When it comes to building muscle, it's easy to assume you need to be lifting weights to see results. But when you're training at the right intensity and within the right rep range, bodyweight exercises can still be highly effective. According to fitness coach Alain Gonzalez, the key is understanding what actually drives muscle growth.
'There are two camps when it comes to bodyweight training and they couldn't disagree more,' says Gonzalez. 'The first camp will tell you it's basically a waste of time for building muscle. The second camp thinks bodyweight is the superior way to train. The truth lives somewhere in the middle.'
The coach explains that bodyweight training can absolutely build serious muscle, but only when it follows the exact same rules as training in a gym.
'And when you look closely at the guys who actually got jacked on bodyweight, they were following those rules whether they knew it or not,' he says.
The Science
To back it up, Gonzalez cites a 2018 study which measured the results of 30 men training for 12 weeks at different lifting intensities with an adjusted volume load. The study used a 'within subject' method, where the men trained one side of their body (arm and leg) at 20% of their one rep max, and the other side at either 40%, 60% or 80%.
While training at 40%, 60% and 80% led to similar amounts of muscle growth, training at 20% led to around half as much. In short, the results were compromised simply because the load was too light.
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'So, if you can comfortably do more than 30 reps on a movement, it's too light,' notes Gonzalez.
Another study compared low-load training, around 30% of one-rep max, with high-load training, around 80%. The researchers found that both built similar amounts of muscle when both methods were taken to failure, with the 80% group experiencing a greater increase in maximal strength.
'The reason comes down to fibre recruitment,' explains Gonzalez. 'Your body recruits muscle fibres in order from smallest to largest. The fibres most responsible for growth get recruited as fatigue accumulates and the smaller fibres can no longer keep up. With heavy loads those fibres get recruited almost immediately. With lighter loads, you have to push all the way to failure to get there.'
He notes that the issue comes down to the fact that most people aren't accurate at judging how close to failure they are when using lighter loads; while loads don't need to be maximal to build muscle, they do need to be challenging enough. That's where Gonzalez's 30 rep rule comes in.
The 30 Rep Rule
Gonzalez's 30 rep rule is a simple way to judge whether an exercise is challenging enough. If you can comfortably perform more than 30 reps, it's time to increase the difficulty by progressing to a harder variation or adding resistance.
How to Progress With Bodyweight Exercises
To work closer to failure with bodyweight moves, it's important to understand that the burn and cardiovascular fatigue from high-rep sets build long before your muscles actually fail.
'As a rule of thumb, the set should end when you cannot complete another full rep with clean technique. Not when it burns, not when your heart rate spikes. When you physically cannot do another clean rep,' advises Gonzalez.
If you want to build muscle, you will need to keep challenging the muscles over time. This is called progressive overload.
'You just add more weight to the bar,' says Gonzalez. 'But with bodyweight, you can't do that. Once your body adapts to a movement, the stimulus flatlines, so we have to advance to a harder variation.'
Exercise Variation
As an example, once a standard push-up becomes too easy you can progress to a feet-elevated push-up, which shifts more load onto the upper chest and shoulders. The coach then recommends an archer push-up where one arm does the majority of the work, and eventually a one-arm push-up.
'Your muscles don't know whether the challenge is coming from a heavier bar or a more demanding movement,' Gonzalez explains. 'They only know whether they're being asked to do something harder than they've already adapted to.'
Rep Quality
Gonzalez notes that the majority of people performing press-ups drop too quickly on the descent and bounce off the bottom and use that momentum to push back up.
'Muscle growth is driven by mechanical tension,' he says. 'When you use momentum to get through the hard part of a rep, you're offloading that tension away from the muscle.'
By improving the quality and tempo of your reps, you'll reap the reward of further muscle growth. The same can be applied to other bodyweight exercises such as pull-ups and pistol squats.
Rest
Provided you're working at the intensity needed to stimulate muscle growth, you'll also need adequate rest between sets. Rather than rushing through with just 30 seconds' rest, aim for around 90 to 120 seconds so you can recover and maintain your performance.
The Takeaway
You can build muscle with bodyweight moves: it just takes more than adding endless reps. If you can comfortably perform more than 30 reps, it’s time to make the movement harder, train close to failure, control each rep and rest properly between sets.
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