Bodyweight exercise for biceps. Basic exercises for biceps at home. Lifting dumbbells from a seated position

In this article I will talk about this type of exercise, biceps exercises. I will tell you about three basic exercises to pump up your biceps, which I am familiar with and which I myself use with success. Let's first decide on the rules that must be strictly followed, otherwise your work will go down the drain, and then we'll look at the exercises with own weight and with additional shells. So, let's go.

Why haven't you read this yet? Well, it's in vain...

Basic rules for biceps exercises

2) The number of repetitions should not be huge (this is the main mistake of beginners). 4 sets of 10-12 times are enough for one exercise. You can increase the weight, then the number of repetitions will be 6-8 times.

3) Many beginners mistakenly believe that biceps can be pumped up using only one or two exercises. But that's not true. Exercises must not only be changed, but also alternated, approximately once every 4 weeks.

4) There is no need to use “cheating”, since other muscles are involved, and accordingly the biceps loses the load and does not receive the necessary weight for growth.

5) Biceps exercises should be performed smoothly and calmly. It's not all about the huge weight, but about doing the exercise correctly.

The biceps are also well pumped during exercises such as push-ups and muscle exercises on the horizontal bar.

There are two types of exercises:

  • exercises using your own body weight, such as push-ups, pull-ups.
  • exercises with the use of additional equipment: dumbbells, barbells.

Bodyweight biceps exercises

Biceps pull-up. To perform this exercise, one component is needed - something where you can pull yourself up. You grab the horizontal bar with both hands and begin to pull yourself up. During the ascent, exhale; during the descent, inhale. Pull-ups are also the best shoulder exercise.

There are two types of pull-ups - arms in and arms out. Also, when pulling up, you can perform a “lift-flip”.

When performing pull-ups, you should pay special attention to the correct execution of the exercise. If you want to load your biceps to the maximum, then I don’t recommend going all the way down, otherwise the weight will leave the biceps.


Push ups. Of course, this exercise is not directly related to the biceps, since it is more of an isolating exercise, but push-ups pump up your arms very well. Therefore, as an isolating exercise and variety, I recommend including it in your complex.

No additional components are needed for this type of exercise. All you need are arms and legs. You lie down on the floor, arms straight. You should place your hands on the floor. And start doing the exercise.

Inhaling and exhaling is the same as when doing pull-ups. With this type of exercise, you can increase the weight by wearing a backpack with additional weight.

Biceps exercises using additional equipment

1) The first type of exercise with dumbbells, “Biceps Curls,” is as follows: You sit on a bench, bend your arm at the elbow and begin to do the exercise. Exhale – bend your arm. Inhale - straighten your arm. You are holding a dumbbell in your hand.

2) The second type of exercise “Biceps curl”:

You stand straight, arms relaxed. Exhale – lift the barbell up; inhale - slowly lower the barbell down. Number of repetitions – 10-12 times. Weight can also be increased at your discretion.

All this is very effective exercises for biceps, so go for it! And don't forget about triceps exercises!

Biceps come first if you want to show off your muscles to someone. But how to pump up biceps? bigger size and is it possible to do this at home?

In one word - possible. Of course, it sounds too good to be true, but it is a fact. In order to pump up big biceps, you don’t need to go to the gym every day and you don’t even need to have special exercise equipment at home.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't go to the gym or buy special exercise equipment for home. I mean that the above conditions are not mandatory if you want to pump up, but there is no opportunity to train in the gym

The arms themselves must first of all be strong, especially for guys, and this is a good reason to start training. In addition to increasing strength in your arms, you will get a visual effect that no other muscle in the body will give you. The fact is that except for the biceps, no muscles change shape as much when they contract.

They attract girls and give you confidence at a party. Big biceps attract the attention of even men as it makes them jealous.

The biceps is the biceps brachii muscle. The main function of the biceps is to flex the arm at the elbow joint.

The muscle that sits below your biceps and runs along your shoulder is called the triceps. Understand that the biceps are on top of the arm and the triceps are on the bottom.

