One critical element of any exercise is to make sure the exercise provides enough stimulus to your muscles. Stimulus is any stress or load that’s placed on your muscles that causes your muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

This is why most people assume you have to lift weights in order to build lean muscle.  Many people also think that the heavier you lift the better, because you can build more muscle.  But weight training is NOT the only way to effectively build lean muscle mass.

In fact, it may be hard to believe, but doing body weight exercises can be just as effective at building a lean muscular physique.

Now, you won’t be competing in the Mr. Olympia by just doing bodyweight training, BUT if your goal is to look more like the guys on the cover of Men’s Health… you can definitely achieve those looks by doing the right kind of body weight exercises.

Body Weight Exercises Activates Muscles You Never Knew You Had…

Body weight exercises forces you to be more creative in order to progress.  With weight training, you simply need to add more weight on the barbell to increase the intensity.  But, with body weight training, it requires more fine adjustments to make progression, which results in improvement of overall strength and flexibility.

For example, if you can easily do 20 reps with a barbell, then it makes sense to add more weight to increase the intensity.  On the other hand, if you can easily do 20 pull-ups, then you can look for ways to switch it up: wear a weight belt, change your grip, do them faster or slower, or practice one-arm pull-ups.  Instead of doing the same repetitive movements over and over again, bodyweight exercises help to improve your creativity and change up your exercise routine at the same time.  This enables you to activate different muscles in your body that otherwise wouldn’t be stimulated and as a result helps build a more lean muscular overall physique.

Are Body Weight Exercises Better Than Weight Training?

As far as I see it, they’re both very effective forms of exercises and they provide different benefits… so really, you should be doing both.  We’re all creatures of habit and it’s common to fall into the trap of doing the same exercises over and over again.  When this happens your fitness progress stops.  If you want to keep building lean muscle and burning off fat you have to switch things up.  So if you’re used to weight training, this would be an ideal time to throw in some body weight training and vice versa.  This is why I recommend switching your fitness routine up every 3 - 4 weeks… this way you’re body never adapts and you can ensure that you’re constantly making progress.

Benefits of Body Weight Exercises

If you’re still on the fence about bodyweight training, here are some benefits of using bodyweight exercises in your fitness routine:

• More muscles are activated during the bodyweight exercise.  Consider the idea of laying on a bench to bench-press heavy weight: in this position your chest and arms are doing all the work, because the rest of your body is supported by the bench.  On the other hand, a pushup works similar muscles in the chest and arms, but you also need to engage your core and other muscles in order to hold yourself off the ground.

• Better mind-body awareness is achieved through bodyweight exercises, because they require that you focus on the minute movements of your body.  You can gain more awareness of your muscle movements when you are paying close attention to the various motions that are occurring during the exercise. Take single leg squats for instance: you have to have great balance and having enough strength and flexibility to squat all the way down and back up.  In fact, many people who perform heavy squats don’t have enough flexibility, balance and strength to be able to perform a full single leg squat.

• Many people experience improved agility, speed and functional strength by doing bodyweight exercises.  Exercises like lunges, squat jumps and pull ups help build functional muscles that transfer over to real life activities like running, jumping and climbing much better than doing weight lifting exercises like leg extensions, bench press and bicep curls.

Convenience of Body Weight Exercises

There are many different types of body weight exercises that you can do.  Some of the more common exercises you can so are squats, lunges, jumping jacks, planks, pull-ups, and push-ups.  The great thing about bodyweight exercise is that you can perform them anywhere since you don’t need any equipment.  It’s a great form of exercise when you’re in a time crunch and you can’t get to the gym OR you’re away from home and don’t have access to a gym.

For a well rounded exercise routine, I recommend performing both weight training and bodyweight training. You can combine them in the same workout in a circuit training format - which is what I do because I find it to be the most effective way build lean muscle and burn fat.  Or you can perform them separately and randomly throw it into the mix to keep things fresh and to ensure that you body never stagnates.