One of the reasons that I enjoy doing bodyweight exercises is because they don’t beat up my joints as much as throwing around heavy free weights. Some would even go so far as to argue that bodyweight exercises even heal your joints. Whether that is true or not, they are at the very least a more natural form of exercise and can greatly enhance your overall athleticism.

There are many who will argue that body weight training can never be as effective at building muscle as traditional weight lifting. This would definitely be true if you were trying to develop the physique of a bodybuilder but if that is not your goal you might want to rethink that statement.

I understand why it is that certain people think that body weight exercise is not as effective at building muscle. Many perceive this type of training to merely be an exercise in endurance. It is simply thought to be a form of exercise to increase your overall conditioning (much like the military uses the exercises for). However, I have continually been impressed with the upper body development of male gymnasts. There arms are huge in many instances and their strength is unparalleled.

The problem is that many have a much too limited view of what bodyweight exercise involves. The average person believes it is not much more than pushups and body weight squats. The never move past the most basic of exercises.
They are correct that the simplest of bodyweight exercises will probably not provide them with the amount of muscle that they are looking to build. They need to move through bodyweight exercise progressions.

When you can master a number of sets of standard pushups you need to increase the difficulty. You can simply start by elevating your legs and performing an incline pushup. However, you ultimately want to work your way up to be able to do one arm pushups. These take quite a bit of strength and can build a sizable amount of muscle.

You can also add resistance to the standard pushup, pullup, or inverted row by adding weighted vests or by wrapping your body in chains. Now, I guess when you add something to the exercise it is technically no longer a body weight exercise but for our purpose we will still call in body weight training.

Some body weight exercises are more superior for building muscle that anything that you can do with weights. One of those exercises is a pull up. They are much preferable to a weighted pull down. I would also argue that handstand pushups are superior to military press and that glute ham raises are better at building muscle that leg curls. And I will take a wheel rollout any day of the week over an ab machine.

So if you want to build muscle don’t exclude body weight training from your arsenal. Continue to progress onto more difficult forms of body weight exercise and I believe you will be pleased with the results.

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