The Ultimate Iron-Free Workout

Bodybuilding without a Gym

The Ultimate Iron-Free Workout
Maximize upper-body size and strength with these surefire at-home exercises
By Steve Stiefel
Reprint From: Mens Fitness Online

Wrong. Chris Lockwood, M.S., C.S.C.S., says that following the proper workout strategy, regardless of whether you're training at home or at the gym, will produce the results you seek. As an added bonus, you don't need to use dumbbells and barbells.

"Using body-weight-only exercises may limit your exercise variety, but not necessarily your gains," Lockwood says. "The key to making progress is to continually make adjustments in training intensity and volume to avoid plateaus and to progressively push your body's limitations to stimulate muscle growth." The best burn-fat, add-muscle strategy prescribes the following:

• Begin with three to six weeks of strength training. Perform only one or two exercises per major muscle group, completing three to five sets per exercise.
• Choose difficult exercises that don't enable you to do more than five to seven reps per set. Take about two minutes' rest between sets, training each major muscle group no more than twice per week.
• When you can successfully complete five sets of six reps for a given exercise, increase the resistance by employing some creative methodology and tactics. Examples: Have a training partner sit on your back during push-ups; hold a dumbbell between your feet during pull-ups (okay, so you'll need a dumbbell).
• When performing reps for strength, control the descending motion and then explosively contract through the force phase to recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibers and build strength.

"After this three- to six-week phase," Lockwood says, "switch to three to six weeks of muscular-endurance training in which you perform two to four exercises per major muscle group, two to five sets per exercise, up to 15 reps per set, with 30 to 90 seconds' rest between sets. When you're able to complete 15 reps for all sets for a given exercise, increase the intensity. Again, do this by increasing the load, or by using intensity-increasing principles such as superslow motion, supersetting between opposing muscle groups, compound-setting between exercises of the same muscle group, and the like."

To keep making gains, Lockwood stresses mixing up your cycles. "If you want more muscle size, alternate six weeks of strength training with three weeks of muscular-endurance training. For more definition and less size, strength-train for three weeks, alternating with six weeks of muscular-endurance training."

The Home Workout
Here's a two-day rotation, which you can complete twice a week for broad upper-body and abdominal work. Set and rep schemes are given for both strength and muscle-building cycles. The only equipment required is a pull-up bar.

Day 1

Day 2

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