3 Reasons You Are NOT Gaining Muscle With Bodyweight Exercises And How To Avoid Them
Guest post by Todd Kuslikis
When it comes to fitness there are really 3 main reasons why most people are not
gaining muscle when it comes to body weight exercises.
Reason 1: You Stay In High Rep Ranges
It is easy to make this mistake when you are doing body weight exercises. Maybe you
have fallen into this trap. Here?s an example: You decide on a bodyweight workout
routine that includes push ups and squats.
At first both of these exercises are hard for you so after a few weeks you start to see
some definition.
You get super excited so you add more intensity to your exercises. Sooner or later you
are getting into the rep ranges of 30 or even 40.
Yikes!
Here is the HUGE problem with high rep ranges:
It has been scientifically proven that you need to stay in low rep ranges when you are
trying to build muscle. When you fatigue the muscle in a high rep range you are
increasing the oxygen carrying capacity of the muscle and improving muscular
endurance NOT muscular size.
When you stay in a low rep range and totally fatigue the muscle in a 6-8 or 8-12 rep
range than you are improving strength and muscle hypertrophy = muscle growth.
Reason 2: You Don?t Incorporate Enough Volume
Most calisthenics enthusiasts that I know are also crazy about efficiency. They like to
get their workout done and over with in a quick amount of time.
Their workouts usually consist of intense bursts of energy with high reps and low
amounts of sets or low volume.
This is a PROBLEM.
What most people don?t realize is that it takes time to totally fatigue and tear muscle
tissue. If you are trying to get your workout done in 15 minutes by doing body weight
exercises you will NEVER get the size you are looking for.
Getting enough volume in your workouts is a critical component to gaining muscular
size. You need to fatigue the muscle fully on one set, then take a brief rest, then attack
the muscle again for several more sets.
This is the exact process that professional body builders use. They don?t do one or two
sets and call it good.
They do multiple sets of a single exercise in order to tear more and more muscle tissue.
The more you tear the bigger you grow. Period.
Reason 3: They Don?t Isolate Their Muscles
This may be the BIGGEST problem of all. I made this mistake when trying to build
muscle with body weight exercises and more than likely you are making it too.
This is the process I used to take when creating a body weight exercise routine: I would
search on the internet for exercises that targeted my whole body at once. I found
exercises that worked my arms, chest, back, abs, and legs and thought, “Great! This will
be an awesome workout.”
It certainly was a tiring workout and I would often feel a nice pump but…
Here?s the main problem with not isolating your muscles…
When you choose an exercise that works your entire body you can?t fully fatigue one
specific muscle group. You get a general fatigue throughout your entire body but never
fully and deeply tear the muscle tissue of a single muscle group.
If you are trying to build muscular size this is an essential piece of the puzzle! You have
to tear that muscle tissue fully not just get a general fatigue.
You may be wondering, “How do you isolate your muscles using body weight
exercises?”
The 6 Week Bodyweight Overload Program was designed so that every exercise
targets specific muscle groups in a way that fully tears muscle tissue.
You no longer need to strive for just “general strength” with calisthenics. You can
actually build size.
I can?t tell you how empowering it is to have the knowledge of building muscle without
weights.
How To Build Muscle With Bodyweight Exercises ONLY <== Incorporate this into Your Bootcamps
