Calisthenics Can't Build Big Muscles (PROVEN) - Can You Gain Muscle with Body Weight Training

can calisthenics really build muscle or

is it just an overhyped idea that falls

drastically short of the results you can

expect from weight training this is the

topic of today's video weight training

versus calisthenics not my opinion but

what are the studies have to say which

one's best for building muscle and

achieving that lean aesthetic body first

let's start with the fact that there's

proof that both of these approaches can

produce some pretty amazing results with

body weight training we got people like

Frank Medrano Chris herea and Hannibal

for King and all of them developed

really great physiques with an emphasis

on body weight training gymnasts

especially those that use the Rings are

another great example of how body weight

training can build a very nice physique

with weight training you have a lot of

different styles that produce different

kinds of results you have natural

bodybuilding and physique competitors

they use weight training to produce

really aesthetic results with a primary

focus on the way that the muscle looks

rather than its functionality and you

also have high intensity interval

resistance training or hurt and programs

like Cross Fit that also produce great

physiques

even if you hate CrossFit you can't deny

that it produces some pretty shredded

athletes so we know that it's possible

to build a great body with or without

weights but which way is best and which

way gets us to build muscle the fastest

well to answer this question we have to

take a look at what makes a natural

lifters muscles continuously grow and

the answer to this is a little something

known as progressive overload which is

essentially incrementally increasing the

difficulty of your workouts for your

body to adapt with improved strength and

muscle gains there are four factors that

we can manipulate to achieve progressive

overload frequency intensity volume and

time frequency is the number of days

that you would workout and time is the

amount of time spent during that one

workout so these two factors we're going

to kind of ignore because we're gonna

pretend that we want to spend the same

amount of time on both body weight

training and weight training volume is

the total amount of work that you're

doing based on the reps and the sets and

intensity is usually measured by the

weight load or the amount of force

that's put on your

with weight training it's very easy to

increase intensity and it's also very

easy to track your increases in

intensity this is simply done by adding

more weight to the exercise perform with

calisthenics you can increase intensity

as well but it's not quite as simple for

example you could start with a push-up

on your knees eventually progress to a

regular body weight push-up and then get

to an incline push-up which will

transfer more weight to your upper body

and then finally you can move to a

handstand push-up which is going to put

more of the pressure on your shoulders

rather than your chest

after the handstand push-up it's going

to be pretty hard for you to find ways

to increase intensity volume on the

other hand can very easily be increased

in a calisthenic program to

progressively overload your muscles so

you can add more sets or reps of

push-ups but there is a limit to how

much body weight you can add to this

movement

so with weight training we have the

advantage of being able to manipulate

intensity infinitely in a study

published in 2015 they compared the

effects of high volume resistance

training versus high intensity

resistance training and they found that

the higher intensity group stimulated

significantly greater strength games for

a 1 rep max benchpress and their lean

arm mass gains were also greater when

compared to the moderate intensity high

volume group even though this study

isn't comparing Cal aesthetics to weight

training directly we can say that a

higher intensity or a heavier load

stimulates more muscle mass than a

moderate load and again in terms of

manipulating intensity the advantage

goes to weight training this study

pretty much throws away the argument

that you can achieve just as much muscle

gains with lighter weight more reps and

sets within the same amount of time as

you could with heavier weight at least

for the upper body when we talk about

the upper body because that's what this

study dealt with so increasing your

total reps for push-ups may not be as

effectively as progressing using a

heavier weight load with an exercise

like bench press the study however does

mention that for the lower body both

groups showed similar gains they

mentioned that more studies are needed

and that a longer period could reveal

differences in the lower body muscular

gains there are also two other studies

one in 2002 and

in 2014 that concluded that high

intensity and high volume groups

achieved the same muscular adaptions so

the studies disagree with each other and

kind of support both sides unfortunately

the one study that I was able to find

that compared calisthenics to weight

training involved a comparison of

calisthenics to light weight training

for the lower body both the weight

training group and the calisthenic group

got the same results however I would

love to see a study where they compared

the calisthenic group to a

high-intensity weight training group

until then results are mixed on this

topic so here's my two cents based on my

own experience calisthenics and weight

training deliver two completely

different things and each has its

advantages with calisthenics you're

going to increase your balance

coordination flexibility functional

strength isometric strength and core

strength in a way that will beat most

weight training programs calisthenics is

an excellent choice for those that are

more so interested in their athletic

performance and functionality rather

than just aesthetics that's not to say

you can't have a great body with

calisthenics because you obviously can

however if your goal is to strictly aim

for that aesthetic muscular look and you

don't really care about functionality or

athleticism at all

then weight training will probably serve

you better with weights you have the

ability to increase intensity and

isolate your muscle fibers in a way that

would be impossible with calisthenics

and a bodybuilding competition is where

people are evaluated strictly based on

their physiques and their muscular

cemetry and most bodybuilding

competitors to this day primarily use

weight training / calisthenics so if you

want a bodybuilder type of body go for

the weight training approach if you want

a lean functional and athletic body that

isn't all for show go for calisthenics

and I'm gonna let you in on a little

secret you don't have to choose guys I

do both weight training and calisthenics

since there are such great benefits from

bold why not incorporate both people get

into this argument over which one's best

and they try to take aside I think it's

a much better idea to use bold to

maximize your results a calisthenic

exercise

pull-ups dips or push-ups can be made so

much better by adding a weight and even

though barbell squats are great you

won't get the same benefits from

weighted squats that you can get from

the calisthenic exercise like a box jump

or apply metric lunge they each have

their benefits the main benefit that I

would attribute to weight training

especially heavy weight training is that

it's the best way to strengthen your

muscles quickly which theoretically

should help increase progressive

overload and increase protein synthesis

and pack on muscle mass faster with

calisthenics you're gonna build true

functional applicable strength that will

carry over to real life a lot better

than your traditional weight training

program also with calisthenics you can

do it anywhere which is really awesome

that's it guys I really hope this video

has helped you out if you enjoyed it

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transformation com where you can get

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work see you guys soon

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