What I learned about training from 3 years in the Army
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I signed up for the military years ago without a penny in my pocket. I slept on a friend’s couch in Halifax, Nova Scotia, waiting for the next boot camp start date.
But I had no idea exactly when that day would be, and I had to stay in shape until then.
No money meant no bus fare and no gym membership. I had two feet and a heartbeat. That’s it. And that’s when I realized you don’t need an expensive gym membership to stay in shape or build muscle.
The only reason I thought you did, was because no one had ever shown me differently.
So I asked myself, “How are muscles built?” I’d lifted for six years already and knew you built muscle with progressive resistance.
And therein lies the key.
Do This To Build Muscle Using Anything Or Nothing
As long as your muscles encounter stress, they will grow. So how will you put that stress on them? It doesn’t matter! Whatever causes them to experience difficulty between the 5 and 20 rep range matters.
From repetitions 10 – 20, the adaptation to stress shifts towards including holding glycogen inside the muscle cells. This as opposed to actually producing more muscle growth.
The most effective range is between 5 and 12 repetitions for muscle growth.
Now You Can Build Muscle Anywhere
As long as you experience difficulty in completing repetitions between 5 and 12, you’re putting enough resistance on them to grow. It doesn’t matter if the resistance is in the form of plates or your body trying to move itself.
So having said that, can you do that at home with and without weight? Yes, of course, you can!
Dumbells, Barbells, Bodyweight, Bags Of Fish Meal, It Doesn’t Matter
If you have some dumbbells that cause you to fail out in that rep range, you grow. If you fail out doing pushups or a one legged squat, you grow.
You can simulate growth and build muscles at home, without leaving your house and definitely without hitting the gym.
An Example Of Packing On Leg Size With Bodyweight Exercises
Let’s check some boxes. We only need to increase the stress and muscle adaptation occurs. The muscles super compensate and get stronger/larger.
Let’s do it.
So for building bigger legs, you start with bodyweight squats. But it gets too easy and you bang out 20 reps. Then you take a leg away, and now there’s almost double the resistance on lunges. You start doing these lunges for 5 reps because they are harder, and keep going until you work up to 12 – 20 reps again. Then you start doing pistol squats and drop the reps back down.
And that’s just getting started with the possible bodyweight exercise adaptations, progressions, and regressions.
The Options Are Endless – No Membership Required
Exercise selection isn’t the only intensity metric you can use. You can start adding in sets to increase volume. You can start holding onto heavy objects.
Gaining weight and building muscle follow the same rules for using a barbell, machine, or bodyweight. You stimulate, feed, and rest.
You can do almost all your barbell exercises with dumbbells with little modifications. An added benefit is the extra muscle stimulation from stabilizing the dumbbells as you guide them through their planes of movement. They are more unwieldy, mimicking real-world activities and requiring more body awareness.
Getting the gym effect with bodyweight moves is proven possible by the number of gymnastic-built physiques out there.
If you know the rules, you can mess with the tools.
When it comes to building muscle, it’s not the tool; it’s the application that matters. Use the proper rep ranges, volume, rest between sets, and progressive overload, and you will gain muscle no matter the method. Be it a piece of concrete, a barbell, a dumbbell, or your body weight.
Now after saying all this, we haven’t even talked about simply buying a power rack and shoving it in your bedroom.
For around $1500 you can quickly and efficiently start an argument with your wife.
For more tips on mind and muscle mastery, unlock your Free 7-C newsletter and I’ll talk to you soon – Ray