Dethroner Asks You: Building Muscle Without Weights?
Published by Joel March 24th, 2008 in Fitness. Share ThisSo this weekend I hit a goal that I hadn’t been entirely sure I was ever going to reach: for the first time since I was a teenager, I officially weighed in under 200 pounds. I’ve never been happier with the way my body looks, although I’ve still got a small gut, soft, saggy tits and skinny arms. So obviously the next step is to start building some muscle.
I know the best option is to hit the gym and use free weights, but that’s not a good option for me for a couple reasons, primarily because I’m about to start doing a lot of traveling. I might be away from home for a couple weeks at a time. Plus, I hate gyms.
My question is this: Are there any good pieces of equipment or routines I could start with that wouldn’t require buying a set of weights and a bench? Some sort of secret military/prison training routine that uses counterlevered human body for resistance training? Or am I just going to have to put aside putting on muscle mass until I’m ready to go to the gym?
What about doing some yoga? I can’t believe how much tone and shape I have gotten in 3 short months. Plus the increased flexibility is great. I prefer Vinyasa Flow - which is done in a 100+ degree room. (Yes - I saw the Russian Bath House post).
I’ve had this bookmarked for a few years now. It really will kick your ass.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459685
Pushups. Dead simple and they will build solid muscle in your “soft, saggy, and skinny” areas. It’s silly how effective it is. You just have to keep at it.
Another thought would be to take a look at some Jack LaLanne videos on youtube. He was fit as hell and all he used was a chair.
There are several websites that have tips for travelers that need some workout time. I’m bias on this link(work) but the guy that writes the articles listed here has a website and blog. Even outside of that I can think of a few things that would be useful. Pushups (duh). Curls you could load your backpack/computer back with some books and such. Take that bag behind your back and work triceps out. You can also work triceps legs out in front and sit on the edge of your couch and do some dips. Legs you can use stairs in a couple of ways.
http://homewoodsuites.hilton.com/en/hw/themes/extendedstay/tips.jhtml;jsessionid=HZ3Q2PIBLLEWUCSGBJF3EWQ?id=4
Check out this workout - aptly named “Death by Bodyweight” - some of the exercises may be too tough at this point (like the handstand pushups), but it should give you a good idea of the possibilities that you can achieve with just your body weight:
http://www.t-nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2002/237death2.html
The Hacker’s Diet includes a section with a modified 5BX routine. It’s a ladder (meaning it’ll take exactly the time/effort you can do/spare, and progress with you) and extremely easy to get started.
It also requires no equipment, and can be performed anywhere you can perform a push-up.
Because it takes only 15 minutes, when I’m on the program (and I really, really should just stay on it, but I hate exercise more than anything) I do it twice a day. When starting, I start at the lowest rung and go up one rung a day until I’m sorry. Then I switch to one rung every two days, one every three, and then switch to their standard progression system.
At midnight Sunday near the top of one of the parking towers at SFO airport, I walked past a guy in a shirt and tie just setting up for pushups. Take inspiration!
First off, congrats on losing the weight! As far as effective bodyweight stuff, there are lots of things to do, but keeping it super simple: Pushups, bodyweight squats, and dips. Once you get comfortable with the squats, you can work your way up to ‘pistols’, which are single-leg squats. Same with pushups; you start level, as you get better elevate your feet. You can end up doing handstand pushups against a wall, or one-armed pushups as well, both are excellent strength/muscle builders, and work your core pretty intensely too.
This guy:
http://www.transformetrics.com/
has some very effective isometric routines if you can get past all the Chuck Norris-esque mumbo-jumbo.
