HOW TO GET STRONGER WITHOUT WEIGHTS USING BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES

You can build strength and muscle without going to the gym, buying expensive home exercise equipment or even lifting a single weight. In fact, many world-class athletes such as Olympic gymnasts use bodyweight exercises as a primary means of building strength.

Body weight exercises either require you to support the weight of your body with one or more of your limbs, or use your core muscles to lift your limbs against gravity’s resistance. Many Pilates movements and yoga poses are body weight exercises, as are traditional calisthenics like push ups and squats. 

To build muscle and get stronger you need to place the muscles under tension by using significant resistance. So, to make bodyweight training an effective method of building muscle without weights, you have to progressively overload the muscles in the same way you would by adding weight in the gym.

Progressive overload’ refers to the concept of placing demands on the body which must be increased gradually over time to continue building muscle. Without progressive overload, your muscles have no reason to grow and adapt to handling heavier loads.

To build muscle without weights, you need to continually challenge your muscles by doing increasingly difficult bodyweight exercises – just as you would use heavier weights in the gym.

Body weight exercises generally improve muscular endurance; whether or not they can make you stronger is dependent on your current level of muscular strength.

If you’re unfit, you may only be able to perform 10 body weight squats with good form. As your muscles become stronger and your fitness increases, you can lift one foot off the floor at a time, performing single-leg squats. Once you’re able to perform a high number of single-leg squats -- with good form -- you can advance to plyometric, or jumping, squats.

Other ways to increase the load of bodyweight exercises by creating variations like stopping and holding the movement on the sticking points, doing the whole exercise slower and elevating a part of your body to increase the load (such as your feet during a one armed pushup), however you can use weights with bodyweight routines to keep yourself progressing into new territory. For example with chin ups, you can put a weight into a back pack and wear it while doing pull ups to increase the load.