Does muscle mass increase with bodyweight exercises?;

It is known to all that resistance training helps to muscle growth. But if you're exercising at home or outdoors without equipment, using only your body weight, you may wonder if you can get the same results or if you'll lose adaptations you've already gained from the gym.

The quick answer is that you can indeed see your muscles grow without using gym equipment. However, it's not as simple as it sounds.

Can bodyweight exercises increase muscle mass?;

If you're used to overcoming high resistance in the gym using bars or machines, replacing this stimulus at home can be difficult. But that doesn't mean you can't see muscle growth if you only do bodyweight exercises.

You just have to change the way you've been exercising up to now. This might mean performing reps slower, doing more reps or more sets. What you need is to provide the right stimulus to the muscles.

The advantage of bodyweight exercises is that they are functional movements that allow you to concentrate on the quality of the execution without any additional load. You'll get stronger in movement patterns you use in your daily life and use multi-joint exercises such as sit-ups, push-ups and projections.

You can also work smaller muscles, especially when doing stabilization exercises such as braces, planks, etc. These exercises can target the upper or lower part of your body at the same time as the torso, challenging the muscles in a different way than on gym equipment.

How to continue to have muscle growth by doing bodyweight exercises

 There are many ways to make exercising with your body weight more challenging. Even small changes can lead to more muscle mass.

Try one of the following in your next workout and see what makes your muscles work harder:

1. Increase the repetitions and sets, reduced the break time. The longer you do an exercise the more you will increase the metabolic stress on your muscles. Do more reps than you usually do at the gym. You may also need to limit the break between sets without sacrificing proper technique.

This way you will stress the muscles more and cause growth. So if you do eight reps in one exercise at the gym, for example, try doing 20 reps at home with bodyweight.

2. Change the angle or rate at which the exercise is performed. By changing the angle the muscles will work a little differently and other - different muscle groups will be involved. It's also a good idea to increase the time the negative phase of the exercise lasts and/or to make the concentric explosive.

Another option, is slow down the whole exercise. For example, on a seat, count 3 seconds as you go down, stay in the down position for 3 seconds and go up again in the same time. This increases the amount of time the muscles are under tension, thus increasing muscle micro-injury, which is the goal.

3. Add a few pauses or even half reps. This will also increase metabolic stress and lead to greater growth. For example, if the projections are easy, stay in the down position for a few seconds before standing up or do the projection, get up to your waist and return to the down position before standing up again.

You can do the same with other exercises. Again, the time under tension increases and the muscles work more.

4. Do more plyometric. To increase the tension in the muscles, add explosiveness to your movements. Exercises such as jump squats, jump projections, burpees are some examples.

When the muscle stretches quickly, it reflexively causes a greater concentration of contraction. This stronger contraction makes the muscles work harder and as a result, the micro-injuries that cause the adaptations increase.

5. Do exercises with one side. For example, instead of doing sit-ups do pistols, instead of doing pelvic lifts with both feet do one. Even the plank can be done with one hand. These small modifications can change the stimulus and make it more powerful.

Conclusion

You can still see the results you want even if you don't have access to a gym. Lack of equipment and facilities is not a reason to stop exercising. There are many ways with body weight this can become difficult and you will continue to see improvement. As long as you have the right guidance and appetite.

By Stelios Kostakis, gymnast, Kallithea