The idea that bodyweight exercises can build muscle might seem foreign to some people. After all, most people’s concept of bodyweight exercises are the stuff you see on cheesy workout DVDs. The truth is, bodyweight exercises can be extremely effective for building muscle, when done correctly. Muscles respond to force. When you lift weights, your body generates force to fight against resistance and create tension. That’s how the process of hypertrophy (muscle growth) begins. But what if you don’t have access to weights? Can you still create enough resistance and tension to build muscle? Absolutely. Here are some key bodyweight exercises you can do anywhere, anytime to help you build muscle. Then we’ll dig into the science. Push-Up Variations Push-ups are the bodyweight king when it comes to building a bigger chest and arms. Here are a few challenging variations: Full Stop Push-Up Get into a push-up position, bring your chest down onto the floor and come to a full stop. While keeping your core engaged and your back straight, push yourself up from the floor to full extension. Full stop push-ups eliminate any potential momentum or cheating during the exercise, putting sole emphasis on your chest to push yourself up from the floor. Isometric Push-Up These minimize momentum and add a pause. Bring your chest down toward the floor and come to a full stop two inches above the ground. While keeping your core engaged and your back straight, push yourself up from the floor to full extension. Eccentric Push-Up Slowly lower yourself to the bottom position and hold for about 5 seconds. Explode back up to full extension. You’re going to be feeling the time under tension while you lower yourself and then apply as much force during the concentric phase. Maintain proper form. Tiger Push-Up This is an amazing variation for the triceps. It’s almost like the Russian dip exercise, but on the floor. Set up in a push-up position with your hands about shoulder width apart. From there, shift your bodyweight back and come down to your elbows. You should be on your forearms with your hips raised up slightly higher than your starting position. Shift your weight forward onto your hands and push yourself up to full extension. Repeat for 10 reps and tell me how your triceps feel. Joe D. Pec Poppin’ Push-Up I’m borrowing this from Joe DeFranco because it’s a good one. When you’re in the starting position, think of pulling yourself to the floor by pushing your hands down and back into the floor. This helps you control the eccentric/negative phase and keep your shoulders set in place. When you get to the bottom of the push-up, press back up and hold. When your arms are fully extended, try to squeeze your hands together as hard as you can without moving them. Maintain this hard contraction for about 3 seconds. You won’t need to do these for more than 10 reps if you’re doing them right. Upper Back Exercises Isometric Y-W-T Lay on your stomach and extend your arms out into a Y formation with your thumbs turned up to the ceiling, squeezing your shoulder blades together as hard as you can for about 3-5 seconds. Pull your elbows back down towards your ribs so your arms are in a W formation and hold again for 3 seconds, squeezing as hard as you can. Finally, extend your arms out into a T position with your thumbs still pointed to the ceiling and squeeze as hard as you can for 3 seconds. That’s one rep. Do 6-8 of those and you won’t need any more. Another way to do this exercise would be to hold each position on its own for 30-40 seconds and rest for about 20-30 seconds before going again. No matter which way you do it, the idea is to contract your upper back muscles and squeeze your shoulder blades together as hard as you can to create an isometric contraction. Handcuffs This is the best bang for your buck when it comes to bodyweight exercises for the shoulders and upper back. It can also be a great warm-up for the shoulders while stretching the pecs. It also fires up the small upper back muscles we tend to neglect during heavy rowing exercises. There’s no way you can cheat this move or use momentum to your advantage, something that you often see when people do weighted back exercises like rows and pulldowns. Start in a prone position by laying on your stomach with your hands behind your lower back (like you’re being handcuffed). Extend your arms out straight by hinging at the elbow and begin to bring your arms to a Y position. Keep them locked and keep your thumbs turned up toward the ceiling. From there, do the same motion coming back, trying to make as big of a circle as you can coming around, and return to your starting position with your hands placed behind your lower back. You’re then going to retract your shoulder blades. While keeping your hands on your lower back, bring your shoulder blades back down, and repeat this entire motion for 10-15 reps. Legs You might think there’s no way to
Origin: Build Muscle Anywhere, Anytime