Mike Deibler is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a highly sought after fitness professional. He has a Master’s Degree in Exercise and Sport Sciences and is a Licensed Sports Nutritionist. Mike has helped hundreds of individuals who could not lose weight, get to their goal weight and stay there. To learn more about Mike’s fitness services or receive more free fitness tips, visit him at www.sandiegopremiertraining.com. You can also follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/SDPT or his blog at www.premiertraining.blogspot.com.

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Question Two

 If I want to gain weight, can I just do body weight exercises instead of using weights (I don’t own any)?

Mike’s Answer:

If your goal is to put on mass, the main aspect of your program will be your nutrition. You must make sure you are taking in more than you are burning. You must also make sure the food you are consuming is nutritious and that you are not just consuming calories to get more in. The first thing you should do is estimate your total energy expenditure (TEE). This is the estimated number of calories that you typically burn each day from your metabolism and daily activity, including exercise. Once you have an idea of this number, you can figure out how much you should be eating. I would recommend 250-500 calories extra per day for weight gain. This number is an estimate and may have to be adjusted. To determine this number you can find online TEE calculators.

As for body weight exercises and weight gain, it is possible.  It just isn’t the most efficient way to do it. There are two strategies you can try to put on mass. First, you can perform high-rep body weight exercises, which is probably what you will need to do because body weight is typically lighter loads. Doing high-rep exercise to fatigue will activate slow twitch fibers more quickly. These fibers do grow but not to the extent that fast twitch fibers will.

The second approach is to use slow movement repetitions to create muscle growth. A study came out in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that found using lighter loads (30% of 1 RM) performed at slower repetitions could produce significant gains in muscle thickness. They used 3 second repetitions with no pausing in between exercises. This load that was used is comparable to body weight for most exercises.

The take away point is your muscles do not know if you are using machines, free weights, or body weight. It just knows that there is resistance. Find exercises that are challenging enough to put a strain on the muscle and you will see an increase in size.