Is it or is it not possible to build a good mass of muscle with body weight exercise?

JustOnce

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It sounds like it's mostly said online that it's not possible to build a good mass of muscle without using weight s after coming to a sort of limit to which you can grow a muscle with only body weight exercises, however it does seem like there are voices who suggests that it may be possible...I guess if you listen to hershel walker, didn't he say he just do bodyweight exercises or something too? Not everyone can afford to go to a gym regularly, whether it is financial reasons or others....

Thoughts?
 
What is your ideal mass of muscle such as which MMA fighter has good mass of muscle?
 
What is your ideal mass of muscle such as which MMA fighter has good mass of muscle?

Just let's say more than what people say would be the maximum your body can build in general with body weight exercises
 
You can build good muscle mass doing only bw. Look at gymmasts and calisthenics. It is also dependent on diet and genetics.
 
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Looks quite like it...
 
Just let's say more than what people say would be the maximum your body can build in general with body weight exercises

Yes it's possible. I think genetics play a huge factor, and the only way to know if to try it for yourself.
 
It's possible for some, but those some are typically genetic outliers, and their results are not going to be typical or expected at all.
 
For your upper body calisthenics and gymnastic/climbing movements can be great. Your legs may lag in size if you're looking get a bit bigger.....but you can absolutely build some good explosive power with plyometrics and sprints.

Hard to find a good body weight substitute for deadlifts and heavy squats though. Just realize there are going to be a few limitations.
 
Pistol squats
Muscle-ups
Levers
Push-up variations
Dips/pull-ups
Jump training/plyos
Sprinting
 
Just let's say more than what people say would be the maximum your body can build in general with body weight exercises
if your ideal "muscle mass" is more than you can build using bodyweight exercises, as you have just stipulated, then by definition you could not develop it using bodyweight exercises. congratulations for answering your own question.
 
You would have to go the gymnast route and find ways of adding new challenges. Some tricks become weight dependent so it can limit your ability to do them so tje progressions can stall for your specific goals. Not impossible but more difficult than weights
 
You absolutely can, it's just more convenient to build mass with weights. Easier to find a good amount of resistance, etc
 
Upper body-no problem

Lower body-harder and can be limiting

The real issue is in order to do it you have to get into training the hardest static holds and most people get injured. It takes great genetics to do it.
 
Gymnasts also do a lot of weight training on top of their skill training, and while skill training contributes to their mass, so does weight training. You can find pics of old gymnasts from 60s and 70s where they were only sticking with skill work and bw, and they are considerably smaller than today's gymnasts. You also have to take into consideration that they typically start to train at the age of 5-6, so yeah...

Yeah, you can build some size using bw only, but the bigger calisthenic guys use a lot of weighted calisthenics, like weighted pull ups, dips, and so on. However, for bigger legs you'll definitely need to hit the weights, as pistol squats can only take you so far.
 
It's possible, but it's far more efficient to build muscle and strength with free weights. Barbells are much easier to load, and offer far more resistance for lower body exercises. As others have said, it's difficult to find lower body calisthenics that are as effective as Deads and Squats.
 
You would have to go the gymnast route and find ways of adding new challenges. Some tricks become manlet dependent so it can limit your ability to do them so tje progressions can stall for your specific goals. Not impossible but more difficult than weights
fixed
 
Just let's say more than what people say would be the maximum your body can build in general with body weight exercises

if your ideal "muscle mass" is more than you can build using bodyweight exercises, as you have just stipulated, then by definition you could not develop it using bodyweight exercises. congratulations for answering your own question.

I'm going to very respectfully disagree with your response. He's essentially asking if it's possible to build MORE muscle mass with BW exercises than people say you can. And I say that the answer is YES. It just takes longer than weight training and one would have to do upwards of 3x the volume of BW exercises to get the same results that he would get from hittin' the weights. My two favorite examples of people who are jakked from BW training are some of the male Olympic Gymnasts and Zef Zakaveli from the Bar-Barians. Especially Zef. His upper body is amazing but he has no legs though. :D
 
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