Is body-weight training more effective than weight lifting?

I must confess that I never thought that body-weight resistance exercise would produce the muscle growth that weight lifting does. Perhaps it’s because I equated body-weight resistance with calisthenics, for which I never had any use. Calisthenics for me were an obligatory part of gym class and military physical fitness programs, which could only at best bring the unfit up to some arbitrary minimal level of fitness. Group calisthenics are a waste of time for the serious athlete.

But the GymnasticBodies (GB) program I’m now six months into, which is chiefly body-weight resistance training, has outdone my previous weight lifting regimen in some important areas. I’m surprised that my shoulders and to a lesser extent my chest, made progress I never saw in weight training. But I’m delighted that my shoulder mobility has improved and at my age, fitness is all about mobility.

I’m also seeing measurable gains in flexibility at the hips. My pike is deeper and middle splits are wider. If there is one product that is worth the entire cost of the program, it is the stretching routines, which address front splits, middle splits and thoracic bridge. They consist of three series of specific stretches and exercises performed in a precise order for precisely measured times once a week. They answered long-sought questions I’ve had about effective stretching: How often should one stretch? Which stretches should one perform? How long should you hold the stretch? Is passive or active stretching more effective? I’d like to adapt these to Taekwondo training, but only after I’ve been with the GB program for a year or two.

The leg exercises in GB are surprisingly sparse, usually only one set of some variation of a one-legged squat. But Coach Sommer points out that the exercises at my beginner level are designed to develop connective tissue support and joint stability through wide ranges of motion rather than raw strength. After a year or so, I should progress to developing explosive strength in the legs after I have built stable, well supported joints and a strong core. (Core exercises, by contrast to the legs, are typically three sets of different exercises.)

I went into the GB program with crippling bilateral sciatic pain that started two years ago with my radiation treatment for prostate cancer. I also had a nagging injury to the right shoulder that affected everything from push-ups to punching. Six months into the GB program, the sciatic pain has not gotten any worse (except after an exercise session, which is done only once a week). And I’m making progress in hip flexibility faster than I made doing Taekwondo twice a week. My shoulder pain is another matter and I have to avoid working as certain angles. (I can do 30 pull-ups, but can’t lift a coffee cup at the wrong angle.) I’ve had to modify some of the shoulder exercises to basically isometric exercises at some angle that doesn’t hurt. I feel the same way about isometrics as I feel about calisthenics – a waste of time. And isometrics run contrary to the grain of a regime designed to promote mobility. But when you look at the purpose being to build connective tissue strength and joint stability at this initial stage, isometrics make more sense.

So I’ll be sticking with the course and keep blogging about it from time to time.