In this article you will learn how you can train specifically for hypertrophy with bodyweight and functional training. So the answer is yes. It is also possible to gradually build up your muscles without training with weights in the gym. First, I would like to make a brief excursus into the anatomy of our muscles and clarify the question of what the term “muscle hypertrophy” actually means.

First, let’s look at the structure of our muscles in detail.

Our muscles consist of many muscle fiber bundles, which in turn are made up of muscle fibers (muscle cells). The muscle fibers in turn consist of the myofibrils. But that’s not all, because the myofibrils themselves consist of thousands of sarcomeres connected in series. With this picture the whole thing can be better illustrated.

The sarcomeres are the smallest contractile or tensing units. They consist of thick myosin filaments and thin actin filaments. The thin actin filaments are thread-like cell structures. These tiniest structures are the actual actors in muscle contraction.

Now that you have learned how a muscle is anatomically structured or have called it back to your memory, we will clarify the concept of muscle hypertrophy in the next step.

It is an increase in the thickness of your muscle fibers, which results in an enlargement of your muscle cross-section. However, the actual number of your muscle cells does not increase or the muscle hyperplasia has not yet been proven in humans. If your muscles, in the form of your specific hypertrophy training, are used beyond the normal level of performance, you set your muscles a growth stimulus and thus achieve the desired muscle hypertrophy.

This growth stimulus leads to higher protein storage.

If you train your elbow muscles, for example, the smallest muscle injuries (microtraumas) occur, which, however, trigger the desired growth stimulus and thus also increase your protein biosynthesis. You can support your muscle growth with a proper diet. For beginners, a concentrated protein after hypertrophy training is completely sufficient, with advanced athletes reaching for the isolated protein, among other things. Basically, food supplements of all kinds cannot completely replace a healthy and balanced diet. As the name suggests, they complement your natural food intake. But this is a separate topic for my next articles.

Muscle hypertrophy can also be artificially stimulated via other exogenous factors (anabolic steroids). However, I clearly distance myself from this topic, because Body & Soul 3volution would like to accompany you on a healthy path. Body & Soul 3volution focuses on providing you with holistic care, advice and training. Health and fun are paramount.

As already mentioned at the beginning, by correctly applying your hypertrophy training you can achieve muscle growth without additional weights. In addition, training in the great outdoors with your own body weight is a lot of fun. However, the problem, be it in the gym or in nature, is that many don’t know the background and therefore don’t know what to look for when exercising. This can lead to errors and suboptimal training results.

The stimulus intensity during muscle building training is between 60 to 85{ed9cbac0371b15caf762c3b37d39755d60302d88d845526ef0c81d4e26b936c4} of your maximum muscle performance. This corresponds to a repetition spectrum of 6-12 repetitions. There are two ways to determine stimulus intensity. By carefully trying out or approaching, as well as by a simple calculation. For the calculation you have to do a repetition, for example bench press, with maximum weight load and effort completely and cleanly. Suppose you can manage 100 kg. If we want to calculate the stimulus intensity for your muscle building training, you have to calculate 60 to 85{ed9cbac0371b15caf762c3b37d39755d60302d88d845526ef0c81d4e26b936c4} of this value. Your weight load is therefore between 60 to 85 kg for your hypertrophy training.

You rightly ask yourself how you can build up muscles efficiently with your own body weight and achieve supercompensation, because after a relatively short training period you can already do the 12 repetitions. Supercompensation, i.e. a progressive increase in your performance level, includes not only your training, but also your regeneration phases and an adapted diet.

As already mentioned, we have to give the muscle a sufficient stimulus and thereby tire it. There are a variety of physical exercises in which even advanced athletes stay in the desired hypertrophy area for the time being. These include, for example, the “Archer PushUps” or the “Pistol Squats”. If you get over the 12 repetitions despite slow and clean execution, there are other methods to increase the intensity. Thera bands , for example, are a good option. I can also do this sling trainerrecommend. Furthermore, you can use special training principles that you may already be familiar with as an advanced strength athlete in order to tire your muscles faster. In addition to pre-exhaustion, supersets and an increase in “time under tension” are also suitable for this.

Finally, I would like to recommend the book “Fit without equipment: Training with your own body weight” .

If you don’t want to focus purely on muscle hypertrophy training, you can also combine it very well with other sports. If you like to be active in nature, you can, for example, incorporate some body weight exercises into every walk, walking, jogging or cycling, and thus create varied training units. By the way, with a bodyweight training you can also train all other types of strength.