Are you interested in building a lot of muscle without ever lifting a single dumbbell?
Well, if you are, then you should know that you certainly can,
but you should also know that it might not be the best option for you.
Let's talk about it.
I get this question a lot and it's very popular amongst beginners, which isn't too
surprising because we'll quickly see that the answer is obviously yes, you can build muscle
without lifting weights, once we understand a bit of the physiology of muscle growth.
In short, to build muscle, your body needs an anabolic
environment paired with sufficient stimuli.
And to achieve this, you will need sufficient nutrients and,
of course, sufficient physical activity.
Nutrients boil down to, first, eating enough to sustain a prolonged calorie surplus,
and second, eating enough protein to both provide the building blocks of muscle and
to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, the process that drives muscle growth.
But to stimulate muscle protein synthesis enough to achieve meaningful muscle growth,
you will need the right physical activity that can sufficiently stress and activate
the fibers and contractile units of your muscles by providing a resistance.
Yes, that can be resistance from weights like barbells, dumbbells, machines, cables and so on.
But, it can also be resistance from your
bodyweight with exercises like push-ups and pull-ups.
As long as the resistance is stimulating enough, then this basic understanding of
muscle physiology dictates that you can build muscle with or without weights.
But, the fact is, there's just nothing nearly as efficient and convenient in
providing that resistance than the usual gym weights.
And it's mostly because we need to always provide a sufficient stimulus,
which is always going to grow so long as you build muscle.
One of the best means to ensure a continuously growing stimulus
is through something called progressive overload,
which is commonly achieved through progressively increasing your training volume.
I have other videos covering these topics if you need a bit more in-depth information about them.
But in short, training volume, in its simplest sense, is the amount of sets
times the amount of reps times the amount of load, or weight lifted.
Increasing these factors over time can ensure that
stimuli provided is sufficient for continuous muscle growth.
For beginners, out of these three factors, you're very likely going to increase weight
first early on before anything else since you will get stronger relatively quickly.
And nothing is simpler for adjusting weight than weights themselves.
So, more weights, more volume, more stimuli, more muscle growth.
Now, that's the main gist of it, but there are other benefits to lifting weights,
like the ability to effectively target every single muscle,
isolate specific muscles, and develop not just muscle, but also strength.
But in terms of just growth, the simplicity of volume progression
with weights just cannot be matched with anything else.
Still, again, you can and will build plenty of muscle without weights, especially for beginners.
There's a lot of non-weight exercise options that can provide plenty of resistance.
You can also still effectively increase volume by increasing your sets and reps.
Load progression might be a bit different, but still possible,
like with pushups, you can elevate your feet off the floor to slightly increase the load,
but keep in mind it also slightly shifts the muscles involved.
So, although building muscle without weights might not be as straightforward,
you're still gonna have plenty of room for improvement.
Plus, there's other benefits, like saving money from buying weights or a gym pass,
the convenience of training at home or at a park, and my personal favorite,
improving your body awareness to help with things like your athleticism and coordination.
And, it's not like a bodyweight-only aesthetic is not plenty impressive all on its own.
In the end, the question you should be asking isn't if you can build
muscle without lifting weights, but instead,
are you okay with the added challenges of building muscle without lifting weights?
That answer is up to you.
Now, if you are okay with it, I would recommend
that you pick up a set of resistance bands as a weight-based alternative.
It's not a perfect replacement, but it can ease some of the disadvantages, especially when it
comes to load progression, muscle targeting, and just overall expanding your exercise options.
Definitely a good and relatively inexpensive alternative.
Whatever you end up choosing to do, I do wish you the very best in your muscle-building endeavors.
But to be clear, lifting weights, hard to beat.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a weighty thumbs up and
share it with your resistance-loving friends.
Subscribe for more and let me know what you think in the comments.
As always, thank you for watching and don't forget to get your protein!