Top 5 Body Weight Exercises for Muscle Mass

Ask anyone who wants to get built and buff and chances are, they'll tell you about how much they bench press or lift at the gym.  However, it is completely possible to build muscle mass with out ever hitting the gym or even lifting a weight (although they do help...).  

Resistance training is a type of training that can be done utilizing nothing more than a person's body weight and the floor or other stationary surfaces.  Many body builders, fitness modes and strong people utilze resistance and body weight training to gain mass and sculpt their bodies.  In fact, these exercises can be even more effective at building muscle than some of the machines available at your local gym.  This is because machines tend to isolate a muscle, whereas bodyweight exercises focus on stability and balance, thus bringing surrounding muscles into play as well.

The top five body weight exercises are push ups, squats, dips, pull ups and lunges.  I've chosen these for the fact that they engage the most muscles and require the  most amount of stability to perform.  Doing all 5 of these would certainly give anyone a total body workout.  So, if you're short on time, money or just need to switch things up, bodyweight exercises are a great way to acheive your body building goals.  

5. Lunges - did you know that your legs account for over 50% of the muscle on your body?  That's why it's important that any workout begin with your legs.  Lunges are excellent for building up the quadriceps on top of the thigh, but can also be altered to work out the inner and outer thigh muscles as well.

 4. Dips - triceps dips are fouth on our list of body resistance exercises.  Although it is possible to work the triceps by doing push ups, dips tend to be more effective.  For many people, the triceps are an often overlooked and underworked muscle, which is why it is so important to include this exercise here.

While it is preferred to use a parallel bar to do triceps dips (these can be found on most playgrounds).  There are also ways to perform them with out bars as demonstrated in the video below...

3. Push Ups - push ups are certainly a close second on our list.  Did you know that there are easily over 10 different variations on the classic push up?  With that in mind, you can do push ups to target almost any part of your upper body.  Because they are so variable, push ups are an excellent way to sculpt weaker muscles that you might have a hard time developing.

2. Squats - squats are the perfect exercise when it comes to working out those leg muscles.  In fact, no other exercise comes close!  Squats are capable of building mass in the glutes, quads, hamstrings and all of the surrounding leg muscle fibers as well.  They are also excellent for helping to develop a stable core.

1.  Pull Ups - pull ups are probably the most effective upper body workout you can do because of just how many muscles they engage.  Just doing one pull up can target the biceps, triceps, lats, traps, pectorals and core.  That's all of the muscles in your upper body!  Therefore, pull ups definetely take the number one spot on our list of top bodyweight workouts for muscle building.