Someone recently asked me whether it is possible for a person to become as strong and muscular as their genetics will allow without training with weights. A few years ago I’d have said “maybe” but considered it unlikely, but after my own experiences with Project: Kratos and the feedback from people following the program I have no doubt it is possible.
To be able to get as strong and muscular as possible you have to be able to do a few things. You have to be able to effectively work all the major muscle groups, and you have to be able to progressively increase the resistance those muscles work against as you get stronger to stimulate continued improvement. While much simpler with free weights and machines, these can both be effectively accomplished training with just your body weight.
If you doubt bodyweight exercises can provide enough resistance a simple experiment should convince you otherwise; try performing a set of strict one-armed chin-ups or push-ups or one-legged squats. In an article in Iron Man magazine in the mid 1990’s Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones wrote,
Apart from a rather limited number of hardcore bodybuilders who are misguided enough to believe that they have a chance to compete against the outright genetic freaks that now dominate bodybuilding competition, just about anybody else in this country can produce nearly all of the potential benefits of proper exercise without spending much if anything in excess of about twenty dollars. You can build both a chinning bar and a pair of parallel dip bars for a total cost of only a few dollars, and those two exercises, chins and dips, if properly performed, will stimulate muscular growth in your upper body and arms that will eventually lead to muscular size and strength that is very close to your potential.
Adding full squats, eventually leading up to one-legged full squats, and one-legged calf raises, will do much the same thing for your legs and hips. Using this very simple routine, when you get strong enough to perform about ten repetitions of one-armed chins with each arm, your arms will leave very little to be desired.
While Arthur is right, I recommend a little more variety than chin-ups, dips, squats, and heel raises, and based on the feedback the more varied workouts in the Project: Kratos program are every bit as intense as what you can do with weights and work just as well:
From a reader posting on Facebook,
I’ve never experienced getting my butt kicked so bad than with the Kratos protocol. I feel THOROUGHLY exercised after each workout, more than I ever did with free weights or machines. Perhaps when I did sets of sprints back in the day could I compare the level of exhaustion I am able to attain using the Kratos level of progressions for increasing resistance (unique to Drew Baye’s approach), but of course, with sprints, you don’ really get an efficient muscular development opportunity. The proposed Kratos level of progressions (how to make an easy bodyweight exercise DIFFICULT, and how to make a DIFFICULT bodyweight exercise easier) and the rep cadences have enabled me to “adjust resistance” to meet the HIT goal … in no way do I feel I am not working my body to genuine muscular failure. Plus, I like making my own equipment for working out … the Kratos book had some new ideas that I jumped right into.
From a couple in Germany,
The results we achieved until now are unbelievable. I lost 20 kg of weight and I’m now stronger than ever in my life (and I did intense sport for decades). My wife is now – aged 55 – for the first time in her life able to perform pull-ups, real push-ups and so on. She achieved these results in less than three months. After finishing today’s training a few minutes ago, I just want to let you know. The change in nutrition and training according to your program where the most important contributions to our health and strength for decades.
From a reader commenting on another web site,
I bought this book back in November and it’s basically changed how I train from the bottom up. I’ve put on 15-lbs total with 10-lbs of lean mass in about four months (from 170 to 185) and I didn’t even change my diet like I was supposed to. I also, among other things, went from being able to do six 4-count pull-ups to eight 4-count pull-ups with 20-lbs hanging from a dipping belt (keep in mind I also gained 15 lbs). I’ve tried sharing my results on other forums and people tell me it’s impossible to put on 10-lbs of muscle in less than four months, but I did it, so I don’t know what to say.
If someone believes it is impossible to gain ten pounds of muscle in less than four months it is because they simply don’t know how to train and eat for muscle gain. I would be surprised if a new trainee didn’t gain at least ten pounds of muscle in their first four months on a proper high intensity training program, and I’ve had clients gain that much in half that time training with both weights and bodyweight only. It isn’t even unusual for beginners to gain that much muscle over three or four months while also losing fat, something Ellington Darden has demonstrated repeatedly over the past few decades with his group fat loss programs.
While, in the long run, proper training with bodyweight will probably get you about as big and strong as your genetics will allow, like any method of training there are both advantages and disadvantages to consider. The biggest disadvantage to bodyweight training is that resistance progression is not as straight forward as it is with weights and machines. To increase the resistance for a barbell or machine exercise you simply add more weight plates to the bar or pin more weight on the weight stack. To change the resistance for bodyweight exercises without resorting to weighted belts or vests you have to change the leverage and timing of the movements, or advance from bilateral to unilateral versions of exercises. While the resistance progression system I’ve developed for Project: Kratos simplifies this and makes it easier to track, it’s still not as simple as adding weight to a bar or moving a pin on a weight stack.
The biggest advantage, as Jones wrote, is you need very little in the way of equipment, and what you do need can be purchased or built very inexpensively. You might be surprised at what you can achieve with just a bar for chin-ups and pull-ups, a parallel bar stand for dipping, and a suspension trainer, all of which can be made in an afternoon with materials you can buy at your local home improvement store. Even a heavy-duty commercial bodyweight exercise station like the UXS is a lot less expensive than a gym membership in the long run.
In addition to cost and space efficiency, bodyweight training can also be more time efficient than training with free weights or machines, since you don’t have to take time before your workout or between exercises to load and unload weight plates or adjust machine settings. While this really isn’t that big of a deal if you’ve got multiple barbells and dumbbells or quickly adjustable dumbbells like the Bowflex SelectTech, and machines don’t take that long to adjust, if you’re training with just one barbell it can allow you to move much more quickly from one exercise to the next.
