Bodyweight Training is BAD for Muscle Growth (True or False) 

Also is there like a compilation video of everything you need to know?

Maybe in the future you will record something about whether you can effectively train with only dumbbells?

The bigger focus is what are you training for? If you're training for muscle growth then pick up the weights and in turn you will be able to carry more weight because that's what you trained for and you will also achieve the ripped aesthetically pleasing look. But if you want to get faster, generate more power, and strengthen your resolve into a particular field that involves only the use of the body such as boxing or parkour then do calisthenics; i.e. practice with your body and you will better be able to use your body same as with the weights. It's not a versus argument do both. Also more importantly than the body is the mind, so strengthen your endurance, grit, and courage because without these you won't have the mental fortitude or resolve to overcome these obstacles in the first place, you'll burn out and give up. When a person successful in their pursuit of facilitating a healthy body burns out they don't give up but recognize the pain and fatigue as the only accolade worthy of the struggle and push themselves harder. So if you're just starting and worried you will give up practice the mind and focus on it above all else.

what about a hundred push ups but you do better and better form over time?

All great points!

I for years did heavy weight training, now I'm not some muscular monster....not by a long shot. But for my size very strong....but now I am training very differently. Bodyweight training and weight training. Attempting new things like box jumps, kettelbells, various push ups etc. I have found it good for my joints, becoming more flexible, fitness increasing. It's not always about gaining big muscles, but a lot of the focus of gyms or you tube channels are all about muscular growth and not fitness & functionality. I have started to watch a you tube channel called the bioneer and he is brilliant. All about your body as a whole unit, not just training for muscles.

I'm all for Calisthenics, but what makes you think it strengthens tendons and joints while weights don't?

@@MiggsMultiple he never said weighta dont, he is explaining calisthenics in his introduction and then gives a point explaining how it is generally bette

Calisthenics did Progressive Overload.

Very awesome to hear, thank you for sharing!

Thats why in my dystopian future we starve prisoners, Just like the dark ages Or bullets

@@ShreddedSteel Can't wait to have you jaywalking

Did it occur to you that they might have gotten access to illegal drugs within the prison walls?

@@Fonch117 true, this woman is so naive lol

Awesome stuff! :)

Be careful with too many situps though. It can wear down on the low back. Especially with weight. Never ever overtrain situps or similar exercises. I hurt myself badly doing too many situps.

@@SantanaBanana47 If you have pull up bar, might as well just do some l raises

@@SantanaBanana47 US Army phasing out sit-ups due spine injuries. Personal trainers and military advisers now believe that sit-ups are dangerous, because they put too much pressure on the spine. They say men and women should replace them with the plank pose, which is when you stay in the upward part of a push-up. I had a buddy who worked abs everyday with sit-ups as his main movement. Tailbone was grinded down. Inflamed and broken, he got a tumor on his tailbone. Got surgery and it screwed up his penis function. This is of course the worst case scenario but he now regrets doing sit-ups.

I did the same. In the first 3 month it seems to work, i grow ... but i didnt get stronger. Over long time you can only progress if you get stronger.

I think that's a great point! :)

absolutely. 🙌🙌🙌🙌

Explain the cat thing please. Is it like different ways that can direct the cat for similar results ?

Exactly. Gymnast rings were the best thing I bought during COVID. And the way you can manipulate your body weight for challenging workouts and growth is never ending and fun quite frankly.

@@cwoza5 It is very expensive in my country, can't it be replaced with something else?

Awesome stuff, I wish you continued gains :)

💀💀

You've killed our guest, ShiBoo

Bruh 7lbs in all that time. I gained 10lbs in 3 months.

@Ade Bakari No ding nut, hes not eating enough.

Interesting!

rehab for what

@@akashdeepsingh7506 blue meth😊

how the hell did u workout while withdrawling???