It is clear that both muscles are very important and both muscles need to be worked. But when you stand in front of people, the first thing they will notice is your biceps. But if you want to increase the volume of your arms, then be sure to pay attention to training your triceps. They make up 2/3 of the total volume of the hand.

I'm going to tell you about two main types of biceps exercises to train at home that will help you tone your biceps muscles without using huge weights.

Method 1: Lifting weights

Lift heavy things that you never even considered before.

Method 2: Using your own body weight

Use your body to apply tension to your muscles. Stuck somewhere with no way to get something? Use your weight.

But first, let's try to find a few things to pick up.

What to lift?

Lifting weights is possible thanks to the heavy things you have in your home. For example:

  • Piles of heavy books,
  • plastic bottles with water,
  • bags of rice,
  • all sorts of canned goods in your pantry.

One of the best weights is several 3-liter bags of washing powder.

Some people use plastic milk or juice bottles as weights. But the caps of such bottles tend to pop off or leak. Washing tubs have special caps that are screwed on tightly. Thanks to the handles, you will firmly hold the eggplant when lifting it, making it best choice than those old and dusty encyclopedias from your grandmother's attic.

Do you have any empty eggplants? Then this is the best reason to start washing. Once you have two empty eggplants, start filling both with water until you reach the weight you want to lift.

To give the eggplants even more weight, you can run to the beach and pick up sand there to use instead of water. This will make the eggplant much heavier.

How much weight should you lift?

The weight you should lift depends on how many reps you can perform with it.

According to the standard, you should perform a maximum of 8-12 repetitions. It's not too little to cause injury and not too much to make the exercise more about endurance. Of course, you can do 6-10 reps, but I suggest you first hone some technique before you start.

To determine how much a particular object you will use in your lifting exercises should weigh, do 12 repetitions in one go.

Too easy - If you completed the set without much effort and feel that you could do more repetitions, then the weight is too light. Thanks to it, you will not build up big biceps.

Too hard - If you can't lift the weight after four reps, it's too much. heavy weight for you. You need to lower it.

Ideal weight – If the first few reps are somewhat easy, but each subsequent rep gets progressively heavier, then this weight is just right.

At first, soreness will appear, that is, the muscles will ache very much, and you will not be able to lift weights. But don't worry, you are on your way to your goal. This feeling doesn't necessarily mean hypertrophy (an interesting word that means your muscles are growing). This is exactly the moment when you feel that your muscles have been subjected to strain and stress - this does not necessarily mean that they are growing, but you are definitely on the right track.

If you feel that you can handle a certain weight too easily, then the working weights need to be increased, otherwise the muscles simply will not grow or become stronger. They can certainly grow, but it will happen slowly and not as efficiently as if you feel like your muscles are saying: “Damn, this weight is too heavy, we need to get much stronger to lift it.” In this case, real biceps growth will occur.

Biceps exercises at home

You need to always monitor and be aware of whether the weight you are lifting is heavy enough. Once you can easily lift the eggplants for more than 10-12 repetitions, this is a clear indicator that you need to increase their weight - add water or sand.

Bicep curls without additional weights

The most important and effective lifting exercise for working your arms is called the biceps curl. Stand up straight with your arms at your sides and hold an eggplant in each hand. Your shoulders should remain in place and not move during the entire movement of your arms.

As you exhale, lift the eggplant with your right hand up in front of you and bring your hand to your right shoulder. You should flex your right biceps by rotating your wrist clockwise as you lift.

The moment your right hand comes close to your right shoulder, hold it in this position and squeeze it tightly for a few seconds, then exhale as you lower your hand with the eggplant all the way to the starting position.

Do 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions. Rest one and a half minutes between sets.

Tips and varieties

Lift one eggplant once, and then alternate hands each time you lift. Right hand, left hand and so on. If you count, then in total do 8-12 repetitions for each of the hands, in total you should get from 16 to 24 repetitions for both hands.
You can lift both eggplants at the same time and do 8-12 repetitions.

