Got a great guest article here from my friend and colleague Craig Ballantyne.
I've known Craig literally since the dawn of the Internet (around 2001), and
honestly, he's one of the trainers I most respect in the business. Like me, he's
truly passionate about fitness and about helping people achieve their fat-loss goals.

This article he wrote is going to help you avoid two of the major pitfalls of
bodyweight training...poor exercise selection and bad form on good exercises.

Because yep, bodyweight training is GREAT, but you CAN still hurt yourself
doing it, if you're using the wrong exercises (or even just doing good ones
wrong).

Enjoy the info!

Nick

---

5 Bodyweight Exercises NOT To Do (and 3 you're doing wrong)
By Craig Ballantyne, CTT

If you have a sore shoulder, bad back, achy knees, or tight
Achilles tendon, then you must AVOID the 5 bodyweight exercises
listed below.

#1 - Triceps dips with your hands behind you on a bench - These are
terrible for your shoulder joint and rotator cuff muscles.

#2 - Jumping exercises on concrete OR if you are overweight - These
will kill your knees.

#3 - Sit-ups & crunches & V-sits - These will cause you back problems,
as I've written about in my articles in Men's Health magazine.

#4 - Pushups with your elbows flared out wide - This "bodybuilder"
version of pushups will cause you great grief in your shoulder
joint and rotator cuff, just like the classic barbell bench press.

#5 - High repetition box jumps where you jump back off the box with
each rep - Your Achilles will snap one of these days, and that's easily
one of the WORST injuries you can suffer.

So instead of getting hurt with the wrong exercises, you need use safer, more
effective no-equipment workouts that you can find here...

Use the exercises in those videos for more results and less risk.

As well, you might still be making the following mistakes on 3 otherwise
awesome bodyweight exercises.

Please do NOT do...

1) Mountain Climbers with a rounded low-back

This will hurt your back just as quickly as sit-ups or crunches.
You must keep your body in a straight line with your abs braced to
get the best ab workout and fitness boost from this exercise.
You'll also get a much more INTENSE abdominal workout when you SLOW
the reps down, particularly when you do the X-Body Mountain Climber
version. Stay tight and strict and you'll get the most results from
this simple exercise.

2) Prisoner Squats with "lazy" hands

When you do prisoner squats, you need to keep your fingers
interlaced behind your head, your elbows back, and your shoulder
blades squeezed together. That is how you get MORE results from
this move. It allows you to work your upper back without equipment.
Don't be lazy like most people that just touch their finger tips to
the side of their head. That's lame.

3) Ugly Lunges

This is the most over-prescribed exercise in bodyweight history,
and far too many people are doing lunges that have no business
doing this exercise at all. It's no laughing matter when I see
people doing ugly lunges in the gym.

Listen, it's okay if you don't have the proper balance to do
lunges. You can switch to a safer exercise such as Reverse Lunges,
Split Squats, Step-ups, or 1-Leg Lying Hip Extensions.

We want you to train hard, but safe. No wobbling or falling over!
And don't even think about adding resistance to your lunges if you
can't do the basic bodyweight version correctly.

In order to learn how to do every bodyweight exercise with PERFECT
fat burning technique, get 51 follow-along bodyweight workout
videos here...

---

(This is Nick here again)...

I have to say, I completely agree with Craig on his points above. I
gave up Bench Dips a LONG time ago. The position it puts your
shoulders into is extremely awkward and puts "dislocation" stress on
the shoulder joint.

He also made a great point about push-ups...an exercise that everybody
knows, but doesn't always know proper form for. Flaring the elbows
out wide doesn't do your shoulders any favors...you can get all the
benefits without putting your joints at risk just by angling your elbows
back a bit.

Also, in my experience as a trainer going back 20+ years, the simple
lunge was one of the toughest exercises for people to learn, it seemed.
There were always issues with balance, forward leaning, knee stress,
etc. The reverse lunge (a.k.a. step-back lunge) is almost always a better
option...same muscles worked but very little risk of injury or pain.

Now, I also wanted to let you know that Craig has put together a
great collection of home workouts using NO equipment...(bodyweight-
focused).

You can use these any time, any place...and the shortest only takes
about 4 minutes to do.

So yeah, there goes your excuse that you don't have time to workout ;).

Get your 4-Minute Fat-Loss Bodyweight Workouts
here (plus 51 more workouts)

Enjoy!