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Comment by xweb | Hacker News Reader

...including this. Start with body weight training. Convict Conditioning is a great no-BS book & program, for instance.

IMO, body weight training has a big hole- it's very difficult to progress when you don't have a minimum level of strength to perform a given movement.

With weights, you can just use lower weight, and can thus freely work your muscles to exhaustion. With body weight movements, you can try negatives, but again- much more difficult.

While I generally think progression is more straightforward with weights, this claim isn't true. With bodyweight exercises, one typically progresses by making it more difficult via leverage.

See this diagram for example: http://www.operatorchan.org/pt/src/135399773193.jpg

The book recommended by xweb explains in more detail how to fill the holes between these exercises.

Interesting. But the bridges sound like a bad idea for your back.

Thanks, yummyfajitas - exactly what I would have said. If you can't do a pushup, then can you do a pushup against a wall? When you can do that with good form, then you lower the angle so you're pushing more of your bodyweight.

The logic works the other way, too, for increasing difficulty. Can you do 3 sets of a hundred one-armed pushups? Well, start climbing your feet up the wall!

If you can do free-standing one-hand vertical pushups without strain, I've got nothing for ya. Go ahead and start vert pressing 600 pounds. Also, try out for the Olympic weightlifting team--the gold medal should be easy!

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