While I am a big fan of working out in gyms, I can understand that not everyone has the funds or desire to also train in a gym. Or perhaps you just prefer old school outdoor style training regimes. Whatever your reasons, I'm going to head back to my military days and take you through some of my favourite methods for building muscle without weights.
When I first joined the military, I was just an innocent 18 year old. Which is why one instructor scared the crap out of me. A hardened soldier of several years, this guy also looked like Rambo, which wasn't cool if he was running your PT (physical training) class that day.
This particular instructor was a mongrel. He trained us to the point of exhaustion. And one of his favourite "games" was to see how many pushups we could do. But these weren't normal pushups. He would sit on our backs and yell random army like comments out while we pumped our hearts out.
Not a training session went by without hearing "no bike racks here" or his personal favourite "no Saturday night specials". These pushups are tough and since they were a favourite of "Rambo" so you could be sure that they were partly responsible for his barrel chest.
To perform these is pretty simple. Just find a nice flat place (You don't want to try these uphill, trust me) and bring along a friend. Assume the push up position and get your friend to sit on your back. If you can perform 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps, it's time to upgrade your 10 year old sister to someone a little heavier. Eventually you want to work your way up to your mate who makes a living by sitting on the couch and drinking beer.
While simple to perform (technically), these pushups are a great way to build muscles without weights. If you don't find yourself struggling after just a few of these, then you are either superman or you need to find some heavier friends. This exercise can definitely replace the bench press if you do it with maximum intensity.
The second way to build muscle without weights was a favourite exercise of another military instructor of mine. While this guy didn't look like Rambo, he was perhaps even scarier, because he actually seemed to enjoy pain. Strange but true. However, he was very adept at building muscle without weights as he was a well built guy, although I'd never seen him in a gym.
His exercise requires a beach and you can perform it all by yourself. In fact, you don't even need a beach. A reasonably large sandy area (like a beach volleyball court) will do just fine. What you need to do is find your sandy area and sprint over it. And once you have done this, sprint over it again. And again. Actually, do this until your sprint looks more like an old man trying to cross the road with his walking cane.
You see, this is building the leg muscles, but primarily the calves, so you're going to need to do a lot of repitition, due to the nature of the calf muscle.
I guarantee that if you can do this over a period of weeks, you will see calves like you have never seen before.
Thats the first two ways to build muscle without weights, stay tuned for the upcoming parts 2 and 3, where I will reveal 4 more of the best ways to build muscle without having to use any weights at all. You don't need to go anywhere near a gym.
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