You can sit on a chair, sofa or bench instead of doing this exercise while sitting. The main thing is that nothing interferes with the movement of the arms in order to flex the biceps.

Biceps curl with a towel

This is a very effective exercise and very simple. You can do it almost anywhere.

If you are traveling and don't have heavy eggplants on hand, just use any bag or bag and a towel. Increasing your resistance weight is easy, just fill your bag with whatever you find around. Give it some weight.

How to do it?

Place a towel over the top strap of your backpack or bag. Grab the towel by the two edges with your hands and slowly twist the bag. Move up and rotate your arms so that at the top point (position) your palms are facing your shoulders.

Advice: When you reach the top point (position), try to turn your palms as far away from your body as possible and hold them in this position for a second or two. In this case, you should strain your hands very hard.

Concentrated curls with eggplants

For this variation of the biceps curl, which is also known as the biceps curl over the knee, you only need one bottle, bench, chair or sofa. Sit down in your chair and spread your legs wide, placing them on the floor.

Take the eggplant to right hand and lean forward slightly so that your right elbow is pressed to the inside of your right thigh and lower your arm completely down.

The eggplant should be near your right ankle. For convenience, you can rest your left hand on your left knee. As you exhale, flex your right bicep and lift your torso until your arm touches your chest. Hold your hand in this position for about a second, and then, as you inhale, lower the eggplant, returning to the starting position.

Perform 8 to 12 repetitions, and then switch to your left hand and continue working your left biceps in the same way.
As with the basic biceps curl, only the forearm should move. There is no need to swing your whole body to help yourself lift the eggplant.

Perform three sets of 8-12 repetitions on each arm.

Bodyweight biceps exercises

Not every workout involves using extraneous weights. You can build up your biceps just by using weights. own body as a burden.

Biceps curl with leg

To get started this exercise all you need is a chair, stool or sofa. Sit down on a chair. Place your right hand under left leg, while the thigh should be slightly higher than the knee.

Pull your leg up as high as you can with your hand. You should not help your leg muscles when lifting, so that it does not become too easy. Make sure you only use your arm muscles.

Over time, this exercise becomes easy, so to make it harder, raise your leg on a step. This will force your leg muscles to pull your arm down when you try to lift your leg up.

Perform a set of 8-12 repetitions, then switch to the other arm and leg. Do the same exercise.

Reverse grip pull-ups to the chin

Now about how to pump up your biceps on the horizontal bar using a special pull-up technique reverse grip By the way, this is the most effective basic movement for the biceps brachii muscle. You can install a horizontal bar for training right at home. If you have children, then the task becomes even easier. You can simply use their swing while the kids are busy with homework or going for a walk.

With your palms facing you, grab the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.

In order to create an emphasis on the biceps, make sure that your palms are turned towards you. If your palms are facing away from you, then the emphasis will be more on the back muscles and less on the biceps muscles.

Pull yourself up so that your chin is on top of the bar. To do this, lift your own body weight by bending your arms until your chin is level with your hands.

There is no need to help yourself with pull-ups by rocking, resorting to so-called cheating. Be sure to keep your body as straight as possible as you perform the pull-up and keep your legs together. Correct technique: Rise up with a strong movement and slowly lower down under control, with your arms almost fully extended.

There is no need to strive to ensure that your arms are completely straight, and you hang like a monkey. You need to stop until your arms are fully extended at the elbow joint, so that the muscles are constantly under tension.

To keep your feet from touching the ground, between each pull-up, keep your knees bent so that they are behind you. From the outside, your body should resemble an inverted letter “L”.

How many repetitions should you do?

- This is a good basic exercise that pumps up not only the biceps, but also the back muscles. So do as many pull-ups as you can. Keep your body straight and not swaying.

Don't be lazy. Climb as high as possible. The more you train, the more reps you can do and your biceps will get bigger.

