I do not advocate sticking with just one or the other. I think its a good idea to utilize both as appropriately as you can. It doesn't matter what type of exercise you use, body weight or weight bearing, if you want to become stronger you must achieve overload through increased frequency, intensity or volume. If you train with the weight of your body only you will be limited in the number of ways that you can manipulate the intensity and volume of a workout. If you choose to discard weight bearing exercises all together you will miss out on the unique benefits offered through this type of training.

As an example let's say you are doing body weight only squats 3xs a week for 5 sets of 15 repetitions. After three weeks you are accustomed to the training and need to do something to become stronger. You can increase the frequency, intensity or volume of your workout. You increase frequency and begin doing the exercise 5xs a week for 5 sets of 15 repetitions. You're body adapts to those new demands and once again you must do something additional to reach overload. You increase volume by adding more repetitions if you add too many more repetitions you will begin to train more aerobically than anaerobically thus taxing the wrong bio-ergonomic pathway for your sport. You now have to increase the intensity of your workout and find away to make those 5 sets of 15 squats harder. If you stick with body weight exercises you have once choice; switch to squatting on one leg. Only able to do 3 squats on one leg you are stuck with a workout that is too intense as your body is tiring before being able to meet all the goals of your training session. Eventually you build your way up to squat 5 sets of 15 repetitions on each leg and have now run out of ways to overload!

One of the unique adaptations that occurs through weight bearing exercise is the stimulation of new bone formation.¹ As bone density declines with age this becomes even more important. You will not get these benefits from just body weight calisthenics alone.

There are four things you can do to stimulate new bone formation through weight training.

1. Use exercises that directly load the skeleton specifically the spine and hips.
2. Use exercises that involve as many large muscles and muscle groups as possible.
3. As the body adapts to training continue to progressively overload the body.
4. Apply stress to the skeleton through as many vectors as possible by utilizing a variety of exercises.

 Good Luck and Good Training,

¹Baechle, T., & Earle, M. (2000). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 2nd Edition. (pp 60-63) China: Human Kinetics