While I am a big fan of working out in gyms, I can understand that not
everyone has the funds or desire to also train in a gym. Or perhaps
you just prefer old school outdoor style training regimes. Whatever
your reasons, I'm going to head back to my military days and take you
through some of my favorite methods for building muscle without
weights.

When I first joined the military, I was just an innocent 18 year old.
Which is why one instructor scared the crap out of me. A hardened
soldier of several years, this guy also looked like Rambo, which wasn't
cool if he was running your PT (physical training) class that day.

This particular instructor was a mongrel. He trained us to the point of
exhaustion. And one of his favorite "games" was to see how many
pushups we could do. But these weren't normal pushups. He would sit
on our backs and yell random army like comments out while we
pumped our hearts out.

Not a training session went by without hearing "no bike racks here" or
his personal favorite "no Saturday night specials". These pushups are
tough and since they were a favorite of "Rambo" so you could be sure
that they were partly responsible for his barrel chest.

To perform these is pretty simple. Just find a nice flat place (You don't
want to try these uphill, trust me) and bring along a friend. Assume the
push up position and get your friend to sit on your back. If you can
perform 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps, it's time to upgrade your 10 year old
sister to someone a little heavier. Eventually you want to work your
way up to your mate who makes a living by sitting on the couch and
drinking beer.

While simple to perform (technically), these pushups are a great way
to build muscles without weights. If you don't find yourself struggling
after just a few of these, then you are either superman or you need to
find some heavier friends. This exercise can definitely replace the
bench press if you do it with maximum intensity.

The second way to build muscle without weights was a favorite
exercise of another military instructor of mine. While this guy didn't
look like Rambo, he was perhaps even scarier, because he actually
seemed to enjoy pain. Strange but true. However, he was very adept at
building muscle without weights as he was a well built guy, although
I'd never seen him in a gym.

His exercise requires a beach and you can perform it all by yourself. In
fact, you don't even need a beach. A reasonably large sandy area (like
a beach volleyball court) will do just fine. What you need to do is find
your sandy area and sprint over it. And once you have done this, sprint
over it again. And again. Actually, do this until your sprint looks more
like an old man trying to cross the road with his walking cane.

You see, this is building the leg muscles, but primarily the calves, so
you're going to need to do a lot of repetition, due to the nature of the
calf muscle.

I guarantee that if you can do this over a period of weeks, you will see
calves like you have never seen before.

That's the first two ways to build muscle without weights, stay tuned
for the upcoming parts 2 and 3, where I will reveal 4 more of the best
ways to build muscle without having to use any weights at all. You
don't need to go anywhere near a gym.

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