Home Workouts to build muscle

QUESTION: I no longer have access to a gym, and I don’t have the space or money to make one at home. Will I still be able to build muscle without weights or any special equipment? Or am I just totally screwed?

ANSWER: Whenever someone asks me about building muscle at home without a gym (or significant equipment or even the bare minimum of free weights), my first response is a question of my own… why?

I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that this isn’t exactly a great scenario for someone trying to build muscle to be in, so my first goal is always to try to solve whatever the big issue is that’s preventing things from being more ideal.

Can’t you find a way to get to a gym? Can’t you maybe cut down on iPhone app purchases and put that money towards a gym membership? Can’t you throw out some of the crap sitting in your basement or garage and get yourself some free weights?

In very rare cases, these questions strike a chord with the person and the big issue gets solved and their muscle building scenario is instantly improved. But much more often, the answer to all of the above is a big NO. And in that case, they’re stuck in this obviously less-than-ideal situation.

And that brings us back to their original question…

Can You Build Muscle At Home Without Weights? YES! But…

The good news is that the answer to this question is definitely yes. You CAN workout at home and STILL build muscle without all of the fancy equipment most gyms contain. Adding a lack of free weights on top of this certainly doesn’t help matters, but even still… it can be done.

The bad news however is that it’s going to be much more inconvenient, significantly trickier and just a whole lot harder overall. Here’s why…

How To Build Muscle: The Primary Requirements

Building muscle mostly requires 2 fundamental principles.

As long as both principles are in place correctly, consistently and long enough for it to actually work… muscle will be built.

Great Tools vs Good Tools vs Crappy Tools

Now, you may have noticed that I didn’t mention gym memberships anywhere in those requirements, nor did I mention free weights, machines or equipment of any kind.

That’s because none of that is what builds muscle. They just tend to be the best tools for the job.

Not just in terms of actually allowing you to do the exercises that will effectively train each muscle group and provide the growth stimulus you need, but also in terms of how you’ll then increase the load on those exercises so that progressive overload can continue to happen.

That’s why gyms are filled with dumbbells from 5lbs to 100lbs+ in 5lb increments, barbells and plates from as small as 2.5lbs to as big as 45lbs (also in 5lb increments), benches that can adjust to every angle, racks that can accommodate any exercise, cable columns and various machines for every muscle group and movement pattern whose resistance can also be adjusted in small increments with as little effort as pushing a pin into a different slot.

So I’m not going to lie to you here. If you want to build muscle, all of the above is going to be the best and most efficient way of doing it. Without some of it, you may just be at a tiny disadvantage. But without all of it, you’re going to be at a huge disadvantage.

But like I said before, it can still be done. There are plenty of different tools that can be used for this job (building muscle), and even the worst tool in the toolbox can usually get the job done assuming it’s used properly.

So… What Can You Do?

For starters, you have one great piece of equipment at home whether you know it or not… your own body weight. With it (and a little ingenuity), you’ll be able to do all kinds of exercises. Off the top of my head…

• Push-ups (and its many variations).
• Pull-ups (and its many variations).
• Inverted rows.
• Dips.
• Handstand push-ups.
• Body weight biceps curls.
• Body weight triceps extensions.
• Lunges (and its many variations).
• Squats.
• Split squats/Bulgarian split squats.
• Pistol squats.
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts.
• Body weight leg curls.
• etc.

Now that is by no means meant to be a complete list of body weight exercises. You’ll find a bunch of others if you search around.

But, this alone is enough to get the job done. There are enough exercises on this list for you to put together an effective muscle building routine that can be done at home with no real weights or expensive gym equipment of any kind. Hooray for your own body weight!

Add in something as basic as bands on top of this, and you can now do dozens of other exercises too (band rows, band pull-downs, band presses, band front/lateral raises, band curls, band triceps extensions, etc.).