Bodyweight exercise for "mass building" (Seriously?)
Published: Wed, 10/24/12
Muscle isn't dependent upon some fancy machine down at the gym.
In fact, the one form of exercise that's been shown to be far
better
than any other is BODYWEIGHT TRAINING.
Want proof?
In the bodybuilding world, old school pro Lee Haney credited
his
legendary barn door-sized back NOT to his gym's pulldown
machine...
but to bodyweight pullups.
Olympic gymnasts have some of the best bodies on Earth and
are
masters of bodyweight exercises.
And here's a skinny guy who went from 148 lbs. to 187 lbs.
using
nothing more than bodyweight exercises.
Why are bodyweight exercises so powerful for building muscle mass?
Well few gym rats understand that ALL muscle growth is the direct
result
of how well you can "activate" your central nervous system
(CNS).
You see, when you train a muscle, an electrical signal is sent to
your CNS
to recruit muscle fibers as well as wake up every
biological function that
supports building more muscle - hormone
release, oxygen use, you name it.
The stronger that signal, the more your body is going respond and
help you
build more mass.
Electrical readouts of muscle stimulation have shown that a bodyweight
exercise program recruits the most muscle fibers of
any type of training
and therefore prime your body for massive
growth.
Bodyweight squats... pushups... pullups... chinups... handstand presses...
If you're not doing these, then you need to add them to your routine right away.
Trust me...even if you can only do one pullup, it's going to help
you more
than doing 10 reps of pulldowns in the long run.
Keep training hard,
CriticalBench.com
P.S. There are numerous exercises you can use, but you need a
plan on how
to pair them correctly and convert them into real
muscle.
Mike Thiga has a great bodyweight exercise program that's a proven
mass-
builder. It's located at The Muscle Experiment.