Exercises to Build Muscle Without Weights

Can you build muscle without weights? Yes, it’s possible, and in significant quantities. Read all about it in this article on exercises without weights.

It’s common knowledge that lifting weights helps to gain muscle. It’s undeniable. However, you don’t always have access to an equipped gym or the facility to buy weights and dumbbells to train at home.

If you set out to build muscle, it’s important to know that you have some other alternative means to do so.

One of the guidelines to follow consists of performing functional exercises without weights; as well as other techniques to gain volume, strength and endurance.

How to gain muscle without lifting weights

You should be aware that the process of gaining muscle without lifting weights is likely to be slower and not allow you to get as far.

IT consists of increasing the demand of physical training as you progress and achieve your goals.

This involves doing more of what you were doing regularly, to create more tension in the muscles and achieve the desired growth.

Your body is a natural weight and you can use it to build endurance by performing functional exercises, which allow you to work different muscle groups rather than isolated muscles.

Exercises to gain muscle without weights

Here are some of the exercises that will allow you to gain muscle, without using any equipment.

Squats and Bulgarian Squats

With squats you work your legs at the quadriceps level, the abdomen, because it is involved in the movement, the hamstrings, and the glutes, which are among the most favoured muscles when performed consistently.

They’re performed completing the following postures.

Bulgarian squat

Lunges

They allow you to work the lower body.

The quadriceps, gluteus and abdomen are the main muscles favoured when performing this exercise.

To execute the lunges you need to:

Sit-ups

This exercise helps you to achieve a perfectly defined abdomen, as long as you don’t have a percentage of fat that prevents us from seeing what’s hidden underneath that area.

It’s important to use a blanket or mat for cushioning, do not lie directly on the floor.

To perform a sit-up you need to:

Dips

For this exercise, you’ll need a chair or a surface you can lean on.

You will work arms, both biceps and triceps, and your shoulders, although if you lean forward on parallel bars we would have another aspect more focused on the pectoral.

How to perform a dip:

Your glutes shouldn’t touch the ground, try to keep the tension at all times, and your back should always be straight.

Push-ups

Push-ups work your biceps, triceps, chest and abdominal area.

You already know how to do arm exercises without weights!

The correct way to do this is as follows:

Stairs

This an excellent exercise for developing and strengthening your legs, and if you do it with enough intensity you can do cardiovascular exercise at the same time.

We recommend doing it for more than 5-10 minutes, at a steady pace.

Steps

You can use a step or a box, that isn’t too high but sturdy.

Step or climbing up and down a crate or other elevated surface.

Legs

You can think of the exercise as a glute kick or as a move using a leg extension machine, both are good ideas.

You’ll be working your glutes and calves.

The way to perform this exercise is as follows:

Jumps

It consists of jumping over a box forward, although you can do it with other types of elements, using your body as the impulse.

It is one of the best exercises for leg development

It’s hugely important here that you cushion the fall well so as not to hit hard and thus damage the joints.

Other tips for building muscle without weights

It’s important to note that building muscle without the use of weights is a slower process, requiring more effort and time.

To see the desired results, here are a few tips.

Repetitions

Increase your number of repetitions.

You can make further progress towards your goal by increasing the number of repetitions per set to maximise muscle development.

Breaks between sets

Shorten your rest times.

By reducing rest times between sets, you can do more reps in the same amount of training time; promoting more metabolic stress.

What diet should I follow?

The foods and amounts that should be included in a diet to increase muscle mass vary according to the intensity of physical activity, height, sex, weight, and age of each person.

In this regard, it’s advisable to consult a nutritionist for an individualised calculation.

This diet should include strategies such as those described below:

Bibliography

1. “Anatomía y musculación sin aparatos” Guillermo Seijas, Mireia Asensio and Viktoria Kohalmi. 2019.
2. “Guía de entrenamiento con ejercicios de peso corporal” Mike Fisher. 2016
3. “Manual de ejercicio con peso corporal” Lotus Publishing and Ashley Kalym 2014. (Adaptación del 2016)
4. “Personal contributions”

Related Entries

• If you want to do biceps exercises without weights at home, along with many others, we have this training routine with almost no equipment for you.