Body weight strength training

The argument

Bodyweight exercises are the best way to stay fit while social distancing, because the constraint that social distancing imposes is precisely the one they never run into. Anyone can get a full-body workout while by their lonesome without the need for a spotter — the second person a heavy lift normally requires, and the person nobody currently has access to. Plus, accessories are not necessary. Bodyweight workouts only require a body, motivation, and a clear understanding of one's own physical limitations, so nothing has to be bought, borrowed, or shared with anyone. The second advantage is adaptability. Unlike certain online classes, dumb bell-heavy routines, or yoga positions requiring major flexibility, bodyweight exercises can always be altered to the subject's personal abilities, because the resistance is the body itself and the movement can be adjusted rather than abandoned. If you realize you can't do a specific exercise to work out a part of your body, either modify it or find another way to work out that section of your body. Equipment-based routines offer no such room: if the weight is too heavy, or the class assumes a range of motion you do not have, the session simply stops there. Those two properties matter because of what they make possible over time. Strength training is also the best way to get physically visible results, and bodyweight training is the most accessible way to start weight training, even during the coronavirus pandemic, since it asks for no equipment, no partner, and no particular starting level of fitness. Once the external obstacles have been removed, the only thing that can stop someone from doing a bodyweight exercise that is fit for their body is their own motivation.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Accessibility is not the same as being 'best'. Bodyweight training is admirably low-barrier, but it has well-known limits: progressive overload — the driver of continued strength and muscle gains — is hard to sustain once bodyweight movements become easy, since you cannot simply add load as you would with weights, and certain muscle groups and maximal-strength adaptations are difficult to train with bodyweight alone. It also privileges strength while saying little about cardiovascular fitness, mobility or mental wellbeing, which the sibling positions of outdoor exercise and mental exercise are precisely aimed at and which are themselves central to 'staying fit', especially under lockdown stress. The claim that motivation is 'the only thing' that can stop someone also understates real constraints — injury, space, and the plateau that sets in without added resistance. Bodyweight training is an excellent accessible starting point, which is a weaker and more defensible claim than being the single best way to stay fit.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Bodyweight training struggles to provide progressive overload once movements become easy, so it is not straightforwardly the best route to strength results for everyone. [Rejecting C] Being the most accessible workout does not make it the best; fitness also encompasses cardiovascular health, mobility and wellbeing that bodyweight strength work largely neglects.