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Top Bodyweight Exercises
Muscle Building Bodyweight Workouts
Mike Thiga transformed himself from a scrawny 148 pounds to a massive 187 pounds. In slightly less than 6 months, he packed on 39 pounds of solid muscle, all without ever lifting a weight or going to the gym.
Learn how he did it in Build Muscle With Bodyweight Exercises
Top 20 Bodyweight Exercises For Muscle Development
Forget all of the hype about complex exercises. Some of the most basic exercises have worked for centuries, and will never stop working. Here’s a master list of the top bodyweight exercises that you may overlook. We won’t go into detail as to “why” they work. Just try them out and feel it for yourself:
1. Throwing an 8 to 10 pound ball to the wall. Stand a few meters from the wall and throw the ball high against it. This is simple yet effective in strength development.
2. Swiss ball rollout. Rolling the ball back and forth as far back as you can with your hands while kneeling will help strengthen your lower back.
3. Pull ups. Remember to always maintain a deliberate contraction throughout each rep. Do them slowly.
4. Hand stand pushups. As you may know, this will strengthen your shoulders and upper chest.
5. Bridges. Even though this exercise may seem useless, it’s strengthens and builds your core on micro levels that make your more stable.
6. Leg raises. While hanging from a pullup bar, slowly raise your legs, creating a right angle.
7. Upside-down shrugs. Although not so popular, it is a trick to muscle development you need to re discover.
8. Inverted rows. This allows you to use your bodyweight while doing rows (picture to the right).
9. Climbing on a rope. Climb up on the rope with just your hands. You will FEEL IT after a few minutes.
10. Walking on your hands. Go for about 90 meters a day without using anything else but your hands.
11. The side plank. They toughen your obliques and serratus.
12. Crab Crawls. You want to basically want to crawl with your knees off f the ground. Go as fast as you can.
13. L-slits. It builds your body's central strength with just as few as ten sets three times a week.
14. Skater squatting. This is squatting with your leg bent enabling the knee to touchdown on a special surface then getting up again. This helps you to become more balanced and build all lower body muscles.
15. Pistol squats. It is similar to skater squats but a bit more extreme. While standing up, lower your body down on one leg (picture to the right).
16. Dips. Enough said.
17. The ring fly. Although quite tough, it is excellent when it comes to building your chest and getting those biceps ready to show off.
18. The plank crunch. Ten reps of this while exchanging sides gets both sides of your abdominal region toughened up.
19. The bicycle crunch. This workout targets the lower abdonimals.
20. The cross crunch. Lie on back with knees at 90 degree angle and legs bent, hands behind your head. Bring elbow to opposite knee and alternate.