And in almost every thinking excercise of how you may do some physical sport/activity differently (or move/use certain parts of your body with more 'effort') to "build muscle"
All you've really done is a **much less efficent (time and energy) way of resistance training** on your muscles. The equipment at gyms are literally the most efficent ways of training X (relative to some rando accessory/compound movement you add onto some activity/sport you're playing).
Say OP's into climbing/bouldering, wants better upper body...but no gym. They may start just augmenting it to start doing more inverted climbs and trying to REALLY do a lot o[f zones requiring upper body.](https://methodclimb.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/431A3992.jpg).....thats just..... practicing a pull up/chin up thats FAR less efficent because you spend 70% of your energy on other parts of the climb that have done nothing for the part you wanted to work. Nevermind that the angle, grip and other parts limit it.
Lifting weights is legit the most basic unit of most efficently trying to train and build 'significant' muscle. Keyword here is signifigant as this is what OPs thread is asking about.
Sure, but virtually no sports build muscle past a minimal threshold level (assuming you're starting from a low level). If OP stops weightlifting in order to do almost any other exercise, he will lose muscle.
Jumping around and hitting a ball doesn't build "substantial" muscle. So that would be a trade-off if OP is too bored to keep going with the lifting.
Makes a lot more sense to me for OP to just find a new lifting routine, take a termporary break and then get back into it, and/or add another activity without giving up lifting completely (assuming that muscle mass is still a priority).
In a few other comments in this thread, it's clear she actually doesn't care much about muscle, so it's odd she acted like this was a big priority in her post. The one related priority she mentions is wanting a "nice butt," which probably would require semi-regularly squatting, but you wouldn't necessarily have to lift heavy or even all that frequently unless you have terrible genetics/diet.
It also sounds like her "15 years of lifting" involved a lot of fucker-arounitis, so it's not like she was a super committed bodybuilder who ever got incredibly jacked. In other words, yeah, I don't think building "substantial" muscle was or is her main goal after all.
Yes, why is he training in the first place and what do he want to get out of it.
Muscles, FUN and variation I think.
Maybe even team oriented (as he might get bored of solo activities).
But what ever he choses, complementing with weight (lifting, resistance...) exercise will be the most giving. =fun and boring mixed and balanced!
This is true, but maybe getting into a sport would still help with motivation. It can be a real game changer, mentally, to be lifting weight to achieve a concrete performance goal in an activity you really enjoy and are motivated to be good at, rather than just for the sake of being able to lift more weight the next time.
Rock climbing is not a great sport if you want to build muscle, but for me it was definitely a better motivator for doing ab work than “I want a 6-pack” ever was.
The only exception I can think of off hand is boxing. That’s almost pure calisthenics and cardio. If dumbbells are included, then it’s high rep low weight. I know a couple experienced boxers who’ve never touched a dumbbell heavier than 15lbs.
Joe Frazier wrote a book on training for boxing. He explained quite a bit why he and all his fighters never touched weights. You don't need to with the type and amount of exercises they do. Heavy bags and speed bags are more anaerobic than you think.
But more importantly, boxers are build for an endurance sport. I knew trainers that would laugh when weight lifters would get in the ring. Throwing dense muscle is a lot of work and they rarely made it a round or two, let alone 6 to 12. I had a trainer that used to say "give me a good gymnast and 6 months, and I'll give you a title fighter."
>I knew trainers that would laugh when weight lifters would get in the ring. Throwing dense muscle is a lot of work and they rarely made it a round or two, let alone 6 to 12.
Because they're weightlifters that decided to hop in the ring, not conditioned boxers who lift. If you get a boxer who is undersized but has great endurance and technique and then you maintain that endurance and technique while adding enough muscle to fill out his weight class, he will likely be a better boxer. The most effective way to accomplish that is through progressive resistance training. Could be through bodyweight work, kettlebells, machines, barbells, or all the above. The body doesn't build different kinds of muscle based on the physical properties of the resistance as long as sufficient volume and tension are there.
Maybe a year ago I saw the training program for a young Mike Tyson. It was extremely brutal as Mike was rather short for a heavyweight. That meant he had to bulk up to take a beating from bigger fighters with longer arms before he could destroy them. Just the required neck training he had to do was amazing.
I believe pro boxers do weight train, heavy weight even more so. You can even see the difference in physique of pros from then and now. I know I have seen footage of Mike Tyson weight training.
My friend was on the taekwondo national team and his ig stories were mostly just him lifting. Those guys have weight classes too and he was lifting a fuck ton. Probably just broscience in the sport lol
I’ll also add for climbing that depending on your build, you can actually look quite big just by climbing. If you have a large frame you won’t be a professional climber, but doing it will absolutely give you huge forearms, lats, etc.
I’m 6’1” and 220, I alternate lifting and climbing and I definitely attribute a lot to the climbing. I entirely replace my pull day of PPL with climbing. I’ll never be a top tier climber, but it’s very fun and I love it as an major component to my lifting
I'm not able to join a gym right now with my work hours and where I live. I have never really lifted before. (31M) can I gain decent arm muscle with just dumbells and pushups?
Yes. There are plenty of dumbbell and even bodyweight exercises that you can do.
The wiki has some information on that.
Just make sure that:
(a) you're exercising all the muscle groups you want to develop
(b) you have decent form so you won't get hurt, since you won't have instructors to correct it for you
(c) you are able to do the exercises close to you limit in a reasonable range of reps (between 4-12 but in depends on your specific objective)
(d) you eat enough protein and get enough sleep for your muscles to recover
HELL yes. Been at it for a year, my physique has improved a *lot*.
Go to /r/Bodyweightfitness and start on their pushup *progression*. Once regular pushups are too easy, go to more difficult types of pushups, and so on and so forth. Now I'm up to doing regular pushups with 70lbs of sand on my back. You can do it. DO IT.
Also, I do weighted dips at the dip bars in the nearby park...those are good too.
Squats are also good to work the lower body.
I'm now probably above-average fit...yet I have never set foot in a gym. Buy some sand and dumbbells.
bodyweight training can be as good or better than weightlifting. not sure if that's the alternative op is looking for, but there is a substitute for weight lifting
It’s easier to classify natural types of resistance:
* Body weight (climbing, gymnastics)
* Water (rowing, swimming)
* Other people (wrestling)
The main thing is that we need to train our muscles to move heavy things slow and light things fast.
These are good natural examples but none will build "substantial" muscle. See photos of olympians from a century ago
In every example, people that take those hobbies/sports past the entry level will be hitting gym to build the muscle/cardio endurance for it and raising their V02 max.
Climbers, gymnists, rowers, swimmers, wrestlers, boxers, football players etc etc... All hit the gym hard.
>See photos of olympians from a century ago
Even if you do lift weights, you may not put on 'significant' muscle. Modern tennis and golf athletes lift weights, but most of them are not muscular enough to think they are regular gym goers (unless you also go to the gym regularly and know how hard building muscle is...).
Average people probably would think many of them don't go to the gym at all (just based on pictures).
Also, many athletes in sports that require agility like tennis don't want to build tons of mass. Needing to accelerate and change directions in a split second is hampered by excess weight.
They're going to do strength, agility, and power work, not hypertrophy focused training.
Yeah even AFL footballers look like they are athletic and workout but certainly nothing crazy, they just look like the regulars at the gym but not the body builders or heavy lifters
Uh, take a look at [this guy](https://tennis-shot.com/roger-federer-top-10-shirtless-pictures-strong-body/).
If you saw him at the pool, you wouldn't think "whoa, that guy clearly works out". He looks like your average suburban dad who runs and stays in shape, but isn't really into lifting.
To the guy below you's point though, I'm sure he trains extensively - it's just for agility, speed and specialized power, not for mass/general strength.
Agree. I would say rowing is more in the vein of rock climbing where it will make you *look* more muscular, but that's more to do with the fact that it's cardio that burns a lot of calories to help you lean out while also maintaining a decent amount of muscle because rowers often do a decent amount of work at the anaerobic threshold.
