Hypertropy with bodyweightexercises

first of all, great forum. i really enjoy chatting here

heres my questions:

1. ive seen several really muscular gymnasts with what i can tell, 18" arms. do many gymnast actually have 18" arms?

2. do they live on a calori-deficient diet all year long since they are so ripped? or do they diet to loose the extra weight?

3. how should i train to stimulate hypertrophy? just train do master a lot of exercises?

ive been training for these exercises: front lever, back lever, iron cross, human flag, ab-wheel, one-arm chins, 90-degree pushups, manna, muscle-up, one-arm dips.

i currently master front lever, back lever, almost iron cross, ab-wheel and muscle-up. the problem is that i havent got any bigger. it could bw that im not eating enough, but everytime i increase the caloriintake, i gain fat, expecially around my waist.

1. No. At most like 15-16" in most cases. It's all about illusion.

2. No. Most competitive gymnasts are isocaloric so they don't gain weight because gymnastics is a strength to bodyweight sport. If you are hypocaloric you're going to start losing strength and mass.

3. Progress on decreased leverage exercises. Basically, work the progressions and when you can do those successfully continue to the next.

I find it hard to believe you're pretty close to an iron cross without any significant mass gain in the chest/lats area... however, if you do manage to keep mass down and do those you keep moving up the progressions. You will have to gain mass to complete a lot of them so it will happen naturally.

Eating moe helps... but not significantly more otherwise you will gain fat mass like you noticed. But that's normal with mass gain.

At its most simple level, hypertrophy is caused by getting stronger and eating enough protein/calories.

A second variable is the time-tension-integral (TTI) which means the amount of time you spend doing reps of weight that is heavy enough to promote growth. A good guideline for TTI is around 20-60 reps per session per muscle @ 12 or less reps per set. For statics, not exactly sure as they are newer to me and there isn't really research on such things. Just figure how much time your body is under tension while doing 20-60 reps and maybe a similar time will work for statics.

Of course, less reps per session will also cause growth over the long terms because as I said getting stronger is the first determinate exercise wise.

Also, rest is needed for muscle growth. For beginners, 2-3 sessions per muscle group per week is good, but once you move to intermediate then 2 per week seems to be optimal. Since you've completed front lever and back lever you're moving into the intermediate stage most likely, unless you've been slacking on everything else besides those.

For nutrition, a good general rule is 1g of protein per lbs. of bodyweight. You also need to consume more calories than you burn. Take your body weight x 15 + 300. This number is a guesstimate of how many calories you need to build muscle. Real world results will determine whether you move this number up or down. You'll get better results and better nutrient partitioning (this means what proportion of calories go to fat or muscle) if you sandwich your training session with a before and after meal that has about .25g of protein per lbs. of bodyweight.

There's other things that could be said I'm sure but that's quick off the top of my head.

braindx said:

1. No. At most like 15-16" in most cases. It's all about illusion.

2. No. Most competitive gymnasts are isocaloric so they don't gain weight because gymnastics is a strength to bodyweight sport. If you are hypocaloric you're going to start losing strength and mass.

3. Progress on decreased leverage exercises. Basically, work the progressions and when you can do those successfully continue to the next.

I find it hard to believe you're pretty close to an iron cross without any significant mass gain in the chest/lats area... however, if you do manage to keep mass down and do those you keep moving up the progressions. You will have to gain mass to complete a lot of them so it will happen naturally.

Eating moe helps... but not significantly more otherwise you will gain fat mass like you noticed. But that's normal with mass gain.

hm ok. 16 inch is was im looking to gain, thats my ultimate goal. i got like 14 inch now.. long way to go

i think i have gain some muscle, but not a lot.. barely noticeable. im gonna eat around 3000 calories a day and about 180g of protein. that will be suffient you think? im 75kg now and 180cm tall.

trianglechoke7 said:

At its most simple level, hypertrophy is caused by getting stronger and eating enough protein/calories.

A second variable is the time-tension-integral (TTI) which means the amount of time you spend doing reps of weight that is heavy enough to promote growth. A good guideline for TTI is around 20-60 reps per session per muscle @ 12 or less reps per set. For statics, not exactly sure as they are newer to me and there isn't really research on such things. Just figure how much time your body is under tension while doing 20-60 reps and maybe a similar time will work for statics.

Of course, less reps per session will also cause growth over the long terms because as I said getting stronger is the first determinate exercise wise.

Also, rest is needed for muscle growth. For beginners, 2-3 sessions per muscle group per week is good, but once you move to intermediate then 2 per week seems to be optimal. Since you've completed front lever and back lever you're moving into the intermediate stage most likely, unless you've been slacking on everything else besides those.

For nutrition, a good general rule is 1g of protein per lbs. of bodyweight. You also need to consume more calories than you burn. Take your body weight x 15 + 300. This number is a guesstimate of how many calories you need to build muscle. Real world results will determine whether you move this number up or down. You'll get better results and better nutrient partitioning (this means what proportion of calories go to fat or muscle) if you sandwich your training session with a before and after meal that has about .25g of protein per lbs. of bodyweight.

There's other things that could be said I'm sure but that's quick off the top of my head.

You mean 20-60 SECONDS per rep right? Not 20-60 REPS per set.

Brandon Green

20-60 reps per session for a muscle group.

If you wanted to try and use that metric for FSP, then you would have to figure how much time you spend doing reps. But like I said, I don't even know if that is an appropriate translation.

So, for example let's say that you spend 20 seconds per set in eccentric or concentric contraction for pullups. And you did 5 sets. Then you may want to accumulate 100 seconds of back lever for hypertrophy in the session.

Again, I really don't know if it should work out that way or not.

braindx said:

3. Progress on decreased leverage exercises. Basically, work the progressions and when you can do those successfully continue to the next.

I'm also in gymnastic-style training only for several reasons, mainly:

1- The "feats" you do are way better and more impressive than simply moving weights in the same direction (say doing free standing HSPU on the floor, on bars, on benches, fences, etc., doing a planche on said places, a front lever, etc.).

2- I don't have any weights, and I'm not willing to pay for a gym membership anyways because I like to workout in my house or in a park, and also because of the fact that you have to go to the gym which could be problematic ("Nah, I'm not gonna go today", "It's too late", "Feeling lazy" etc.).

3- I like exercising more with bodyweight only anyways, obviously more fun too, but again, no weights so not really much of a choice haha.

4- The obvious strength gains, and among other things.

But with all that said I just started training specifically on and off like 3 months ago the planche, the FL, handstands, L-sits, HSPU on the wall, and some other pulling stuff, so I'm still kind of new to all this.

So my goals are to exercise for strength and hypertrophy only with bodyweight exercises, but with a higher emphasis on hypertrophy, so how would my training have to be like? Simply progressing into harder and harder variations of the several exercises, like you said?

Note: I also managed to get some rings (this is the only "equipment" I have, this and some push-up bars), just to lay out the situation.

I have gained 10 lean pounds since November and I took December off (havent weighed myself in 2+ weeks so maybe more 8) ). Basically just work hard, rest harder and eat a lot. . . and I do mean A LOT! The stronger you get the bigger you will get, to a point of course. I 2nd Trianglechoke7s advice.