Can You Build Muscle With Bodyweight Training?

- written by Matt Schifferle

Creating stimuli for strength and endurance is pretty straightforward because the training process is primarily about adapting to accommodate a functional demand. Using exercise to influence the aesthetic qualities of the body, however, is different.

While it’s 100% certain your body will adapt to accommodate a functional demand, trying to create an aesthetic demand is not quite as reliable.

Part of the reason is that there are many more influences on your body’s appearance than the functional demand you experience during training. Your age, physical build, hormones, genetics, training history, diet, stress, sleep, and even your emotional state while training all play a big role in your potential to change how you look in the mirror.

There’s a lot more to the size of your biceps than what you do in your workout. In addition, the muscle growth stimuli may not come from one factor but many.

In the past, I was taught that muscle growth depended on single variables, like how many reps I did or if I pushed my muscles to failure. Variables like these correlate to muscle growth, but scientists have repeatedly failed to produce reliable muscle growth from any single variable.

Athletes often tear their muscles down yet struggle to grow. The same thing is true for other variables like going to failure, staying within a certain rep range, or choking down specific branched-chain amino acids.

Despite the mystery around muscle growth, it undoubtedly does occur. Seeing someone with massive biceps is a bit like looking at the great pyramids in Egypt.

There’s still a lot we don’t understand, yet they are undeniable proof that it is possible to build such wonders.

So I’m not going to claim that if you do a certain workout or exercise, you’ll build muscle; because such certainly would be misleading. However, several things can greatly increase your chances of making the gains you want.

Things like being able to work your muscles harder are crucial. Progression is the other key factor. You have to make your muscles work harder.

Does working a muscle harder mean you need to build strength or endurance?

I’ve known people to build muscle either way.

Some people finally build muscle when they train lighter and push their muscular endurance. Others find the opposite when they give up the high-rep training and start going heavy. You can probably go either way, and I’ve certainly been successful with both approaches myself.

The best chance is to pursue some combination of strength and endurance. I include strength and endurance phases in the classic Grind Style Calisthenics format in every workout.

Others prefer a traditional periodization approach where you train heavier for a while and then change your routine with lighter high-rep training. Changing your rep ranges helps ensure you’re covering your bases more thoroughly.

If anything, you’re probably leaving some potential muscle growth on the table if you make only strength or endurance the focal point of your training.

Lastly, the scientific evidence at this point suggests that pushing your muscular work capacity may be heavily correlated to creating a stimulus for muscle growth. This approach is a fancy way of saying, “push those reps!”

You want to work a muscle long enough so that it becomes challenging to continue to do the exercise. Some call these “hard sets” or “pushing to failure.”

Once again, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

I’ve had plenty of experience with always pushing to failure and remaining frustrated with the results. I believe this is mostly due to a lack of progression. Pushing three sets of 10 pull-ups to failure every workout probably won’t do much if you’re still doing three sets of 10 pull-ups to failure six months from now.

Embrace the mystery

The idea that building muscle is a mysterious phenomenon can be an unsettling concept. Humans like to feel certain about things we care about, and feeling unsure can be uncomfortable. This discomfort can make anyone vulnerable to scams, dogmas, and charlatans who promise us the “truth,” even when it’s just more false claims and misdirection.

I’ve noticed that successful folks have learned to embrace the mysteries of success. Those who are 100% sure about what to do are often the ones who get left behind. Their certainly can close them off to new ideas and potential growth.

So work hard, stay consistent, and strive for progression in your workouts. That may not be the full answer for building muscle, but it’s a heck of a lot better than getting stuck in any stagnant dogmatic approach.

To learn exactly how to build muscle with bodyweight training, check out the Bodyweight Muscle Bundle.