Can you build an amazing body by doing body-weight exercises?
The answer is an emphatic YES!!
I developed great pecs doing just push-ups. In fact, before I saw the four walls of a proper gym, I already had nice pecs… doing just push-ups. There are many other people who have found great success doing body-weight exercises. With some consistency, you will achieve your desired body goal with body-weight exercises too.
Truthfully, you would pack on more muscles from lifting weights than from body-weight exercises (exercises that don’t require equipment). Hence, you should by all means lift weights if you want to pack on some really impressive muscles. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to that one way of building muscles. The ideal thing is to do a bit of everything that’s been proven to work and avail yourself to all the benefits that come from all of them.
By doing just body-weights, you may not be able to grow muscles as fast as you might like. You may also not be able to target some muscle groups the way you could with the appropriate gym equipment. For example, with body-weights, hitting your biceps will not be as straightforward as when using weights. You may have to do more variety of exercises. For instance, you may have to consistently do chin-ups and some variations of push-ups to build your biceps considerably.
I can tell you for a fact that the advantages of doing body-weight exercises still by far outweigh the limitations. Doing body-weight exercises adds more variety to your workouts (if you lift weights) thereby improving your chances of building more muscles. By spicing up your work out, they signal the need for more muscle growth.
Body-weight exercises have many perks. You can benefit from body-weight exercises either as warm ups or as proper work outs. Many body-weight exercises are exercises that can be done almost anytime and almost anywhere. Doing body-weight workouts also help to improve agility and coordination. It is also a good place to start before using the weights. They are cheaper and they give no room for excuses as you don’t need to register in gyms to do them. With the right exercises and good nutrition, you can reach most of your fitness and bodybuilding goals doing just body-weights.
For someone just looking for a great deal of conditioning, fitness and a great body, but not necessarily looking to become the next Ronnie Coleman, body-weight exercises are just perfect.
Examples of body-weight exercises which have a lot of benefits are push-ups, burpees, pull-ups, chin-ups, muscle-ups, dips, squats, sit-ups, crunches, planks etc… All of these exercises have variations which help make them more demanding.
Some weights may however be added in order to increase resistance. This would help to stimulate more muscle growth. You can be cheap and creative with this. I used to improvise with my backpack loaded with books.
All in all, body-weight exercises are beneficial to a bodybuilder willing to optimize his fitness and bodybuilding development. They are a great weaponry to have in one’s arsenal on the way to building one’s body and even the mind. I do them to boost my bodybuilding process, especially whenever I don’t have access to a gym. You should do some body-weights too.
Do you have a favorite body-weight exercise? Lets us know in the comments.