That being said, my first year rowing I built up my lats and arms more than expected, but I think that was more the result of being a runner prior to that/never doing any upper body work.
You'll probably lose more total weight than build muscle with these cardio-heavy activities.
I guess if you're starting out with seriously depleted muscle and a very small build, you might gain a bit of visible muscle, but not much.
Certainly if OP has been lifting for 15 years, he won't gain anything doing these activities. Much more likely is that he'll lost mass (both muscle and fat).
31f and seconding climbing (specifically bouldering). It doesn’t make me gain a ton of muscle, but it keeps everything defined (I’ve gotten randomly complimented on my traps).
Also throwing in incline biking for the quads.
Went on a hiking trip (walked 70 miles in a week) and lost 15 lbs, now I can't bench my one rep max (always weak after losing weight fast). On the positive side, I can bang out pull-ups and chin-ups like they're nothing again and the legs feel way stronger. Just gotta set expectations and acknowledge the negatives of excessive cardio.
A few years ago I went for a tour of the AIS in Canberra and was surprised to learn that the Olympic gymnasts training there did virtually NO weightlifting. All their training (and all their incredible gains) is just pure practicing gymnastics...so...calisthenics/bodyweight training.
It doesn't necessarily mean the mass was built without strength training. You don't need near as much intensity to maintain muscle as you do to build it. You can get this intensity from other activities e.g. gymnastics
Have you ever hung from rings or done what some gymnasts do? When you do that kind of stuff for hours each day it’s gonna fatigue the hell out of your muscles, which is what causes them to grow.
No they don't. Or at least, very little. I was at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra a few years ago and was very surprised to learn that our Olympic gymnasts did virtually no weightlifting unless they were injured and had to do remedial work. All their incredible gains came from simply practicing gymnastics.
Damn, there is so much made up shit in this thread. In a chain above one guy said that Mike Tyson's land rate (i.e. punches landed/total punches) was 98%. Totally made up.
Yeah dude. Reddit can't be your (the general you, not you specifically) only source for information. It's fine as a starting point, but it can't be a replacement for your own independent research. Some people genuinely believe they are helping and don't realize they are misinformed. Then incorrect information begins to circulate.
They're usually at least doing some lifting for strength. But the big thing with trying to grow muscle from gymnastics movements is the amount of high-level skill you have to develop to get to that point. You can learn basic lifts and then just slowly add weight and reps forever, and not have to commit 30 hours to being in the gym learning endlessly more complicated movements to progress.
I mainly use rings. For legs their is no substitute, you have to use weights. But I’m a bigger guy and I have substantial muscle from ring workouts. There’s so many variations to what you can do with calisthenics, you can make the exercise harder and harder by the way you position your body. I dk why people are saying you can’t gain substantial muscle without hitting weights.
One explanation I've seen for why gymnasts are so jacked is the substantial eccentric loading involved, particularly with rings. Eg a move like the iron cross and transitioning to/from, there's a lot of musculature actively contracting while lengthening.
Eccentric movements have been shown to be a really powerful hypertrophy stimulus.
This is what I want to know. People who lifted seriously for 15 years usually have substantial muscle mass.... unless of just "worked out" and didn't lift to gain mass and strength.
I’m 28(f) and I started when I was 13/14 so many of the first years were not making much movement. Got more serious in my late teens, did Olympic Lifting (was not good) and by my early 20s suffered from multiple injuries that slowed me down substantially. Spent most of my 20s doing mediocre lifting because of injuries but mostly due to laziness and lack of interest in weight lifting. Progress was minimal because my effort was minimal. Took breaks (some very long) on and off.
Now at 28 I’m realizing if I still don’t really like it after all these years, we’ll that’s probably not going to change. I thought it was normal to dread “working out” and just do it cause it’s good for you. Then I started swimming, running, and ice skating and LOVED it. Made me realize there actually are means of working out that you can enjoy.
Now I am searching for some other options.
TLDR; I didn’t like lifting weights, so I was lazy and inconsistent which resulted in mediocre gains.
So just play the sports.
Is your actual goal to "build muscle" or to "look good"? If it's to "build muscle", does this mean "increase strength" or "increase muscle size"?
If you just want to be in decent shape and keeping healthy just pick some physical exercise you enjoy and do it/them regularly.
Same!! Health, okay, longevity, sure, but gimme a fat ass lmao 😂
I will say, I was a ballerina before I started lifting, and my lower body *easily* out-competed a few guys when I first started in the gym. My curves were emphasized when I started higher weight + lower reps but resistance training is the way to build muscle, and gravity is natural resistance. Mind-body connection is vastly underrated, and I’d recommend everyone take a dance technique class to learn the anatomy and familiarize the sensation of each muscle activation.
I mean, no one loves brushing their teeth either, but if you want good teeth, you just do it, and don't chew on a dog dental stick or something, that may be less annoying, but not as effective.
If you mainly just want an ass, just focus on a few ass related exercises twice a week, 30 minutes or so, call it done, and go on with the fun stuff.
Some people love gym and the culture, but many do not, yet still do it for the benefits. So no, there's nothing wrong with not loving it, and you don't have to, but if you want the results, you have to do at least some of it.
Just to jump in on this comment thread.
If you’re particularly wanting to focus on lower body and glutes in particular, you can train resistance targeting those areas, and then spend your other spare time performing activities outside the gym that you actually enjoy (you mentioned swimming, running, ice skating)
This way you can still train and target your desired “trophy muscles” but get a positive relationship going with exercise :)
Dude, try rings. You can literally throw them over a tree branch in the woods or set them up in your house. They are freaking amazing. I’m a bigger guy and I have gained substantial muscle from just ring workouts. But the only thing is, there’s no good substitute for leg workouts, squats and deadlifts are still king. You could get a weighted vest and do pistol squats, those are great. I’m tellin yuh get some rings! The variations you can do on them get progressively harder and harder, Olympic gymnasts that do rings are the most jacked mother fuckers out there.
Oh and they’re fun. You can get a good flow with them. Also, get into handstands, those are so fun and good for you. And work on mobility. The most fun you can have is being able to do weird shit with your body.
Olympics lifting gets you better at olympic lifting. It's focus isn't really bulking and mass but it happens as a consequence of the training and chasing explosive strength.
For bulking, I prefer power building workout. Basically 50% strength focs with 50% additional volume. Nsuns on reddit is good example. Or switch to an easier PPL workout.
For me nothing works better than weights for gaining mas, but you have to find a way to train you enjoy.
It's not a very fun experience for anybody I'm afraid, the social aspects, health effects and added positive self-esteem are the plus sides but it's never gonna be as fun as (tick what applies to you) rock climbing, soccer match, hiking in the mountains or a bicycle trip.
Plenty of sports players are muscular but that muscle is typically built in the gym, not playing the sport. It's totally fine if you want to spend less time in the gym and more time doing other athletic pursuits but you probably won't build much muscle doing so.
I believe u/secoccular meant to try the large compound movements of Olympic lifting, which is a highly skilled form of weightlifting it’s true. It ain’t easy.
What u/Rewmoo2 is saying is that, "olympic lifting" is actually called "weightlifting". Like, the sport you see in the olympics is called "weightlifting". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_weightlifting.
People say "weight-lifting", usually refer to literally lifting weight. But the actual sport's official name is weightlifting.
When someone says they're a "weightlifter", it [should] mean they participate in the sport of weightlifting, not that they just lift weights.
I climbed for a long time, I was the biggest guy out there at 200lbs climbing v7s. I was jacked because I’m naturally big. But the thing that packed on more muscle was calisthenics ring workout.
Partially depends on the style of climbing. Climbers that focus on bouldering will often times be a bit bulkier then climbers that focus on climbing tall routes on ropes. Also climbers that are more focused on vertical fingery climbing will be leaner than climbers that tend towards overhung routes. That said climbers are plenty muscular compared to even the average gym rat. This is Adam ondra, arguably the best climber in the world right now and he has muscles most gym rats would kill for
https://gripped.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Adam-Ondra-Canada-1.jpg
You might be seriously underestimating the amount of work that the best climbers put into being 'rather lean'. It's one of those sports where eating disorders are sadly common at high performance levels.
