Using own body weight

[Ectofighter]

I have read that using your own body weight for training can be a great way of working out versus using weights. For example, doing decline pushups, flat pushups, bar dips, pull ups, etc. Seemingly many of these workouts do involve the tri's bi's back, shoulders, nearly every muscle. Granted some people can just do pushups and be ripped, but I wanted to see if anyone else has trained this way or has seen it as if not more effective in some cases.

 

[pantera101]

I love pull ups(back)chin ups(bi's)and dips(tri's)and do them on a regular basis,but i would never do only them and other body weight exercises.You would have chicken legs with horrible calves(although thats normal for most)

 

[VolcomX311]

Body weight exercises are great, but they lack progressive overload. An increase in volume (more & more reps), will eventually lead to an adaption in muscle endurance and not hypertrophy. You need a certain amount of intensity to stimulate muscle growth and strength. In the beginning, body weight pull ups, push ups, dips, may be intense enough to stimulate growth and strength, but those adaption(s) will quickly diminish without the presence of progressive "intensity" overload.

 

[Schism]

Body weight exercises are great, but they lack progressive overload. An increase in volume (more & more reps), will eventually lead to an adaption in muscle endurance and not hypertrophy. You need a certain amount of intensity to stimulate muscle growth and strength. In the beginning, body weight pull ups, push ups, dips, may be intense enough to stimulate growth and strength, but those adaption(s) will quickly diminish without the presence of progressive "intensity" overload.

O'ya!!! Well what if you get fatter and fatter while your doing your body weight routines?? Ha ha, then what??
Week1. body weight routine 12%bf
Week2. Bf 16%
Week3. Bf 20%
Week4. Bf 26%
See where I'm going with this :rofl:
Seriously though body weight routines are reserved for JAIL TIME ONLY!!!

 

[Zombie]

or you can hire midgets to hang on to you while doing pull ups, sit on your back while doing push ups and things like that

 

[crader]

I do a combo of bodyweight exercises at high reps with no rest as a superset with a weighted exercise . I'm seeing awesome cuts combing the two.

 

[Ectofighter]

migits on my back while doing supersetting leg lifts abb work..

got it..

 

[VolcomX311]

migits on my back while doing supersetting leg lifts abb work..

got it..

If you can afford to hire midgets by the hour, I'll write you out a workout program.

 

[Schism]

If you can afford to hire midgets by the hour, I'll write you out a workout program.

Ha ha, midgets give me the hebegeebees:run:
I wonder what they would charge by the hour for something like that??

 

[pantera101]

As you're muscles get bigger you are providing progressive overload.If anything thats what the dip belts are for.You always hear to focus on basic heavy lifts for the most part.How many times can you curl your bodyweight?I'm guessing not as many times as you can do chin ups,I seriously started seeing better fullness in my bi's once i started doing them regularly.Strap on some weight and hit some low reps for better strength gains.I would love to be doing sets of 10-12 with weight,when most skinny guys try that half jump thing and never make it up.And weighted dips for tri's are just beutifull,I can't hit my chest right with dips for chest for some reason.

 

[VolcomX311]

As you're muscles get bigger you are providing progressive overload.

:blink::blink:

 

[pantera101]

Bigger muscles=heavier bodyweight
Or are you saying pyramiding?

 

[VolcomX311]

Bigger muscles=heavier bodyweight
Or are you saying pyramiding?

Bigger muscles does technically mean heavier bodyweight, but so does more fat. You probably just mis-understood what we meant by progressive overload. The muscle needs to be stimulated beyond a certain threshold for it to grow. You can't make 10-15lbs gains of lean muscle with bodyweight push ups, but even if you did, that extra 10-15lbs dispersed throughout your body still wouldn't be enough to break that threshold to stimulate pectoral hypertrophy or much of strength, otherwise warm up sets on a flat bench would be more then enough to stimulate growth. The bar by itself is 45lbs and that's 35-40lbs more then any gain you would make with bodyweight push ups.

Bodyweight exercises are good and have their place in a fitness program, but as far as bodybuilding, no push up can compare to even a light bench.

Chin ups are hard as hell with just bodyweight, but even that over time will diminish in gains and you wouldn't make enough actual lean muscle gain from that alone to be considered an effective progressive overload (unless you're on a cheese pizza and sugar bowls diet)

 

[pantera101]

Good points.I said in my first post that i would never do full bodyweight wo's.That being said i will always include dips,chins,and pull ups in my routines,just like sq's and deads.I always use the dip belt on dips and can use on pull ups and chins,but only for low reps........One day i will look like Frank mcgrath in that picture with 4 or 5 plates..........That'l be the day:woohoo:

 

[VolcomX311]

Good points.I said in my first post that i would never do full bodyweight wo's.That being said i will always include dips,chins,and pull ups in my routines,just like sq's and deads.I always use the dip belt on dips and can use on pull ups and chins,but only for low reps........One day i will look like Frank mcgrath in that picture with 4 or 5 plates..........That'l be the day:woohoo:

I love weighted dips, it hits that lower portion of your chest better then any decline bench, machine, hammer strength I've ever tried, but the decline Db press if you turn it to a neutral position comes pretty close :drunk: