All of the above are excellent because they are compound movements that bring a lot of muscle mass into use. This has several advantages; builds strength while conditioning the muscle, burns more calories thus helping to reduce your BF %, being functional from the standpoint of using the body as one whole unit rather than 'parts'. Other great exercises would be:
- Squats (such as hindu squats or plea squats).
- Lunges (which often is a truer measure of lower body strength and balance).
- Push ups (hindu, dive-bomber, wide, narrow, sphinx etc).
- Dips.
- Thrusters (doing a squat and a press in one continuous motion).
- Dynamic tension.
All the above can be done in a very small space and with only body weight. For those wishing to go 'above and beyond' I suggest the
pyramid.
What is a
pyramid? Glad you asked
Simply pick several exercises. My latest
pyramid routine used the following, in this order;
- Regular squat
- Plea squat
- Lunge
- Calf raise
- Push up w/push up stands
- Chin up
- Dip
- Hanging crunch
Now what you do is perform 1 of each exercise with good form. When you have completed each for 1 rep, you repeat and do 2 of each, and then 3 of each and on up to your target number. Once you've reached your target, you then begin down the
pyramid by decreasing the number of reps in each set. A
pyramid of 1 - 5 - 1 would look like this;
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 for a total of 25 of each exercise. Going 1-10-1 would = 100. 1-20-1 would equal 400 of each. My personal best so far is 1-17-1.
This is a great program as it has built in a natural warm up and a cool down. You work throughout various rep ranges and it has a pre-exhaust as well.
Give it a try.