weights v's body mass

i read recently about how lifting heavy weights in the gym doesnt build muscle as effectively as doing excercises using your own body weight and also is very likely to do serious damage to your body. the website i found this on was trying to sell me a workout using only body mass excercises such as hindu press ups and hindu squats, as such i am unsure of its reliability.

i am only 17, am about to join a gym with some of my friends after school. i take field hockey fairly seriously and play 3-4 times each week, and have played for lancashire. i really dont want to screw my body up, should i carry on and go to the gym, or should i not go to the gym and do press ups, curls and squats?

justin

Think about this realistically. What do the professionals use? Most use weights to get to the performance level that they achieve. Building stronger muscles is achieved by using your muscles beyond their normal abilities. During strenuous exercise you muscle tissue is slightly damaged. You'll probably notice this the next day as your legs/arms feel sore when you use them. Building muscle occurs in the recovery stage. Your body rebuilds the damaged muscle and compensates by improving your muscle tissue for the future. This is the very reason that some people take abuse steroids.* Steroids speed up your recovery time tremendously.

So given that knowledge, what's the best effective way to challenge your muscles? It's true that your body mass is more than enough to do this, but you're going to need to put a lot more time into the training than you would with using weights. Herschel Walker is the gold standard for using body mass as exercise. He states that he didn't use weights because his school was too poor to afford them.

I didn't grow up with a lot of money. My high school didn't have a lot of money to afford a lot of the expensive weights. You know all this stuff. They used that as an excuse. I started doing push-ups and sit-ups during commercials as I was watching TV. And started doing about, sometimes 2,000 push-ups, 3,000 sit-ups, 1500 pull-ups, 1000 dips, or different things like that. I started creating different hand positions for all that, and I learned that could work you out.

As you can see he spent all of his free time doing push-ups and sit-ups. Unless you're willing to make this kind of commitment I suggest you stick with weights. Weights are safe as long as you perform the exercises correctly and move the weight in slow controlled movements. I think that body-mass exercises are great and incorporate them into my exercise routine but I wouldn't suggest using this method alone.





*(Steroids should only be used for actual sports injuries, not training. Too many bad side effects)

Originally posted by justin_barton3
i read recently about how lifting heavy weights in the gym doesnt build muscle as effectively as doing excercises using your own body weight and also is very likely to do serious damage to your body. the website i found this on was trying to sell me a workout using only body mass excercises such as hindu press ups and hindu squats, as such i am unsure of its reliability.

i am only 17, am about to join a gym with some of my friends after school. i take field hockey fairly seriously and play 3-4 times each week, and have played for lancashire. i really dont want to screw my body up, should i carry on and go to the gym, or should i not go to the gym and do press ups, curls and squats?

justin

Hey justin_
This all depends on what YOU want.
If you were at home, or at a friends, would you do the specified exercises that are asked of you?
If not, then I would suggest you go to the gym , you are more likely to go and work out in an atmosphere where you have no other choice but to work out!
Each individual knows his /hers strength and all that is needed is to listen to your own body.
I guess doing push ups and other forms of exercises using your own body weight is always a good thing.
good luck.

helen

Originally posted by dbates
(Steroids should only be used for actual sports injuries, not training. Too many bad side effects)

i aint never using steroids, unless ordered to by a doctor.

this is the website i read the body mass excercises being better than weights.
www.mattfurey.com...

btw, does anybody know what the hindu squats, hindu press ups and stuff he goes on about are and how how they differ from regular press ups and squats.

Originally posted by helen670
Hey justin_
This all depends on what YOU want.
If you were at home, or at a friends, would you do the specified exercises that are asked of you?

i have been working out at home for a year or so now reasonably seriously using 25kg barbell for bicep curls and doing press ups and a few crunches. i do what excercises feel right for my body, for example if im extremely knackered i dont do any excercise or if i have a sore bicep i try to avoid using my biceps. i guess i either skip a workout becasue i cant be bothered or dont do a workout properly only once every couple of weeks which i think is pretty gd.

good luck.
helen

cheers

I don't know about that guy. You can read a lot more about him on Wikipedia Link - Click Here

Advocates of free-weight lifting argue that weight training is safe when done properly, and there is nothing inherently safer or more beneficial about bodyweight calisthenics.

This criticism is further expanded in that bodyweight itself is not unique and possesses no special properties. There is no reason to believe that the body responds any differently to lifting the weight of the body rather than that of a barbell or dumbbell. By limiting oneself to bodyweight exercise, one forgoes the safer progressive resistance of weight lifting, as well as limits the variety of exercises able to be performed to increase fitness.

I have to agree with this portion of the article. The ligaments and joints in your body don't know the difference between pushing up a 45 lb. bar or pushing up your chest off the ground. Your elbows bend the same, and your wrist is in the same position. Think of runner related injuries. They are doing nothing more than propelling their own body-weight forward yet it's not uncommon for them to obtain an injury.

The other thing worth noting is the ability of having small incriments of weight added on for weight training. When doing push-ups you only have one weight selection. You. During the bench-press (the weighted equivalent) you can start with just the 45 lb. bar (which could be pressed hundreds of times by most adult males) and add on 5, 10, 20, or any amount of weight in a progressive fashion. The benefit of this is obvoius. I can bench press the bar 20 times to get my joints and muscles warmed up before adding any weight. Proper warm-up is one of the best ways to prevent injury.


Think of other exercises such as the lat pull-up. If your back and arm muscles are not strong enough to pull up your body weight, your out of luck. You just have to wait until your arms are stronger to start training your back. If you use a lat pull-down machine you can jump right into the wieght thats challenging, yet you're still able to do.

Again, read the article on Matt Furey and then investigate other forms of exercise. My main gripe with sites like Matt Furey is that they charge you for exercise routines when there are so many sites that discuss routines and complete meal programs for free. Here's one example. Training Program For Health And Physical Improvement. (The Ultimate Training Program For A Well Conditioned And Better Looking Physique.
)

Depends what are your goals. To grow stronger and larger you need resistance and as your body adapts to your own weight, you may grow slightly stronger over time but to grow larger, you need to increase the weight.

www.bodyrecomposition.com... -You want all the BS left out - go here and join the forums.

www.hypertrophy-specific.com... - if you want size.

Have you tried doing those funny squats? You don't need to buy his program to figure out the mechanics of that excercise, just do an online search and eventually you'll hit upon a site that shows you diagrams of the movements without charging any money.

They really work your muscles - very good excercise. Not only that, but they improve balance and coordination, which is just as important as strength for most endeavors.

If you just want to look strong, then you'll probably want to do a lot of weights and eat a ridiculous amount of protein (10k calories a day or more I think), eggs mostly.

compound lifting and eating nutritional food for the size you want to be is the key.

want to be 220lbs of muscle mass and you are 5'9"??? eat right and lift hard.
clean bulk though.

get rid of them isolated excersizes or keep them to a minimum.

compounds are the real deal.

dont ever neglect your legs... most important--- squats and deads.

For The New Guy

Im still pretty new at the weights too, ive only been at it for about 5 months. But trust me on one thing...

WEIGHT"S F*** WITH THE BODY! LIKE IT OR NOT

Now this is a bad thing i know, but you can reduce the damage by doing it properly. For example if your just starting, try to Incorperate the machines and body weight exercises more then free weights. Once you master the concentration and balance (bout 3 months maybe) move on a little, but always remember to change exercises for each muscle group about 3 or so weeks, and dont do intermiediate exercises.

Wait a while, and ull get there though.