Building Strength Through Bodywieght Exercises

[Radok]

I am going to do my strength training using only bodyweight exercises for a while. But rather than doing exercises that only build endurance, I will be doing more advanced movements. This morning I did a few sets of handstand pushups with 15 total reps, going for 20 tommorro. I reached my goal for one handed pushups and got 5 on each side. Once I get ten one handers and 20 handstand pushups, I will add in hanging situps and start working on one handed pullups. Then add in one leg squats.

Has anyone else tried this kind of thing, and does anyone know some more strength based calisthenics?

Also, what are everyones' PRs on the above exercises? (I want to know where I stand.)

[Toby]

Strength is usually associated with < 6 reps. So an exercise in which you can do 20 reps is moving into the endurance realm. Make it harder.

[Serpent]

And start the pistols now. Why wait? Once you get good form and reps, add weight by wearing a backpack full of books of something like that. For maximal strength, you'll only ever get so far with b/w alone.

[IronFist]

Wouldn't pistols + a backpack full of weight throw off your balance? People usually add weight in front of them (like holding a KB in front of them) when doing pistols. I'd think weight behind you like that would make you fall over backwards. I dunno, tho.

Radok, you're not going to beat weight lifting for strength development.

[Ford Prefect]

Radock,

It'll be very hard to create the same amounts of tension that can be produced with external resistance. You'll certainly be able to make progress and gains, but IMO it will be limitted compared to the progress you could make with some sort of weights in the picture. I'd recommend building yourself a pair of parrellettes (PVC and glue costs about $15 for a pair) and do gymnastics movements with those and a pull-up bar. Lots of the movements require high amounts of muscular tension and have a natural progression that will make them harder as your strength increases.

For the legs, it's a lot harder. I'd say that sprinting and natural glute-ham raises are a must for any bodyweight only fitness program. That's still nothing compared to squats, deadlifts, and goodmornings though.

IF,

It's real hard but it's possible. I've done pistols holding clubbells behind my back and then pressing them over head at the bottom. It took a bit to get the balance dow, but it's do-able.

[Serpent]

Yeah, what Ford said. I do pistols with dumbbels in different positions too to add to the exercise. If the backpack does throw your balance off, then just wear it in front.

[Andy62]

Self resistance, virtual resistance, and isometrics

[Radok]

Actually guys, I have a weight vest that goes up to 100 pounds, so Balance isn't an issue.

[manofkent]

My gym instructer said that to work on muscle size and strenght ur looking at heavy weights <8reps, <4 if ur really serious. But if ur looking for explosive strength, do 15-20 reps with shorts rests. this tones the muscles and gives good shape, because your doing the movments quicker your shaping and strengthening the muscles. Heavy weights will impaire your speed as the muscle grows bigger that it should naturally be.

If you look at the phsique of decathleats (my spelling sucks, sorry) and gymnasts, thats about the best all round body a human can get. They are strong and powerfull, without loosing speed. Thats what we (as martial artists) should be aiming for, in my opinion.

[Ford Prefect]

Your gym instructor is still subscribing to old gym myths.

15-20 reps will not make you explosively not will it "tone" or "shape" muscles. Kind of busy now, but I'm sure somebody will jump in and explain it to you.

[manofkent]

I pretty sure hes right...

Its like... u do 8reps heavy weight bicep curl, to build to the muscle,
But you do 20+ sit-ups in various positions to tone your 6pack. cos u dont use huge weights and build stomach muscle or u just look fat.

Who here works the 6pack with heavy weights doing <6 reps???

and who here does 20+sit ups with there feet on a ball or bench???

[Ford Prefect]

I'm 100% positive he's wrong...

Firstly, spot reduction is a myth. It does not work like that. You can't do 100's of crunches to cut fat from your abs. Your body burns fat from all over. It's not like by jogging, you'll only burn fat from your legs. It will burn fat from all over. Having a 6-pack or any muscle tone is a measure of body fat. If you have low body fat, then the muscle's shape can be seen through your skin. If you have a lot of body fat, then it won't.

A simple exercise is to take a peice of cloth and wrap it around your hand. You should be able to see the details of your hand through the cloth. Now stick a peice of cotton between your hand and the cloth. The details are now blurred. The more cotton, the less you will see them. In this case, the cloth is is your skin, cotton is fat, and your hand is your muscle.

You have to look at how the muscles energy systems and how the nervous system works.

We'll use your example of bicep curls. 8 reps... You feel that "burn"? You know what that's from? That's from lactic acid build up... You know where the lactic acid comes from? Well, this is how a muscle works. It will first go through it's ATP stores which is what cells including muscles use for energy. In this case, it's contracting. Once all that ATP is used up (this happens rather quickly), your muscles need large amounts of ATP to continue contracting. They get them from glycogen (basically sugar) that is stored in the muscle sarcoplasm (kind of a jelly like filler in the muscle). The by-product of converting glycogen to ATP is lactic acid... Feel the burn.

