Did you know that you can build muscle without weights?  And I'm talking about significant amounts of muscle too... This may sound too good to be true but the reality is that youd don't need expensive weight training equipment or a gym membership to build decent amounts of muscle.  Yes, you can build muscle from home without any equipment simply by incorporating a handful of body weight exercises into your routine.

Even if you're already using weight training equipment during your workouts, adding body weight resistance exercises to your program is a smart choice as they will help add variety to your program.

What Are The Best Exercises To Build Muscle Without Weights?

The best exercises to build muscle without weights are the following "compound" body weight exercises.  These compound "multi-joint" exercises use your body as the only form of resistance, and incorporate multiple muscle groups.

The exercises are:

Upper Body Exercises To Build Muscle Without Weights

• Dips - Can be performed at a dip station, deck, or side of chair.
• Push-ups - Push-ups are great for the chest, shoulders and triceps.  To increase the intensity try ultra slow reps, or for a real challenge, 1-arm push-ups!
• Pull-ups - Excellent for the upper back muscles and biceps.  Alternate grip and body position to target different areas including the Lats, Rhompoins and posterior deltoid.  Try ultra slow reps to increase intensity.

Core Exercises To Build Muscle Without Weights

• Leg Lifts, Crunches, Sit-ups, Back Extenstions -  Excellent exercises for the abdominals and low back.

*Note that these are not true compopound exercises but are excellent body weight exercises for the mid-section.

Lower Body Exercises To Build Muscle Without Weights

• Lunges - Lunges are an excellent exercise for the thigh muscles.  Increase intensity by performing them on a raised platform or box (see video below).
• Squats - As with lunges, squats target the thigh muscles, but should be relatively easy using your body weight only.  One way to increase the intensitey of squates is to perform explosive jumps each repetition.

After your muscles become brow and stronger you will have to increase the entensity of each exercise either by increasing the number of repetitions, decreasing rest time, decreasing tempo, or increasing your body weigh.  If you decide to add weight to your body you may need to get creative.  If you have freeweights at home, you can strap one around your midsection with a belt for example.

What Is A Good Body Weight Exercise Routine?

In the video below, muscle building guru Vince Delmonte (Creator of No-Nonsense Muscle Buildling) demonstrates a high intensity routine that uses your body weight as resistance.

 

As always I am open to your comments below and would appreciate your input or experiences on building muscle without weights!

"Cardio!?  Whatever you do, do not do any cardio training if you are trying to build muscle.  You will not build muscle with cardio!"

I've overheard this more than once at the gym before, and it always makes me laugh.  People get so worried about adding cardio to their bodybuilding routines that they eliminate it entirely, which is not a smart idea by any means.  Sure, hours and hours of aerobic training each week is not a good idea when you are trying to build muscle mass fast.  But 20-30 minutes a few times a week is not going to affect your muscle building progress assuming that your diet is adequate. 

Simply but, some cardio in your bodybuilding training routine is essential, whether you are a skinny hardgainer, or bulky endomorph body type.

Let me ask you this... is there any point of building muscle if it's hidden under your body fat?  You see, it;s very likely that you will pack on body fat if you do not perform any cardio during your weight training routine, so my advice is that if you are not performing cardio in your bodybuilding routine now, you start right now.

So here's the skinny on cardio and bodybuilding...

Benefits of Adding Cardio To Your Bodybuilding Routine

• Increased appetite - Leads to higher calorie intake helping increase muscle gains.
• More muscle definition - No more skinny fat guy syndrome!
• Reduced muscle sorness after weight workouts (DOMS) - Cardio helps flush acid and other impurities out of the blodd
• Increased weight workout volume - A stronger CV system helps pump more blood to the muscles faster allowing you to increase the volume of your weight workouts.
• Improved insulin sensitivity - Allows for more efficient utilization of dietary carbohydrates in restoring glycogen and stimulation of protein synthesis.

Best Type Of Cardio Training For Bodybuilders

The best type of cardio training to add to your bodybuilding program is one that is low duration and high intensity.  Interval training is ideal.  In the video below, Vince Delmonte (Creator of No-Nonsense Muscle Building) demonstrates a great interval style cardio workout that you can add to your bodybuilding program. 

 

The bottom line...

Adding a few shorty, highly intense cardio sessions each week to your bodybuilding training routine is a good thing.  It will keep you lean and healthy and improve the efficiency of your body.  It will not hinder your muscle gains no matter what your body type.

I'd like to hear your comments and experiences on cardio and bodybuilding, so please make a post below!