Oh hey, didn’t think this comment would get any recognition. To all those that are wondering, I am currently serving in the U.S Marine Corps and I am about to be medically discharged soon. I’ve been struggling with a whole lot of mental issues include PTSD and unfortunately developed an addiction to alcohol. The alcoholism was severe enough where my command sent me to rehabilitation in Aurora, San diego CA. The withdrawals wasn’t too severe, and often times in rehab there wasn’t much to do except 1 on 1 therapy and groups. Between that is where I spent most of my time working out doing pushups, squat and pullups. Anyways I am doing a bit better now but I still got some issues to work out. Hope that clarifies some things.

I think that's a great way to look at it :)

That's what i do xD

I agree with you man,both are good for different reasons.

i would skew toward muscle building and basic fitness for myself. I don't care about any of the calisthenic skills. I am not strong enough at the point that i need to do weighted bodyweight moves yet but I fuse body weight moves and weighted moves for muscles like the biceps, rear delts and side laterals. I am currently cutting down to a relatively lean body fat before i go on a 3 month lean bulk about 300 to 350 calories above maintenance so as not to gain much fat as I put on more strength and muscle size. I train at home and get bored of your typical body builder weight lifting programming so I'm gonna try a little 50 50

I was thinking this same thing. Sprinting and jumping is what our hamstrings are made for!

This is true, they certainly can build muscle, but in the long-term there probably not going to be the most favorable for gains :)

@@HouseofHypertrophy yes sir they are definitely high impact on the joints.

@@HouseofHypertrophy I understand as for most favorable form of training hypertrophy with legs is weights, but I’ve literally trained high school athletes (some starting in middle school) that have only done track and had very little weight lifting and had great gains. So long term growth with it is possible, but sure it won’t compare to someone lifting weights in the gym. It’s important to know how to properly target the legs in a way that preserves the joints for long term gains. Correct running and jumping form is key!! Sprinting is a power based exercise, so loading it correctly with different inclines and angles, rest intervals, lots of plyometric training can definitely create hypertrophy in the long term. Slow tempo rep exercises for example squats (10-15 seconds per rep) is also good for hypertrophy as well. My jumpers always had the most hypertrophy, and then the sprinters. This is definitely due to my jumpers having to do a lot of plyometric work and putting force into the ground 4-6 times their body weight. I definitely don’t recommend endurance running at all for growth though. Calisthenic programs that do include sprinting only have it in the program microcycle of say once per week. For hypertrophy from sprinting/plyometric , I’ve seen the most hypertrophy from training it at least 3-5 times a week. These sessions can include 3-6 x 5-20 second sprints with 2-5 minutes rest per rep. An example of a plyometric session could be 3-5 different jump exercises for 15-50 reps each totaling for at least 50+ explosive movements total. Rest time can be between 1-3 minutes for plyometrics. My point basically being that a lot of calisthenic programs don’t see growth because they don’t train legs or train legs ineffectively. Our legs are meant for sprinting and jumping, so those should be the main components used in a calisthenic program for leg work. I’m sure this would be a much different narrative if calisthenic athletes would approach legs in this manner instead of just focusing on exercises like pistol squat and Nordic curls

@@HouseofHypertrophy also for weighted calisthenics with legs, sled pulls are a great way to load resistance relative to body weight. Weighted accelerations of 10m-30m at 50% body weight is a great way to create hypertrophy. Other forms of resistance and overspeed training can be used to further stimulate growth in the long term for sure. The goal for an elite athlete would be able to do 4x20m sled pull @75% body weight for example. There’s a definite progression up to that level of fitness and athleticism. Gains definitely follow this. This is how a lot of track athletes build up power and muscle growth.

Thank you for sharing! :)

Ok thanks

Try pistol and paused sissy squats for tree trunks

@@shashwatsingh6580 , I have barbell squads now. :)

Thank YOU, that's very kind of you :)

Awesome to hear, I hope you continue making gainzz!

What’s your routine homez

Very awesome to hear, I wish you continued gainz!

