Burpees are one of the best movements for all-around muscle development and the best thing is you don't need any weights.

If you can perform a full burpee (from standing to the floor) then the benefits are huge. You can also scale and go from standing to plank position or use a swimming pool (stand in the pool near the edge, jump onto the ledge and then back into the pool and go into squat position underwater).

Outside of the pool burpees are terrible on your joints - mainly your shoulders (subscapularis specifically). Even more so if you're carrying around extra weight.

Apart from the cardio, is there added strength value to doing burpees specifically instead of squats and push ups separately?

Your strength will never go up that much until you force more resistance into the picture, either via bands or weights.

You will be getting a shitload of hypertrophy with all this bodyweight exercising though so you'll look shredded if your body fat is low.

I understand the need to keep adding resistance, though as my sibling commenter says, I think you're understating the potential of pure bodyweight progressions to increase strength. Exercises like one arm push ups, one arm chin ups, hand stand push ups, planches, pistol squats, nordic curls, etc. can be equivalent to seriously heavy weights and there are plenty of options for gradually progressing toward them. Lots of muscle bound guys who can lift a lot of weight still aren't strong enough do any of these advanced bodyweight moves.

But anyway, what does that have to do with comparing burpees to squats/push ups? :)

What's the progression for push-ups? I was doing 1½ sets of ten wide push-ups on Friday (to failure, thus the ½) and today thought maybe I'd try a one-arm set. Couldn't do a single one, even on knees. Then I tried a set of narrow push-ups with the hands moved a bit footward, and could manage, like, four. On my knees. Is there a good guide to push-up progressions and resistance ratios?

Yeah check out https://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ as mentioned. There are lots of good resources there and you can find advice on just about anything by searching within the sub.

One arm push ups are way harder than normal ones. It's not something I've tried working on yet myself, but I think you build up by doing things like archer push ups with the other arm assisting less and less until you don't need it anymore.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm not even close to being able to do one. I collapsed onto the floor and laughed at myself.

There's a good subreddit on it, a quick google should get you there

I guess you mean bodyweightfitness.

Yup, sorry, was on a train smashed between people.

Sandwiches are always the best!

Not fully true, body weight can make you gain lots of muscle, but you do need to add resistance. However, resistance doesn’t need to be weight or bands, but do a more difficult version of the exercise. Push ups are easy for you? Do planche pushups or diamond pushups.

Squats easy for you? Try pistol squats.

I drank a lot of the Reddit/HN koolaid that you can't get big/ripped on bodyweight fitness until I moved into a new place with an amazing back patio will full sunlight all day where I felt bad exercising anywhere else. Much less under the fluorescent lighting of my local gym.

For a year I've been exercising in my backyard with a podcast in my ears, maybe during a group phonecall for work, while thinking between programming sessions, etc.

Now I realize that 100% of these people are full of shit. I got jacked. Whenever I've mentioned this to someone, they'll say something like, yeah but you can't get as big as $bodyBuilder, like Ronnie Coleman.

The truth is I think very few people have actually tried a serious daily bodyweight regimen. Most people don't have a reason to try, they just go to the gym if they want a daily workout. And then we, including myself, have the human tendency to regurgitate ideas we've heard from others rather than from personal experience.

Well, I'm curious to hear out your experience, do you think the amount of time you spent bodyweight training was equal to the amount of time someone would need to do resistance training for similar results?

This is why I chose resistance training - the gym is on my way to work and I am willing to spare about an hour and a half daily to fitness. My research indicated I'll get better results with that time at the gym lifting weights than body weight training.

In my experience, bodyweight training is actually quite efficient in terms of time spent because you do a lot of compound movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. You can definitely get a good full-body workout done in an hour and a half.

It can also be less efficient though in the sense that it can sometimes require a pretty big jump in both strength and technique to go from one progression to the next, so you can get stuck for awhile. With weights you can of course just keep adding a little bit more. But the plus side of this for bodyweight training is that apart from just strength, you also get improvements in muscular coordination, balance, flexibility, and body awareness.

You don't really have to choose though--you can do both! They complement each other quite well.

What’s funny is I’ve drank the Reddit koolaid in favor of body weight fitness, as the routine I do is the r/bodyweightfitness routine, with bordering mixed in for fun

TURKISH GETUPS!!

Can you expand on that? I've never gotten anything out of them. I could do them an 88# kettlebell. Never felt as effective as most everything else I was/am doing.

Well which one is it — getups or swings ?

Both. Look up the Simple and Sinister book.

Underrated, and great for your core.

Yes, heavy two-handed swings were a game-changer for me. I am a climber and I don't think it's any coincidence that 5.13- and V8 became "easy" after incorporating these into my routine. I had a very weak posterior chain. It's funny, when you do an actual sport-specific strength assessment, it often seems your weaknesses are not what you thought they were.