Rubber bands instead of weights

One inexpensive purchase you'll want to buy is a rubber band. You can do a lot various exercises with them, and they will all be very effective for biceps.

We will do biceps curls with a resistance band. At the same time, hold each end of the tourniquet with your hands so that its middle hangs down and touches the ground. Stand with your foot in the middle of the tourniquet and place your feet shoulder-width apart on the tourniquet.

Place your elbows on your sides and begin to bend your forearm toward your shoulders. Make sure you flex your biceps and pull your arms. rubber band all the way until your hands touch your shoulders.

Hold them in this position for several seconds, squeezing your hands tightly. Then you can lower your arms down, returning to the starting position.

Try using posing as a form of exercise as well. Keep your arms bent for 10 seconds, then relax them and wait a few seconds. Then repeat the exercise again. It is called isometric exercise, that is, constant muscle tension when the muscle is held in one position.

Advice: The main thing is to flex your muscles as much as possible. Try to concentrate at this time and imagine that you are trying to press your fists as close to your head as possible, as if you want them to touch your head.

Try to keep your biceps tense for more than a few seconds. You should feel exhausted. If your face shows agony, it means you are doing everything absolutely right. This is the moment when you realize that your biceps will grow.

Doing this posture exercise is a great way to strengthen your biceps immediately after a workout.

When you swing, you create microtraumas in the muscle fibers. This is partial destruction muscle tissue is a normal result after exercise.

Muscles respond to microtrauma and create larger muscles.

You must eat right during recovery. During recovery, muscles require amino acids.

Amino acids are found in proteins. When you eat protein, your body breaks it down into usable amino acids. Your goal: Eat 2 to 2.6 grams of protein per 1 kg of your weight. For example, if a person weighs 72 kg, then this is about 142-187 grams of protein per day.

Try to divide your daily meals into 4-6 meals to fuel your body throughout the day.

Here is a list of several foods rich in protein:

  • Poultry, such as chicken or turkey
  • Fish meat, such as tuna or salmon
  • Lean meat

Another good source of protein is whey protein isolate. You can consume this protein by mixing it with milk, water or making yourself a smoothie. You can also find other types of cocktails. But in terms of price-quality ratio, Whey Protein has the best rate and has the added benefit of being suitable for pre- and post-workout consumption as its absorption rate is faster than regular food and other types of protein.

If we talk about water, it is important to monitor the water balance in the body. Water maintains normal metabolic function, including muscle growth, which is 70% water. In fact, in the absence of normal fluid intake, catabolism can be caused. Catabolism, in turn, will contribute to muscle reduction.

Drink plenty of water to help your body absorb nutrients and stay hydrated during workouts and throughout the day.

Enjoy the pain

When you do the exercise, you may feel pain in your muscles. This is called sore throat.

The pain may appear a couple of hours after training and reach its peak after 48 hours. It all depends on the intensity of the workout. It may take up to 7 days for the pain to go away.

Krepatura is a good pain. It can happen not only to beginners, but also to experienced athletes.

Increasing the intensity and changing exercises can cause soreness.

I've been working out for twenty years and I always get muscle pain after chest workouts. But rarely do my biceps or triceps hurt.

Krepatura is a good pain, but pain from injuries is bad. Don't lift heavy weights too early. Train gradually. From small to large.

If you experience sharp pain in your biceps during exercise, consult your doctor.

It is advisable to consult a physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program.

How often to train biceps

If you exercise too often, it is not good.

As a rule, two workouts per week will be enough to increase the size of your biceps. You can also get a good effect from one workout if you work correctly.

Never work one muscle for several days in a row. This risks injury.

If your biceps have not fully recovered after training, and you will proceed to next training session, then this threatens to reduce them.

My advice: split up your workouts. One day you work on the biceps and muscles of the upper belt, on the other - on the legs and the entire lower part. You can do cardio workouts instead of legs. There are plenty of options.

Contrary to popular belief, it is impossible to pump up your arms separately from your whole body. The arm muscles make up approximately 5–15% (depending on the individual characteristics and level of fitness of the athlete) of the total muscle mass and develop in conjunction with the rest of the muscles of the body.