Wow, thank you so much for the kind words, they truly mean so much to me. I wish you all the best! :)

Thank you so much dude, as always! :)

Those things certainly are impressive

Agreed. Someone banging out a bunch of perfect form pull-ups is much more impressive than some bench pressing a ton.

Awesome points, and thank YOU !

Yep. Doing pushups on the rings put more stress on my forearm.

Awesome to hear this, thank you for sharing, and thank you for your kind words! :)

Thanks. I think body weight is great for hard gainers. Do you mind sharing your workout routine?

Awesome stuff, very intersting. Thank you for sharing my friend :)

​@@junglestar I've been changing things through the year. some of the exercises, splits, reps and sets have changed drastically over the time... For some time the only exercises I did was basically chin ups and dips. Just a ton of sets and reps. Yeah, I skipped leg day, but I had an excuse, I got a bad knee and I'm already spending most of my days on my feet thanks to my job. So, here's my basic idea of lifting over all. Figure out your big lifts, mine are chins, dips, gironda sissy squats, overhead press and Romanian deadlifts. Those are the exercises I built my routine around. At the moment I'm doing push / pull with legs (kind of), so here's how it looks like: Push day, Overhead press (barbbell), Lu raises aka full ROM lateral raises (dumbbells), dips, push ups, sissy squats. Pull day, Chin ups, body weight rows, romanian DL's (barbell), calf raises (use something to stand on and when you're going up, touch your heels together and squeeze your calves), incline dumbbell curl (you can do it your back against a wall if you don't have any kind of a bench. The idea is just to position yourself so you can get the db's behind your back a bit, so the stretch is better) however any bicep curl is fine. I have really limited amount of weights at home, so I have to use various ways to make the exercises harder, for example I can use myo reps, rest pause and pre-exhaustion. Myo reps are pretty much the same as rest pause but with lighter weights, you push yourself 1-2 reps from muscular failure, keep 5-15 second break, do 3-5 reps more and continue until you've done 3-5 sets of those 3-5 reps. Myo reps are great for dumbbell curls, push ups, lu raises, dips as long as you don't have any problems with dips, calf raises if you like to really torture yourself. I've used rest pause for chin ups for the last set. After I've reached failure, I rest for 5-15 seconds and I'll squeeze out a rep or two and maybe repeat it once or twice, after 2 rest pauses I can rarely do any more reps. Pre-exhaustion -> do an isolation exercise before you do a compound. For example do dumbbell flyes until near failure and then switch to push ups or dips. That way you can be sure that it's your pecs that are getting close to failure, not your triceps. Since progressive overload is hard for most body weight stuff and I'm not even able to do it with weights anymore, because I don't have that much weights to begin with, I just try to go to failure on at least with the last set. It's not optimal but it's the best I can do in these conditions. You don't have to copy what I do, just build your own routine with your own big lifts, maybe get an isolation complimentary lift to go along with it and do your own thing. Most basic 5 big lifts would be overhead press, bench press, squat, deadlift and some kind of a row, that's if you had an access to gym. You can build muscle with a bro split, all you need is consistency, sleep and enough of food to build muscle. There's a ton of better routines in the internet / reddit, better structured and ones that can explain you the progression. My progression has been just adding reps when I can and when I hit certain amount of reps I'm aiming for, I add weight (if possible) and repeat the grind. for body weight stuff, you can start doing the pre-exhaustion method and just aim for failure, like I am. End of rant.

@@jaskajokunen1305 thank you. I have a busy life and with kids it’s a bit difficult to get work a complete work out during the week. I do dips and pull-ups 6 sets each to failure, every other day-3 days. 6 sets of Push-ups and pullovers the other 3 days. I do these sets throughout the day. And heavy weight training - squats, military, inclined press and rows 1 day. Every exercise is done slowly to ensure failure. This is something I can be consistent with because it’s simple to track and really easy for me to get done. I’ve had better results than the years I’ve spent weight training in my younger years.

