

It’s going to be tempting to stick with what you like, but try to avoid that temptation - what you don’t like is probably where your body needs the most work.

There are plenty of ways to do it, but depending on your specific goals (and your specific weaknesses that you should really spend this time working on), you might spend more time using some bodyweight strategies than others.
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How To Maintain Muscle Mass Without Weights So if you want to maintain muscle mass without equipment, the key is, honestly to get creative. And because these bad boys are physically larger than type-I muscle fibers (which are recruited for endurance work like 5k runs and marathons), developing your fast-twitch muscles with bodyweight moves is going to help give you that pump you’ve been sorely missing. These fast-twitch fibers (which fatigue quickly but give you immensely powerful contractions) are what you use during powerlifting training, so they’ll be priorities for you as you try to maintain or even build muscles without your gym.įortunately, you don’t need fancy equipment to train your fast-twitch fibers - all you’ve gotta do is focus on moving explosively (and, in some cases… slowly). You want to be able to continue recruiting the type II muscle fibers that get so much play when you’re under heavy barbells. Volume is important, yes (and we’ll spend some time on it below), but you also need to consider the differences between regular bodyweight training and heavy loading stimulus.įor maintaining muscle mass at home, you want to make sure you’re getting in plenty of explosive, dynamic work - because so much of this is about your muscle fibers. If your high volume squat days usually look like four sets of eight at 60-70% of your 1RM, then no, 50 or even 100 mindless bodyweight squats aren’t going to be a good enough substitute for leg day. The long answer: if you do them with intention. Dmytrenko Vlad/Shutterstock Can Bodyweight Exercises Maintain Muscle? Sure, sure, you’re saying, but what about muscle gains? Alright, I hear you. Because the more efficiently you can breathe, the more efficiently you can lift. The increased stability will boost your squat and dead when you reunite with your lost iron lovers.ĭoes your cardiovascular capacity need some fine-tuning (you know it does)? Drop and give yourself all the burpees in the land. Rarely do lateral or rotational movements because you’re spending all your time in the sagittal plane with your big three? I feel you - now get your lateral lunges in. Need to work on mobility? (If you’re a strength athlete, the answer is almost certainly a resounding yes.) Make mobility gains! (They’ll improve your lifts when you get back to your barbells, I promise). There are ways to maintain muscle mass without weights, and you can make all sorts of gains without the gym - you might just have to do the hard mental labor of adjusting what you define as “gains.” But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost, and it doesn’t mean that all your work has been for naught. To be honest? Your one-rep max might drop, and your muscle size might do the same. A post shared by Abhish Desai on at 6:28pm PDTįor your own sanity, it’s going to be important to accept that no - you can’t make the same kinds of gains without equipment as you can with the training stimulus of a heavy barbell.
