Why I Switched To Bodyweight Training

I lost my man boobs with weight training and HIIT, and I’ve helped a lot of other guys do the same.

But not too long ago, I injured my back doing weights. I was doing the front squat, and lifted a weight I wasn’t ready for. I felt a small funny sensation in my lower back, like something had moved, but I ignored it and continued to finish my reps.

After the front squat I did the bent over barbell row, which also puts strain on your lower back. During this exercise I could feel some mild pain in my lower back at first, and by the 3^rd set the pain was quite apparent. Despite the pain, when you get started on your workout, all you want to do is finish it, and that’s what I did.

After my workout, I knew I had done something terrible to my back. Over the next few days the pain got worse and worse, to the point where there was not a single position I could take that would relieve the pain. It hurt when I was standing, it hurt when I was seated, it hurt bad enough when I was lying down that I couldn't sleep.

With weight training it's easy to pick up a weight you're not ready for, and by the time you realize you're not ready for it, it's already too late.

Far Worse Than Having Man Boobs

Being in constant pain 24/7 is far worse than having man boobs. When I hurt my back, I wished that I had NEVER done ANY weight training. I would MUCH rather have been a fat guy with man boobs who was pain free.

I resented all the muscle I had grown with weight training, what use was it to me now, when I couldn’t move my own body around without feeling pain in my back? I couldn’t move my own body, let alone move heavy things around with my muscles.

Would you rather risk being in constant pain for the rest of your life? Or would you rather have man boobs and be pain-free?

That’s when I decided I would never do heavy weight training again, that weight training will no longer be the mainstay of my training.

Gains From Training Are Temporary, But Injuries Are Often PERMANENT

With weight training, you grow muscle, burn fat, lose man boobs, get stronger, and boost your health. That’s great, but all of those things are TEMPORARY. When you STOP weight training, it all goes away, just like it did with me when I hurt my back and stopped training. The one thing that MAY be permanent, is an injury. With weight training, there’s always a POSSIBILITY of permanent debilitating injury. All it takes is one mistake—insufficient warm-up, bad form, too much weight—and you’ve sustained an injury that can have you in PAIN for the rest of your life.

Thankfully, the back pain from that injury lasted me only 1 full year rather than my whole life. I’ve known too many guys with lifelong lower back pain from once having lifted something heavy. If I had sat idly by and done nothing, my back pain would probably still be here today, but I never gave up on trying to find a cure, and the cure happened to lie in a particular spine-compressing bodyweight exercise.

As I recovered from my back injury, I decided I would never go back to my old weight training routine again. The gains from weight training were great, but the possibility of injury was just too big a risk to take. If weight training was the only way to build muscle, then I would be happy to live a muscle-free life.

But Thankfully, There's Another Way…

But thankfully, there’s another way, and that way is bodyweight training.

You can still get injured with bodyweight training, but the risk is MUCH lower, and the load on your back is never that high.

Being a personal trainer, I know a LOT of guys who have built a great body with weight training, but the more advanced the trainee, the more his body is filled with past injuries. Injuries in weight training are inevitable, and once you injure one part of your body, even if the pain doesn’t last forever, that part of your body stays more prone to the same injury for the rest of your life.

I injured a tendon attaching to my left scapula while doing heavy lat pull-downs when I was in high school. Even today, at age 37, I still have to be careful while doing pull-ups, because that same injury can come back at any time and leave me with neck pain for several weeks.

The Problem With Weight Training

The trouble with weight training, is there’s nothing stopping a novice from picking up a weight that’s too heavy for him and attempting to squat, press, or row with it. With bodyweight training, there’s so much SKILL WORK involved, that a novice would not be able to even ATTEMPT an advanced exercise like the planche, human flag, or freestanding handstand push-up.

A novice lifter can learn proper technique on most barbell lifts with only a few weeks of coaching, though many advanced bodyweight exercises can take YEARS to attain in their fullest expression.

So with bodyweight training, the chance that you’ll injure yourself from pushing yourself too hard, is much lower. With weight training, this happens all the time, because you can easily pick a weight you’re not ready to handle.

Bodyweight Training Also Makes You FEEL Better In Your Body

Since I made the switch to bodyweight training, I’ve convinced a lot of other guys to do the same, and one thing so many of them consistently tell me, is how much better their body feels having made the switch from weight training to bodyweight training.

Bodyweight training opens up your joints and heals your body. I feel better now that I'm doing bodyweight training than I ever did when I was doing weight training.

Where weight training fills your body with injuries and niggling pains, bodyweight training has the power to HEAL your body from the damage done by weight training. Beyond just strength and muscles, bodyweight training also gives you more flexibility, coordination, balance, and agility. It makes your body feel loose, light, and free.

So, if weight training hasn’t agreed with you, if you haven’t lost your man boobs with it, or you’re getting injured and laid off your training too often, then I implore you to give bodyweight training a try.

Click the link below to learn more about my new bodyweight chest training program for losing man boobs. When you start training the way I show you in this program, it won't be long before you're sporting a lean physique with zero man boobs, and looking great no matter what you're wearing:

Click here to learn more about my new bodyweight chest training program for losing man boobs.