Wow, thank you so much for those really nice words! :)

Thank you my friend!

Welcome, and thank YOU! :)

Very impressive stuff, nice work!

700 pushups in an hour and a half? well done, I can hardly do 30 pushups.

That's dope man, i know how hard it is because i could only do 160 in 30 min

That's amazing, hard to believe honestly

@@reaps2661 my dad used to do 1,000 in an hour everyday in the pin 😭😭. Got the 700 in under an hour this week 😎. Im a personal trainer as well so i do a ton of stretches/warmups on my shoulders before, after, and during. pain free :)

Very interesting to hear that, thank you for sharing!

Those are good points! those balance might be a limiting factor with jumping pistols haha.

You can add bands or a backpack for weight / rocks etc Doesn't have to be 100 percentage calisthenics y can always find something in the environment to use

Lol, true. Maybe a partial like pistol to landing on two feet. But that's the cool part about it, they are such flexible exercises.

Athlean Xero : No they're not 🤣

He made a video about that

Come up with something original.

Bruh

Sheeessshhhh

Awesome to hear, than kyou :)

Great points! I would personally consider them more leg curl based (as the range of motion occurs at the knees while hips stay locked out)

@@HouseofHypertrophy the leg slide is but the hamstring bridge def works the hips , as the knee stay same but you have to extend your hips with ur hanstrings and glutes

Oh, that's a great point. Thank you for that! :)

No problemo, thank you for checking out the content my friend!

Awesome to hear, I wish you continued progress!

No problemo, thank YOU for these really nice words !

Thank you so much! :)

Oh, that's an interesting application. Awesome stuff!

Agreed!

True. This people really be like "I have to do 100 reps to progress with bodyweight exercises!!!" 😂 Their form is probably crap and then they blame the exercises instead of trying to be better.

Yeah, you certainly can still build muscle over 35 reps, it's just it may potentially be not quite as good as the 6-35 range

Thank you my friend!

Awesome stuff :)

This is really awesome to hear, I'm glad you found calisthenics. Thank you for sharing :)

Agreed!

Thank you my friend, I will have content on isometrics at aome point :)

Stability can be a problem for some!

Interesting to hear this, thank you for sharing!

So how do prisoners get jacked in jail

That's very kind of you, thank you!

Thank YOU! :)

Haha :)

I plan too! :)

@@HouseofHypertrophy thanks bro, i really appreciate your content. Keep up with the great work ur doing

Yeah that's a great point. I do believe weights can be considered more efficient and easier to track progression with :)

Very interesting to hear this, thank you for sharing!

That certainly can be great! :)

I plan to have videos on cardio soon! Also I find articles by searching on different databases (google scholar, pubmed) and sometimes sport science specifc journals (journal of strength and conditioning). I also tend to follow researchers on social media who post studies regularly. Finally, deciding which ones are legit requires some practise and studying into what makes a good study, etc. Any more questions and I'll do my best to help! :)

Thank you my friend, that's very kind of you!

Haha, yeah, lifting weights is certainly more straightforward to progress with long term :)

I have buy a set of rings and only do bodyweight exercises and after 4 months my bench went from 185lbs to 225lbs at 140lbs bodyweight.

@@Han-nk3io I only did pushup early pandemic, and my bench went up. It certainly helps. The same thing happened to my pistol squat, I could only do 1, but after months of barbell back squat I could do 15 each side. Again, with calisthenics you have to be creative, while lifting free weights it's so much more simple. I started out with calisthenics, but after touching weights, I don't like the idea of kissing my floor anymore 😂

Calisthenics is never too easy. Just look at this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tM-4GlZVaT0.html A ring muscle up (harder than a bar muscle up) is considered the second easiest exercise in the video...

@@Marta1Buck yeah both are great. Calisthenics is fun but nothing can beat the simplicity of weight training.

