Building muscle at home?

[StevenC]

So Im wondering how hard it would be to gain muscle at home with no/limited equipment?

I only really have a pull up bar and cant really afford much else at the time. Been looking at different body weight exercises but not sure how to exactly make an effective program. Any ideas?

[MartinVegartin]

Yes, you can build muscle and strength at home.

As well as pull ups (use extra weight dangling from a belt), you could do:
Handstand press ups.
Single-arm press ups.
Dips between chairs.
Single-leg squats.
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts, using a bucket of damp sand as a weight.
Inverted rows on the pull up bar (you could use ropes or towels to hold as you pull yourself up.
Single-arm dips (more likely, partial dips) on kitchen cupboards. Not on a table, because you will need something to stop your legs from going underneath - so, with a cupboard, your feet will slide up and down the doors.

For single-arm work, you will need to take it slowly to allow your tendons and ligaments to get used to the loads. Stop immediately if there is any pain. For the single-arm press ups and dips I would advise using something like a press up handle so your palm isn't flat on the surface. I injured my wrist in that way doing them.

[Justin Morgan]

Below I've outlined a routine that I've used. My advice would be to push yourself as hard as you can.



a slash (/) will denote a super set

Week 1

Monday and Thursday - upper body super sets (here is a video on how to turn a door frame pull bar into a dip bar also).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Yltj_abSA

a few wide grip pull ups as a warm up

-Muscle ups (negative muscle ups), I can only do a few, so I do a swinging muscle up where I don't actually go over the bar / Dips for chest (dips on rings are best) 3 sets

-Decline (feet elevated) pushups/wide grip pull ups 3 sets

-close grip chin ups/wide stance pull ups, side to side 3 sets

-hand stand push ups/body weight rows, elevate feet so that you are hanging parallel with the ground and pull yourself up, use a chin up grip (palms facing you) to put more emphasis on biceps. 3 sets

-hanging shrugs, this motion is best done on the rings, but you just hang upside down and shrug your shoulders to work the traps/diamond push ups 3 sets

Tuesday and Friday - Lower body



- Jumping squats (as much airtime as possible)/Walking lunges (10) 3 sets

- Jumping squats/side to side lunges 3 sets

- 100 yard sprints 10 sprints

Week 2

Monday - Chest, Tri's, Shoulders

- Dips - 3 sets

- Diamond push ups/Hand stand push up super set - 3 sets

- Clapping push ups - 3 sets

- Wide grip push ups (side to side)/body weight skull crushers - 3 sets

- decline (feet elevated) push ups/hand stands until failure - 3 sets

Tuesday - Legs


- Jumping squats (as much airtime as possible)/Walking lunges (10) 5 sets

- Jumping squats/side to side lunges 5 sets

Thursday - Lats (back)

- Wide grip pull ups - 3 sets

- close grip chin ups - 3 sets

- hammer grip (palms facing each other) pull ups - 3 sets

- body weight rows (pull up grip, palms facing away), elevate feet so that you are hanging parallel with the ground and pull yourself up. 3 sets

- parallel pull-ups/body weight rows (chin up grip, palms facing you), elevate feet so that you are hanging parallel with the ground and pull yourself up. 3 sets

- -hanging shrugs, this motion is best done on the rings, but you just hang upside down and shrug your shoulders to work the traps. 3 sets

Saturday - cardio, I run a 5K

[C.O.]

Justin and martin you both have such helpful replies to this question that is very commonly asked on this forum. Do either of you mind if I copy and paste your responses into a new thread for more people to get a chance to view?
-Dylan

[Justin Morgan]

Justin and martin you both have such helpful replies to this question that is very commonly asked on this forum. Do either of you mind if I copy and paste your responses into a new thread for more people to get a chance to view?
-Dylan

Not at all, go ahead.

[MartinVegartin]

Thank you.

I don't mind - as long as I'm not charged a copying and pasting fee.

[DukeD]

Definitely pick up these books:

You are you're own gym-Mark Lauren
Convict Conditioning 1 & 2 - Coach Wade.

These are the only books you'll need...assuming you get the fundamentals down.

[XveganX]

2L pop bottles filled with water in a grocery bag. Ghetto dumbbells.

[StevenC]

Thanks everyone for replying! Has helped me quite a bit and gave me ideas.

I also came across this today and was wondering what other people thought of these workouts? http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/top-5-h ... forum.html

[vegetus25]

http://www.vegancalisthen-x.com/

http://calisthenicsworks.wordpress.com/ ... llo-world/

http://newpushups.yuku.com/directory

http://transformetrics.com/forum/

http://jackkingsgym.wordpress.com/

http://12bx.wordpress.com/

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... _challenge

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... l_fast&cr=

[IronMum]

Two exercises that really took me by surprise were single leg squats and single legged deadlifts (unweighted because I have terrible balance). My trainer changes up our program and she removed some weighted exercises and put these in. Me being me, I sniffed dismissively at unweighted work. Boy did I get a come uppance, these two exercises above all else gave me the worst DOMS but my strength and size of my legs changed. I was about 72kg (about 158lbs).

Other unweighted work I find very tough are pushups with the different hand positionings mentioned here, or with feet elevated. Same with standing lunges where your rear leg is elevated (on a bench for eg).

After these, I learned quick smart not to dismiss unweighted exercise!

[Hubert]

There are many websites and videos available on net through which you can learn how to build your muscle at home these websites can easily find through google.I have also find this type of side through google.

[Harry.prenz]

Would it be the same or would it just be better if I would go to the gym instead? I can do a few routines daily if I were to do it at home and I can only come to the gym at least twice a week if I opted to enroll.

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Check out the thread I posted yeterday, there's a free ebook of exercises and they're all bodyweight ones that can be done with no equipment. This link should take you straight to it...

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=32987

[Maximus]

Definitely pick up these books:

You are you're own gym-Mark Lauren
Convict Conditioning 1 & 2 - Coach Wade.

These are the only books you'll need...assuming you get the fundamentals down.

This. I have been using convict conditioning and it is awesome.