Building Muscle Without Weights
Building muscle without weights is entirely possible–even preferred in some cases. It is a common misconception that you must join a fancy gym or buy expensive Olympic weights, squat racks, and other esoteric equipment in order to forge a well-developed body. But that is not true. Especially if you follow a sound, well-rounded exercise program coupled with good nutrition.
Remember when you were a kid and did all those pushups, pullups, and situps? You did calisthenics, ran, and played games in your physical education classes?
Most likely, you ate a solid diet consisting of plenty of eggs, mancakes, beef, fish, chicken, and water.
You know, the simple things. You led the simple life.
You still can.
Building Muscle Without Weights
In fact, unless you're an adult, I would suggest that you be very cautious of training with weights, especially very heavy weights. They take their toll on young joints, and while you may not feel it today, you may very well experience a lot of joint issues in your 40s and 50s. Arth Ritis is not a friendly man!
But you can certainly follow the lead of many men and women who train without weights. They do bodyweight exercises like pushups for the frontal torso muscles, chin ups for the back and biceps and rear delts, and single-leg squats for leg, glute, and lower back development.
By simply doing as many reps as possible for multiple sets per day, you can build a fantastic-looking and performing body.
Start out by doing one set of as many reps as you can do in each of these exercises:
- Chin ups
- Push ups
- Single-leg squats
- Crunch
When you can do more than 20 reps in any of the exercises, drop the reps and add a set. Start off with the first set at 12 reps and finish with as many reps as you can do.
A variation on this theme is to just pick a number of reps in a workout that you want to complete. I will talk more about that in a future post.
If you want a fully-fleshed out "how to build muscle without weights" program, check out the Bodyweight Training Program
