Building muscle with bodyweight training
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Many people have doubts whether bodyweight training can help them to build muscle. Many of them do not believe that it is possible to build muscle with bodyweight training. Let's find out more about it.
You can build muscle
Bodyweight training is incredibly effective in building muscle. According to some people, it's even better than free weights. Many people prefer bodyweight exercises because they don't beat up your joints like traditional weight training exercises do. You can also get a more natural range of motion and it improves your athleticism that effectively.
Besides bodyweight training there are advanced bodyweight exercises available which can help you to build muscle more. They provide you with unmatched levels of full body tension and that can help you to get incredible strength gains.
Some people do not believe it
Some people think that bodyweight training is not very effective. It is generally associated with endurance, high reps and the military. However, they forgot to look at the upper body development of male gymnasts who mostly perform different bodyweight exercises.
You need to know
You need to know how to do it. Many people do not know how to utilise proper bodyweight progressions and so they cannot increase the resistance and as a result of that no development happens. It is very important to provide enough tension or overload to build muscle. For example, instead of basic push-ups and inverted rows if you go for one arm push-ups or one arm inverted rows, you will achieve more tension and that will help you to build more muscle. There are many such variations which will help you to push your body further and achieve muscle growth and development.
Patience and dedication
If you want to build muscle with bodyweight exercises, you will need patience and dedication. When you use weights it becomes much easier to simply grab a pair of dumbbells and perform the weight training exercises. To progress, you simply have to add more weight to the barbell or dumbbell. Progression can be little more difficult in case of bodyweight training. It will need lots of patience and discipline. The more muscle and weight you gain through exercise and proper nutrition, the more it becomes difficult for you to perform bodyweight exercises and progress also becomes difficult and time-consuming. On the other hand, progression is easier with weights. Not many people have the patience and dedication to keep doing bodyweight exercises and progressing gradually.
The bodyweight exercises are more effective. For example, a chin up is superior to a pull-down when you want to build muscle. In the same way, there are different bodyweight exercises available which are superior to other strength training exercises. Most people do not go for a bodyweight exercises because you need to have knowledge about bodyweight training and its proper progression without which you do not get any results. When people do not get results for some time they quit and search for something else. Bodyweight training can help you to build muscle repeatedly if you keep progressing to more difficult variations of the exercises.
Size and strength
To gain size and strength, you will need to significantly increase load and tension. Instead of ultra-high reps work, you will have to focus on increasing the load and tension gradually with the help of different variations. You will have to focus on activate the fast twitch fibres if you want to become bigger and have more strength with bodyweight exercises.
References
1. The Muscle Experiment – Top Rated Muscle Building Program
2. Muscles
3. How do muscles grow?