No equipment needed: Bodyweight training versus gym training

A gym has several benefits such as specialized equipment that can target specific muscles in an optimal fashion, and camaraderie of like-minded individuals.

However, there can be found exercises of equal value to those ones performed in a gym, but at home or in another setting. I remember the film Rocky IV where the Russian boxer trains with high tech equipment and Rocky trains with farm equipment. A short video is below:

I don’t care for several of the Rocky films but this montage was well designed. In the same vein, I found the rotator cuff called face pull, using a cable machine, appears to have an effective replacement using gravitational force called the W. It’s part of the Is, Ts, Ys and Ws. Laying face down on the ground, do this exercise. Weight can be held by the hands. The range of motion is short but more than adequate to get excellent activation of all the same muscles.

As mentioned in a previous post, the upper chest can be effectively worked very good with the Decline Diamond Face Pushup without the gym equipment used with the Upper Chest V cable raise.

Despite these replacement exercises being very good, working with gym equipment is very interesting and engaging. That equipment also can be used to compare overall strength versus statistics and other individuals in a more consistent manner. An example of such statistics is the site Strengthlevel.com. Here are the stats for one exercise Bench Press Standards (lb).

I enjoy very much standing on my feet at the cable machine and doing face pulls. It’s convenient and fun! Jeff Cavalier of AthleanX states that it’s better for athletes, and I say for everyone, to do strength training on the feet where possible because the feet is where we do sports and our physical activity in everyday lives. It is possible to rig up a pulley system at home with weight to do face pulls. That doesn’t take much weight and a simple rope would do. However, right now a short jaunt down to the hotel gym and I can work out on the rarely used gym equipment which is of high quality.