Many “bodybuilders” dismiss bodyweight exercises as being not hard enough and not providing sufficient progressive overload to build muscle. That maybe the case if all you did was regular pushups and situps, but you are not here to just learn the basics.
If done properly, it is possible to build muscle without weights using bodyweight exercises. You only have to look at the 100 strongest and biggest men in the world and I bet you close to 90% of them would spend a lot of time doing bodyweight exercises. I think they only become unproductive if you are not doing progressively more difficult bodyweight exercises (for example, going from regular push ups to “clap your hands” pushups) and not increasing exercise intensity.
A great way to increase the intensity of bodyweight exercises is to include them in a circuit training workout routine, so you go from one bodyweight exercise to the next with less recovery time.
Benefits of Bodyweight Exercises
The reason I have dedicated a whole post to bodyweight exercises is that you don’t need any equipment and they are a great addition to weight training exercises. You can do them at home or when you are travelling and still get amazing results.
Moreover, bodyweight exercises are a great tool to develop explosive strength. If you are working out to gain mass for a specific sport, you want more then to just gain weight, you want to develop speed and agility for your specific sport. It’s easier to develop that explosive strength with body weight exercises, because you are typically only lifting 60% of your bodyweight.
Also, if you have ever spotted someone who is struggling to complete a bench press, you will notice that if you can help them get past the sticky point they can complete the rep on their own. With proper explosive strength training you can lift the weight more forcefully and break through those plaeteaus, so body weight training will help you lift heavier and build more muscle! There are a few things to keep in mind though…
Don’t Cheat On Your Technique
When you are training at home there is the temptation to cheat on your technique a little bit because no one is watching. This is a big mistake that you need to avoid.
If you want to make big gains and not injure yourself you need to make sure your technique is solid. Read as much about every exercise that you do and start off slow. Never try and overdo it because your joints will not forgive you in the long run.
Furthermore, if your technique is poor your muscle gain will also be poor. Each exercise is done in a certain way. It is done that way firstly because it is the safest way and, secondly, because it is the best way to work the muscle. So, if you cheat on your technique you are only cheating yourself.
The 5 Best Bodyweight Exercises to Build Muscle
Now we can get into the real stuff. I am going to present the best 5 bodyweight exercises that you can do at home. Every exercise includes clear instructions so you can do them with proper form. If you do them correctly and with the right intensity you will see some amazing progress.
1. Burpees
There is a reason this is called the king of bodyweight exercises. This is a challenging exercise which combines the squat, pushup, and jump all built in to one exercise to give you a great full body workout. I would recommend beginners get familiat with the individual exercises on their own before attempting burpees.
How to do a burpee
To correctly do a burpee, start the exercise by standing upright with both feet close together. Squat down by bending your knees, put your hands on the ground and hop your feet backwards so you are in position to do a pushup. Do a regular pushup and when you are rising to the start position perform a jump.
2. Clap your hands pushups
This exercise is referred to as “clap your hands” pushups because you lift the upper body off the floor that fast that you can clap your hands in between each rep. If you are new to bodyweight exercises, then first get familar with doing regular pushups, but as soon as you can manage clap your hands pushups do so because they are really good for building explosive functional strength. They really shock your muscles into growth.
The great thing about the clap pushup is that it forces your muscle to contract and then expand very quickly. Many studies have shown this is the best way to make fast strength gains without damaging or slowing down your muscles. Normal weight lifting, on the other hand, has been shown to slow down your movement. If you are a mma fighter or athlete this will not do.
How to do a clap your hands pushup
To do a clap your hands pushup simply get in the normal pushup position and lower yourself down to the bottom. Instead of pushing yourself up as normal you should powerfully push down and cause yourself to jump with your hands. While your hands are off the ground you should clap your hands together under your chest before hitting the ground and repeating. Keep doing this over and over until failure.
3. Dips
Dips are like a bench press but more full on. Many of you are not going to like that statement but it is true. There is literally nothing harder than strapping some heavy weight discs to your weight belt and pumping out a set of dips.
You can make your own dip station at home by setting up two narrow bars parallel from each other. If you get a power rack they will often include dip bars.
How to do a dip
To correctly do a dip you simply grab on to the two parallel bars and lower yourself down as low as you can. Don’t try to keep your body upright. You should allow yourself to naturally lean forward as this will work both your chest and your triceps. Once you have lowered yourself down fully explode upwards for a fast incline. This will blast your muscles into some serious growth!
It is very important to take care of your shoulders during the dip. I know of many people who have ended up with pretty serious shoulder joint injuries. Never do dips on a dip station where the bars are too wide apart. If you can make your own that is the best idea because you can set it to your own width. The narrower the better.
4. Chin ups
When you want to develop full body power and strength as well as adding some serious size you need to work with the chin up. All of best boxers in history had huge backs. Just take a look at Muhummad Ali’s back. It was enormous! The chin up is a poweful way to train your back and biceps and is one of the best ways to add some size in a hurry.
How to do a chin up
Grab a thick bar with and underhand grip and allow your body to hang free. The thicker the bar the better because this will work your forearms. Once you are comfortable you should pull yourself up as quickly as possible. Imagine that you are pulling with your elbows as this will help you focus on your back muscles. Once you reach the top slowly lower yourself back down to a count of five or six seconds. This is when a lot of the strength is built. The slowe the better.
5. Jumping squats
Do you know the feeling of wanting the throw up because an exercise has pushed you beyond your limits? The jumping squat will do that to you.
The jumping squat is one of the best bodyweight exercises on the planet because it mixes aerobic and anerobic exercise in such an intense way. It will challenge your whole lower body as well as your back and abs and it will make your lungs burn like you are running a 100m sprint. People who stick at the jumping squat (not many do!) are blessed with huge legs, better running power and a truck load of lower body strength.
How to do a jumping squat
Crouch down in a squatted position with one foot in front of the other. Spring into the air as high as you can and land with your other foot now in front. Allow gravity to take you all the way down to the fully squatted position and then, without any break, spring yourself back into the air again. Repeat this until failure.
Conclusion
These five bodyweight exercises workout the entire body. If you did a workout without weights that consisted of only these exercises, you would get some amazing overall muscle development. However, if you can mix these up with some other mass gaining exercises.
If you enjoyed this article, please like it on Facebook.
Related Posts
- None Found
 |
Do you struggle to gain weight? Click here to get the complete guide for gaining weight and building muscle fast. |
|
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Some great exercises bud. Another good bodyweight exercise to do is called burpees which is very good for upper body legs stomach and arms. You start by standing up then do a star jump then down to a push up then spring back up to a star jump and so on so on but try and hold form and fully complete star jump before jumping down to push up. To make it more interestng we see who can do the most burpees in 2 minutes while someone counts and judges form. can be fun!!!
Nice post, i love bodyweight exercises and regulary do dips, push ups and pull ups which i add to most workouts. I hate burpees though, but they are a very good exercise and very demanding
‘Scuse me, Phil… doing burpees was the first thing in this article. Anyway, thanks for this list! There are a lot of great bodyweight exercises and programs out there, just googling the term will give anybody a ton of choices. Something for all fitness levels, as the saying goes.
Pretty good, but you should have also included handstand pushups. Even if someone can’t do them they can buildup to eventually do them by holding a handstand position just by climbing up the wall with their feet into a handstand position and holding it for long as you can. It’s an awesome exercise and probably one of the best when you become good at it.