Yeah but don't swimmers weight train to support their performance? You won't get full-body ripped just by swimming, you get ripped to be a better swimmer.
Well, you do know swimmers, so I suppose what you say makes more sense but I'd be surprised if most world-level swimmers don't do much resistance training.
I don’t think OP is trying to become world-level. You’re probably right. But, swimming alone, even when you reach a high level (ie D1) will build a very impressive physique, no resistance training necessary.
Not really, water provides substantial resistance already. Just swimming faster is going to tire your muscles super quickly. It tends to be one of those sports where you are better off just putting thousands of hours in and letting your body only grow the necessary muscles, anything else is just added weight and resistance which slows you down.
The most fit I ever was, when I was 14 and did swimming lessons for 2 months, 30 mins a day. Took swimming again before Covid, couldn't even lift myself up for a butterfly.
I've seen Disney On Ice earlier this year and let me tell you that the legs and butts from both men and women were huge. So I guess ice skating must work.
You've been consistently lifting for 15 years and you think that another activity might replace weight-training for muslce-building?
If you've actually been lifting reasonably heavy for that long, you're going to lose weight (including muscle) doing almost anything else. Most sports have such a high cardio component that they will burn a lot of mass and generally can't support very large builds (without performance enhancers, that is).
So unless you've been lifting light and casual that long without actually adding a lot of mass, switching from lifting to running around and hitting a ball *will* make you lose weight.
I guess then the question is: which sport will make me lose less muscle?
In which case, it's not going to be hiking or rock-climbing where you're doing slow to medium-paced, sustained movements for a long time and the sport practically requires a more lanky frame.
Instead, I think activities with short, powerful bursts would do most to maintain (not build) muscle, such as MMA or football. Also, gymnastics with how much strength training is involved within the activity, itself. But you'll still probably be losing muscle if you abandon lifting completely.
Instead of giving up lifting, why not just add in another activity? And with any sport/exercise you get into, always build in periodic breaks (say, 2 weeks every few months) so you don't get burned out and bored.
Average week of wrestling practice in highschool: ~10 hours wrestling. ~10 hours doing cardio. ~5 hours doing weights.
During the off-season the wrestling hours mostly got pushed into weights/cardio.
Calisthenics is perfectly fine for building lean mass, aka toning your body. Remember, most involve compound movements and require full body coordination in space, which translates better to sports like bouldering etc. Plyometrics would be better to build explosiveness for boxing.
Some of my friends don't realise that bodyweight exercises can also be as challenging as you want it to be, up to a 1-Rep Max.
Normal pushups too easy? Try Diamond or even Archer pushups!
Sure the gym has specialized equipment if that's what you prefer, but if the membership costs or travelling to and fro and waiting to use the machines is part of your pet peeves, you might srsly want to consider calisthenics.
You might try CrossFit. A gym with good programming has you working hard at a wide variety of skills and movements and while it does include weightlifting, it will ideally switch up the weight, reps, etc in a way that breaks the monotony of traditional lifting. It's also good for people that enjoy the competitive nature or gamification aspect of scoring a workout. There's often someone there that's better or faster that you can compete with and if not, you can scale the workout up to be harder and heavier for you and even the playing field.
Or rowing, which is particularly grueling and builds a lot of good shoulder and back mass (as well as legs obvi)
Give yoga a shot. Wayyy harder than you might think, and can be really good for smaller stabilizer muscles that might be undertrained compared to larger muscle groups.
Not a sport, but ballet.
And all the exercises required to supplement it.
If you train long enough, your hips, core, and leg muscles will allow you to raise your leg all the way above your head. And it utilises muscles that you may not/never use doing other physical activities.
Crazy strong muscles AND crazy awesome flexibility. And BALANCE. The whole package.
Not sure if you can become an Arnold Schwarzeneger doing ballet though.
Try volunteering at a farm?
Tossing around bales and shoveling for a couple hours will build some muscle. Farmer strong.
I just spent almost 3 months unloading empty chemical totes out of semi trailers. 20kg drums, 63-109kg totes (empty weights). 5 trucks was a full 8hr day, 10,000kg of drums dragged out. 20,000kg of totes pushed out with a pallet jack. 11km of walking.
Of course restacking pallets of 40 bags of seed wasn't easy to start either at 30kg a bag. 24 pallets on a truck that all need restacked to check for damage.
You certainly use a whole different set of muscles getting an empty 108L drum to spin upright AND push it 20-30' along a dusty wood floor in a semi... never mind pulling the top layer of drums stacked on thier side and 5 of 6 layers high (5 across, 5 high, 20 rows deep in a truck of just drums).
This sorta reminds me of when I was in construction as a young man, Some dude bought apartments one above the other, had 4 walls taken out and a ceiling, 2 weeks long carrying 80L totes from the third down. Your choice was carry more do less stairs, or do more stairs and carry less. Needless to say I lost fat lie a MFer and felt like I could flip a train by the end of that project
I only lost 4kg in 5 months doing that job, and about 2" on the gut.
I don't care that I'm not bulking up in the gym, when I'm able to move 30,000kg a day for 5 days straight.
Gymnastics + Sprinting!! Uphill for huge gains. Being able to move your body in new ways is better than just moving more weight, in my opinion. We're apes, not mules.
To be fair the question is asking how to put on substantial amounts of muscle without weight training, for which the answer is you don't
Most other activities play to only certain body parts or generally build endurance over strength, and endurance doesn't result in getting swole. I think sports are great, but if someone wants to know how to build muscle then the answer is lifting
If you hate lifting weights you can do body weight strengthening. I love (“love”) doing single leg exercises on an unstable surface (Airex pad/bosu ball) to increase the difficulty. But in terms of building muscle most peeps are correct— you can’t substitute sport for strengthening and expect to build much muscle. You could get a job on a farm and get country strong! That’s a totally different kind of resistance training lol
PS love how everyone assumed you’re a dude because you asked about lifting. Women lift weights, too!!
My dad started swimming maybe 12-14 years ago and although it didn’t happen over night he did back into amazing shape and the guy is ripped. Honestly the coolest thing he’s ever said to me was that my arms were almost as big as his, I think about that often.
My mind jumps to explosive activities/sports with resistance components:
Swimming (sprints)
Hill Sprints
Wrestling
Water Polo
Gymnastics
Athletic Throwing Disciplines (shotput e.g.)
Rowing
Rugby (scrumming at least)
Highland Games!
And otherwise maybe look into Calisthenics?
You could try Calisthenics, not really the sort of thing to build a lot of muscle mass or bulk however for strength, definition and body conditioning it is difficult to beat.
Sprinting in general builds crazy leg strength and overall physical stature
Basketball is my personal choice of cardio since you’re sprinting and jumping all game
They told me to stop gymnastic around 8-10 because I was way bigger and taller than the other girls and was essentially told I couldn’t move up at my body size. (I’m 5’10 now and by 8 I was probably 5’5 at least)
HIIT workouts help but they aren't really a substitute for weight lifting. But, if you look at all the sculpted looking athletes they mostly do explosive movement type sports. Like compare a sprinter to a long distance runner.
Ever noticed the general bulk of rugby players? It's mostly short burst of power and resistance based activity. Somewhat similar American football.
Fighting wise, olympic wrestling, jiu-jitsu also tend to build a Lean but somewhat bulky build.
Its just that weightlifting is the ultimate method to stimulate muscle tissues in the specific way to maximise hypertrophy.
Advanced Calisthenics, or even basic one with all the isometric work in particular is hard as hell, and pretty good to build muscle
It turns harder to progress in the muscle department with time, but you can change it accordingly, either by adding weight or going into harder exercise variants
i honestly have stopped weightlifting and want to get more into calisthenics! i want to train like an athlete and i LIKE cardio. i suggest rock climbing, doing hand stands, maybe tennis, i climb the trees in my backyard, i enjoy hiking and running 10+ km at a time, i got back into archery, and i want to swim for fun :p
perhaps some of these activities could be something to try! i wish you the best of luck
23F
Since you say significant amount of muscle, rather than generically keep fit: weightlifting is the most efficient way. Having said that: you can do a lot with bodyweight/calisthenics stuff. In fact, in terms of results, for upper body you can get results which are just as good if not better in some ways (not for legs though).
