How To Build Muscle Without Weights Using Bodyweight Exercises

Push-ups. The old classic exercise that everyone thinks about when they refer to bodyweight workouts. Push-ups work many muscle groups at the same time including the chest, triceps, back, abs, biceps and shoulders. It is a great all round exercise and simaltaneously works multiple muscle for a great all body workout. Keep your back straight throughout the exercise and concentrate on slowly going through the movement, working all those muscle groups. For best results do this exercise slowly and steadily increase the repetitions that you do on a weekly basis. A great way to spice up a push-up is to put weights on your back. Find a back-pack and fill it up with books to add resistance to the exercise to help stimulate exrea muscle growth.

Pull-ups. These are like chin-ups but the main difference is in the grip. With chin-ups your palms are facing towards you, with pull-ups your palms face away from you. Also, with pull-ups you adopt a much wider grip that is shoulder width apart. In addition to working the biceps, pull-ups give the back muscles a great workout as well. Slowly pull yourself up as your exhale, and then inhale as you lower yourself (at an even slower pace). Mix-up the exercise by experimenting with different grips. Close grip, wide grip, medium grip and reverse grip pull-ups all focus on slightly different muscle areas. Also change up the tempo every now and then to shock your body into action.

Chin-ups. This requires the use of a pull-up bar or some sort of bar that will support your body weight. Installing a pull-up bar in your home is relatively inexpensive and you just need to place the bar between a sturdy door frame and screw it in place. Grip the bar with your palms facing towards yourself, and then slowly pull yourself up until your chin touches your fingers. Exhale as you pull yourself up and inhale on the way down. At first chin-ups can be very hard and you may struggle to do just a few. Start off trying to reach 6 reps, and slowly build up the reps over time.

Incline Push Ups. Push-ups on an incline involve you raising your arms onto a platform such as a chair or a box. Your feet will be on the floor. Do the press up as usual but at this new angle. You will find that you will feel the exercise working your upper chest area with an incline push up. Upper chest muscles often get neglected so incline push ups are a great addition to your arsenal of bodyweight exercises.

These are some of my favourite bodyweight exercises for muscle mass. Also, check out what I consider to by the best bodyweight workout...Bodyweight Blast X.