building muscle without weights

ntlbell

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

Besides sit up's and push up's

is there anything else that works well?

biceps for example?

Climate Expert

ntlbell wrote: »

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

Besides sit up's and push up's

is there anything else that works well?

biceps for example?

Pull ups but you will need a bar. Get one of those door mounted jobs and then you can do reverse bench presses (not sure of the name) to get a more horizontal pulling motion for the back.

You can do dips on a chair and a bed but a find these are very limited by bodyweight.

dave80

Very hard to hit the bicep without any equipment, get 2 chairs and a broomstick, Place a broomstick across the backs of two chairs and do bodyweight rows. prop better to splash out on a chin-up bar for a 10er!

Climate Expert

dave80 wrote: »

Very hard to hit the bicep without any equipment, get 2 chairs and a broomstick, Place a broomstick across the backs of two chairs and do bodyweight rows. prop better to splash out on a chin-up bar for a 10er!

Ha, that has disaster written all over it.

Any time I've come up with some replacement scheme like that its always ended up in broken household furnishings.

dave80

heres another good one Shopping Bag Curls, load 2 of those reusable shopping bags up with tins of beans etc make sure there's the same weight in each bag and curl away

Sh*te wish i hadda taught of that one when i was 15

blazingsaddles

Buy a bloody pair of dumb bells, saves all the hassle

ntlbell

blazingsaddles wrote: »

Buy a bloody pair of dumb bells, saves all the hassle

that's a pretty creative idea..

It's really to get ideas for those times you don't have access to the gym or have dumb bells etc

exbootie

ntlbell wrote: »

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

Besides sit up's and push up's

is there anything else that works well?

biceps for example?

Dips between chairs.

pull ups.

press ups.

Star jumps for your legs.

Bunny hops, but they're frowned upon now adays.

Leg rises.



Theres loads.

puntosporting

How hard is it to buy a set of dumbells in argos and place them under the bed when not in use?
It realy would make life a lot easier!

ntlbell

puntosporting wrote: »

How hard is it to buy a set of dumbells in argos and place them under the bed when not in use?
It realy would make life a lot easier!

So, I'll try again and I'll even try a 3rd time if someone else says it.

Then I'll give up..

It's for the times you don't happen to have access to YOUR DUMB BELLS THAT YOU OWN SITTING AT HOME UNDER YOUR BED

see?

puntosporting

ntlbell wrote: »

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

Besides sit up's and push up's

is there anything else that works well?

biceps for example?

...

ntlbell

puntosporting wrote: »

...

as in not in the gym?

............

thread - ideas for not using dumbells?

use dumbells

ideas for getting to work without a car..

buy a car...

puntosporting

Ah just use some tin of beans and bicep curls sure youll get a great workout from it !

Climate Expert

Wherever you are you can always but a 5KG bottle of water for 2 euro and use that for curls.

exbootie

puntosporting wrote: »

How hard is it to buy a set of dumbells in argos and place them under the bed when not in use?
It realy would make life a lot easier!

Press ups and pull ups work far more muscle groups.

puntosporting

exbootie wrote: »

Press ups and pull ups work far more muscle groups.

Dumbells can be used for a huge variety of excercises do.

exbootie

puntosporting wrote: »

Dumbells can be used for a huge variety of excercises do.

In the context of fitness press ups, sit ups, star jumps, pull ups are far more effective.

blazingsaddles

buy a 4ft barbell, if yopu have no access to dumb bells

corribdude

ntlbell wrote: »

So, I'll try again and I'll even try a 3rd time if someone else says it.

Then I'll give up..

It's for the times you don't happen to have access to YOUR DUMB BELLS THAT YOU OWN SITTING AT HOME UNDER YOUR BED

see?

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

...

puntosporting

exbootie wrote: »

In the context of fitness press ups, sit ups, star jumps, pull ups are far more effective.

The guy wants to build muscle ,Youll be lucky to put on a pound of muscle in a year doing that in fairness!

exbootie

puntosporting wrote: »

The guy wants to build muscle ,Youll be lucky to put on a pound of muscle in a year doing that in fairness!

You obviously wont bulk up, but you will become stronger and fitter.

I dont see the point in bulking up for the sake of it, it just makes you slower and less agile.

rubadub

exbootie wrote: »

You obviously wont bulk up,

You can bulk up with no weights. These guys claim to only do bodyweight exercise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfsTKfUT-RQ

celestial

exbootie wrote: »

I dont see the point in bulking up for the sake of it, it just makes you slower and less agile.

Really....? How so?

Mikel

that's cool.... I love the sideways one on the railings

FruitLover

exbootie wrote: »

I dont see the point in bulking up for the sake of it, it just makes you slower and less agile.

Myth.

blazingsaddles

I used to work out in those playground gyms when i was living in Bondi Beach. It was the biz, good weather and plenty of bikini clad women passing by and got a good work out. You'd see nutters like your man in the video all the time. believe me all the weightlifting in the world would never allow you to do what he those. It's a form of gymnastics and they are built without ever lifting a weight. I enjoyed it so much that when i came home i built one of those gyms in my garden. Cost me about 500 to build a 10 pece gym. But its tough to use with our weather and lack of bikinis but i must go back using it and see what progress i make

phene

If its strictly without weights it would be hard if no nay on impossible to isolate the biceps but I'd try a few things that would involve several muscle groups:
- pushups (the obvious but try variations like the handstand pushup)
- perhaps grabbing a doorframe or table and pulling against it as an isometric exercise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_exercise) and hold under tension (not sure how well it would work but maybe ....)

dave80

phene wrote: »

If its strictly without weights it would be hard if no nay on impossible to isolate the biceps

? close grip chins will hit the biceps

phene

dave80 wrote: »

? close grip chins will hit the biceps

Aye. Was thinking without weights or gym equipment. You need to buy some kind of equipment for chin-ups/pull-ups no? Unless you hang from a bar in your wardrobe!

dave80

phene wrote: »

Aye. Was thinking without weights or gym equipment. You need to buy some kind of equipment for chin-ups/pull-ups no? Unless you hang from a bar in your wardrobe!

you can do them in a number of places i can do them in my attic on a ratfter, or you could go to a park do them on a tree or kids climbing bars

SorGan

grab a table chair and do some curls:)

Climate Expert

SorGan wrote: »

grab a table chair and do some curls:)

From the ages of 14-16 I used to use my bedside locker for curls.

