A bodyweight workout for mass can help you build serious muscle without the need for weights or gym equipment. By consistently focusing on proper form, diet, and progressive overload, you can turn ordinary push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and many other common exercises into powerful muscle-building tools.
A bodyweight workout for mass progressive overload utilizes your bodyweight as resistance, rather than relying on weights, machines, bands, or other equipment.
This training style maximizes muscle engagement through calisthenic exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, and planks, which scale in difficulty as you become stronger (1).
While weightlifting is popular for hypertrophy, calisthenics to build muscle is also effective with the proper:
Many wonder why calisthenics is better than weights. However, both forms of exercise have their benefits.
Advanced calisthenics movements, like archer push-ups and one-arm pull-ups, will help challenge the muscles in a similar way to weights (2).
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Progressive overload is increasing resistance or the overall challenge of a workout as you grow and become capable.
You can add progressive overload to a bodyweight training program by:
Spending more time performing each rep under controlled tension for a maximum range of motion can help make muscles grow. For instance, doing 10 push-ups where each rep takes 5 seconds is more effective than a set where each push-up takes one second (4).
Metabolic stress is the burning feeling you get during high-rep sets or isometric exercises. It leads to cellular swelling, which contributes to hypertrophy (5).
Allowing your muscles enough time to heal after a workout is just as important as the workout itself. In most cases, you should wait at least 48 hours before retraining a muscle (6).
Your muscles require a substantial amount of lean protein to build, repair, and maintain muscle tissue. Consuming protein will shift your body into an anabolic state, which helps speed recovery and reduce soreness (7). Our previous post goes into great detail about the 7-day high protein meal plan for weight loss and muscle gain.
You can use the following moves in a full bodyweight workout for mass.
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The number of reps and sets you will shoot for during your workout will depend on your goal. If you are aiming for hypertrophy, you want to keep the reps intense so you can only perform 6-12 per set for 3 sets per workout. Once you can comfortably perform 12, you should increase the difficulty (8).
If your goal is endurance, you may want to increase the number of reps to 15–50 per set and the number of sets to 4 or 5 (8).
Read more: Calisthenics Beginner Program: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started for Success
For optimal results, aim to work out 3-5 times a week.
Beginners should start with 3 times per week, but once their bodies adjust and get into a routine, they can increase the intensity of the workouts and add more days to work out to produce steady, progressive overload (9).
Most people typically start to see results in 4-12 weeks, depending on several factors, including consistency, nutrition, sleep quality, and your starting fitness level (10).
Beginners will start with 8-12 reps for 3 sets per workout, while advanced users might do many more. It’s essential to remember that you should focus on form and intensity as much as the number of reps you do (11). Bodyweight training can be more challenging than weight training, especially for beginners, due to the amount of weight you need to start with. For instance, pull-ups can be challenging for most individuals until they build up significant strength through variations and other exercises. It’s also challenging to gauge the amount of weight you’re lifting, and adding resistance in small increments is difficult. With consistent training and a good diet that focuses on lean protein, it’s quite possible to get ripped with just bodyweight exercises. You can develop larger, more durable muscles using only your body weight for resistance. Yes, exercising can increase testosterone levels. Compound movements, such as pull-ups, push-ups, and squats, performed at a high intensity, can work exceptionally well (12). A military calisthenics workout plan includes exercises that focus on building strength, endurance, and agility, often without the need for gym equipment. Typical exercises include high-intensity pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and burpees. Military calisthenics workouts also typically include marching, running, and rucking. Yes. The great thing about bodyweight exercises is that they are easy to do anywhere and don’t require any additional equipment. Therefore, you can easily do them at home or even at the office.Frequently Asked Questions
How many push-ups per day?
Is bodyweight harder than weights?
Can you get ripped with just bodyweight exercises?
Do bodyweight exercises increase testosterone?
What is a military calisthenics workout?
Can I do bodyweight exercises at home?
A bodyweight workout for mass is a convenient alternative to the standard gym routine that can help you build serious muscle.
A bodyweight workout for mass at home is possible with attention to progressive overload, time under tension, and diet; you can achieve serious results without the need for additional equipment.
Consistency is key, and developing a routine will help you reach your goals.
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