Build Muscle Without Weights

Welcome back for more on building muscle without weights!  I could hardly wait to write this post because there’s a lot of great “meat” in this one – if you read no further than this blog your muscle training will never be the same.  And I say that as my body groans from the wicked workout I did two days ago, one I guarantee you’ll love and which I’ll share with you another time.

So let’s get down to it: there’s an obstacle to overcome if your plan is to build muscle fast.  Some of you out there might describe the obstacle as “not having heavy weights to lift.” Actually, that’s not it.  Here’s how I see it out from a science perspective:

The Problem:  How to create enough INTENSITY to build muscle without weights.

The Solution: P.O.W.E.R. + OES = INTENSITY.  And…

INTENSITY + Anabolic Nutrition + Recovery = MUSCLE GROWTH!

The theory behind P.O.W.E.R.

P.O.W.E.R. is my proprietary method; it stands for “Progressive Overload With Equilibrium Response”.  Translation: increasing the overload on your muscles while eliciting a rebalancing effect by destabilizing the body.  Simple example: performing a push-up with your left hand on a medicine ball and your right leg elevated.

If you compare the standard military push up to the P.O.W.E.R. push-up above, what you’d see is the person trembling and wobbling, struggling to maintain balance as the exercise is performed.  After a few sessions, stability (equilibrium) reappears and reps increase.  Why?  It’s called synchronous firing, and it’s a sign that neural recruitment dramatically increased, and rapid neural recruitment is one of the keys to increased intensity. Ever been on a heavy flat bench press and notice that as you hit the tough reps, your form degrades as your legs push into the floor and your hips pop up?  That happens for two reasons: one, you cheat better leverage by turning the exercise into a decline press.  But more importantly, your pecs, shoulders, and tri’s get a neural amplitude supercharge when the whole body contracts maximally at once.

The whole range of P.O.W.E.R. exercises takes classic calisthenics like the push-up, the dip, the chin-up, the squat, and the lunge – among many others – and dramatically upgrades them by making them unstable.  I do this by reconfiguring the body with either a 1-point or 3-point base of support, or with simple props and devices that further destabilize the body.  (I also recommend training barefoot for the same reasons.)  The result: super intensity!

The Theory of OES

In a way, Optimal Exercise Sequencing is simple: given 6 exercises, there exists one, or at the most two, sequences that will maximize fatigue (INTENSITY!) and result in bigger muscles.  It’s all about leveraging the interplay and fatigue of the primary muscles you’re targeting along with those that are only assisting.   In fact, arranging the exercises in the right order will render your muscles as limp as if you lifted twice your bodyweight in dumbbells.

Here’s an example of 6 standard exercises in typical workout order:

1. Squat
2. Lunge
3. Chin-Ups
4. Push-Ups
5. Bench Dips
6. RT* Curls  (* Resistance Tubing)

Now here’s the same workout for building muscle without weights, supercharged with P.O.W.E.R. and OES:

1.  Swiss Ball Lunge  ..supersetted with… 2.  Plyo-Squats
3.  Contralateral Medicine Ball Push-Up  …supersetted with… 4.  Towel Chins
5.  Close Grip Swiss Ball Bench Dips …supersetted with… 6. Stork RT Isolateral Curls

Two critical things to notice here…

1)  Each exercise has been destabilized by using a Swiss Ball or medicine ball instead of the floor; adding a jump; using a flexible anchor like a towel; or standing on one leg.

2)  In supersets there is ZERO rest between paired exercises, and only 30-60 seconds between each superset!  The rest interval is the other piece of the OES solution that guarantees the critical hormonal factor. Research shows that this rest range causes the greatest growth hormone surge to help you build muscle and burn fat.

Coming up next time: the 80 / 20 factor:  the muscle mass diet.  I’ll reveal the right food, great supplements, and some biochemical tricks to maximize results.  Until then, keep banging!