build muscle

Bodybuilding Without Weights

Bodybuilding without weights is possible, despite the fact that most workouts and programs available on the Internet involve weight training.

The reason that bodybuilding without weights is possible is because you can still stimulate the muscle fibres without needing to lift weights at the gym. Bodyweight exercises are a great way to achieve this.

Bodybuilding without weights might not achieve results as fast as bodybuilding with weights would, but you should still see good results.

The reason that lifting weights encourages fast muscle growth is that it is easy for you to progressively raise the weight each week to increase strength and growth. It is harder to keep track of this progression when not using weights.

But you can still gradually increase the intensity of bodyweight workouts to work your muscles harder each week and thus causing increased strength and size.

In order to build muscle without weights using bodyweight exercises, it is important to increase the intensity of each exercise for muscle building purposes.

Just doing 3 sets of 20 reps of a standard bodyweight exercises such as a push-up is not going to result in muscle gain. Only increased endurance.

 You need to adapt the bodyweight exercises for specific muscle growth puproses.

 Bodybuilding Without Weights – Exercise Examples

So if you want to, for example, build up chest muscles with bodyweight exercises you can peform a more complex versions of the push-up:

Example: Push-ups using chairs

Get hold of 3 chairs and arrange them in a triangle. Put your feet on one of the chairs and one hand on each of the other chairs.

By peforming a push-up when elevated by these chairs, you will be able to get a greater muscle stretch during the exercise, which will stimulate the muscle fibres more than a regular push-up.

Example: Chin-ups for biceps

If you want to build biceps without weights then you can perform chin-ups using a door frame. To increase the resistance you can attach make shift weights to your back/ankles.

Another interesting way to build biceps without weights is to fill an empty milk-jug with water and use that as your equivalent of a dumbell.

Example: Dips for triceps

To build triceps without weights you can perform tricep dips using chairs. Get 2 chairs, place you feet on one of them and you hands (behind your back) on another.

Tricep dips on chairs will give your muscle a good stretch (as with push-ups on chairs). To make the exercises harder, do each rep slower and place books in your lap to increase the resistance.

Bodybuilding Without Weights Summary

In summary, yes, bodybuilding without weights is possible and you can still gain muscle this way.

Bodyweight exercises that are specific to muscle gain are required. In addition to this, you can create your own make shift-weights (filling milk-jugs with water, placing books on your back etc.).

The important thing is to work your muscles hard. Stimulate those muscle fibres to cause muscle growth.

It is not about lifting heavy weights, it is about working the muscles as hard as possible. This can be done without equipment.

How To Build Muscle Without Weights

In this article we will talk about how to build muscle without weights. It is possible to build muscle without lifting weights. It might not be the fastest way to gain muscle size, but there are many advantages of using bodyweight workout exercises compared to weight training.

It is not the quantity of the weights that builds muscle in the gym, it is the amount of stress placed on the muscle in order to break them down.

You can place stress on the muscles and break them down with light weights if you peform the exercise slowly and concentrate on contracting the muscles.

The same applies to bodyweight exercises. You can place lots of stress on the muscles by doing ultra-slow reps and concentrating on flexing the muscles during the exercises. This will help break down the muscles and thus causing muscle growth as they repair.

The main advantage is that instead of gaining just muscle size you will also gain muscle strength, endurance and flexiblity with bodyweight exercises as well as all-round increased cardiovascular fitness.

The building muscle without weights approach is suited to military personnel and sports people who don’t just want big bulky muscle that will slow them down. They want lean bodys with muscles that are ready for action.

Another advantage of bodyweight exercises is that they burn fat at the same time as build muscle. Thus you can expect to improve muscle definition quickly with bodyweight exercises. This is because the reduction in fat and increase in muscle tone will produce all round well-defined muscles.

How To Build Muscle Without Weights Tips

To build muscle size a bodyweight workout will need to be specifically tailored to building muscle. Not just general fitness and endurance.

Here are a couple of ways to enable bodyweight exercises to become effective for the purpose of building muscle:

Slow down the exercise – maximize the amount of stress placed on the muscle by slowing down each rep. Take around 6-12 seconds per phase of the rep. Try to get to a stage where you reach failure after only 8 reps or so like you might do when weight training.

Flexing the muscles – another way to place maximum tension on the muscles is to flex them during the exercise. At the moment of full muscle contraction, hold the flex for a few seconds before resuming the rep.

Use improvised weights – you can still add weight to your bodyweight workout. Improvise. Place a pile of books on your back whilst you do your push ups! Put your dog on your chest when you do sit-ups!

High reps – in addition to doing slow exercises and low reps, you can shock your body into muscle growth by peforming ultra high reps. Do as many reps as you possibly can until you reach failure. Have a short rest, then go again! Go hardcore!

This high reps approach may be better for muscle endurance than muscle size, but it can still result in increased muscle growth when you go back to the slower rep exercises as you will find that your strength has increased. This is also a great method if you do want to use weights as well. Your improved strength and endurance will enable you to lift heavier weights when you return to the gym, resulting in greater growth.

Hopefully you found this article on how to build muscle without weights helpful. For more information on a bodyweight workout that will build muscle for you please sign-up to our free tacfit commando ebook. Just pop your email address into the side-bar on the right to receive your ebook and to become an elite warrior.