Discover How to Build Muscle And If You Can Do It Without Weights
Body weight exercises are a staple component of martial arts and military training, but this is not generally the case when it comes to bodybuilders.
Think back tothe last time you saw a hard core body builder, a strongman, or a fitness model workout consist of only body wight exercises.
That would make you think that bodyweight exercises are not the best option for building muscle fast.
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.I am sure you are not a fitness geek like myself, so don’t worry, I’ll keep it brief.
How To Get Muscle
There is a very important principle that you need to follow in order to build muscle.Fitness model workouts, powerlifters, and bodybuilders all follow this one guiding element when it comes to adding on more muscle.
get more work done today than you did in your last workout.
When these increases take place in a organized manner, is referred to as a progressive overload.Basically what you are doing is breaking down your muscles and with healthy muscle building foods, and rest you repair and build the muscle back up so it is bigger and stronger.
Program design is a topic for another day, but do realize that a progressive overload is essential in your workout routine.You need to push, and give your muscles a reason to grow. The body is very adaptive, but very efficient, you have to force it to build muscle.
If you don’t give your body a reason to change, it won’t.
Can You Build Muscle With Body Weight Exercises
With the basic understanding of muscle building and I’m sure you know if it’s possible to build muscle without weights.
Muscle building doesn’t change if you’re using weights or body weight exercises, the principals stay the same.Think back to the principle of progressive overload and what needs to be done to build muscle.
When working with doing a barbell complex , or kettlebells, you can easily add more weight to increase the difficulty of the exercise and get your progressive overload.
I know you can do with body weight exercises, but without question it’s not as easy.
There aren’t a few different ways to make the exercise increasingly difficult, it doesn’t always have to be an increase in weight. You have the option to…
be more explosive, do the work out quicker,perform more reps
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.
Body Weight Exercises To Increase Muscle Mass
I’ll say this again,
Unless there is reason for your body to grow, it won’t.This is accomplished by making your workout routine progressively more difficult as time goes on.
Increasing the Difficulty of Body Weight Exercises
Do more work
Increase the load
Do same work in less time
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.
Making The Exercise More Difficult
To increase the difficulty of the bench press you simply add weight. Although adding weight to the push-up can be done is not as easy and can be awkward.When starting out with the easiest push-up variation your hands will be high making your body more vertical, like on a bench or the wall. To increase the difficulty and make more resistance lowered her hands decreasing the angle of your body. When your hands reach the floor you can start raising your feet to make things more difficult.
From week to week you’ll do an additional rep until you reach 12, at that point you change the angle to make the push it more difficult.
Do Your Exercises Quicker
Include explosive movements like the plyometric push ups where you apply max force in the shortest amount of time.Doing more work, being faster adds intensity to the exercise.
Do More Sets and Reps
Do an additional set or rep from week to week. Limit your sets and reps. Studies show that for the best combination of sets and reps to build muscle mass and strength is three to 4 sets of six to ten reps. Each set is not to last longer than 70 seconds.
Do These Body Weight Exercises To Build Muscle
Push-Ups - Great for building chest, shoulders and triceps. There are several different push up variations available to push you as you get better, untilultimately you can complete a single arm push-up.
Pull-Ups - One of the most useful back exercises you can do. Again their different variants that ultimately lead to a one arm pull-up. They’re very difficult, I’ve only seen 2 people complete them. 1 was actually a world-class rower, the other a bodyweight enthusiasts.
Squats - As you can guess, a majority of these progress toward a single legged variation also.
Hand Walkouts - Good for working the core..
Russian Leans - The best bodyweight exercise for hamstringing and glute strength.
The listed exercises create the base of any body weight workouts.
Brief summary
You can build muscle without weights. So long as you give your muscles a reason to grow by increasingly making more challenging demands on them from week to week you can expect to respond by growing more muscular and bigger.
Make certain that your body weight exercises are difficult enough that you find 6 to 10 repetitions , and get in 3 or 4 sets. And make sure you have a progressive overload through your exercise routine.
Remember I had said all but 2-3 exercises could become extremely effortless. Drop me a line if the single arm pull up or the one arm handstand push up ever become too easy for you. I haven’t reached that point yet.
Be sure to have a good amount of sleep, eat a lot of balanced meals and you’re well on your way to becoming stronger and building more muscle.
Provided you boost the demands on the muscle group it’s possible to …
This has been a quick overview, there is a sample 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 workouts.
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