A well designed bodyweight exercise program is one of your best weapons in the fight to improve fitness, burn off unwanted fat and build a strong, attractive physique. Using your own bodyweight for self improvement is one of the proven training methods that never goes out of style. And don't let the seemingly simple bodyweight workouts fool you... they can challenge even the most elite of athletes.

However, there are a few things you should avoid if you want to get the most from your bodyweight training. This is what I'm about to reveal to you so you get get more fitness improvements, burn more fat and build a more capable body using bodyweight exercises.

Avoid Using Only One Bodyweight Workout

This happens in every type of physical training, whether it be in looking for a bodyweight exercise program or a weight training program. Men and women think there is one best workout program and they won't do anything else until they find it. The problem is, they spend more time looking for the fabled unicorn of workouts, instead of training.

Let me set the record straight, there is not one best workout program out there that will fit everyone's needs under all circumstances. So, stop looking for it. Start using a series of workouts that focus on different things but keep you moving toward your ultimate goal. Here is what I mean...

Bodyweight Training For Overall Fitness

Fitness is more than "being fit". Fitness involves strength, power, cardiorespiratory endurance, speed, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility, accuracy and mental toughness. And a properly designed bodyweight exercise program should address all these abilities.

So, you should do a bodyweight workout that is more broad in scope to make sure all the fitness abilities are improving. Instead of just focusing on strength for example, you need a more wide range approach to your workout. What you'll find is bodyweight workouts designed to improve general physical preparedness are a lot of fun, as well as being effective.

Bodyweight Workout For Fat Loss

Most people want to burn fat. And you can definitely burn fat with a bodyweight exercise program. Imagine doing different bodyweight exercise and calisthenics with little rest. This is a much better way to burn fat (and build an athletic looking body), than just running on a treadmill. So, your overall program should involve a fat loss workout portion to maximize fat loss.

Bodyweight Exercise For Strength And Size

Contrary to popular belief, you can get bigger and stronger with bodyweight only exercises. I agree they are not the best choice if your only goal is MAXIMUM muscle size. But I would argue that a bodyweight exercise program designed for strength and size produces more athletic muscles that can be used in the real world than pumped up bodybuilding muscles.

But just like the fitness and fat loss workouts, just increasing muscular size and strength is too narrow a focus.

The best way to get all the benefits you deserve from your bodyweight exercise program is to rotate between these three types of workouts. One focuses on the wide variety of fitness abilities, one of fat loss and one on build bigger, stronger muscles. This way, you'll keep moving toward the ultimate goal of a strong, lean, athletically muscular body without getting bored or reducing the effectiveness of your workouts.

Avoid Separating Strength Training From Cardiovascular Training

Go to any gym and you'll see workout programs made up of separate resistance training and cardio training. Usually, you'll do the resistance workout first, and then follow it up with 20-30 of cardio like jogging or riding an exercise bike.

Now I'm not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with this approach. But what I am saying is that if you want to coordinate your full body strength, cardiorespiratory endurance and mental toughness, you need to train all these things TOGETHER.

There are so many exercises to choose from when designing a bodyweight exercise program that it is really easy to create workouts that blur the lines of training. Combining bodyweight exercises and calisthenics, you can attack the entire body... all the muscles, the heart and lungs and your mental toughness.

And this is what you must eventually do if you want the best bodyweight workout that produces the most results. So, if you want the most from your bodyweight training, use a wide variety of workouts with different goals and blur the lines between resistance training and cardio. You'll he happily surprised with the results!