Bodyweight exercises can be a great way to work your chest, shoulders and triceps as well as your core.
And two of the best bodyweight exercises you can do to work your chest, shoulder, triceps and your core are the Push Up and the Dip.
While both pressing moves may work the same muscle groups, they work them in different ways, which is why a good exercise program should include both movements.
If you include both pressing movements in your workout routine, it is also important that you include a variety of pulling exercises in your workouts as well.
Because we sit in flexion all day at a desk, it is important that we do enough pulling movements (aka work our back) and don’t simply focus on pressing exercises. If we only focus on pressing movements, we are going to further imbalances caused by sitting all day at a desk, which could lead to pain and injury.
To prevent injury as you include both the Push Up and the Dip in your workouts, make sure to also include Pulling Exercises, such as Rows and Pull Ups, as well as a proper foam rolling and stretching routine.
To work your back, you need to include Pulling Exercises in your workout routine.
However, not all Pulling Exercises are exactly the same because there are a lot of different muscles that make up your back that are worked to different degrees by different movements.
The two most basic types of Pulling Exercises you need to include in your workout routine though are the Vertical Pull and the Horizontal Pull.
Both work the muscles of your back differently and activate and target different muscles.
The most common bodyweight Vertical Pull is the Pull Up/Chin Up while the most common bodyweight Horizontal Pull is the Inverted Row.
Both moves need to be included in your workout routine and activate different muscles of your back to different degrees.
And while the Inverted Row is often used to help beginners work up to the Pull Up, you need to be aware that these two moves are very different and that the Inverted Row is still a very important movement for even the advanced lifter to include. (The Inverted Row alone also won’t get you to that first full Pull Up because it is a different movement.)
Below we will discuss the differences between the Pull Up and the Inverted Row and even some fun variations of each move you should be including in your workout routine.
Chances are you’ve heard you need to include the Squat or the Deadlift, or maybe even both, in your workout routine if you want to develop strong legs and glutes.
And both are truly great compound moves that not only strengthen your legs and glutes but also your entire core.
But what is the difference between the Squat and the Deadlift?
Should you use one over the other or can both be included in your workout routine? And if you include both when do you use them?
