Push Ups

• Increase difficulty by putting your feet up on a 6” box.  The elevation shifts your body weight forward, making the push up harder.  Generally, the higher the elevation the more difficult the push ups become, but as you increase the elevation you also change the primary muscles being used…shifting from your chest muscles to your shoulder muscles.

• If you really want to step it up and make push ups SUPER hard, use can add weight to your upper body.  You can use a weighted vest, or have some one place a weight on your upper back.  You can even use a resistance band by wrapping it around your back and anchoring it with both hands.

• Another way to increase difficulty is to place your feet on an unstable surface such as a Swiss ball, medicine ball, or some type of suspension like a TRX suspension system.  You can also switch it around and place your hands on the unstable surface and perform push ups for more challenging fun.

• If you have difficulty performing regular push ups, you can go on your knees to perform them.  If knee push ups are a little too easy, but you still have a hard time performing regular push ups, try performing negative push ups.  Place a cushion or something soft under your body, so that you can fall onto the floor without hurting yourself.  Start in a regular push ups position and slowly lower yourself down until you can’t support your weight any longer and let yourself fall onto the cushioned floor.  Place your knees on the floor and perform knee push ups to get back up.  Once your up, raise your knees off the floor and repeat again.  Keep in mind that negative push ups are quite hard on your muscle, so you should only do them once or twice a week with no more than 8 - 12 reps per session.

Pull Ups

• Increase difficulty by touching your chest to the bar.  You can also change your hand placements on the bar.  The wider you place your hands the more difficult it becomes.

• Even harder, do weighted pull ups by putting a dumbbell between your knees.  Make sure that you perform full range of motion, elbows to almost full extension (avoid locking your elbows out) and don’t cheat by doing partial reps!

• Decrease difficultly by using a resistance band.  Wrap the resistance band around the bar and stick one foot in. These are special length resistance bands that are made for assisted pull ups.  The thicker the band, the easier the pull up will be.

• If you have difficulty performing pull ups and you don’t have access to a resistance band.  You can perform negative pull ups.  Use the jumping momentum to pull yourself up to the bar and lower your self down as slow as possible.  10 seconds should be your ultimate goal.  Once you can do that you should be ready to perform a full pull up without any assistance.  Keep in mind that negative pull ups are quite hard on your muscle, so you should only do them once or twice a week with no more than 8 - 12 reps per session.

• Another easy way is to do pull ups, is by using your legs to help pull your body up It’s also known as jumping pull ups and although this exercise can be used to increase your intensity as part of a workout, you can use it as a substitute, in place of regular pull ups as well.  The degree that you use your legs will determine how difficult your pull ups will be.  The more you use your legs the easier it becomes.

Air Squats (Bodyweight Squats)

• Increase difficultly by squatting past 90 degrees by bringing your thighs parallel(or below) to the floor.  Make sure to keep your chest upright and stick your butt back as you squat down.  Slightly shifting your weight towards your heels will dramatically take pressure off your knees.  You can bring your arms out front to keep your balance as you perform these squats.

• If you’re advanced, try one-legged squats and go as low as you can. You can use a box or a chair and squat down and sit on it, before you come back up.  This is a great way to begin using one legged squats, if you haven’t done so before.  You can progressively make it more difficult by gradually lowering the box or chair.

• Increase your intensity with squat jumps.  Jump up as high as you can, landing in the squat position (keep proper form as described above) and repeat.

A little tweak goes a long way!  Try some of these tips out and make these simple yet effective bodyweight exercises work for you!