6 Best Bodyweight Exercises for Men to Build Mass

Guide to best bodyweight exercises for men. (Photo by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash)
Guide to best bodyweight exercises for men (Photo via Unsplash/Edgar Chaparro)

If you want to learn about the best bodyweight exercises to build mass, you have come to the right place.

There’s no doubt that bodyweight exercises are one of the best forms of resistance training to build a foundation. If you can master bodyweight exercises, your muscles will be ready to take on the next level of resistance when you move to weights.


Best Bodyweight Exercises for Adding Mass

Here are six best bodyweight exercises men should do to ensure that their muscle fibers grow back thicker and stronger.

1) Push-up

Like weight training, even bodyweight exercises require you to focus on every muscle group. One of the primary muscle groups in the body you need to focus on are the pectoral muscles. You need to work on your chest with push-ups.

You can do standard, incline, and decline push-ups to focus on all three parts of thechest - upper, middle, and lower. As push-ups are compound movements, you’ll be engaging your chest and triceps too.

Alternatively, you can shift your focus to your tricep muscles by doing close-grip push-ups.


2) Pull-up

Another primary muscle group in the body is the lat muscles. To work on these muscles, one of the top bodyweight exercise is pull-ups.

When you do shoulder-grip pull-ups, you work on your lat muscles. Meanwhile, if you do close-grip pull-ups, you’ll be able to work on the biceps. You’ll need a pull-up bar for this exercise, which is available in most sports equipment stores and online.


3) Tuck Jump

Tuck jumps are one of the best bodyweight workouts that work as a great full body exercise.

To do a tuck jump, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and do high knee jumps. However, your knees need to come all the way to your chest, or as much as possible.

When you land, ensure that you’re landing soft and not keeping a stiff knee. Otherwise, you may end up with an injury.

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4) Mountain Climber

When doing bodyweight exercises, you cannot ignore the core muscles. One of the best exercises to develop core strength, which doubles down as a great cardio exercise, is the mountain climber.

During the entire exercise, you must keep your core engaged; keep your back stable, and ensure you’re pulling with your abdominal muscles.

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5) Squat

When you’re focusing on body parts, you cannot ignore the legs. One of the best bodyweight exercises to do for the quadriceps are squats.

Other variations in squats can help with hamstrings and calves too. For example, a wide stance helps with hamstrings, while doing squats on the toes help with working the calves.

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6) Pike Push-up

If you’re focusing on shoulders using bodyweight exercises, pike push-ups are the best option.

To do pike push-ups, put your feet on an elevated platform, and keep your palms on the floor. When you begin push-ups, ensure that you are engaging the shoulders.

It’s important to ensure that you stop the exercise if you feel nauseous, as your head is towards the floor.

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Bottom Line

You must include some of the aforementioned bodyweight exercises in your daily workout routine to tone your muscles and allow the fibers to become stronger. Moreover, you should have a mixture of weight training and bodyweight training to allow optimum muscle improvement.

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