I think things would be pretty much the same with calisthenics (higher set numbers, up to a point, are probably better for building muscle). I do plan to have more videos on set numbers soon! For the time being, you may wish to check out my older video on the topic: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MW99hv5M1Yg.html

They certainly can build muscle, though they won't be as effective as weights :)

Single leg squats are pretty good to challenge yourself more. Great for balance and stability

Bodyweight is always enough as long as you keep driving bodyweight up

My workout consists of 7-10 reps of pull ups and ring dips (close to failure) and I will immediately do around 10-15 reps of inverted rows and 12-20 reps of push ups to muscle failure and I already built a fair amount of muscle. I think by the time you could do that many reps, aren't your physique will looks like a beast? I feel like people who have to do that many volume with calisthenics never did a good form with the exercises. They would just swinging around and focused too much on reps rather than controlling and adding pause to their reps. Try to do a slower push ups and paused when your chest close to the ground. I don't think you going to need that many reps.

@@MonkeyBarsEveryday Bulking is weighted calisthenics lol

@@frog6054 based and fatpilled

Very interesting to hear that, thank YOU for sharing!

If you still get significant muscle growth after 5 years of serious weightlifting (focused on muscle growth), that alone is very special. The fact can't be any different than that you haven't done any serious weight training for those 5 years.

​ @House of Hypertrophy Appreciate your work and the way you present this content! @@_Sam62 I didn't train seriously the 3 years prior my stated 5 years. In those 5 years I tried different programs and training styles (plus somewhat tracking my food and trying to sleep well.) This were my PRs after which I stopped: 5 x 1,1 Body weight Bench press 5 x 1,5 BW Squat 5 x 2 BW Deadlift Calisthenics, performed correctly, gives you so much overall strength + muscle mass + coordination. For example L Sit or skin the cat both on rings. I would say with weight training I was big but also chubby. With calisthenics iam equally as big but leaner because muscles are more defined and veins are visible. ATM I am mixing both doing the big lifts powerlifting style and performing compound calisthenics move like pull ups, dips, push ups, inverted rows... Any thoughts?

I think fitnessfaq and calisthenicsmovement are two very good channels for this. Check them out and you should be able to find a ton of great info on bodyweight training :)

Yeah, some creativity is needed to progress long term with calisthenics :)

Weighted calisthenics

If you make the exercises harder, you won't end up increasing reps. Sets can very, especially if you're doing drop sets. Regardless, you're really not exercising longer and longer, you'll just have to make it more technical before just outright adding weight

Now I'm no expert, but couldn't you just use one of those weighted vests that people jog in?

I switched completely to weighted pushups and weighted ring pushups for chest. man this was the best thing i ever did :)

Exactly do everything

you literally didnt get the video. I doubt you can do planche pushups!

I mainly use calisthenics as a finisher, or as a completely separate workout at times.

Weighted calisthenics is awesome!

Agreed, many options available with bodyweight :)

Doing bicep curls, chest and rear delt flies with gymnastics rings is great!

Calorie intake is important in determining fat loss. Fat loss is best set up to occur when you're consuming fewer calories than you expend. As for the upper chest, elevated feet push ups are good. Pike push ups are also great for the shoulders :)

Completely agree 💪

@Mindset Fitness that is a bit more nuanced than that.

its funny how everyone saying this cant even planche. So funny and ironic!

@@LateNightChess Planche? That's too far, I bet they can't even do 20 reps of slow push ups with a good form and paused the rep for 1 second when their chest close to the ground. Too many people think calisthenics is too easy when they don't even master the basics exercises yet. And there still tons of harder variations that they can work with for a long term gains.

@@frog6054 exactly! Theres a lifetime of progressive overload in calisthenics! These people are just uneducated.

Yes but no. 6-12 is a good suggestion for beginners specifically because yes, that burn can sometimes be mistaken for muscle failure. But if it isn’t, then 6-35 is definitely still the case.