On the other hand, the load that the arms receive during complex exercises is insufficient for active development and is inferior in efficiency to narrowly focused work.

Arm exercises should be performed no more than 2 times a week to avoid catabolic processes. Remember the need for muscle recovery and rest, this will be the key to their strengthening and stable growth.

What to do to develop arm muscles

When talking about the development of arm muscles, we primarily mean exercises for the biceps and triceps: it is the growth of these muscle groups that best affects the volume of the arms and makes you stronger.

Biceps exercises

If you want to demonstrate your pumped up body, the athlete first of all demonstrates his biceps. Biceps shoulder, or rather its large volumes, is what both bodybuilders and horizontal bar athletes strive for.

1. Reverse Australian Pull-Ups

The technique for performing ordinary Australian pull-ups is probably familiar to you.

The reverse ones will be somewhat more difficult than the standard ones, the load is concentrated in the arms, the biceps are best loaded.
You also grab the bar with a reverse grip, but while hanging, your back is to it. You look at the floor, slowly lift yourself to the bar and just as slowly lower yourself.

Your body should form a straight line from heel to shoulders, no bending should be allowed. This is the only way to achieve maximum efficiency when performing reverse Australian pull-ups.

2. Pull-ups with a narrow reverse grip

Classic biceps exercise. Many neglect it, and quite wrongly. Taking the horizontal bar with a narrow reverse grip, do pull-ups slowly, working your biceps. And remember: no jerking.

3. Pull-ups with hands behind back

An extremely rare exercise in which pull-ups are performed after you are in a position with your back to the bar.

The execution technique can be seen here (watch from 5:50):

The exercise is worth mastering; it literally isolates the load, forcing the biceps to take on the entire weight of your body.
Don't forget about safety precautions.

4. Horizontal pull-ups

Doing this exercise can also be difficult at first, but with just a little practice you will succeed.

Note that if you start to slide down while doing horizontal pull-ups, you need to push your chest back up to the bar and start again from that position. This style of execution will allow you to better pump up your biceps.

Triceps exercises

Some argue that the triceps are precisely 75% of the volume of the arm muscles. Perhaps these numbers are slightly exaggerated, but it is simply stupid to argue with the fact that triceps exercises are mandatory to increase arm size. Here are a few types of exercises that will make your triceps look like steel.

1. Lifting up from the forearms

Another proof that the number is almost infinite, and the potential of this exercise is enormous. Push-ups can be done at home; they do not require any sports equipment.

And get ready for your muscles to burn from tension.

2. Back push-ups (push-ups on a bench)

Classic triceps exercises. When performing, your feet can be on the floor, however, if you place them on a bench or stand opposite, the effect of push-ups will only increase.

3. Back push-ups on one arm

A more complicated version of the previous exercise for those who find push-ups too easy. The technique is the same, only push-ups are performed on one hand, while you hold the other in front of your chest.

4. Korean passages

The exercise involves all top part body and abs, but the triceps are especially heavily loaded.

Large and Strong arms- a difficult, but quite achievable goal, and the exercises from this material will help you achieve it.

Don't forget to eat well after hard training.

Bodyweight exercises for gaining mass and losing weight

I remember very well the moment when I was surprised to notice that my triceps had grown. In the early 90s, in the wake of films starring Jean-Claude van Dame that filled the screens of video stores, I began training at home. For some reason it seemed to me that by doing exercises with my own weight, just like him, Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, I could quickly build up muscles. It was later that I learned that Jean-Claude-Camille-Francois Van Varenberg (that’s how he sounds) full name), was the owner gym in Brussels, where he actively lifted weights.


I began my introduction to the world of muscle mass by training at home, doing whatever came to mind bodyweight exercises. One of them was reverse push-ups from the windowsill for triceps (why exactly from the windowsill, I don’t even remember). And imagine my surprise when, after a couple of months, I noticed that muscle lumps appeared on my arms. These were the medial (middle) triceps bundles, which reacted with growth to push-ups from the windowsill.

