How do I get the most strength out of my bodyweight?

[straightballing]

I'd like to be a decent size first. But after that I'd like to be really strong without getting bigger. Like Bruce Lee.

[tuttle56]

well, hate to break it to you, but you will get bigger if you lift.. sorry. If you're just looking to gain strength instead of size, keep your reps in the 3-5 rep range, with 3-5 sets, that maximizes your strength gains.

[Bigbruiser79]

i strongly recommend lifting to get bigger, but for bodyweight exercises the more the better.

for pushups go until failure and so on for other bodyweight exercises

[teriyakisaki]

the best way to get stronger by body weight is super sets. in lamens terms, doing a lot. mostly pushups various ways (wide, regular, diamond, fist, fingertips, whatever floats your boat) for 15-20. same thing for the abs. for more back work invest in a pullup bar and do them various ways (palms toward you, palms out, wide, close, etc). to be honest i dont know of any lower body exercizes that actually get you strong.

the biggest thing with body weight workouts is actually doing them, at least for me. going to a gym/the weight room to workout is much easier for me than to get into the habbit of doing a buncha pushups before bed. plus you get better gains from lifting.

a good superset workout is as follows:

10-15 regular pushups
10-15 regular crunches
10-15 wide pushups
10-15 toe touches
10-15 diamond pushups
10-15 leg lifts (up, out, together, down = 1)
10-15 1 arm pushups per arm
10-15 side/twist crunches per side

*make transition to each position quick
*1nce through = 1 set. do 3-5 sets. if you think about it, you'll literally do 100s or even 1000s of pushups/situps a day.

btw, it is physically impossible to get significantly stronger, and not gain any size or definition. moreover, i dont know of anybody who wants one but not hte other. i dont know who brought this up but yeah...

[straightballing]

the best way to get stronger by body weight is super sets. in lamens terms, doing a lot. mostly pushups various ways (wide, regular, diamond, fist, fingertips, whatever floats your boat) for 15-20. same thing for the abs. for more back work invest in a pullup bar and do them various ways (palms toward you, palms out, wide, close, etc). to be honest i dont know of any lower body exercizes that actually get you strong.

the biggest thing with body weight workouts is actually doing them, at least for me. going to a gym/the weight room to workout is much easier for me than to get into the habbit of doing a buncha pushups before bed. plus you get better gains from lifting.

a good superset workout is as follows:

10-15 regular pushups
10-15 regular crunches
10-15 wide pushups
10-15 toe touches
10-15 diamond pushups
10-15 leg lifts (up, out, together, down = 1)
10-15 1 arm pushups per arm
10-15 side/twist crunches per side

*make transition to each position quick
*1nce through = 1 set. do 3-5 sets. if you think about it, you'll literally do 100s or even 1000s of pushups/situps a day.

btw, it is physically impossible to get significantly stronger, and not gain any size or definition. moreover, i dont know of anybody who wants one but not hte other. i dont know who brought this up but yeah...

Thanks for the help and everyone else too. I do want size and I knew that you can't get gains without getting bigger but I was wondering how I could get the most strength without getting too big. I don't know if I should bulk with weights a bit before bodyweight exercises though. Does anyone know what kind of muscle gains someone can expect just off bodyweight exercises?

[SFT]

If you want to get STRENGTH then you need to challenge yourself. Massive supersets of 15-20 reps is just going to build muscular endurance.

To challenge yourself you need to increase the load. This obviously isn't as simple as changing the weights, because all you have is your bodyweight. So, the only way I see of building strength without weights is making the movements harder. For instance one leg squats, one arm pushups, handstand pushups, pullups, etc.

If you can't do one leg squats or one arm pushups and bilaterally they are too easy, just go for progressions. Such as starting the squat on a step so its only parallel rather than ATG.

Hope this helps. I'm sure its possible to gain strength/size/power without weights, just maybe not to the same degree, but anything is better than nothing.

[SFT]

btw, it is physically impossible to get significantly stronger, and not gain any size or definition. moreover, i dont know of anybody who wants one but not hte other. i dont know who brought this up but yeah...

Relative strength bro, many athletes need it. Take wrestlers for instance, they may need to maximize their strength at a certain weight, therefore leaving little room for gaining weight. Also a rugby player for instance, may need to stay at a certain size to ensure speed, etc.

[teriyakisaki]

Relative strength bro, many athletes need it. Take wrestlers for instance, they may need to maximize their strength at a certain weight, therefore leaving little room for gaining weight. Also a rugby player for instance, may need to stay at a certain size to ensure speed, etc.

don't get me wrong, i totally know what youre saying. in a lot of sports you want to get bigger and stronger, but keep speed and quickness. what i meant was, you cant expect to increase your bench by 100 lbs, but not gain any weight or size. you need to be realistic with yourself. a person should know their limits on what they can do, and still stay within the peramaters of their sport/position, accept those factors, and decide which is more valuable. a lot like basic economics.