Weight Training or Bodyweight Training

[SpeakIsBAck]

Hello guys,i have access to Weights training,but i prefer Bodyweight training, it keeps me more motivated and i never skip it since i like it.

The question is,it's possible to grow muscle exercizing without weights or i will always look the same even if i manage to get good at bodyweight training?

Right now i'm into Pullups,crunches and pushups,i'm doing them very slowy and focusing on the muscle.

Any exercise you would suggest for bodyweight training?(can't do legs right now because of a knee injury)

My goal is get muscle and strenght, but i don't want to get mass like a bodybuilder.

Sorry for my english since it's not that great and thanks for the answers (if i get any xD)

[Centurion]

Ever watched men's gymnastics? Yeah you can get muscle doing bodyweight work (and a hell of a lot of strength).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2407_uPHpIk

Try doing planks for your core. L-sits are great as well but might take some time before you get there. I'm not sure what your strength is like at the moment but pullups and pushups are good. Trying adding different variations to make them harder when you need to. Holding a handstand against a wall is a great shoulder strength builder and from that you can progress to handstand pushups aginst the wall, freestanding handstands and freestanding handstand pushups.

I'd recommend checking out BeastSkills.com for some great things to try and progressions to work towards more difficult skills and also checking out the Assassin's Guild on here

[161803398874989]

If you like bodyweight training better, then by all means do bodyweight training. Resistance is resistance. Supposedly weight are a bit better for hypertrophy, though. And you'll want to squat and deadlift.

[Amazon Grimm]

Please note that I am speaking from a non experienced POV.

If you are not looking to be able to apply force in excess of your bodyweight, BW training is great, and in anyone's eyes, you can get strong, just not as strong as free weights.

However, if you are too overweight, BW is REALLY hard, and free weights would actually be better, as you can build strength as you try to lose weight, and feel more progression. That's my current strategy anyway.

[SpeakIsBAck]

thanks for the informations guys,especially the website Centurion mentioned,for squat and deadlift i'm not sure,i got to see if tendinitis give me problems again.

[Waldo]

If you are not looking to be able to apply force in excess of your bodyweight, BW training is great, and in anyone's eyes, you can get strong, just not as strong as free weights.

Our muscles have force applied to them in the form of rotational moment. Moment is the product of force and a lever arm. The lever arm for movement is the distance the force is applied from a rotational point perpendicular to the radial of rotation.

Take for example the bench press and the chest. The bench press is a very high leverage position. The rotation point for the chest is the shoulder. The lever arm between the bar path and the point of rotation of the shoulder is very small, giving a significant mechanical advantage to the shoulder rotators (pecs and delts). The chest can move a ton of weight because of this massive mechanical advantage it has. This is also why moving the hands wider targets the pecs more, it decreases the mechanical advantage of the lever arm. However this change in humeral angle is not particularly good for the shoulders.

Now consider a bodyweight exercise where we take away this mechanical advantage. For example the pseudo maltese pushup. This is "just" a 1x BW pushup with your feet on the ground. Start at the top with your arms perfectly straight, your hands near waist level with your arm to shoulder angle about 45 degrees (should look like an arrow from above), hands straight away from your arms. Now do pushups in this position with an up down motion, NOT rotating about your toes (this is a small but significant difference, you have to push forward with your feet as you go up). You body should remain stiff and hollow. Most people will buckle from a far away hand placement, it is harder than doing a 1 arm pushup. The path that the upper arm travels is almost identical to the path it travels in the lower half of a bench press (the chest dominant part). The big difference is the massively different lever arm between the applied load and the shoulder, which acts as a significant force multiplier. Go ahead and try this pushup, if you are doing it right it, if you can actually do them, it doesn't take a whole lot of reps before your chest is on fire. The other thing you should notice is that your biceps act as a straight arm stabilizer, these also give your biceps a heck of a workout, especially if you pause a few seconds at the top of each rep.

This is the principle behind progressive calisthenics. To increase the force in the muscles, we decrease the leverage that muscle has on the load by moving progressively toward ever more difficult exercises.

[realbrickwall]

You like bodyweight training? You have an Assassin's Creed avatar? You should come join us at the Assassin's Guild forum! All the best resources for bodyweight stuff.

And, yes, we promise, you can get muscles.

[Razor]

The key to getting muscles is consuming enough food. As long as you are pushing your muscles hard with your body weight exercises and eating enough, you'll gain plenty of muscle.

However, as far as BW vs. Freeweights, I think freeweights are better for progression and actual muscle building, while bodyweight exercises are better for co-ordination, agility, and stability training (Stabilizer muscles and such).

[Avistew]

I'm just beginning with bodyweight exercises, so I'm by no means a specialist. But it seems to me, as others have said, you should pick the type of exercise you enjoy.

To develop muscle, it's important to up the intensity. With bodyweight exercises, you can't do it by raising the weight, you need to do it by switching up the exercise. Waldo explained it in more detail, but in simple terms, if you can do pushups fine, switch to decline pushups, or asymmetrical pushups, work towards one-arm pushups, etc. Same thing with squats and pullups.

[161803398874989]

Please note that I am speaking from a non experienced POV.

If you are not looking to be able to apply force in excess of your bodyweight, BW training is great, and in anyone's eyes, you can get strong, just not as strong as free weights.

I was going to be blunt and just say "that's fucking horseshit". But Waldo said it better and much nicer.

[SpeakIsBAck]

You like bodyweight training? You have an Assassin's Creed avatar? You should come join us at the Assassin's Guild forum! All the best resources for bodyweight stuff.

And, yes, we promise, you can get muscles.

sure! As soon as the new challenge start i'm going to do it

[SpeakIsBAck]

Our muscles have force applied to them in the form of rotational moment. Moment is the product of force and a lever arm. The lever arm for movement is the distance the force is applied from a rotational point perpendicular to the radial of rotation.

Take for example the bench press and the chest. The bench press is a very high leverage position. The rotation point for the chest is the shoulder. The lever arm between the bar path and the point of rotation of the shoulder is very small, giving a significant mechanical advantage to the shoulder rotators (pecs and delts). The chest can move a ton of weight because of this massive mechanical advantage it has. This is also why moving the hands wider targets the pecs more, it decreases the mechanical advantage of the lever arm. However this change in humeral angle is not particularly good for the shoulders.

Now consider a bodyweight exercise where we take away this mechanical advantage. For example the pseudo maltese pushup. This is "just" a 1x BW pushup with your feet on the ground. Start at the top with your arms perfectly straight, your hands near waist level with your arm to shoulder angle about 45 degrees (should look like an arrow from above), hands straight away from your arms. Now do pushups in this position with an up down motion, NOT rotating about your toes (this is a small but significant difference, you have to push forward with your feet as you go up). You body should remain stiff and hollow. Most people will buckle from a far away hand placement, it is harder than doing a 1 arm pushup. The path that the upper arm travels is almost identical to the path it travels in the lower half of a bench press (the chest dominant part). The big difference is the massively different lever arm between the applied load and the shoulder, which acts as a significant force multiplier. Go ahead and try this pushup, if you are doing it right it, if you can actually do them, it doesn't take a whole lot of reps before your chest is on fire. The other thing you should notice is that your biceps act as a straight arm stabilizer, these also give your biceps a heck of a workout, especially if you pause a few seconds at the top of each rep.

This is the principle behind progressive calisthenics. To increase the force in the muscles, we decrease the leverage that muscle has on the load by moving progressively toward ever more difficult exercises.

i'm starting to understand the difference between the two,thanks,i will also try the pushup type you suggested