3 Bodyweight Exercise Substitutions for Common Gym Exercises

Today, I have another tip from Mike Whitfield.

I saw Mike and Shawna at Fitness Business Summit in Orange County, last weekend.

Here we are sharing insight with well over 500 fitness professionals.

Rick Kaselj at Fitness Business Summit

It was great to share a few things that have worked and are working for me with fitness professionals.

Yes, I am wearing my famous owl shirt but that is another story.

While in Orange County, Mike and I got chatting about bodyweight exercises and he has some tips for you on how to substitute out common gym exercises with bodyweight exercises.

Take it away Mike……

Rick Kaselj

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3 Bodyweight Exercise Substitutions for Common Gym Exercises

Hey it’s Mike Whitfield with WorkoutFinishers.com.

Have you ever got an amazing program with some very cool resistance exercise for your legs but you don’t have access to equipment, what do you do?

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

I am going to show you a few bodyweight exercise substitutions for common resistance exercises for your lower body.

#1 – Narrow Stance Squat

For instance you don’t have access to the leg extension machine, if you want to hit your quads a little bit harder, what you can do is a bodyweight squat where your feet are just outside shoulder width apart but you can hit your quads a little harder by going with a narrow stance.

Narrow Stance Squat

Narrow Stance Squat

Your feet are now right at shoulder width but it’s the same principle for a bodyweight squat remain the same. You want to draw those hips back and then back up. Heels stay firmly planted on the ground and you will see after just a few reps that is going to hit your quads a little bit harder.

#2 –Bulgarian 1 ½ Rep Method

Now if you don’t have access to a Smith Bar machine, if you are going to do Smith bar squats or if you don’t have access to barbell squats, what you could do is the Bulgarian 1 1/2 Rep Method. That’s going to fatigue your legs pretty quick. It will be a challenge without any external resistance.

Bulgarian 1 ½ Rep Method

Bulgarian 1 1/2 Rep Method

With the Bulgarian 1 1/2 Split Squat, you are going to dip down into a squat then up half way, pause and then down and then back up, that’s one rep. If you want to do, say 8 reps per side, you are going to find that’s challenging your legs pretty well.

#3 – Bodyweight Triple Squat

The last one I want to show you is one of my favorites.  You are going to let me know if you have but it’s the Bodyweight Triple Squat.

What you are going to do is set yourself up as if you are going to do a bodyweight squat. You are going to go a quarter of the way down, pause for a second, half way down, pause for a second, all the way down, pause for a second and then come back up, that counts as one rep. Try to do 8 to 10 reps of those and your legs will be on fire.

Bodyweight Triple Squat

Bodyweight Triple Squat

Those are some bodyweight substitutions for your external resistance leg exercises. Hope you have fun with those. In that way you can knock out your workout in a hotel room if you have to. Have fun with that.

If you want to check out more of Mike Whitfield’s workouts, you can check out Bodyweight Finishers 2.0, over here:

Mike Whitfield

Safe & Strong Seated Workout - Bodyweight Edition