Bodyweight Calasthenics ok for everyday?

[onemadmofo]

I lift weights twice a week and have wrestling practice five days a week. I was wondering if it is ok to do bodyweight exercises every morning and have a endurance gain. I would be doing push ups, pull ups, squats and planks. I understand that muscles need time to recover but some athletes like Dan Gable, Kimura, and countless others who would do hundreds and thousands of reps of these exercises everyday and they seemed to be incredibely strong.

[Standard]

Training like Gable wouldn't work for 99% of the population, but i don't see anything inherently wrong with doing bodyweight work everyday. That is provided that it doesn't start to take away from other aspects of your training that may be more important but that's going to depend on your recovery abilities and the training load.

You will have to constantly increase the reps though to continue making progress so i would imagine there is a limit where the reward wouldn't justify the amount of time needed to complete them

[nate schroeder]

i did this two summers ago every day of just push ups and pull/chin ups and i did feel like i was getting in a lot better shape but i did end up getting tendonitis in both my shoulders and one of my elbows pretty bad after about 2 months of it so i wouldnt recommend it.

[Steakeater]

Originally Posted by Standard

You will have to constantly increase the reps though to continue making progress so i would imagine there is a limit where the reward wouldn't justify the amount of time needed to complete them

yeah, same for everything, max strength, aerobic, etc.

i feel bad for distance runners who want to improve endurance, they need to run crazy volumes, i mean ridiculous

[def1]

i do pushups and squats and other exercises like that everyday. nothing wrong with it.

[Standard]

Originally Posted by Steakeater

yeah, same for everything, max strength, aerobic, etc.

Strength training allows you to increase the load of the movement so progress wouldn't be limited to reps. Obviously some exceptions but you don't have to spend more time to continue to progress.

[Steakeater]

Originally Posted by Standard

Strength training allows you to increase the load of the movement so progress wouldn't be limited to reps. Obviously some exceptions but you don't have to spend more time to continue to progress.

I was talking about the overall costs/benefits/effort, etc.

it takes more time for recovery, compensation, for additional increases in strength after getting stronger no?

[Standard]

Originally Posted by Steakeater

I was talking about the overall costs/benefits/effort, etc.

it takes more time for recovery, compensation, for additional increases in strength after getting stronger no?

I would totally agree to the overall cost/benefit for increaseing any atribute beyond a certain point.

I was talking about the duration of the workout, when you're doing 100 total reps of pushups it's not bad but if you're doing a 1000 it's going to take up a good portion of your day.

[XTrainer]

I've dabbled in this, and while BW training every day CAN be useful, you need to be careful. Personally, I think a lot of times doing daily BW work is just a way to assuage feeling of complacency and to feel (not necessarily be) productive. I've definitely been guilty of that before. For people who like me, who enjoy training and are dedicated to it, it's sometimes hard to accept the fact that real rest days are indeed useful and productive. For these people, daily BW work is basically "busywork" that gets in the way of recovery for "real workouts." You need to consider that, if a bodyweight workout actually is challenging enough to stimulate useful adaptations, it is necessarily challenging enough to get in the way of recovery for other workouts. That might not matter for someone only lifting (or doing met cons or something similarly deamnding) two days per week, but it probably will matter for someone with 4+ days of this kind of training.

Having said that, I'm a big believer in "greasing the groove" as a way to improve chin ups/pull ups. I haven't done it, but I assume the principle can be applied to push ups and other bodyweight exercises. Just be careful about upsetting the balance between training and recovery.

[Nameless One]

Hmm.. interesting angle on this question. I am inclined to believe that yes, it is ok... but as others have said, you reach a point of diminishing returns in terms of 'progress'. There was a point in my life where I was doing 400 pushups and situps a day. These days, I settle for 200 each. I get to certain point with it, and I'm ok with maintaining that level. I guess if you're a member of the 'if you're not improving, you're losing' school, this would be bad... I'm of the mind that such an attitude is more appropriate for body builders and competition weight lifters when it comes to strength training, and is of less importance to a fighter after a certain point(where as that attitude would be appropriate for technical/skill training). How strong and conditioned do you have to be to be competitive? That's a multimillion dollar question.

One personal experience I have with doing daily bodyweight exercise comes from active duty in military service(combat arms). Our 1 hr a day PT in the Army was basically just daily conditioning training. We obviously expended a great deal more energy at times during our 'real' training(although sometimes not!). Naturally it wasn't expected that doing an hour of PT in the morning would prevent one from doing their actual job or detract away from it, but was to help ensure we had the necessary strength and conditioning to actually do it. I would think that as long as you're getting proper rest and nutrition, doing some bodyweight calisthenics and the like will only help you. If you're well conditioned to your current training schedule, go for it.