I train mainly bodyweight and I’d say yes beyond 12-15 clean reps you can start practicing harder variation, although personally I still periodically go back and hit the basic movements for volume and to hone techniques. I especially like basic movements on low energy days or when I’m plateauing, and just focus on form and control.

Ultimately, bodyweight training becomes time consuming. Not a good idea for someone for whom time has a very high cost.

@@RealGigaMind That’s only the case if you exclusively do basic movements. There are tons of harder variations you can progress into. The real issue with calisthenics is that the transition from one movement into a harder movement requires not just strength but also a fair amount of technical skill. For instance to progress into free handstand pushups requires you to first learn the handstand, planche pushups requires learning the planche. That said you can also bypass that and just add weight to your body.

@@RealGigaMind But it's doesn't need to be time consuming and complicated. You don't need to do tons of reps and volume or technical skills with calisthenics to gain muscle. You can always progress to harder and SIMPLER variations. For example: Push ups > paused push ups > diamond push ups > paused diamond push ups >ring push ups, etc If your body doesn't look muscular after going through those progression then you either didn't do the exercises with good form (control the movement, do not use momentum) or not eating enough.

Thank you my friend, that means a lot to me :)

No problem bro, as always I appreciate you. Wish you the best of gainzz!

Haha, yep!

But as noted in the video, using harder variations to stay within that 6-35 rep range is probably viable for the upper body at least

Disagree. I gain a quite amount of muscle mass with calisthenics and got compliments from random people on my physique. And I'm still on the beginner stage.

Na that’s just you, I’ve built mass straight from body weight training. I weigh 81kg and sometimes addweights when training.

I'm not sure about this, it's probably best to see some kind of professional to make sure everything is okay :)

Present!

Always great to see you my friend!

@@felixjimcal lol

@@HouseofHypertrophy always a pleasure to see a new vid from you, bro.

Agreed! you certainly can build your lower with bodyweight, may just not be the most favorable over the long course :)

Thank YOU :)

Great to hear dude, I wish you continued progress!

@@HouseofHypertrophy Thanks, I sure will and congratulations on your amazing content, you doing a great job.

"Weighted" calisthenics, haha :)

I see we both jumped on this video asap hahaha, pretty much confirmed everything I thought.

It does work :)

These are all great points :)

Yep! I think there's likely a great carryover between push ups and bench pressing

I do plan to cover protein related stuff soon. For the time being, the current data indicates 1.6 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight is somewhere around what you'd want to aim for: bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/6/376

You're correct !

I draw the illustrations in adobe illustrator and put them together on VSDC editor :)

@@HouseofHypertrophy ok, thanks!

Thank YOU so much !

Yep! but there's only so much you can slow down each rep. Most studies finding 6-35 reps are similar use a 1-2 second lifting and lowering tempo, I'm not sure reps as high as 35 would still be effective if you're using exteremely slow individual reps (beyond 5 seconds)

@@HouseofHypertrophy who's to say they wouldnt be tho? If your saying that upper body would work using lower tempos then the same has to be true for lower body. Muscles are muscles and not all studies try everything

Thank you dude, that's very kind of you!

So I would not really consider hip thrusts to train the hamstrings much at all. There's evidently a wide difference in hammy recruitment between hip thrusts and something like an RDL. Reverse back extensions more so hit the spinal erectors, and I guess you could consider single leg RDL's to be bodyweight! but of course this exercise is difficult to overload :)

Doesn't make much sense, your knees hurt because you are simply getting older or you overdid your workout abit to much or because of other reasons . High reps are far more better for older folks because the intensity is lower which doesn't stress your body that much as going for a heavy 5 rep bench lets say. Fitness needs to be part of your routine just like brushing teeth, keep it or loose it. The older you get the harder it is to keep you current level and you have to put more effort in it, there still are alot of 60 year old dudes out there doing flags and pull ups.

Thank you so much :)

They probably can build muscle. How practical they are is questionable. In theory, if you can get to or close to failure with jump squats in the 6-35 rep range it may be alright :)