised. Step back with your right foot, pressing your left heel back to the ground. Repeat this movement with your left foot and continue to alternate.

Variations of this include, walking with lunges instead of returning to the start position. Going into a lunge then alternating by jumping instead of returning to the start position (get rather difficult) or lunging out at an angle.

Calf Raisers
Everyone should be doing these as well, as they simply are a great exercise, especially if you want explosive power out of your legs. Simply stand with your legs straight and using your toes lift yourself off the ground. To make this more difficult do it off a ledge so you increase the range of motion. Also try doing it one footed calf raisers and you will see great benefits.

Wall Sits
Great isometric exercise during a leg workout, especially just before Plyo work. Simply sit against a wall with your thigh perpendicular to the wall and your calves parallel. Hold for a time, usually a minute is sufficient.

Burpees
I've written about them before, but should not be forgotten so do them!

Hamstring Curls
Don't really know what to call these, but they are from infinite intensity and as the name describes they are basically for the hamstrings. Lie on your stomach with your feet/calves well secured to something. Using your hamstrings pull your body up so that your body from the knees up are almost perpendicular to the floor. Lower yourself to the ground (bracing with your hands) and repeat.

The difficulty of this is quite large and usually you will have to start off the movement by pushing off the ground with your hands.

Plyometrics

Squat jumps
Basically you do a squat as described above, but as you reach the floor explode up and jump as high as possible.

Straight ups
Keeping your legs straight jump as high as possible, repeat.

Frog Jumps
Similar to the squat jump but instead of jumping into the air leap forwards and repeat.

I know this is not all the body weight leg exercises in the world, but they are more than satisfactory in covering your needs, so enjoy

[walkersmith]

great thread guys, bodyweight exercises can be very effective. at the moment we are mixing burpees, push ups and squat jumps into a six min tabata interval twice a week at end of training after core work, very effective. anyone have any ideas on cycling bodyweight exercises with weight training??

[Salty]

great thread guys, bodyweight exercises can be very effective. at the moment we are mixing burpees, push ups and squat jumps into a six min tabata interval twice a week at end of training after core work, very effective. anyone have any ideas on cycling bodyweight exercises with weight training??

I tend to do one or two days a week weight training, with mainly compound lifts. The rest of my workouts are pretty much bodyweight and conditioning exercises. I try and keep the weights with equal length of time between them, but if I have to miss one, I miss tuesdays as sometimes I get sore on the wednesday which I don't like as it's a sparring night at the gym. Depends on your schedule and your goals mate. 2 sessions a week is more than adequate for a boxer.

[walkersmith]

yeah agree on that one ,two weight sessions a week definitely plenty for a fighter, what do you think about weight training off season, then switching to body weight only during competition season, my thinking being that for amateur fighters there is never enough time to fit everything in but bodyweight exercise is a convenient form of strength and power training, build up strength and power on the weights off season, then maintain with bodyweight exrcises when there is a more condensed training schedule sept to may?? any thoughts?

[Trainer Monkey]

Legs

Squats
Start off with the king of leg exercises, the squat. Everybody should be doing these on a regular basis, as they provide the majority of the power for your legs, without good leg strength you have no power. So basically do your squats.

Firstly start with your legs approx shoulder width apart, lower your ass to the floor while maintaining your posture. As you get closer to the floor I suggest raising onto your toes while keeping your back straight, then use your toes to push your body back up. The lower you go the greater the benefit of the exercise, your only cheating yourself if you do them half assed.

One-Legged Squats
A variation of the squats used to build power and strength. When you first try these you will probably find them quite difficult and probably fall on your ass. So it's probably handy to do them next to something where you use it to balance or assist you, such as a chair.

You start with one leg on the ground, hands and other foot slightly in front of your body. As you start to lower yourself to the floor bring your arms out in front of yourself along with the leg not doing the squat, this is in order for your body to balance. By the time you reach the floor; your squating foot should be up on your toes and your arms/other leg fully outstretched in front. Use the power of your leg to return to starting position and you have done it.

One-Legged Deadlift
This one you start in a similar position to the one legged squat, except with the opposite foot elevated and the foot slightly behind your leg. As you lower your body to the floor, do not maintain the same posture as the squat, but instead lean forward with your arms extending. At the point as which you finish is where the knee of the opposite leg is just off the floor and the calf is parallel to the floor. Return yourself to the starting position and repeat.

Ass Raisers
Lie on your back, one foot flat on the ground, with the other fully extended off the ground. Using your planted foot, push your ass into the air so that your extended leg and body become aligned. Lower yourself to the ground and repeat.

