Discover How to Build Muscle And If You Can Do It Without Weights
Body weight workouts aren’t popular with everybody, but certain groups such as the military and martial artists swear by them. But rarely do you see bodybuilders limiting themselves to body weight exercises.
When wasCan you rememberthe last time you witnessed a hard core body builder, a strongman, or a fitness model workout be limited to body wight exercises.
Taking that into consideration you may be inclined to leave bodyweight exercises out of your mass building program.
Like many questions with respect to muscle building you get that same old answer, “It Depends”.
I’m sure that’s not what you like to hear but that is the case. Don’t worry I will not leave you hanging.
Before I answer the question I think it is important to have an idea of how to build muscle.No need to sigh, I will keep it short.
Muscle Building Basics
In the most simple of terms, to build muscle you have follow one major rule.Everyone has to follow this one golden rule.
do more work in today’s workout then you did in your last workout.
This deliberate approach to adding more weights and reps within your workout routine is progressive overload.What this does is to break your muscle forcing it to adapt and change.
Without going into all the details of how to structure your workout I will say that a progressive overload is the most important aspect of your training.Muscles need a reason to grow, because of that you have to push and do more each workout. The human body is very efficient and doesn’t like to grow so you need to give it a good reason to do so.
If you don’t give your body a reason to change, it won’t.
Can You Build Muscle With Body Weight Exercises
Now that you have an idea of how to build muscle I’m sure you have a good idea of how to answer the question…
can you build muscle without weights.
Building muscle without weights is just like regular strength training in the gym, it doesn’t matter what you use for resistance.Think back to the principle of progressive overload and what needs to be done to build muscle.
The nice thing about working with doing a barbell routine , or kettlebells, you can easily add more weight to increase the difficulty of the exercise and get your progressive overload.
Though you can do it using body weight exercises, clearly it’s not as easy.
There are a few different ways you can make each exercise more difficult without adding weight. Play around with these options…
do the work out quicker,get more reps,apply more force into the exercise
For the beginner is easy to manipulate these factors to get bigger and stronger without weights
For the beginner, it’s likely any body weight exercise done will be challenging, probably too difficult and modifications will be needed. This will make a progressive overload that much easier. As your strength improves and your muscles get bigger, each exercise will have to become progressively more difficult in order to challenge you.
How to Use Body Weight Exercises To Get Bigger
I’ll say this again,
Unless there is reason for your body to grow, it won’t.You show the need to grow by increasing the difficulty of your workout from week to week.
Increasing the Difficulty of Body Weight Exercises
Increase the weight
complete your work in a quicker time
do more sets and reps
To better understand how to apply these techniques I’ll provide you with a quick example. For this example I’m going to use push-ups to substitute for the bench press. Both these exercises work your chest shoulders and arms.
The approach I’m going to layout is for an absolute beginner. It will go from the simplest and most difficult steps.
Increasing The Load
If you’re using the bench press to build your chest and triceps all you need to do is increase the weight on the bar, not as easy to do with push-ups.The simplest way to increase or decrease the push up is to change the angle of your body. The more vertical you are the easier it is, get more horizontal and the exercise becomes more difficult.
Each week you will strive to get more reps in. What you can get 12 reps without a problem increased the difficulty of the push-up.
Do Your Exercises Quicker
Explosives exercises work well too.Applying more force and moving quicker makes increases the work load from workout to workout.
Do More Sets and Reps
Do an additional set or rep from week to week. Be careful not to do too much work. Different reports demonstrate that you’re best mix of sets and reps for size and strength is three to 4 sets of six – 10 reps. Each set works best if you can do it in less than 70 seconds.
Best Bodyweight Exercises to Build Muscle
Push-Ups – Good choice for building chest, shoulders and triceps. There are several different push up options available to challenge you as you progress, thenultimately you do a one arm push-up.
Pull-Ups – One of the best back exercises you can do. Just as before their numerous variations that in the end result in a one arm pull-up. However these are very hard, I’ve only seen 2 people achieve them. One had been a world-class rower, the other a bodyweight enthusiasts.
Squats – You’re right, these work toward a single legged version also.
Hand Walkouts – One of the best ab exercises.
Russian Leans – Excellent for developing hamstringing and glute strength.
These exercises create the foundation of any body weight workouts.
Review
You can build muscle tissue without having weights. On condition that you present your muscle group good reason to grow by increasingly making more challenging demands on them from week to week you’ll respond by growing much stronger and bigger.
Ensure that your bodyweight exercises routines are tough enough that you find 6 to 10 repetitions , and get in three to four sets. And make sure you have a progressive overload all the way through your exercise routine.
Recall I had said every exercise but a few exercises may become too easy. Drop me a line if the single arm pull up or the one arm handstand push up ever become too basic for you. I haven’t arrived yet.
Have ample sleep, have some wholesome meals and you’re on the right path to getting stronger and building more muscle mass.
So long as you increase the challenges on the muscle tissue it’s possible to …
This has been a quick review, you can find a free workout and more detail on the original article Can You build Muscle Without Weights. Be sure to check it out to get more information and some free fitness programs.