One thing that I get asked is ways of making common bodyweight exercises, easier on ones joints.

I got Mike Whitfield to help give you a few ideas on how to do that.

Enjoy!

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Hey it’s Mike Whitfield with WorkoutFinishers.com .

I want to show you some ways to decrease stress on your joints when doing bodyweight exercises.

Now, specifically I am going to be talking about Finishers. As you know, a Finisher is something that you plug in at the end of your workout. It’s going to improve your overall fitness but the idea behind the Finisher is that its ten minutes or less because they are so intense. You don’t want to go any longer than that because you just simply can’t keep up with that same intensity.

With that being said, let’s take a Finisher for example using the ladder method. We are starting off with a jump squat. We are going to do 8 reps and then we are going to do the explosive push up for 8 reps. And then we are going to do 7 reps of those exercises. You work your way down until you complete one rep of each exercise.

Way #1 – Soft Jump Squat

The Jump Squat, you come down to a squat position, jump up and land in a squat position. Now, that may sound like it’s a lot of impact on the joints and it can be but here is what the mistake that people do when they do the Jump Squat. They squat down, they jump then they land and then squat again.

Wrong Jump Squat

What you want to do to avoid that impact is squat down and you will see how I land much softer by landing in the squat position. That means as you come down, go ahead and lower yourself. That is how you do a Jump Squat.

Correct Jump Squat

Way #2 – Try Total Body Extension

Now if you want to do even less impact you can do what I call the Total Body Extension which is kind of like jumping without the impact. It’s the same motion as the jump.

Total Body Extension

With Total Body Extension your feet are about shoulder width apart, maybe a little wider. You are looking straight ahead, your arms are behind your glutes and you are going to extend up onto your toes raising your hands above your head and then back down. It’s like you are jumping. That’s the Total Body Extension.

Way #3 – Soft Explosive Push Up

In the Explosive push up, you lower yourself and then explode and your hands leave the ground.

Correct Explosive Push Up

Again, the mistake that people make when doing this is they will go down and up and then again down.

Wrong Explosive Push Up

Just like a Jump Squat, you actually want to land in that lower position. Now if you are still uncomfortable doing the Explosive Push Up, if you are not coordinated enough, no need to put yourself in danger. What you can do is an eccentric push up and then up fast. So down nice and slow then up fast

Eccentric Push Up

That’s just a couple of ideas that can reduce the impact of a Finisher and of course exercise substitutions. Again, for that finisher you want to do Jump Squats, 8 reps, Explosive Push Ups, 8 reps, then 7, 6, etc. Work your way down until you complete one rep and by all means use those substitutions that I gave you which I always do with my bodyweight finishers.

Definitely have fun with that finisher and of course I am sure I will back with another one because Rick and I are always talking to each other. I will talk to you soon.

If you want Workout Finishers to add to the end of your program, you can check out Bodyweight Finishers 2.0, over here:

Mike Whitfield