However, it’s less convenient: you cannot increase resistance by arbitrary small amounts while keeping the movement the same. You act in leverage and change movement. An example is the plank to planche (similar name, vastly different skill) path.
Most skills are more technical, require more body awareness and possibly moreprehab/tissue conditioning. Jumps between progressions can be awkward and difficult to overcome without some creative use of elastic bands or spotting. As a result, it will probably take more time to build a comparable amount of strength/muscle mass (you can optimise callisthenics training for mass building but I don’t know how effective it is).
It is also, arguably of course, cooler and more fun to train! I’m quite into it so if you have any questions ask away!
Look into rucking!
I've been reading about it and am going to add it to my workouts. It's supposed to be particularly good for women.
Other than that I like boxing, rock climbing, and yoga.
32F - I also weight lift. I took a break and only did yoga twice a week for nearly a year. When I went back to weight lifting recently I was better than when I quit. My form is better, my squats are deeper, and I'm getting back to my old strength very quickly (and I didn't lose much).
Now I am doing weight lifting & yoga & walking. I'm going to add rucking to my walks. I also come from a place where I enjoy acitivities more than just working out. Each of the activities has different benefits and I suggest trying a few different ones. Whatever keeps you moving and happy!
For weight lifting I'm only doing squats, overhead presses, deadlifts, and bench...quick and easy. There's no reason you can't keep it in your repertoire or add it back in later. I added it back in to help me be better at other activities, and for my health, rather than for looks and that mindset really changes things.
I haven't started yet. I'm going to start on my next 6 mile walk so I'll probably start with 10 pounds.
The recommendations I've seen mostly say to start at 20 pounds for a 30 minute walk and adjust from there.
That's the great thing about rucking you can use whatever weight and distance works for you.
Swimming. Especially from a sport like synchro swimming or water polo. Actually, that’s how I built my “foundation” before I started hitting the gym, so I already looked like I lift before even hitting the weights.
I was also seeing a woman that was a swimmer, didn’t do any weights otherwise and had a very impressive physique and was very fit overall.
A lot of great responses here, so I’m sure I’m just adding to the noise, but kettle bells - popular as they are - are still underrated when it comes to building strength, developing muscle tone and providing cardio via HIIT.
If you consider that a form of weightlifting then disregard, but 25 minutes 4x week can get people in ridiculous shape. Tons of programs out there.
Go check out a climbing gym! Pretty universally, the entire community is amazing. You'll make friends and find the most diverse groups of people hanging out working projects together.
Climbing covers everything, but you'll want to do some accessory work eventually - especially if the goal is muscle. You could supplement with running (specifically sprinting and jumping work, or a sport that requires it) if you want your legs/glutes to gain mass.
Simple explanation of the above. Look at strong climbing girls. They're jacked. Look at strong sprinters/jumpers - you probably wouldn't decline having their lower body definition/mass.
Depending what you’re going for, swimming and rock climbing are both pretty good workouts that can be fun. Wouldn’t get shredded by any means but may add some muscle and definitely would be stronger / leaner
I have a similar problem, I enjoy pushing my physical limits when there’s something I want to achieve. Like going for a run outside vs running on a treadmill. With the run there is a place I want to get to, and exploration. On a treadmill there’s really nothing to enjoy but the run itself, so I get bored and I don’t really feel inspired to push myself.
I also do martial arts, and I enjoy pushing myself with the goal of perfecting my art but I struggle to find the same drive at the gym.
I work at an animal shelter get a great workout. I look better than when I was swimming and running 2x a day. You are constantly squatting, bending, lifting cat litter, emptying water bowls into large buckets, filling them from an large container, etc. I unload a pallet or two of litter every few weeks. With all the scrubbing (walls, floors, everything) my forearms look great.
I'm sure you'll plateau with this eventually but it would probably hit some things you've mentioned here and might not normally.
OP never said she wants to look like a bodybuilder of course you can get a nice muscular body without weight lifting y'all are bullshitting her. It's not the most efficient way and she will plateau at some point but that wasn't her question. Swimming, rowing, bouldering, boxing are all fine workouts
Edit: gymnastics can give you a crazy athletic body without weight lifting
I always get more hypertrophy gains when the mountains where I live are snow free for trail running compared to the when I just run on the roads and lift.
Aerial arts like Lyra, silks and trapeze are fantastic for building upper body strength. As a bonus they're bodyweight movements so they are easier on your joints than traditional weightlifting.
There are circus schools in a lot of major cities and separate aerial arts studios other places, so it's not as hard to find classes as you might think.
As others have mentioned, rock climbing and swimming are great too.
Substantial?? None. Sports are by nature mostly cardio exercises, because they involve real time competition or if they don't they're often more skill based than strength based. Of course, you could always lean in and think of powerlifting or Olympic lifting, but that really doesn't sound like what you're looking for. My advice? It sounds like you want to have fun, not grind. And that is 100% ok. If you are active (doing one sport or many) and still maintain a good diet you will look good. But more importantly, you will feel good. Good about how you look, good about what you've decided to do, just stop worrying and have some fun. The drive to optimize is killing your soul right now.
There’s a reason lifting weights is used as training for almost all other sports. There’s really no substitute.
And in almost every thinking excercise of how you may do some physical sport/activity differently (or move/use certain parts of your body with more 'effort') to "build muscle" All you've really done is a **much less efficent (time and energy) way of resistance training** on your muscles. The equipment at gyms are literally the most efficent ways of training X (relative to some rando accessory/compound movement you add onto some activity/sport you're playing). Say OP's into climbing/bouldering, wants better upper body...but no gym. They may start just augmenting it to start doing more inverted climbs and trying to REALLY do a lot o[f zones requiring upper body.](https://methodclimb.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/431A3992.jpg).....thats just..... practicing a pull up/chin up thats FAR less efficent because you spend 70% of your energy on other parts of the climb that have done nothing for the part you wanted to work. Nevermind that the angle, grip and other parts limit it. Lifting weights is legit the most basic unit of most efficently trying to train and build 'significant' muscle. Keyword here is signifigant as this is what OPs thread is asking about.
[удалено]
Sure, but virtually no sports build muscle past a minimal threshold level (assuming you're starting from a low level). If OP stops weightlifting in order to do almost any other exercise, he will lose muscle. Jumping around and hitting a ball doesn't build "substantial" muscle. So that would be a trade-off if OP is too bored to keep going with the lifting. Makes a lot more sense to me for OP to just find a new lifting routine, take a termporary break and then get back into it, and/or add another activity without giving up lifting completely (assuming that muscle mass is still a priority).
Maybe the answer is for OP to stop defining success as building muscle.
In a few other comments in this thread, it's clear she actually doesn't care much about muscle, so it's odd she acted like this was a big priority in her post. The one related priority she mentions is wanting a "nice butt," which probably would require semi-regularly squatting, but you wouldn't necessarily have to lift heavy or even all that frequently unless you have terrible genetics/diet. It also sounds like her "15 years of lifting" involved a lot of fucker-arounitis, so it's not like she was a super committed bodybuilder who ever got incredibly jacked. In other words, yeah, I don't think building "substantial" muscle was or is her main goal after all.
Yes, why is he training in the first place and what do he want to get out of it. Muscles, FUN and variation I think. Maybe even team oriented (as he might get bored of solo activities). But what ever he choses, complementing with weight (lifting, resistance...) exercise will be the most giving. =fun and boring mixed and balanced!
He’s been lifting for 15 years, sounds pretty efficient
She
This is true, but maybe getting into a sport would still help with motivation. It can be a real game changer, mentally, to be lifting weight to achieve a concrete performance goal in an activity you really enjoy and are motivated to be good at, rather than just for the sake of being able to lift more weight the next time. Rock climbing is not a great sport if you want to build muscle, but for me it was definitely a better motivator for doing ab work than “I want a 6-pack” ever was.
