Bodyweight Training: Top 3 Muscle Building Principles
Wanna learn how to pack on muscle with bodyweight training? Then follow these three muscle building principles and you’ll be that much closer to your dream physique:
Muscle Building Principle #1: Train at a High Intensity Level
No, high intensity training does not mean that you train 2-3 hours every single day at the gym. In fact, the longer your workout, the less intense your workout will be.
Also, the more frequently you workout, the less time you will have to recover between your workouts. If you do not properly recover from your training, it can lead to severeover training, and of course, a decrease in intensity (because you’ll be too tired to train properly).
Hence, an intense workout must be brief. The more intense, the shorter the workout. But how do you measure intensity? Well one way to measure your intensity is to be able to perform something in a shorter period of time.
For example, lets say your first muscle building workout took you 43 minutes. Now, your goal is to perform the same amount of work in a shorter period of time.
You can either lower the rest periods between each set or simply increase the speed of the movement. If you’re able to complete the same workout in 42 minutes, then you’ve effectively increased the intensity of the workout.
Muscle Building Principle #2: Recover Properly
This is crucial. I believe that proper recovery is the key to progress. This is a huge mistake I’ve made in the past, and I sincerely hope that you will not make the same mistake.
Most people mistakenly believe that more you train, the more progress you’ll make. This is not true. You gain muscle when you don’t workout, not during your workouts.
The workout is simply there to break down lean muscle mass. Your nutrition and rest takes care of the rest. After I workout, I’m usually super hungry the rest of the day.
My metabolism is on fire. My muscles are hungry. Feed your muscles. Keep your nutrition balanced, providing your body with ample amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats.
Muscle Building Principle #3: Overload or “Just Constantly Push Yourself”
In my last article, I went over a few techniques you can use to make your workouts harder (click here to read it). Another big problem with newbies to the muscle game is that they keep doing the same thing over and over again.
I’m not a huge fan of dramatic changes within a workout. But just slight and different changes week after week will give you enough challenge without making the workouts too hard.
A workout that’s too hard will make you feel intimidated. You might not even perform the workout because you’re literally scared of it. Instead, just do something different each workout.
For example, after the first workout, increase repetitions. After the second workout, increase sets. On the third or fourth workout, slow down the movement.
You see, increasing repetitions each and every week is not possible, and is boring. Doing different changes each week or month is more practical and certainly physiologically doable.
These three principles have been beautifully implemented by Mike Thiga in his recent eBook titled “The Muscle Experiment.” This is a 12-month program designed to help you pack on lean muscle mass with just bodyweight exercises.
Click here for more information.