So I know for sure: bodyweight exercises to gain muscle work! True, you can’t pump up 50 cm arms and 80 cm legs; this requires a completely different type of load. But even if you dream of a career as a professional bodybuilder and at night you dream of a Sandow figurine, learning how to perform exercises with your body weight will not be a bad thing. And that's why…

Bodyweight exercises as a warm-up

Watching newcomers to the sports club, I never cease to be amazed. It would seem that with the existing abundance of magazines, videos, everyone knows that proper warm-up– this is a guarantee of quality training and protection from injury.

But it was not there. Many visitors, upon entering the gym, immediately sit down on a Roman chair and begin pumping up their abs. And then they complain that they can’t do squats with a barbell or vertical presses, because they feel severe discomfort when performing these exercises in the solar plexus area.


Start warming up with abdominal exercises - great way ruin your workout

And this is not surprising - many large nerve ganglia, overloading which, we turn the rest of the workout into a waste of time and money.

In addition, most abdominal exercises are not as simple and harmless as they seem at first glance, since in addition to the front part of the body, they also actively overload lumbar region. Read the whole truth about abdominal training in my article, but for now, let's go directly back to the basics of proper warm-up.

The essence of warming up can be summed up in one word: warming up. The muscles, like the entire body as a whole, need to be warmed up and prepared for physical activity. You need to start warming up by spending 4-5 minutes on a treadmill or other cardio machine, performing the exercise at an average pace until you begin to sweat slightly.

Then you need to perform a set of movements to warm up the joints and move on to exercises with your own weight. Depending on your level of training and experience, you can use any, even the most movements, but I prefer the two simplest ones:

  1. Push-ups from the floor (optional for women, push-ups from a bench)
  2. Deep squats with wide feet

Push-ups perfectly warm up and prepare the upper body for stress, and squats, the lower part of the body. But you just need to perform these exercises not in a strength style, but in a light warm-up style. I suggest watching a video that shows an almost perfect warm-up before starting a workout in the gym

warm-up video:

Conclusion: bodyweight exercises are the simplest and most effective method warming up and preparing muscles for training in the gym.

Bodyweight exercises to gain weight

From a physiological point of view, training with your own weight, in terms of the degree of impact on the muscles, is no different from training with a barbell or dumbbells. In 2011, in the USA, studies were conducted with the participation of players in American football who compared the body's hormonal response to exercise performed without weight and basic movements with a barbell.

The results of the experiment showed that exercises with ropes and burpees (a complex exercise from CrossFit that includes push-ups, squats and squat jumps) caused a greater increase in hormones (in particular), than deadlift and squats. True, and more short-term.


The research aimed to answer the question: is it possible, without using basic exercises, strengthening the joints of players, build strength and mass with the help of another load?

Yes, the people in white coats answered, you just need to turn the load with your weight from light, comfortable, into stressful and heavy. In other words, at Bodyweight exercises should be performed according to the same principles as regular free weight exercises. Here are the five most important of them:

TIME | Largest quantity muscle fibers turns on only from the 40th second of the exercise. When performing exercises with your body weight, the measure of their effectiveness is the duration of the time interval. If the formula contains 4 sets of 20 push-ups, replace the second parameter with 40 seconds, the result will be higher.

LOAD PROGRESSION | This factor directly resonates with the previous one, since the basis for muscle growth is the stress factor. This can be achieved in several ways:

  • constantly increase the number of repetitions in the approach;
  • slow down the pace of movements;
  • reduce rest time between sets:
  • use additional weights (vests, backpacks)

UNILATERAL VERSIONS OF EXERCISES | Squats on one leg, push-ups or pull-ups on one arm - these movements are more likely from the arsenal of circus performers. However, each of them has its own light version, which can be performed by an ordinary gym goer. But the return from exercises performed with only one limb will be simply colossal, since it will force the body to work to the limit of its capabilities.