SorGan

Climate Expert wrote: »

From the ages of 14-16 I used to use my bedside locker for curls.

i had a sports bag full of dandy and beano annuals:)

phene

I remember reading somewhere suggesting using two buckets and using them as weights. Then each week/workout adding the same amount of sand to each to make it progressively hander to do the exercises of your choice.

However without any exercise equipment I would do yoga - ashtanga preferably and then use whey protein to help build the muscles. And alternate with ab work, lunges for legs, squats, dips on ground (assuming no chair available), handstand dips for shoulders and arms.

rubadub

dave80 wrote: »

you can do them (pullups) in a number of places i can do them in my attic on a ratfter, or you could go to a park do them on a tree or kids climbing bars

Bet you can't do them like this on your rafters!

blazingsaddles wrote: »

I used to work out in those playground gyms when i was living in Bondi Beach.

This guy has lots of videos from bondi

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=marcusbondi

blazingsaddles

i have pretty much everything you see on those videos in my garden. I'm definitly going to skip the weights for a few months this winter and throw up a few floodlights and just concentrate on bodyweight exercises like in the video. Thanks for the link brought back good memories. Some nutters used to work out there.

g'em

ntlbell wrote: »

I was wondering if people have any good suggestions for working out at home to build muscle without using any weights/bar etc

biceps for example?

It'll take some imagination, but there's plenty of improvisation you can do. Bodyweight work can and will build appreciable muscle - dumbbells and barbells don't convey some sort of magic muscle appreciating qualities, muscles are built when they are torn and repaired following resistance irrespective of how it's done.

Twist a small towel into a rope and use it to loop under heavy objects that you can curl (it's all well and good suggesting curling a kitchen table and the like, but hardly very feasible). Fill bags with heavy stuff and walk them around. Do push ups with weight on your back (an old pillowcase serves as a handy sandbag). There's a gazillion variations you can do on pull ups too, as long as you have some sort of ledge to hang out of you'll be fine.

sharkDawg

Has beastskills been mentioned yet?

puntosporting

I dont get a lot of this its far more convenient to own maybe a set of dumbells with a couple of plates to vary weight for various excercise than to go filling buckets with water or making some contraption from kitchen furniture!
A lot of this thread is nosense in my opinion!
I full understand the benefits of pullups pushups etc they can be done when you want almost where you want and are beneficial!
But some suggestions are just a pain in the arse and are not exactly conveniant to do!

g'em

puntosporting wrote: »

I dont get a lot of this its far more convenient to own maybe a set of dumbells with a couple of plates to vary weight for various excercise than to go filling buckets with water or making some contraption from kitchen furniture!

If the OP doesn't want to know about dumbbells then so be it.

puntosporting wrote:

A lot of this thread is nosense in my opinion!

Welcome to the Fitness forum. This is actually reasonably sensible in the grand scheme of thread histories.

puntosporting wrote:

But some suggestions are just a pain in the arse and are not exactly conveniant to do!

A pain in the arse for you perhaps, just as I see other people moaning for the sake of it as a pain in mine, but each to their own.

DAVE_K

Not all relevant but you might get a few ideas off here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6JvhCTjicY&feature=related

medicine balls and weighted vests can be made at home - google for more info

SorGan

puntosporting wrote: »

I dont get a lot of this its far more convenient to own maybe a set of dumbells with a couple of plates to vary weight for various excercise than to go filling buckets with water or making some contraption from kitchen furniture!
A lot of this thread is nosense in my opinion!
I full understand the benefits of pullups pushups etc they can be done when you want almost where you want and are beneficial!
But some suggestions are just a pain in the arse and are not exactly conveniant to do!

perhaps if you read the op's posts youd understand

slemons

An exercise im starting to love is sled pushing.
Google it, its great for rugby players, sprinters etc

Except i dont got me a sled or a prowler .

So i use an old wooden pallet, and some long grass
****ing impossible to push. great exercise

rubadub

puntosporting wrote: »

I dont get a lot of this its far more convenient to own maybe a set of dumbells with a couple of plates to vary weight for various excercise than to go filling buckets with water or making some contraption from kitchen furniture!

SorGan wrote: »

perhaps if you read the op's posts youd understand

Yes, the OP is talking about when they are not available, though they may own it. A recent post had somebody who was off to a hotel with work for 2 weeks so had nothing. If you just go outside you can spot loads of things that you could do chins & dips on, if you have rope a towel or gymnastic rings there is even more potential. Once you get an eye for them you begin to see potential in lots of things.

armchairninja

This book might be of use to some of you, its from the lad who runs the rosstraining.com website, its a book of bodyweight excercises, i think the only thing that he buys in it is a pull-up bar and possibly a basketball, but there are numerous other excercises in it too, I got it the otherday, just threw it onto rapidshare there for anyone who wants to download it

http://rapidshare.com/files/146110433/Ross_Enamait_-_The_Underground_Guide.pdf.html