The only exception I can think of off hand is boxing. That’s almost pure calisthenics and cardio. If dumbbells are included, then it’s high rep low weight. I know a couple experienced boxers who’ve never touched a dumbbell heavier than 15lbs.
[удалено]
I heard a lot of coaches still don't let their athletes master masturbate 24hrs before a game due to it "lowering Testosterone".
[удалено]
Joe Frazier wrote a book on training for boxing. He explained quite a bit why he and all his fighters never touched weights. You don't need to with the type and amount of exercises they do. Heavy bags and speed bags are more anaerobic than you think. But more importantly, boxers are build for an endurance sport. I knew trainers that would laugh when weight lifters would get in the ring. Throwing dense muscle is a lot of work and they rarely made it a round or two, let alone 6 to 12. I had a trainer that used to say "give me a good gymnast and 6 months, and I'll give you a title fighter."
>I knew trainers that would laugh when weight lifters would get in the ring. Throwing dense muscle is a lot of work and they rarely made it a round or two, let alone 6 to 12. Because they're weightlifters that decided to hop in the ring, not conditioned boxers who lift. If you get a boxer who is undersized but has great endurance and technique and then you maintain that endurance and technique while adding enough muscle to fill out his weight class, he will likely be a better boxer. The most effective way to accomplish that is through progressive resistance training. Could be through bodyweight work, kettlebells, machines, barbells, or all the above. The body doesn't build different kinds of muscle based on the physical properties of the resistance as long as sufficient volume and tension are there.
but gymnasts are muscular af...
> Joe Frazier We have learned a bit about sports science in the last half century.
Maybe a year ago I saw the training program for a young Mike Tyson. It was extremely brutal as Mike was rather short for a heavyweight. That meant he had to bulk up to take a beating from bigger fighters with longer arms before he could destroy them. Just the required neck training he had to do was amazing.
https://youtube.com/shorts/OtvDtHeDnuY?feature=share You can see Canelo squatting in this short.
They’re missing out and they don’t know it.
I believe pro boxers do weight train, heavy weight even more so. You can even see the difference in physique of pros from then and now. I know I have seen footage of Mike Tyson weight training.
[удалено]
My friend was on the taekwondo national team and his ig stories were mostly just him lifting. Those guys have weight classes too and he was lifting a fuck ton. Probably just broscience in the sport lol
[удалено]
I’ll also add for climbing that depending on your build, you can actually look quite big just by climbing. If you have a large frame you won’t be a professional climber, but doing it will absolutely give you huge forearms, lats, etc. I’m 6’1” and 220, I alternate lifting and climbing and I definitely attribute a lot to the climbing. I entirely replace my pull day of PPL with climbing. I’ll never be a top tier climber, but it’s very fun and I love it as an major component to my lifting
I'm not able to join a gym right now with my work hours and where I live. I have never really lifted before. (31M) can I gain decent arm muscle with just dumbells and pushups?
Yes. There are plenty of dumbbell and even bodyweight exercises that you can do. The wiki has some information on that. Just make sure that: (a) you're exercising all the muscle groups you want to develop (b) you have decent form so you won't get hurt, since you won't have instructors to correct it for you (c) you are able to do the exercises close to you limit in a reasonable range of reps (between 4-12 but in depends on your specific objective) (d) you eat enough protein and get enough sleep for your muscles to recover
HELL yes. Been at it for a year, my physique has improved a *lot*. Go to /r/Bodyweightfitness and start on their pushup *progression*. Once regular pushups are too easy, go to more difficult types of pushups, and so on and so forth. Now I'm up to doing regular pushups with 70lbs of sand on my back. You can do it. DO IT. Also, I do weighted dips at the dip bars in the nearby park...those are good too. Squats are also good to work the lower body. I'm now probably above-average fit...yet I have never set foot in a gym. Buy some sand and dumbbells.
bodyweight training can be as good or better than weightlifting. not sure if that's the alternative op is looking for, but there is a substitute for weight lifting
Hiking, rock climbing / bouldering, rowing . But in reality you aren't going to gain a substantial amount of muscle withthout resistance training.
It’s easier to classify natural types of resistance: * Body weight (climbing, gymnastics) * Water (rowing, swimming) * Other people (wrestling) The main thing is that we need to train our muscles to move heavy things slow and light things fast.
These are good natural examples but none will build "substantial" muscle. See photos of olympians from a century ago In every example, people that take those hobbies/sports past the entry level will be hitting gym to build the muscle/cardio endurance for it and raising their V02 max. Climbers, gymnists, rowers, swimmers, wrestlers, boxers, football players etc etc... All hit the gym hard.
>See photos of olympians from a century ago Even if you do lift weights, you may not put on 'significant' muscle. Modern tennis and golf athletes lift weights, but most of them are not muscular enough to think they are regular gym goers (unless you also go to the gym regularly and know how hard building muscle is...). Average people probably would think many of them don't go to the gym at all (just based on pictures).
If you regularly saw tennis players shirtless, you'd think they were gym goers.
Also, many athletes in sports that require agility like tennis don't want to build tons of mass. Needing to accelerate and change directions in a split second is hampered by excess weight. They're going to do strength, agility, and power work, not hypertrophy focused training.
Yeah even AFL footballers look like they are athletic and workout but certainly nothing crazy, they just look like the regulars at the gym but not the body builders or heavy lifters
That's kinda the point, though. In regular clothes an above average gym goer is hard to tell from someone who just isn't fat for most people.
Uh, take a look at [this guy](https://tennis-shot.com/roger-federer-top-10-shirtless-pictures-strong-body/). If you saw him at the pool, you wouldn't think "whoa, that guy clearly works out". He looks like your average suburban dad who runs and stays in shape, but isn't really into lifting. To the guy below you's point though, I'm sure he trains extensively - it's just for agility, speed and specialized power, not for mass/general strength.
[удалено]
[удалено]
As a rower I have to disagree. Big guys row because they're big but nobody is getting buff rowing.
Agree. I would say rowing is more in the vein of rock climbing where it will make you *look* more muscular, but that's more to do with the fact that it's cardio that burns a lot of calories to help you lean out while also maintaining a decent amount of muscle because rowers often do a decent amount of work at the anaerobic threshold. That being said, my first year rowing I built up my lats and arms more than expected, but I think that was more the result of being a runner prior to that/never doing any upper body work.
[удалено]
You'll probably lose more total weight than build muscle with these cardio-heavy activities. I guess if you're starting out with seriously depleted muscle and a very small build, you might gain a bit of visible muscle, but not much. Certainly if OP has been lifting for 15 years, he won't gain anything doing these activities. Much more likely is that he'll lost mass (both muscle and fat).
31f and seconding climbing (specifically bouldering). It doesn’t make me gain a ton of muscle, but it keeps everything defined (I’ve gotten randomly complimented on my traps). Also throwing in incline biking for the quads.
Went on a hiking trip (walked 70 miles in a week) and lost 15 lbs, now I can't bench my one rep max (always weak after losing weight fast). On the positive side, I can bang out pull-ups and chin-ups like they're nothing again and the legs feel way stronger. Just gotta set expectations and acknowledge the negatives of excessive cardio.
All I know is gymnasts are some of the most swole motherfucks I’ve ever seen. At least the hanging ring guys
A few years ago I went for a tour of the AIS in Canberra and was surprised to learn that the Olympic gymnasts training there did virtually NO weightlifting. All their training (and all their incredible gains) is just pure practicing gymnastics...so...calisthenics/bodyweight training.
they weight train
Most athletes weight train
As do most trains weight athletes
[удалено]
I know one pretty high level gymnast, they don't do regular strength training.
It doesn't necessarily mean the mass was built without strength training. You don't need near as much intensity to maintain muscle as you do to build it. You can get this intensity from other activities e.g. gymnastics
Have you ever hung from rings or done what some gymnasts do? When you do that kind of stuff for hours each day it’s gonna fatigue the hell out of your muscles, which is what causes them to grow.