PAUSE | An eccentric hold of 4-5 seconds while performing an exercise with your body weight is the strongest stimulus for hypertrophy of muscle fibers. In addition, such an isometric load has a beneficial effect on the growth of strength and endurance.

NEGATIVE PHASE | The negative phase of the movement involves a larger muscle mass than the positive phase - this is an axiom. It was the negative movements that formed the basis of the so-called “Colorado Experiment”, which resulted in. Exercises performed with your own weight, but exclusively in the negative phase (lowering on the horizontal bar, on parallel bars, even simple push-ups) give muscle mass growth no worse than exercises with a barbell.

And here I will insert my 5 cents. Such recommendations look great on paper, but do not think that they are suitable for everyone without exception. It must be borne in mind that scientists compiled them for highly trained professional American football players, whose average age is 22-28 years. Therefore, the advice of American researchers needs to be adapted to your level of training.


Conclusion: training your body for mass is by no means an easy walk, but really hard work with extreme mental concentration.

Bodyweight exercisesfor weight loss

There were times when it was believed that morning running- This best view loads to get rid of excess weight. But people who believe in such a delusion are now as difficult to find as muscle mass among marathon runners. Anyone who really wants to lose weight knows that the most powerful and natural fat burner is our muscles.

The more of them on the body, the higher the calorie consumption and the faster the metabolism. To lose weight quickly, you need to do the most heavy exercise aimed at increasing muscle mass: squats, presses and deadlifts. But does this mean that bodyweight exercises for weight loss are useless?


Fortunately, this is not the case. Yes, step-ups are inferior in effectiveness to barbell squats, both in stimulating muscle growth and for weight loss. But performing such exercises has one undeniable advantage - they can be performed at home. The effectiveness of bodyweight loading can be improved by following 4 rules:

  • Use challenging exercises. The more complex the movement, the more energy-consuming it is. From this point of view, the burpee is the best bodyweight exercise for weight loss, since it combines three movements at once, performed without interruption.
  • Choose movements for large muscle groups. Leg exercises (lunges, squats, step-ups) are more effective for weight loss because they require more calories than arm exercises. Do not forget that fat oxidizes in the presence of oxygen. From this point of view, leg exercises also have advantages over other bodyweight exercises for weight loss, since they activate the respiratory process.
  • Do a lot of work. No matter how much we would like it, fat does not begin to oxidize immediately. For the first 40-45 minutes, the body uses glycogen (fuel for our muscles obtained from food) as fuel. That is, a short workout with your own weight for weight loss will be useful only as exercise. physical activity, but for burning fat it will be ineffective. The problem can be solved by approaching it from two sides. First, use it as a power supply diagram. And secondly, increase the training time to 50-60 minutes.
  • Increase training stress levels. Stress is not always bad. And for getting rid of excess fat, this is generally great. Any unexpected and strong irritant (stress) causes a rise in the level of the hormone adrenaline in our body, which helps accelerate fat metabolism. Effective workout with your weight for weight loss should include exercises for different muscle groups, performed without interruption. Squats combined with jumping on a support and push-ups from the floor will be more stressful than performing exercises on only one muscle group.

If you add jumping rope or movements with a rubber shock absorber to your bodyweight exercises for weight loss, fat will begin to burn even faster.


Conclusion: exercises with a barbell give faster and more stable results for losing weight, but training with your own weight can be done in the comfort of your home.

Now that I've covered the top benefits of bodyweight exercises for bulking and losing weight, let me get straight to the list of the most effective movements for each muscle group:

Bodyweight exercises for the back

The high effectiveness of the load with your own weight for this muscle group is that pull-ups are the simplest and The best way creating a wide back. In addition, there are quite a few types of pull-ups, and you can always choose the most suitable one for yourself.

bodyweight exercises video 1

Bodyweight exercises for chest

Among the bodyweight exercises for gaining mass pectoral muscles, in first place are push-ups wide grip. But various variations of push-ups can compete with exercises with a barbell only if they are performed with additional weighting.