Lunges
I's sure everyone knows what to do here, Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with hands by your sides, keeping your body upright with good posture, Step forward with your right foot. Plant your right foot firmly as you lunge forward. Your right thigh will become parallel with the ground. Do not allow your right knee to extend over your right foot. Your left leg will be extended with the knee slightly bent and your heel raised. Step back with your right foot, pressing your left heel back to the ground. Repeat this movement with your left foot and continue to alternate.

Variations of this include, walking with lunges instead of returning to the start position. Going into a lunge then alternating by jumping instead of returning to the start position (get rather difficult) or lunging out at an angle.

Calf Raisers
Everyone should be doing these as well, as they simply are a great exercise, especially if you want explosive power out of your legs. Simply stand with your legs straight and using your toes lift yourself off the ground. To make this more difficult do it off a ledge so you increase the range of motion. Also try doing it one footed calf raisers and you will see great benefits.

Wall Sits
Great isometric exercise during a leg workout, especially just before Plyo work. Simply sit against a wall with your thigh perpendicular to the wall and your calves parallel. Hold for a time, usually a minute is sufficient.

Burpees
I've written about them before, but should not be forgotten so do them!

Hamstring Curls
Don't really know what to call these, but they are from infinite intensity and as the name describes they are basically for the hamstrings. Lie on your stomach with your feet/calves well secured to something. Using your hamstrings pull your body up so that your body from the knees up are almost perpendicular to the floor. Lower yourself to the ground (bracing with your hands) and repeat.

The difficulty of this is quite large and usually you will have to start off the movement by pushing off the ground with your hands.

Plyometrics

Squat jumps
Basically you do a squat as described above, but as you reach the floor explode up and jump as high as possible.

Straight ups
Keeping your legs straight jump as high as possible, repeat.

Frog Jumps
Similar to the squat jump but instead of jumping into the air leap forwards and repeat.

I know this is not all the body weight leg exercises in the world, but they are more than satisfactory in covering your needs, so enjoy

Somebody has obviously been taking classes
I was kind of suprised to see how many of those were in our routine regiment as well.

But since we're concentraiting on legs now some to add
Drum Majors-A basic sprint,but get those knees up as high as you can(like a drum major)
Grapevines,or Crossovers(different name same thing)A side ways sprint where you shift one foot over the other the entire time,teaches balance and abilitly to change direction on a dime
The Ball-Crunches done over the excersize ball hurt like hell but get results

[Salty]

Somebody has obviously been taking classes
I was kind of suprised to see how many of those were in our routine regiment as well.

But since we're concentraiting on legs now some to add
Drum Majors-A basic sprint,but get those knees up as high as you can(like a drum major)
Grapevines,or Crossovers(different name same thing)A side ways sprint where you shift one foot over the other the entire time,teaches balance and abilitly to change direction on a dime
The Ball-Crunches done over the excersize ball hurt like hell but get results

haha no they are all mainly from my basketball days of wanting to jump higher and higher, which I succeeded in doing.

I love grape vines, always do them as part of my warm up. But if anyone wants a good leg schedule for building power, especially jump height just let me know. I think I gave it to ICB before, it improved my vertical leap by like 6-8 inches in 6 weeks, so it is quite effective.

[Youngblood]

bumpity bump

[mrodub]

Great thread guys this is very helpful
One i like is the neck bridge i do a couple of versions of it depending on how strong i am on the day does anyone no anymore for the traps or neck

[Sharla]

Great thread guys this is very helpful
One i like is the neck bridge i do a couple of versions of it depending on how strong i am on the day does anyone no anymore for the traps or neck

I've heard of some bad soties associated with this kind of neck work. I'm not sure if any are really considered safe anymore are they?

[mrodub]

I have used it for years and i am fine nearly all wrestles use it tyson used it i think people try to do the hard version to quick and they get hurt but there are half version which are very good and would be safe for all levels of strenght

[Salty]

Great thread guys this is very helpful
One i like is the neck bridge i do a couple of versions of it depending on how strong i am on the day does anyone no anymore for the traps or neck

For traps you can do shoulder shrugs, but you need dumbbells.

[southpawed]

i can believe you guys forgot the wrestlers bridge. thats some hip, back and neck strength right there son.

also, can someone make a section for the back muscles? pull ups are the only thing i can think of. oh and the bridge.

[stringarmspete]

I love grape vines, always do them as part of my warm up. But if anyone wants a good leg schedule for building power, especially jump height just let me know. I think I gave it to ICB before, it improved my vertical leap by like 6-8 inches in 6 weeks, so it is quite effective.[/QUOTE]

Do you still have this workout by chance?