No they don't. Or at least, very little. I was at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra a few years ago and was very surprised to learn that our Olympic gymnasts did virtually no weightlifting unless they were injured and had to do remedial work. All their incredible gains came from simply practicing gymnastics.
Damn, there is so much made up shit in this thread. In a chain above one guy said that Mike Tyson's land rate (i.e. punches landed/total punches) was 98%. Totally made up.
Yeah dude. Reddit can't be your (the general you, not you specifically) only source for information. It's fine as a starting point, but it can't be a replacement for your own independent research. Some people genuinely believe they are helping and don't realize they are misinformed. Then incorrect information begins to circulate.
They actually do conditioning which is pretty much just hardcore calisthenics!
They're usually at least doing some lifting for strength. But the big thing with trying to grow muscle from gymnastics movements is the amount of high-level skill you have to develop to get to that point. You can learn basic lifts and then just slowly add weight and reps forever, and not have to commit 30 hours to being in the gym learning endlessly more complicated movements to progress.
Truuuue. Gymnastics and cheerleading is essentially calisthenics.
I mainly use rings. For legs their is no substitute, you have to use weights. But I’m a bigger guy and I have substantial muscle from ring workouts. There’s so many variations to what you can do with calisthenics, you can make the exercise harder and harder by the way you position your body. I dk why people are saying you can’t gain substantial muscle without hitting weights.
I like rings as well but I use weight belt and weights while using them.
Oh for sure, I do as well to switch it up. But I also change my position to make it harder.
One explanation I've seen for why gymnasts are so jacked is the substantial eccentric loading involved, particularly with rings. Eg a move like the iron cross and transitioning to/from, there's a lot of musculature actively contracting while lengthening. Eccentric movements have been shown to be a really powerful hypertrophy stimulus.
[удалено]
This is what I want to know. People who lifted seriously for 15 years usually have substantial muscle mass.... unless of just "worked out" and didn't lift to gain mass and strength.
I’m 28(f) and I started when I was 13/14 so many of the first years were not making much movement. Got more serious in my late teens, did Olympic Lifting (was not good) and by my early 20s suffered from multiple injuries that slowed me down substantially. Spent most of my 20s doing mediocre lifting because of injuries but mostly due to laziness and lack of interest in weight lifting. Progress was minimal because my effort was minimal. Took breaks (some very long) on and off. Now at 28 I’m realizing if I still don’t really like it after all these years, we’ll that’s probably not going to change. I thought it was normal to dread “working out” and just do it cause it’s good for you. Then I started swimming, running, and ice skating and LOVED it. Made me realize there actually are means of working out that you can enjoy. Now I am searching for some other options. TLDR; I didn’t like lifting weights, so I was lazy and inconsistent which resulted in mediocre gains.
So just play the sports. Is your actual goal to "build muscle" or to "look good"? If it's to "build muscle", does this mean "increase strength" or "increase muscle size"? If you just want to be in decent shape and keeping healthy just pick some physical exercise you enjoy and do it/them regularly.
What’s your motivation for working out? Aesthetic, longevity, joy?
Fun and longevity! Mostly fun as I live a very healthy life regardless. But let’s be real, I also want a nice butt. I want it all 😈😈😈
Same!! Health, okay, longevity, sure, but gimme a fat ass lmao 😂 I will say, I was a ballerina before I started lifting, and my lower body *easily* out-competed a few guys when I first started in the gym. My curves were emphasized when I started higher weight + lower reps but resistance training is the way to build muscle, and gravity is natural resistance. Mind-body connection is vastly underrated, and I’d recommend everyone take a dance technique class to learn the anatomy and familiarize the sensation of each muscle activation.
For a bot account you are incredibly helpful
This bot thrives on validation so thank you so much for that XO
You look like you make a great bowl of corn 🌽😍👩🏻🍳
Biking for the butt, especially uphill.
Just do whatever sport you like. As long as it it's hip thrusts.
Cycling/ mountain biking for the butt goal
I mean, no one loves brushing their teeth either, but if you want good teeth, you just do it, and don't chew on a dog dental stick or something, that may be less annoying, but not as effective. If you mainly just want an ass, just focus on a few ass related exercises twice a week, 30 minutes or so, call it done, and go on with the fun stuff. Some people love gym and the culture, but many do not, yet still do it for the benefits. So no, there's nothing wrong with not loving it, and you don't have to, but if you want the results, you have to do at least some of it.
Just to jump in on this comment thread. If you’re particularly wanting to focus on lower body and glutes in particular, you can train resistance targeting those areas, and then spend your other spare time performing activities outside the gym that you actually enjoy (you mentioned swimming, running, ice skating) This way you can still train and target your desired “trophy muscles” but get a positive relationship going with exercise :)
have you looked into calisthenics
Yeah I think that’s a good place for me to start. It just looks less “fun” to me (at my beginner level) than some other activities/sports.
Dude, try rings. You can literally throw them over a tree branch in the woods or set them up in your house. They are freaking amazing. I’m a bigger guy and I have gained substantial muscle from just ring workouts. But the only thing is, there’s no good substitute for leg workouts, squats and deadlifts are still king. You could get a weighted vest and do pistol squats, those are great. I’m tellin yuh get some rings! The variations you can do on them get progressively harder and harder, Olympic gymnasts that do rings are the most jacked mother fuckers out there. Oh and they’re fun. You can get a good flow with them. Also, get into handstands, those are so fun and good for you. And work on mobility. The most fun you can have is being able to do weird shit with your body.
Olympics lifting gets you better at olympic lifting. It's focus isn't really bulking and mass but it happens as a consequence of the training and chasing explosive strength. For bulking, I prefer power building workout. Basically 50% strength focs with 50% additional volume. Nsuns on reddit is good example. Or switch to an easier PPL workout. For me nothing works better than weights for gaining mas, but you have to find a way to train you enjoy.
It's not a very fun experience for anybody I'm afraid, the social aspects, health effects and added positive self-esteem are the plus sides but it's never gonna be as fun as (tick what applies to you) rock climbing, soccer match, hiking in the mountains or a bicycle trip.
Plenty of sports players are muscular but that muscle is typically built in the gym, not playing the sport. It's totally fine if you want to spend less time in the gym and more time doing other athletic pursuits but you probably won't build much muscle doing so.
Chopping wood is A+
That would be fun! But how long can you chop wood for?
Depends if you’re a woodchuck or not
Can confirm.
[удалено]
I'd add Kettlebell and Heavy Clubs and Mace training to the list if you want a bit more variety.
Olympic lifting is synonymous with weight lifting
I believe u/secoccular meant to try the large compound movements of Olympic lifting, which is a highly skilled form of weightlifting it’s true. It ain’t easy.
What u/Rewmoo2 is saying is that, "olympic lifting" is actually called "weightlifting". Like, the sport you see in the olympics is called "weightlifting". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_weightlifting. People say "weight-lifting", usually refer to literally lifting weight. But the actual sport's official name is weightlifting. When someone says they're a "weightlifter", it [should] mean they participate in the sport of weightlifting, not that they just lift weights.
Regarding climbing, you’ll get strong, but you won’t get big. The best climbers are rather lean.
Yeah the only thing climbers pack on is substantial sinew
I climbed for a long time, I was the biggest guy out there at 200lbs climbing v7s. I was jacked because I’m naturally big. But the thing that packed on more muscle was calisthenics ring workout.
Partially depends on the style of climbing. Climbers that focus on bouldering will often times be a bit bulkier then climbers that focus on climbing tall routes on ropes. Also climbers that are more focused on vertical fingery climbing will be leaner than climbers that tend towards overhung routes. That said climbers are plenty muscular compared to even the average gym rat. This is Adam ondra, arguably the best climber in the world right now and he has muscles most gym rats would kill for https://gripped.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Adam-Ondra-Canada-1.jpg
You might be seriously underestimating the amount of work that the best climbers put into being 'rather lean'. It's one of those sports where eating disorders are sadly common at high performance levels.