The biggest advantage of bodyweight exercise, however, is the ability to perform most exercises anywhere you’ve got a little open space. It doesn’t matter if you travel frequently, don’t live near a gym or have room in your house or apartment for a lot of equipment, are deployed somewhere without any exercise equipment, or incarcerated (hopefully not), if you know how to use your bodyweight you can train effectively anywhere.
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Drew,
I appreciate you and your work so much. I bought Project: Kratos back in November and it has changed my life. I realize that’s a mighty bold claim, but it’s true.
When I stumbled across your website, I had spent most of the prior three years working out 5-6 times per week, bodyweight only. I had purchased several books on bodyweight exercise and had given them significant chunks of time to show any kind of improvement.
Obviously, after three years, i was in better shape than I would’ve been had I not exercised, but the results were very disappointing. I was embarrassed to tell people that I “worked out” because I could almost hear them thinking to themselves that I didn’t really look the part. I was fairly strong, as I think I was just born naturally stronger than most people, but I certainly didn’t look like it, and my progress was so slow. And after three years, I was feeling pretty burnt out. Both from the lack of results and from trying to carve time into my schedule to work out 5-6 times per week.
When I stumbled across Project: Kratos, I almost didn’t believe a word you wrote about it. HIT principles go against every piece of exercise advice I’d ever learned. But I was intrigued by the short and intense and infrequent workouts, so I decided to give it a shot.
Since late November, I’ve put on about 14 pounds of muscle and have gained about 16-17 overall (I have my body composition tested for free at a local university). Like the quote from the article, I also haven’t changed my diet much, beyond just eating a little bit more.And I also have a ton of free time to spend with my family or work on my chess game or whatever, since I no longer have to spend all my free time working out.
In January was talked into joining a gym for the first time ever, so I now do a combination of bodyweight, free weights and machines, but the Project: Kratos protocol is still the foundation of my exercise.
I don’t want to get too long-winded, but a funny thing happened a couple of weeks ago. One of the trainers at the gym was trying to get me to sign up for what was basically a Crossfit class, only without the moniker. He approached me because when I signed up for the class I had marked on one of the documents that I enjoyed “HIT” protocols. Well he took that to mean “HIIT,” I suppose. Anyhow he was going on and on about how “only lifting weights” does nothing for your cardio. But I’ve been recovering from a torn ACL since December of 2012 and have done no running or no other “cardio” since then. All I’ve done is basic calisthenics (prior to reading Kratos) and basic HIT protocols since November, and I ran a 5k to support my wife, and I ran it in about 30 minutes flat. That’s not a world-beating time, but considering I literally did no running up until that day, and that I finished a lot faster than a lot of other people, I think “lifting weights” HIT style does a pretty good job of developing “cardio.”
Anyway, thanks a bunch Drew. I have resisted typing up a testimonial because I wanted to see if I could find any old pics to use as a “before” comparison. I haven’t found any yet, but if I do, I’ll email them to you.
Hey Joe,
Thank you for sharing your results with Project: Kratos and congrats on your progress so far. I look forward to seeing your before and after photos.
The reason a lot of people think strength training doesn’t improve cardiovascular conditioning is they’re not doing it right. If you train intensely, with sufficient repetition ranges or TUL and minimizing rest between exercises, you can produce better improvements in cardiovascular conditioning in a matter of weeks than you could with as many months of traditional “cardio”.
Hi Drew,
I was doing a review of John Little’s Done-In-One and Max Pyramid protocols to help me make some adjustments to my full-body TSC / Max Contraction routine. Do you think I could apply the barbell squat and dumbell goblet squat with very light – light weight , maybe using the variant of Max Pyramid where you just hold the same weight in Max Moment Arm?
It appears that Max Pyramid modified that way is not much different than TSC performed with a single phase of TUL , at the lower intensity level.
Thanks
John,
Yes, this would work, and the Max Pyramid performed this way would probably be more effective than timed static contraction because static holds provide negative resistance.
Hallo Drew,
I’m 56 and having lifted weights for many years (nowadays, double heavy kettlebells, plus body weight and aerobic intervals), and preferring short, hard and infrequent workouts, I was wondering what the training frequency would be for a typical Kratos workout.
Cheers, Ruiseart.
Hey Ruiseart,
The optimal frequency varies between individuals depending on genetics, diet, sleep, and other factors but I’ve found three workouts a week works well for people during the first few months of training and after they’ve learned and become acclimated to training at a higher intensity of effort two workouts a week works best for most people. I cover the issue of determining workout frequency in both Project Kratos and High Intensity Workouts
Hello Drew!
Do you think that handstand pushups performed to failure are risky exercise by itself from a point of blood pressure increase and exercise induced headache, just on a count that one is doing them in upside down position. Let’s assume proper HIT form and breathing.
Thanks!
Hey Mile,
Depends on the person and the time under load. Very few people are strong enough to do these with strict form using a slow rep cadence, though, which is a requirement for safety. For most people half handstand push-ups or pike push-ups would be a much safer alternative. I cover these in detail in Project Kratos.
Hi Drew,
Regarding standard bodyweight push-ups with hands shoulder-width apart, I can manage about 20-25 good form reps (50 year old male) until failure sets in.
Is just 1 hard set of push-ups enough as part of a bodyweight workout routine that might include other exercises such as planks and squats?
You’re either performing your repetitions way too quickly or doing a set that lasts way too long. If you are moving adequately slowly and reversing direction smoothly enough each repetition should take at least eight seconds to complete.
One hard set of just one or two exercises per muscle group is enough if you do it correctly. Read my books Project Kratos: Bodyweight High Intensity Training and the Kratos and TSC Training 2019 Update Report in my bodyweight high intensity training ebook bundle.