Can you build muscle with bodyweight training?
Before we get into the core subject, here are some benefits of bodyweight training:
- Bodyweight exercises don’t beat up your joints as much as weight training
- Use natural ranges of motion to improve your overall athleticism
- Advanced bodyweight exercises will give huge strength gains through high tension.
This being said…can bodyweight exercises INCREASE your muscle size?
In short, yes you can build muscle with bodyweight training!
If you are new to exercise or have only tried little amounts of resistance training, then YES, bodyweight training will definitely help you build muscle.
For those more used to weight training/resistance training, it’ll prove tougher. It is possible, but you’ll have to do the right exercises and gradually make them more difficult over time to create an adaptive response from your body.
The problem with bodyweight exercises for muscle building is that it’s often very difficult to create enough loading and tension, especially in your lower body, to stimulate growth! Muscles like the the lats (one of your biggest muscles) are harder to challenge with just bodyweight exercises, as are bicep exercises, especially when you don’t have access to pull up bars etc.
By simply adding more reps to bodyweight exercises, you’ll most likely end up just improving your muscular endurance and not overall muscle size.
In order to put on muscle using bodyweight exercises, you have to make basic exercises a lot more difficult, for example squats can become a one-legged squat or simple press ups can be advanced by adding twists, or progressing to a one-arm push-up.
Two other great ways to help build muscle with bodyweight only exercises are:
- Improvise and use everyday items to add additional weight. i.e. bottles of water, weighted vest, bags, etc.
- Slow down your reps to increase the time under tension (TUT).
It can take time to build up to, so get your basics down first, then aim to keep progressing!
For even better results…try combining weight training and bodyweight exercises in your routine.
