People who workout at home always want to know if pushups will build muscle onto their frame. Well, the answer is yes and then no. Allow me to explain:
In the long run, the resistance of just doing pushups will not be great enough to put enough stimulus on the chest muscles for significant growth. In the first few weeks, doing pushups may shock your body to the point that it reacts with a bit of muscle growth, however once you get into a rep range beyond 15, you haven’t really got anywhere to go unless you can figure out a way of increasing the resistance. Anything about 15 reps will not be good for building muscle – this kind of rep range is more suited to endurance training.
If I had to work at home, here’s what I would do. For the chest, I’d find a way of doing dips because dips are almost like the upper body squat – the exercise is a great mass builder. I used to be able to do dips between two strong chairs or across the counters in the kitchen. I could also carry a dumbbell between my legs to add to the resistance. Over time I would carry a bigger and bigger dumbbell between my legs for progressive microtrauma in the muscle (this is key to muscle growth). Following the weighted dips, I’d do seated tricep drips to finish my triceps off.
Then I’d invest in a chin up bar and do weighted pull-ups in a door frame followed by some kind of curl with dumbbells. This would sort the upper back and biceps.
Legs are tough to do at home. The only thing that I could do when I was young was push my mum’s car up a hill. Let me tell you, that is a great all over exercise for your body let alone your legs – really tough work and packed on loads of mass to my lower body.
None of this compares to getting down a gym and working out there though, so get back there as soon as possible!
via Paleohacks Paleo Cookbook Review http://ift.tt/1amNxQF
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