Body-as-resistance exercises
 

I have little interest in exercising with weights. I like biking, swimming, push-ups, sit-ups, pull- and chin-ups, etc. However, lately, I'm getting kind of bored doing the same exercises. I'm looking for some new exercises.

I've googled to find some, but the most I've come up with are personal websites which I'm not convinced are reliable. Does anyone know of any reliable websites with the kind of exercises I'm looking for?

Thanks in advance.

-Tamerlain

Using your own body weight to exercise is called "calisthenics."

Go to your local store and purchase a Men's Health magazine or visit www.menshealth.com for some ideas. They know what they are talking about.

Perhaps you are refering to "isometric exercise."
wiki isometric exercise

Isometrics by Henry Wittenburg

Try yoga. It's not as flashy as chin-ups (man, I wish I could do chin-ups) but there are some truly nasty exercises there. "The Plank" was probably invented by Stalin when he got bored of sending dissidents to Gulag.

Bump to that. My wife is a yoga instructor and I really have a tough time keeping up with her. I'm good on the core stuff but sweat like a mule with everything else. Kicks my ass and I'm sore a few days later.

Calisthenics is definitely what I'm looking for, thanks Ch'i. I googled it and found a lot of exercises I'm going to try. Searching for calisthenics at menshealth.com only returned two articles though.

Isometrics looks interesting too, I'll look into that as well. Thanks caver.

I've wanted to try Yoga for a while now. The classes at my school don't work with my schedule though, which is unfortunate.

-Tamerlain

Maybe not what you're going for, but you could try some of the CrossFit stuff that doesn't involve Olympic weight-lifting. Check out www.crossfit.com and go to their exercises page. It's more the philosophy of doing-things-hard-core-to-be-prepared-for-anything that you might find more useful than any of the exercises.

For instance, you mentioned push-ups, but can you do hand-stand push-ups? (Or a handstand?) Also, you mentioned pull- and chin-ups, but can you do them while doing an 'L-hold'? (That's holding your legs out directly in front of you to make a right angle out of your body.) There are a lot more variations on the standards you've already mentioned. Plus, you don't have to fit a class in your schedule to do this stuff, though I highly recommend getting into yoga as soon as you can as well.

That CrossFit website is really interesting, thanks SuppleCow. The WOD should definitely add some variety to my workouts.

I do L chin- and pull-ups but haven't worked my way up to complete hand-stand push-ups yet. Soon though. :) And I'm hoping I'll be able to take a Yoga class this summer since I won't have as many classes.

-Tamerlain