Is it possible to build a decent amount of mass with body weight exercises? Every place I seem to find information about body weight exercises says they are only effective for a certain amount of time until your body adapts. So I guess my question is can you build a decent amount of mass with BW exercises only without hitting a weight room? Or is it best to combine BW exercises with routine with weights?

i do bodyweight -

You can always add weight to your bodyweight (vest,ankleweights,backpack,etc) if it gets too easy. That way you can still build mass. Look at Littlebeastm. He's like 220 from doing strictly calisthenics.

@LittleBeastM

Have you always ever done bodyweight exercises? Or did you mix in weights at some point?

nope no weights i have been doing this since i was 17 im 18 right now.. in the summer i will do this for 2 years.. just put ur mind over all the pain and go hard!

Theres no problem whatsoever gaining mass through calisthenics, but eventually you have to throw on a weightvest or something if you want to keep building mass.

And why shouldn't it be possible to build mass with bodyweight excercises? Your body doesn't know if your lifting weights or lifting yourself...

It is very possible providing that you eat enough. It's important to be constantly moving forward aswell, in weight training they always talk about progressive overload, well the same applies to calesthenics, you just have to be a bit more creative with your progressions, for example i saw littlebeastm do this on his ustream today and it was one of the most advanced pushups i've ever seen, he was in pushup position with his feet on the wall (supported planche I guess) and with his hands on the perfect pushup handles, and then he did a divebomber pushup. that requires a high level of strength and involves ALOT of muscles, the more muscles stimulated the more they will grow. Make sure you progress each workout and eat alot then you will grow, also don't neglect your legs.

Does Called LB Pushups !!

LittleBeastM, what do you recommend starting off with? I play division 3 basketball and I am much more intrigued with body weight exercises than being in the weight room. Do you suggest any beginner programs to start off with? I've just been doing push-ups, pull-ups, handstand push-ups (only about 2 or 3 sets of 5) and dips. Although, I kinda feel as if I need to be using weights to increase my vertical jump and such, but I can always hit the gym twice a week to squat and do cleans if I need to.

EDIT: Thank you guys for all the replies, you are providing me great information and exactly the type of answers I was looking for!

start of with :

12 sets of Pull-Ups : 3 Normal, 3 wide, 3 closegrip, 3 chin-ups.
what u wanna do is, do 3 sets of explosive pull ups
3 sets of static holds with pull ups
3 sets with l-sit / normal

example : 1 normal set explosive
2 normal set static holds with pull ups
3 Lsit/ normal

u do that with all the pull up forms, 12 sets of max reps.


5 sets of "max dips

5 sets of tricep extensions (control)

5 sets of dragonflags/ hanging leg raises

than after all that u gonna do megasets

u wanna do everything in 1 set . u can start with max pull ups straight after max dips straight after tricep extensions straight after dragonflags/hanging leg raises u repeat this 3 times .

burn out with 500 diamond push ups or hip push ups


(this is basic)

holy hell thats beginner? I don't know if I can even do 100 regular pushups.

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean by all of these different movements, can explanations of these be found in the tutorials forum?

lol ya cant get like lbm his all roids...
he is testosterone monster he can shave his beard drink vodka and have sex all night and wake up with full beard i saw dis on live lol

example is hanibal workout 17 years no real massive just pure strength and fuken rippedd a$$ mfkr you can see every fiber of muscle on his hand
its all your bodytype but yeah u can improve everything

Everybody in the bar game that I've heard talk about gaining muscle says pretty much the same thing: DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. Just keep trying to get better at pullups, pushups, dips, and other basics, eat your food, sleep good, and IT WILL COME. Look at Leb, B-Rock(who I have actually called and spoken to about it), Metin, Beast, Hannibal, Phorm, Nirose, Hitman, and Tech. All these dudes have great bodies and they don't worry about the muscle. They just get good at what they do and it comes.