How To Build Muscle Without Weights

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!