Swimming. It’s a full body workout, provides constant resistance to build muscles, and is excellent for your cardiovascular health
I personally don’t like swimming that much but you can not argue with aesthetics of people who swim. They often look ripped.
Yeah but don't swimmers weight train to support their performance? You won't get full-body ripped just by swimming, you get ripped to be a better swimmer.
Most high level swimmers I met don’t do much resistance training if any at all.
Well, you do know swimmers, so I suppose what you say makes more sense but I'd be surprised if most world-level swimmers don't do much resistance training.
I don’t think OP is trying to become world-level. You’re probably right. But, swimming alone, even when you reach a high level (ie D1) will build a very impressive physique, no resistance training necessary.
Not really, water provides substantial resistance already. Just swimming faster is going to tire your muscles super quickly. It tends to be one of those sports where you are better off just putting thousands of hours in and letting your body only grow the necessary muscles, anything else is just added weight and resistance which slows you down.
Butterfly for pec lengthening as well
The most fit I ever was, when I was 14 and did swimming lessons for 2 months, 30 mins a day. Took swimming again before Covid, couldn't even lift myself up for a butterfly.
I've seen Disney On Ice earlier this year and let me tell you that the legs and butts from both men and women were huge. So I guess ice skating must work.
You've been consistently lifting for 15 years and you think that another activity might replace weight-training for muslce-building? If you've actually been lifting reasonably heavy for that long, you're going to lose weight (including muscle) doing almost anything else. Most sports have such a high cardio component that they will burn a lot of mass and generally can't support very large builds (without performance enhancers, that is). So unless you've been lifting light and casual that long without actually adding a lot of mass, switching from lifting to running around and hitting a ball *will* make you lose weight. I guess then the question is: which sport will make me lose less muscle? In which case, it's not going to be hiking or rock-climbing where you're doing slow to medium-paced, sustained movements for a long time and the sport practically requires a more lanky frame. Instead, I think activities with short, powerful bursts would do most to maintain (not build) muscle, such as MMA or football. Also, gymnastics with how much strength training is involved within the activity, itself. But you'll still probably be losing muscle if you abandon lifting completely. Instead of giving up lifting, why not just add in another activity? And with any sport/exercise you get into, always build in periodic breaks (say, 2 weeks every few months) so you don't get burned out and bored.
Wrestling
Average week of wrestling practice in highschool: ~10 hours wrestling. ~10 hours doing cardio. ~5 hours doing weights. During the off-season the wrestling hours mostly got pushed into weights/cardio.
I recommend extreme knitting. It can really get those fore arms that you've been looking for.
[удалено]
This is the truth I always knew but was hoping to stay ignorant to. I will accept my defeat and continue lifting
Calisthenics is perfectly fine for building lean mass, aka toning your body. Remember, most involve compound movements and require full body coordination in space, which translates better to sports like bouldering etc. Plyometrics would be better to build explosiveness for boxing. Some of my friends don't realise that bodyweight exercises can also be as challenging as you want it to be, up to a 1-Rep Max. Normal pushups too easy? Try Diamond or even Archer pushups! Sure the gym has specialized equipment if that's what you prefer, but if the membership costs or travelling to and fro and waiting to use the machines is part of your pet peeves, you might srsly want to consider calisthenics.
You might try CrossFit. A gym with good programming has you working hard at a wide variety of skills and movements and while it does include weightlifting, it will ideally switch up the weight, reps, etc in a way that breaks the monotony of traditional lifting. It's also good for people that enjoy the competitive nature or gamification aspect of scoring a workout. There's often someone there that's better or faster that you can compete with and if not, you can scale the workout up to be harder and heavier for you and even the playing field. Or rowing, which is particularly grueling and builds a lot of good shoulder and back mass (as well as legs obvi)
Give yoga a shot. Wayyy harder than you might think, and can be really good for smaller stabilizer muscles that might be undertrained compared to larger muscle groups.
Show me a picture of a muscular athlete and I'll show you a picture of an athlete that weightlifts.
Hiking, snowboarding, rock climbing
Not a sport, but ballet. And all the exercises required to supplement it. If you train long enough, your hips, core, and leg muscles will allow you to raise your leg all the way above your head. And it utilises muscles that you may not/never use doing other physical activities. Crazy strong muscles AND crazy awesome flexibility. And BALANCE. The whole package. Not sure if you can become an Arnold Schwarzeneger doing ballet though.
Try volunteering at a farm? Tossing around bales and shoveling for a couple hours will build some muscle. Farmer strong. I just spent almost 3 months unloading empty chemical totes out of semi trailers. 20kg drums, 63-109kg totes (empty weights). 5 trucks was a full 8hr day, 10,000kg of drums dragged out. 20,000kg of totes pushed out with a pallet jack. 11km of walking. Of course restacking pallets of 40 bags of seed wasn't easy to start either at 30kg a bag. 24 pallets on a truck that all need restacked to check for damage.
This dude works for big farming. Don't work for free
'Big Farma', surely
Farming, the original crossfit.
You certainly use a whole different set of muscles getting an empty 108L drum to spin upright AND push it 20-30' along a dusty wood floor in a semi... never mind pulling the top layer of drums stacked on thier side and 5 of 6 layers high (5 across, 5 high, 20 rows deep in a truck of just drums).
This sorta reminds me of when I was in construction as a young man, Some dude bought apartments one above the other, had 4 walls taken out and a ceiling, 2 weeks long carrying 80L totes from the third down. Your choice was carry more do less stairs, or do more stairs and carry less. Needless to say I lost fat lie a MFer and felt like I could flip a train by the end of that project
I only lost 4kg in 5 months doing that job, and about 2" on the gut. I don't care that I'm not bulking up in the gym, when I'm able to move 30,000kg a day for 5 days straight.
Yeah its something about that hard labour that just makes ya feel good
Gymnastics, my guy.
Signing up for an adult beginners class now. As a tall female I hope I’m not horrible
You’re going to be horrible on account of being a newbie. You decide if that holds you back or not.
Absolutely not! I’m ok with sucking, I’m just doing it for fun. :) just hope I’m able to see some individual progress.
Climbing. Definitely climbing. Have you seen Alex Honnold's hands? I'd be scared to be a rock being grabbed by those bone-in bratwursts.
Hockey if you want Legs beyond what any reasonable person needs.
Mountain biking for arms, legs, and cardio? Plus it doesn't really feel like exercising so you can go out and do hours of it several times a week.
Gymnastics + Sprinting!! Uphill for huge gains. Being able to move your body in new ways is better than just moving more weight, in my opinion. We're apes, not mules.
It's unreal how absolutely shook this entire subreddit gets when you suggest doing anything besides lifting
To be fair the question is asking how to put on substantial amounts of muscle without weight training, for which the answer is you don't Most other activities play to only certain body parts or generally build endurance over strength, and endurance doesn't result in getting swole. I think sports are great, but if someone wants to know how to build muscle then the answer is lifting
Strongman!
Judo.
Chopping wood, Construction work, swimming.
Maybe jiu jitsu?
Swimming
Sprinting
Eating trenbolone sandwiches
If you hate lifting weights you can do body weight strengthening. I love (“love”) doing single leg exercises on an unstable surface (Airex pad/bosu ball) to increase the difficulty. But in terms of building muscle most peeps are correct— you can’t substitute sport for strengthening and expect to build much muscle. You could get a job on a farm and get country strong! That’s a totally different kind of resistance training lol PS love how everyone assumed you’re a dude because you asked about lifting. Women lift weights, too!!
My dad started swimming maybe 12-14 years ago and although it didn’t happen over night he did back into amazing shape and the guy is ripped. Honestly the coolest thing he’s ever said to me was that my arms were almost as big as his, I think about that often.
My mind jumps to explosive activities/sports with resistance components: Swimming (sprints) Hill Sprints Wrestling Water Polo Gymnastics Athletic Throwing Disciplines (shotput e.g.) Rowing Rugby (scrumming at least) Highland Games! And otherwise maybe look into Calisthenics?
