However, after a few weeks this individual would need to make their workouts harder. There are a number of ways that you can make your workouts tougher with bodyweight exercises:
Method #1: Static Holds
Static Holds are exactly what they sound like: you hold a movement at a particular point. For example, you can hold pushups on the bottom position, when your chest is just an inch off the floor. There is a lot of science behind static holds, but I don't need to get into it right now.
Just try static holds right now, on any exercise, for 30 seconds and tell me the movement doesn't feel harder. It will be tough. You can create a complete bodyweight training program around static holds alone.
But eventually, even static holds will get pretty easy. So then you move onto...
Method #2: Increasing the Volume of a Workout
Sets x Reps x Exercises = Volumes. For example, if you're doing 3 exercises per workout at 3 sets of 10 repetitions of each, you're total volume is 90 total repetitions. Now, if you increased the volume by either, adding in an additional exercise, increasing your sets, or adding more reps, then you would increase your volume.
But what most people do is add volume indefinitely. Everything applies to the law of diminishing returns. At some point more volume will not work, and you'll just end up wasting 2 hours of your life each day trying to build muscle.
I personally like to keep my workouts as short as possible. I urge you to time your workouts. For example, if 90 total reps takes you 15 minutes, and you built up your workout to 200 total reps, but that's taking you over 45 minutes, then you need to figure out how to get more work done in a shorter period of time.
Is there an exercise that you can take out? Can you reduce you rest periods between each set? Can you add in an intensity technique to make your workouts move faster? In other words, adding volume works, but don't make your workouts too long.
Method #3: Make your Exercise Tougher
You can do simple things to make your exercise tougher. Simply changing the position of your hands or placing your hands or legs on an elevated object can make a movement more difficult. Here are some variations of basic movements:
Pushup Variations:
- Elevated Pushup
- Spiderman Climber Pushup
- Close Grip Pushup
- Pushup Plank
- T-Pushup
Pullup Variations:
- Chinups
- Inverted Row
- Stick Up
- Side to Side Pullups
- Gorilla Chins
Squat Variations:
- Lunge Jump
- Bulgarian Split Squat
- 1 Leg Squat
- 1 Leg Deadlift
- 1 Leg Stability Ball Curl
Method #4: Use an Intensity Technique
There are lots of great intensity techniques that you can perform that help you build lean muscle mass. Some of the best ones are supersets, trisets, circuit training, and interval training.
Supersets/Trisets/Circuit Training
- These three belong in one category. The basic idea here is to perform exercises one after the other with little to no rest in between each set. Supersets involve performing 2 exercises back to back. Trisets refer to performing 3 exercises back to back. And Circuit Training involves performing 4 or more movements back to back.
Interval Training
- Interval training has a lot of definitions. But with strength training, it refers to performing a particular movement for X amount of time, followed by a period of rest. For example, perform as many pushups in 30 seconds, followed by a 60 second break.
Interval training forces your body to maintain the tension on the muscle for a specific period of time. When most people do 10 reps, they try to do it as fast as possible to get the set over with. Their speed might not be enough to cause any significant gains in muscle mass.
Sample Muscle Building Workout
To get you started on your muscle building quest using just bodyweight movements, here's a sample routine:
- T-Pushups, 3x10, 60 seconds rest in between each set
- Reaching Lunges, 3x10, 60 seconds rest in between each set
- Pullup, 3x5, 60 seconds rest in between each set
- Inchworm, 3x5, 60 seconds rest in between each set
- Bodyweight Squat, 3x20 60 seconds rest in between each set
- Inverted Row, 3x10, 60 seconds rest in between each set
Pretty simple, but a very good place to start.
For more bodyweight training tips, check out my blog, ShahTraining.com