Now if you stress the muscles enough with these types of intense muscular contractions using that amount of energy, they will adapt. They will thing they'll need more "energy" to meet future demands, so they build more sarcoplasm to store more glycogen to give your muscles more energy. This actually has little effect on your max strength. It will allow you to lift weights longer longer though.

Thus, we just stumbled upon one of the TWO modes of muscular growth (ie hypertrophy) called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy

The actual contractile element of the muscle is in these cords called the myofabrils . They hook together to contract the muscle. They will respond to heavy stimulus as well. The higher the tension, the greater the adaptation. The easiest way to get more tension is to increase the weight. This will cause the myofabrils to respond by growing thicker to handle these heavier loads.

Thus, the second mode of muscular growth is myofabrillar hypertrophy . Since this is a thickening of the contractile proteins themselves, the muscle itself becomes denser of not more noticibly thinker. Think of turning a peice of cork into a peice of lead. Nothing grows, but the lead is obviously denser and stronger.

Now let's take a look at muscle "tone" again. To be "cut" you will need to have a low body fat. This is done simply by lowering your caloric intake to less than the body actually burns. This will cause a calorie deficit and force your body to go somehwere for it's energy. That somewhere will be your fat stores, since fat is basically just stored energy to be used in times of need. The easiest way to due is raise your calorie expendture by being more active. Most people do this by running, biking, etc.

Now that your body fat is low, muscles should be visbile. The bigger the muscle, the more visible it is. However, your muscles also need to be dense so the skin doesn't deform their appearance. Take a look at low weight class power lifters and olympic lifters. They are some dense looking indivuals from all the low rep training they do (ie 1-5 rep range)

Now since you brought up speed, let's take a look at it. What is speed exactly. What speed is is being able to apply a large amount of force over a very short amount of time. Doing 20 reps of low weight is the exact opposite of speed of training. You are having a very small muscle contraction (ie force) and training it over a long time (20 reps). How on earth will that allow you to have a maximal contraction in a short time? It won't.

The best way to maximize speed is to initially maximize strength. ie you must maximize how much weight you can lift for 1-3 reps. This is because your are creating a large amount of force in a short time that directly carries over to speed. Eventually you will reach a point where your speed will not be effected by strength gains. When this happens you take 45-60% of your 1 rep max (1RM) and lift it quickly 2-3 times in a row as quickly as possible. This will force your muscles to contract hard and quickly against the weight. Again this is a direct carry over to speed.

Just look at olympic sprinters, football players, etc. The train their speed with heavy weights and fast lifts like speed squats or olympic lifts. They are the fastest people and the highest jumpers in the world. Elite gymnasts are also trained in this fashion once the gymnastics movements themselves fail to effect the athletes' strength levels.

Anyway, I personally work my 6-pack with heavy weights for strength, explosiveness, and appearance. I do endurance work like you are talking about for endurance... nothing else. Your body adapts very specifically to the demands placed on it. No way will low amounts of force over long periods build your ability to create large amounts of force over a very short window.

He's wrong. All of whhat I wrote is generally common knowledge in strength training circles. This guy seems like he's still getting his info from 80's infomercials.

[Chief Fox]

There are several schools of thougt on the whole strength building idea. If we look at your example of gymnasts having the best all around body a human can get. That really doesn't fall in line with the low weight high reps theory because gymnasts lift very little weights if they lift at all.

The suggestion of building a pair of paralettes is an excellent one.
Here's a link to how to build a pair:

LINK

The above web site also has a whole conditioning section and you don't need any equipment for most of the exercises.

Oh and here's a link to a parallette training program: LINK

[Chief Fox]

Wow, nice post Ford.

**mental note: never disagree with Ford Prefect. **

[Ford Prefect]

Sorry, Cheif. You are wrong as well.

I said tension causes the myofabrils to grow; not weight. I merely said adding weight is the easiest way to create tension. If you look at most gymnastic moves, you'll see that a high degree of tension is required to perform them. The tension alone will build large amounts of strength.

However, there comes a point where a gymnast has mastered the more difficult "strength moves" in gymnastics and will need to add weight to increase their strength. They will also need specific weighted exercises if they have a weak link that needs to be strengthenned in order to perform a specific movement. Most if not all elite gymnasts lift heavy weights.

Don't take my word for it:

Talk the United States Gymnastics: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/public...-training.html

Or perhaps read about how the Soviets trained their athletes from the very men who did the scientific study and research towards designing their programs:

Supertraining by Dr Mel Siff (phD in biomechanics and physiology. CSL honors in brain research) and Dr Yuri Verkoshansky (PhD in biomechanics. Pioneer of Soviet Style sports training in the USSR. Ever hear of plyometrics? Guess what? They were his idea. Why? BEcause they make you create large amounts of force over a very short time. Hmmm... sounds familiar)

Science and Practice of Strength Training by Vladamir Zatsiorsky (PhD biomechanics and former Soviet scientist and research in athletics performance. current biomechanics teach at Penn State U)

There are also more Verkoshanky works at dynamic-eleiko.com.

BTW, if you check my Raineer Prep log, you'll see I use parallettes for the very reasons I've been talking about here.