You actually can get a ripped physique if all you do are bodyweight exercises, but you must meet some conditions to make this happen. A ripped physique from only bodyweight exercises can be yours. However, you’re fooling yourself if you think hard work won’t be involved, and that includes proper eating.
I’m a certified personal trainer and will outline what you need to do to make bodyweight exercises create that ripped bod.
The bodyweight exercises necessary to chisel your physique are the following: 1) Chin-ups/pull-ups, 2) Parallel bar dips, 3) Seated dips, 4) Pushups, 5) Narrow pushups, 6) Squats, 7) Plyometrics.
Chin-ups/pull-ups work the back, biceps and forearms; Dips work mainly the triceps; Pushups work the chest, triceps and shoulders; Narrow pushups work the triceps; Squats work the thighs and butt; Plyometrics work the thighs, butt and calves.
Let’s assume that your eating habits are conducive to obtaining a low body fat percentage, and all you need to do is strength train to get a ripped body. With the seven bodyweight exercises mentioned here, you’ll achieve a ripped look — provided you work out very intensely.
For instance, suppose seated dips, with feet propped on second bench (or stool), come easy to you. You need to make these harder. How do you do that without adding metal weights to your lap? You can increase the intensity by a) Elevating feet higher, b) Placing hands as close together as possible, and/or c) Holding the down position for five seconds for every repetition. NOW let’s see if these still come easy!
For parallel bar dips, hold the down position for several seconds to increase intensity. Increase intensity of pushups by elevating feet and/or holding the down position for five seconds, or add clapping in between.
Chin-ups/pull-ups should be done without any cheating for maximum muscle recruitment, including recruitment of the biceps. Pull yourself up as high as you can to get as much biceps work as possible. Lower yourself to a near-complete hang. If you lower only half way or even three-quarters’ way, this is cheating and incomplete range of motion.
If you can knock these off with full range of motion, going up as high as possible, then increase intensity by a) taking 10 seconds to lower, b) by doing the infamous twenty-ones, or c) by stopping midpoint for 10 seconds for every repetition.
For ultra-intensity, as you do a pull-up, release the bar when you’re at the top, but then quickly grab it in a chin-up position, lower, raise, release and grab in a pull-up position, and see how many of these “plyometric” pull-ups/chin-ups you can do. This takes bodyweight training to the max.
To further increase intensity to these bodyweight exercises, employ supersets. For instance, immediately after chin-ups to muscle failure, bang out pushups to failure, then seated dips to failure. Good luck!
So how, then, can squats with just bodyweight be intense enough to create that ripped look in your legs? You may think that bodyweight squats are way too easy, but you’ll think very differently when you attempt bodyweight squats with one leg, using a stability ball against a wall. Squat to 90 degrees, if you can.
If you think bodyweight squats with two legs are worthless, do 100 of these without stopping, then re-evaluate your thoughts. Or perhaps every tenth squat, you can throw in 10 pushups.
Combine bodyweight squats with plyometrics: Do two-leg bodyweight squats, and instead of coming up like a normal squat, jump up as high as you can. Do this for one minute. Rest a few minutes, then do squat jumps for one minute. Rest a few. Do deep walking lunges for one minute. Rest a few. Do stool jumps for one minute. Rest a few. Do switch jumps (“scissor lunges”) for one minute. You’ll be burnt toast by the end of this regimen.
You can do all sorts of supersets, such as throwing in some switch jumps right after the pushups, or bunny hopping for one minute after wide-grip pull-ups. You can clearly see, from all these examples, how bodyweight exercises alone can create a ripped physique. You need not perform every bodyweight exercise in one session. You can have just a pull-up/chin-up day, and then just a pushup/squat day, and then a third day can be just dips and jumping routines.