For inspiration, check out John Stone’s tracking pictures. He started in 2003, taking a picture every day, and by the end of the year he was ripped. He started very simply, just modifying his diet, and simple workout regimen. He added weights, but you certainly don’t have to.
http://johnstonefitness.com/php/pictures.php
There was a Book a while back by Pavel called the naked warrior. Something about the Russian military being able to train and fight even with out weapons or clothes. I know its a bit extreme but it did have a lot of variations on push ups squats and pull ups. He is also a big Kettle bell guy. His site is http://www.dragondoor.com/
Everything I’ve been reading lately insists that the most efficient way to build muscle mass, thereby boosting your metabolism which results in fat loss, is to do compound movements that involve as much musculature as possible. Those include squats, overhead presses, deadlifts, rows, dips, and chin-ups, at resistance levels that only allow you to manage 5-8 reps in a set.
For exercises for which bodyweight might not be enough (like squats) or too much (like handstand pushups for overhead pressing), you could try something like this portable kit that uses resistance bands:
http://www.monkeybargym.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=17&zenid=fbc34c1335df472ec677ee2805a40719
Oddly, I just wrote a blog about how I’ve used the Naked Warrior workout to get stronger. This workout is all about bodyweight-only exercises. Here’s the link if you’re interested:
http://crosschoke.com/2008/03/16/the-naked-warrior-vs-bjj/
Glad to see other folks who’ve read Naked Warrior. For the record Justin, it’s not about literally training naked–the point is to be able to get a bomb-ass workout with just your own bodyweight and nothing else.
I’ve made it up to 10 reps of single arm pushups (each side) after reading that book.
Try FitDeck you fucking pussy. You can take it anywhere, and it doesn’t get boring. Plus it can shuffle. Like an iPod, except not.
You want prison workout with no weights?
http://www.geocities.com/rutgerseskrima/art_prison.html
Here’s video of someone trying to get as many done in 2 minutes as possible:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Tn0rXWZ-qU
These will kick your ass, get you into incredible shape quickly, don’t require equipment.
Hey man there are a few good courses out there on this.
Instead of giving you one though (it costs 20$) I can just explain it to you and not waste your money. The reason why is that it is pretty much basic knowledge and I got gipped.
Ok pushups do help, however if you look online you can find other types of pushups. Decline push ups are my favorite. Anyway dont just work the uper body work everything. You can again find this free online.
Nutrition is important, if you want to build muscle you need a lot of protein, that is what muscle is built by. All you will do is burn some fat and maybe even damage some muscle if you don’t eat protein. This is definetly something you need to understand and something that has helped me a ton.
Anyway congrats! and keep up with the good work, You’ll have a fine tuned body before you know it.
I do a lot of cross fitness training and the gym I work out of pride themselves on using body weight alone to build muscle mass. There is a lot of emphasis on core training, push-ups, sit-ups, dips, pull ups, climbing, etc. They vary the exercises with some creativity so that all muscles are working in unison. I know you will gain lean muscle but you will get bulky. Just google cross fitness training to see the types of workouts they do. You will never want to work out of a commercial gym again. The good part is if you log your workouts you can repeat the same ones when you travel because most of the workouts emphasize using body weight and core muscles. Hope this helps.
I have discovered a method of training, without the use of any equipment at all. I can not find anything on the internet about it.
I don’t do pushups, tricep dips or anything like that, all I do is imagine being on a cable machine and visualize actually using cables, and exerting all my energy, It definitely works, I’m in a huge sweat after minutes. The way I see it is by using weights, you curl say 40 pounds, the first rep is easy, then progressively harder til you reach a limit. meaning you’ve essentially wasted all that energy in between. By giving full exertion through the full movement, you can get the max energy out constantly through the exercise. I tried pressing up against door frames and walls, but you don’t have control of the full motion of movement. This way is awesome, but I can’t work out how to build strength in the legs, bit more difficult.
I have seen a circus performer doing the exercises, and he was ripped like hell.
Plain old calisthenics are your best best to build muscle and/or lose weight. They can be performed in countless ways to keep you from being bored. With all of the traveling you do you can buy one of the door hanger pull-up bars. Try many things and you will find what your looking for.