Often, I get asked if an athlete can build muscle with just bodyweight training. I always say, “it all depends.” I like to use my bodyweight to create a progressive overload situation. Adaptations like muscle gain require a certain amount of stress on the system to grow. Therefore, you need to have enough vision and creativity to make bodyweight movements harder through a variety of principles.
I use several methods to achieve muscle gain with bodyweight movements. First method is to train until failure on sets. I normally do that with pushing and pulling movements. Also, I use unilateral movements to focus more on single limbs and deficit eccentric angles. I change up my grip variations especially on pull ups using, supinated, pronated, reverse, and odd objects like ropes. Also, I throw in explosive challenging push up variations such as the close grip KB explosive push up.
So, if you want to build muscle not having equipment is not an excuse and DM me for creative ways to use your bodyweight.