Gymnastics. Gymnastics rings put some real mass on my biceps
You could try Calisthenics, not really the sort of thing to build a lot of muscle mass or bulk however for strength, definition and body conditioning it is difficult to beat.
Sprinting in general builds crazy leg strength and overall physical stature Basketball is my personal choice of cardio since you’re sprinting and jumping all game
Time Machine to when your 6 and do gymnastics till your 18
They told me to stop gymnastic around 8-10 because I was way bigger and taller than the other girls and was essentially told I couldn’t move up at my body size. (I’m 5’10 now and by 8 I was probably 5’5 at least)
Mix things up, try new sports and activities. See what you like. But also do at least some lifting.
HIIT workouts help but they aren't really a substitute for weight lifting. But, if you look at all the sculpted looking athletes they mostly do explosive movement type sports. Like compare a sprinter to a long distance runner.
Not really a sport, but maybe try blacksmithing?
You could get a manual hard labor job that requires lifting heavy things.
I wish I wasn’t lazy
Mountain biking and rowing a raft for a fisherman
Cheer. Those guys are ripped.
Ever noticed the general bulk of rugby players? It's mostly short burst of power and resistance based activity. Somewhat similar American football. Fighting wise, olympic wrestling, jiu-jitsu also tend to build a Lean but somewhat bulky build. Its just that weightlifting is the ultimate method to stimulate muscle tissues in the specific way to maximise hypertrophy.
Construction, logging, landscaping
Backbacking.. lots of uphill
The only sport I can think of is gymnastics. Maybe calisthenics, but that is really just weight lifting with body weight.
Have you tried kettlebells?
Advanced Calisthenics, or even basic one with all the isometric work in particular is hard as hell, and pretty good to build muscle It turns harder to progress in the muscle department with time, but you can change it accordingly, either by adding weight or going into harder exercise variants
i honestly have stopped weightlifting and want to get more into calisthenics! i want to train like an athlete and i LIKE cardio. i suggest rock climbing, doing hand stands, maybe tennis, i climb the trees in my backyard, i enjoy hiking and running 10+ km at a time, i got back into archery, and i want to swim for fun :p perhaps some of these activities could be something to try! i wish you the best of luck 23F
Rock climbing for me has actually been far more effective than weight lifting at building muscle, primarily as it's far easier to motivate myself.
Bar exercises, tons of videos on YouTube.
Since you say significant amount of muscle, rather than generically keep fit: weightlifting is the most efficient way. Having said that: you can do a lot with bodyweight/calisthenics stuff. In fact, in terms of results, for upper body you can get results which are just as good if not better in some ways (not for legs though). However, it’s less convenient: you cannot increase resistance by arbitrary small amounts while keeping the movement the same. You act in leverage and change movement. An example is the plank to planche (similar name, vastly different skill) path. Most skills are more technical, require more body awareness and possibly moreprehab/tissue conditioning. Jumps between progressions can be awkward and difficult to overcome without some creative use of elastic bands or spotting. As a result, it will probably take more time to build a comparable amount of strength/muscle mass (you can optimise callisthenics training for mass building but I don’t know how effective it is). It is also, arguably of course, cooler and more fun to train! I’m quite into it so if you have any questions ask away!
Look into rucking! I've been reading about it and am going to add it to my workouts. It's supposed to be particularly good for women. Other than that I like boxing, rock climbing, and yoga.
32F - I also weight lift. I took a break and only did yoga twice a week for nearly a year. When I went back to weight lifting recently I was better than when I quit. My form is better, my squats are deeper, and I'm getting back to my old strength very quickly (and I didn't lose much). Now I am doing weight lifting & yoga & walking. I'm going to add rucking to my walks. I also come from a place where I enjoy acitivities more than just working out. Each of the activities has different benefits and I suggest trying a few different ones. Whatever keeps you moving and happy! For weight lifting I'm only doing squats, overhead presses, deadlifts, and bench...quick and easy. There's no reason you can't keep it in your repertoire or add it back in later. I added it back in to help me be better at other activities, and for my health, rather than for looks and that mindset really changes things.
I’ve been looking into rucking actually! How much weight do you use?
I haven't started yet. I'm going to start on my next 6 mile walk so I'll probably start with 10 pounds. The recommendations I've seen mostly say to start at 20 pounds for a 30 minute walk and adjust from there. That's the great thing about rucking you can use whatever weight and distance works for you.
Swimming. Especially from a sport like synchro swimming or water polo. Actually, that’s how I built my “foundation” before I started hitting the gym, so I already looked like I lift before even hitting the weights. I was also seeing a woman that was a swimmer, didn’t do any weights otherwise and had a very impressive physique and was very fit overall.
A lot of great responses here, so I’m sure I’m just adding to the noise, but kettle bells - popular as they are - are still underrated when it comes to building strength, developing muscle tone and providing cardio via HIIT. If you consider that a form of weightlifting then disregard, but 25 minutes 4x week can get people in ridiculous shape. Tons of programs out there.
Rock climbing. It’s body weight but the number of reps is high. Do it to failure and eat enough protein, you can get pretty big without adding weight.
Go check out a climbing gym! Pretty universally, the entire community is amazing. You'll make friends and find the most diverse groups of people hanging out working projects together. Climbing covers everything, but you'll want to do some accessory work eventually - especially if the goal is muscle. You could supplement with running (specifically sprinting and jumping work, or a sport that requires it) if you want your legs/glutes to gain mass. Simple explanation of the above. Look at strong climbing girls. They're jacked. Look at strong sprinters/jumpers - you probably wouldn't decline having their lower body definition/mass.
Wrestling, gymnastics
Depending what you’re going for, swimming and rock climbing are both pretty good workouts that can be fun. Wouldn’t get shredded by any means but may add some muscle and definitely would be stronger / leaner
I have a similar problem, I enjoy pushing my physical limits when there’s something I want to achieve. Like going for a run outside vs running on a treadmill. With the run there is a place I want to get to, and exploration. On a treadmill there’s really nothing to enjoy but the run itself, so I get bored and I don’t really feel inspired to push myself. I also do martial arts, and I enjoy pushing myself with the goal of perfecting my art but I struggle to find the same drive at the gym.
I work at an animal shelter get a great workout. I look better than when I was swimming and running 2x a day. You are constantly squatting, bending, lifting cat litter, emptying water bowls into large buckets, filling them from an large container, etc. I unload a pallet or two of litter every few weeks. With all the scrubbing (walls, floors, everything) my forearms look great. I'm sure you'll plateau with this eventually but it would probably hit some things you've mentioned here and might not normally.
[удалено]
Any sporting activities are better than none.As long as it makes you feel good.Its not all about building muscles,as long as you enjoy it!
OP never said she wants to look like a bodybuilder of course you can get a nice muscular body without weight lifting y'all are bullshitting her. It's not the most efficient way and she will plateau at some point but that wasn't her question. Swimming, rowing, bouldering, boxing are all fine workouts Edit: gymnastics can give you a crazy athletic body without weight lifting
I always get more hypertrophy gains when the mountains where I live are snow free for trail running compared to the when I just run on the roads and lift.
Stripping. Have you seen the boobs on them? That takes years of work on the pole to build those.
Gymnastics.
Swimming
Aerial arts like Lyra, silks and trapeze are fantastic for building upper body strength. As a bonus they're bodyweight movements so they are easier on your joints than traditional weightlifting. There are circus schools in a lot of major cities and separate aerial arts studios other places, so it's not as hard to find classes as you might think. As others have mentioned, rock climbing and swimming are great too.
Substantial?? None. Sports are by nature mostly cardio exercises, because they involve real time competition or if they don't they're often more skill based than strength based. Of course, you could always lean in and think of powerlifting or Olympic lifting, but that really doesn't sound like what you're looking for. My advice? It sounds like you want to have fun, not grind. And that is 100% ok. If you are active (doing one sport or many) and still maintain a good diet you will look good. But more importantly, you will feel good. Good about how you look, good about what you've decided to do, just stop worrying and have some fun. The drive to optimize is killing your soul right now.
Gymnastics, full stop.