Muscle Building Exercises Without Weights

Life can certainly throw some curveballs at us from time to time- both good and bad. Sometimes we will receive news of a winning lottery ticket, and other times we get news of illness or worse from a family member. It's all part of life. You don't control 99% of what happens to you - you can only control your response to these circumstances. It can be difficult at times to make long-term plans when facing a reality which contains so much unpredictable turbulence, but it is those among us who are most adept at training through the madness that are able to discover the best gains in the weight room, and in life in general.

The next time you're uprooted from your life for a week to travel due to work or family responsibilities, or lose your gym training abilities for financial or logistical reasons, don't let your muscle-gaining plans go out the window as well. Let's examine some muscle building exercises without weights that you can use to maintain your existing muscle - and even growth some new muscle - even when things get a little hairy in real life.

Manual resistance is manual resistance. Your legs do not know if you're squatting with a 315 pound Olympia bar, or three of your 105-pound cousins strapped to your back. They are moving 315 pounds for the same number of repetitions either way, and will receive the same pump whether it's cold iron or the family triplets. Obviously, this is a silly analogy, but it does drive home the point that the muscles of your body care not about a fancy state of the art gym with nicely painted benches and weights. Your muscle fibers only care about the resistance you give them.

Look around you - anything you see in a hotel room, guest house, or even your own basement, can provide the same kind of manual resistance you'd encounter in the gym. Granted, you might feel a little silly standing in the woodshed doing curls with full paint cans, but you will still grow from the efforts just as if you were training with a 25-pound dumbbell. At your gym, you might enjoy a glossy chin bar elevated off the ground as you pump out your set after set of wide grip overhand pull-ups for back development. However, your lat muscles will flare and grow just the same if you're pulling yourself up from the monkey bars at a local playground.

The resistance you place upon the muscle groups of your body is all that matters. Throw your ego out the window - it'll only matter how you look AFTER the training - wearing a sheen of brand new muscle. The means you take to arrive at that point is irrelevant. It will take some creativity, to be sure, but once you understand the fundamental elements behind the exercises you are currently using, it should come easy. Muscle building exercise without weights are the same as with weights, if you can find a process that delivers an equal amount of resistance.

Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.