Training Equipment Level 1 - The Floor

There were a couple times when I couldn't lift.

The first was before high school football, because I don't think a middle school kid was allowed to lift at the local YMCA back in the day.

Since I couldn't, the next best thing was to do a bunch of pushups (so my bench could get higher) and running. I believe that this primed my body to do well in the bench when I got there.

The second was in my first semester in college. A hurricane damaged the gym, so I wasn't able to lift weights. So I did the same thing, a bunch of pushups and a ton of air squats. It was at least something.

Football kept us well rounded because we did a lot of calisthenics stuff on top of the lifting we did. Plus there was a ton of sprinting and running. When I got into Olympic lifting, lifting the bar was the only thing I was doing. Sometimes I sprinkled in some pull ups or handstand pushups, but not as often as I should have.

No matter what path of training you take on, your body always came first. We spent a few years with just our own bodies (as babies turned toddlers) just to be able to earn the right to sprint for fun. A harsh quote I recently read was that "you can't bring your bench press with you outside of the gym." Yes you can get stronger with a barbell, but at some point you'll be in a situation where you have to control your own body. Anyone that has to play on the ground with their kids knows this.

There are arguments (even though we're all on the same team) where people say that since lifting with a barbell makes you produce more force than an air squat, that barbell squatting is all you need to concern yourself with. But does that fly in the real world?

At some point you're going to need "enduring strength." Yes, strength is the ability to exert force against a physical object, but what about when you have to climb the stairs? Are you huffing and puffing? Is it worth squatting 1000lbs if you can't even take the stairs without having to stop halfway through?

Your body came first, so you need to honor that.

You just have to use it and actually strength train it.

The Floor: The Most Important Piece of Training Equipment

What's the first thing humans do when it comes to movement?

Try to master gravity.

It's a war between you and the ground. You're a little baby that can barely pick up its own head. Then we roll, then we rock, then we crawl, then we try to stand up. We spend about one year doing all of this stuff.

Then we earn the right to play with what we have. We sprint and try to play tag. We stoop and play hide-n-seek. We flop around on the ground, roll in leaves, try to learn to tumble all because we can.

Looking at the other end of our lives, older age, what do we fear?

The ground.

It becomes a joke that's thrown around. "If I get down there I don't know if I can get back up lol." But then it becomes no laughing matter. Falls are one of the leading causes of death among people 65 and older. It doesn't really happen because the ground gets any harder. It's just that we don't maintain the strength we gained from getting to the ground and getting back up like we did so much as kids.

I remember reading a book on habits for strength by Tim Anderson from Original Strength. The book is called Habitual Strength if you want to go check it out. In it he makes an interesting point. If you did a few pushups every day, the benefit goes beyond the muscles for the pushup. You're getting used to getting to the ground because you're essentially doing a burpee every time.

What would happen if we got rid of furniture? What if you had to sleep on a thin mat on the ground? What if you had to sit or squat on the ground to eat? What if all you did was practice getting down to the floor and getting back up for 10 minutes every day? We'd all be a lot more limber and durable.

Bodyweight Lessons from History

As I've said in my personal story before, I did a ton of pushups before benching. When I finally got to high school, my body was ready. I was also very good at doing dips without even working on them.

I had another moment when I was stuck at military press weight (seated overhead press). A couple of friends and I figured out handstand pushups (we didn't know how to kick up properly so it was comical), and once I was able to do a decent amount of reps on those, my press strength went through the roof. That was after taking a break with the bar.

Through history, the same has been seen over and over.

• Old school strongmen that used bodyweight exercises only

• Old school strongmen and weightlifters supplementing with bodyweight movements

• Gymnasts and rock climbers with insane grip and hanging strength (more on that in the next article)

• Kids and others with a "third world squat" that are able to then transfer to Olympic lifting and squatting no problem

• Kids that go from a lot of crawling to waddling to walking to jogging to sprinting

Even if you're addicted to the iron, you would be best served by finding out a way to maintain your bodyweight moves after your main training is done. It's as easy as adding in a few sets of a basic bodyweight movement to the end of your training just to make sure things are in tune.

The No-Equipment Training Blueprint

This article is number 1 in a series about training equipment. Often people want to know where to start. The easiest thing is…nothing. As you can see from the list of exercises I've laid out so far, you can do a lot with just you and the ground. There's no need to drop a few thousand dollars in your garage if you don't want to. There is a fee alternative. You can even start to prove to yourself that you can start the habit of training when it's just you.

Let's keep this as simple as possible. You don't need a ton of different exercises since your body can only do so many things, so that should make things even simpler.

Bodyweight Only Training With Nothing

For starters, you could do a pure bodyweight training program. Each plane of motion can be loaded and progressed as you get better. For example:

• Pushups → Dips

• Handstand holds → Handstand pushups

• Bridges

• Calves the Patrick Step to split squats to the full squat (That progression is taken from ATG/Kneesovertoesguy). You can do squat holds as often as you like.

• Crawling to walking to sprint drills to sprinting. You can even jog if you want.

As a side note, the progressions you pick should get harder. If you can build up to incline pushups (where your feet are elevated), then do that before trying to get 500 wall pushups in a row.

As an Accessory

• If you can't give up the iron, at least find a way to sprinkle this stuff in as maintenance or even to bust through a plateau since you can sneak in extra volume that's not as taxing.

• As an example, chin-ups and dips are wonderful no matter what barbell training you're doing. (Yes those require equipment, but we'll talk about that later.)

All Day Long Training

Aside from working your strength and progressing over time, there are other things you can do just as maintenance.

• Stretch as much as you want. Your body probably needs this. I know mine does.

• Get used to the ground as much as you want. Lie or sit on the ground to read a book or scroll on your phone or watch TV. Again, you can use the squat as a "resting" position (until it feels like a resting position).

Remember Where You Came From

I love lifting as much as anyone else.

But I've had plenty of times getting burned because that's all I was doing. Our bodies can handle more than 3 heavy lifting sessions per week. If anything, if you require more of your through the week, your body will start to give back. You'll have increased mobility, recovery and a better quality of life.

Don't get caught in the "doing as little as possible to recover as much as possible" way of thinking. Just look at kids or athletes. They often can lift impressive numbers while also going out and playing, jogging, sprinting. It's not like their gains in the gym will poof away if they go out and play basketball all day.

Be well rounded.

Whether you're just getting started or a seasoned workout person, don't shy away from doing the basics.

You and the ground.

It can be as simple as that.

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