But for giving shape to the chest and working out its individual details, exercises with your own weight are very suitable. And again, there are a great many options for push-ups.

bodyweight exercises video 2

Bodyweight exercises for legs

The barbell was, is and will be the best equipment for building large quadriceps. However, there are many ways to thoroughly load your leg muscles by doing bodyweight exercises at home.

bodyweight exercises video 3

Bodyweight exercises for triceps

There are not many exercises performed with your own weight for the triceps, but they are very simple and quite effective:

  • Dips with narrow arms
  • Narrow push-ups
  • Reverse push-ups from a bench


I love the last exercise with a tender and reverent love, since it was with it that the growth of muscle mass in my arms began. But unlike the usual reverse push-up technique, in which the body weight shifts down and forward, I do the opposite, leaning my whole body back to activate a direct load on the triceps.

This is far from the only exercise for the triceps brachii muscle that can be performed at home. I talked about this in more detail in my article, I highly recommend reading it.

Bodyweight exercises for biceps

The best bodyweight exercise for biceps is the pull-up bar with a narrow reverse grip. All the same, world-famous fitness gurus, identified this exercise as the most best movement for gaining biceps muscle mass.

But if you don’t have a horizontal bar at home, you can try doing unusual, but quite effective exercises with your own weight to build bigger biceps.

bodyweight exercises video 4

Bodyweight exercises for shoulders

At home, and even with your own weight, it is difficult to pump up your shoulders, but it is possible. True, for this you will need to master the technique of very unusual exercises with your own weight to develop the deltoid muscles.

bodyweight exercises video 5

Bodyweight exercises for abs

But it’s quite easy to train this muscle group with your own weight. Best exercise to gain muscle mass is a “prayer” performed while kneeling in front of a high block. But, as practice shows, many athletes have become the owners of truly beautiful abdominal muscles by performing exercises with their own weight.

bodyweight exercises video 6

Conclusion: if you wish, you can become the owner of a sports, toned body, doing bodyweight training at home, fortunately there are quite a lot of options for these exercises.

Conclusion

What conclusions can be drawn from everything we have read and seen:

# 1. Training with your own weight for mass and for weight loss will always be inferior in effectiveness to exercises with free weights.

# 2. Not all people dream of huge muscle mass. For women or people in adulthood, health and a fit figure are much more important than 50 cm biceps. And for them, bodyweight exercises are just perfect.

# 3. Bodyweight training helps maintain existing muscle volume in tone in between visits to the gym. And for those who prefer to train at home, bodyweight exercises are the simplest and most accessible type of physical activity.

I hope my story about bodyweight training will be useful to you and will allow you to gain muscle mass or lose weight at home. May the force be with you. And the mass!

In a prone position, place your hands shoulder-width apart. Slowly lower yourself until your elbows touch your ribs. If you can go even lower (until your chest touches the floor) it will be simply gorgeous. Important: do not spread the trays to the sides; they should be strictly near the latissimus dorsum.

Source: leanitup.com

Congratulations: this is half the exercise. Hold this for 3 seconds and slowly rise up. The norm is 12 repetitions with pauses of 30 seconds.

Close grip push-up

Hands are narrower than shoulders: so that at the lowest point of the exercise they touch the chest. There should be no pauses here. Work according to the good old program: 4 sets of 10-15 push-ups.


Source: martamontenegro.com

Steel grip

Okay, stop making fun of your triceps. Let's just hang on the horizontal bar now. Holding onto it with one hand... 60 seconds each...

By the way, here are a few more exercises for you so that you don’t get bored when you have the crossbar in your hands:

Rubber

Stand with your feet on the training band. Grasp it with both or one hand (palms down). Then raise them until you feel a burning sensation in your triceps. Once you reach the peak point, lower your limbs. Important: do this slowly - at least 5 seconds. The number of approaches is as big as you like. Although personal trainer Denny Fisher advises doing “4 x 10”.