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Bodyweight Workouts
Bodybuilding Without Weights
Do Bodyweight Workouts Work?
By Mike Thiga author of The Muscle Experiment: Lost Secrets Of Bodyweight Training For Mass Revealed
Here is a quick run down on the biggest bodyweight no equipment workout questions I get. Things like their effectiveness and what you can achieve without even leaving the house to get your workouts done. I also threw in a mini workout for you... so here you go :-) Hope you like it...
Do no equipment bodyweight training workouts build muscle or do they burn fat? Actually, I've been asked if they do anything at all sometimes. Well, besides the fact that sometimes you engage in an activity simply because it's freak'n fun, let's see if there is a concrete result that might get from all this effort it as well.
What causes muscles growth? That's a tricky question. Some think it's weight training. In fact, weight training destroys muscle. When you place a stress on a muscle that it has not encountered before or use it to it's maximal capacity, muscle tissue is broken down in that effort.
What causes muscle growth is the adaptation to that stress that you just exposed the muscle to. The adaptation can be cellular volumization through holding more energy components inside the muscle or increased size through muscle fibre repair. It depends on the stress you put on the muscle and the adaption that is required so the next time your body encounters the same stress, it is more efficiently set up to deal with it. So in fact, training at a high intensity (comparative) is actually the START of muscle growth. It is the stimulus and not the end point. Regardless however, it is a necessary component to get to the desired outcome of muscle growth in the end.
So can you build muscle without equipment using only your bodyweight at home? YES, but not directly. It's simply pulling the trigger. If the stress is of sufficient magnitude, then it will start off the process just like any other form of resistance training.
So again. What builds muscle? Your body builds muscle. Training is a stimulus. Food and rest are the building supplies that make the remodelling, adaptation and replenishing possible.
Now for the second part. Does and bodyweight training burn fat? Well, what causes you to burn fat?
Burning fat is called technically called Lipolysis. It is the chemical decomposition and release of fat from adipose tissue or fat. This Lipolysis predominates over lipogenesis (storing fat) when additional energy is required by the body. Body fat is basically just like a bank. A bank that handles energy instead of money.
So if you get to the point where your body needs more energy than can be provided in existing energy stores to perform the given task you're doing during your home workouts, then you will burn fat.
Just like if you need more money than you have in your pocket, you go to the bank and pull some out.
It is a complex series of mash ups and changes of the adipose tissue into a more usable source of energy but the end result is that you mobilize your fat stores to create another fuel source for the body.
So let's get to the short of it without the lengthy explanations. Does no equipment bodyweight only training training build muscle? Yes. Does burn fat? Totally.
And now for the last part.... I can't leave without making you sweat a little. This will take you about 5 minutes and jack you up so you're running in high gear for a couple of hours, enjoy. This one's a mini commando home workout and you should do it non-stop!
Pushups continuous for one minute, hold the top position if you cannot continue.
Sit-ups continuous for one minute, hold the top position if you cannot continue.
Body weight squats 1 min. No resting in the standing position.
Pushups 20 repetitions (reps)
Sit-ups 20 reps
Pushups 15 reps
Sit-ups 15 reps
Pushups 12 reps
Sit-ups 12 reps
Bodyweight V-ups 30 seconds (sec) This is a sit up where both the lower and upper body come off the ground to meet at a point above your stomach.
Alternate forward lunges 1 minute (min)
Bodyweight V-ups 30 sec
Burpee's 30 seconds From the standing position, squat down and shoot your legs back so that you are now in the push up position. From there pull
your legs back in stand up and jump with your arms overhead.
Side lunge - hold the bottom position of the lunge and do mini pulses for 30 each leg and do that only once.
Awesome. Now wipe off your forehead and get back to what you were doing :-) The cool thing about using only your bodyweight and hitting it at home is that you're never more than 20 feet from your shower!
Train Hard, Live Easy
Mike Thiga
Note: If you'd like to check out more of Mike's stuff, he just released a complete no equipment, bodyweight only training system that you can do without ever leaving your house. It's not the the faint hearted but it sure works. It's right here ===> The Muscle Experiment: Lost Secrets Of Bodyweight Training For Mass Revealed