Today’s article is for all those people who want to achieve total body fitness. Most people gain weight and muscle mass by lifting free weights. That is certainly an easy way to do it. However, it is also possible to gain muscle only with bodyweight training (also known as calisthenics). If we put enough mechanical stress on our muscles, they will grow. That’s true with both free weights and bodyweight training.
If we want to obtain good muscle growth, we must do a hypertrophy training routine. After all, the typical calisthenics session helps an obese person lose fat, improve fitness, and health. It may stimulate a little muscle growth as a side effect. However it is not enough to gain muscle optimally. Make sure you read this article carefully if you want total body fitness. Read on!
Total Body Fitness and Weight Training
The first question is whether we can gain muscle only with bodyweight routines. The answer is that it depends. Not all people can. An advanced lifter who is close to his genetic muscle potential may have trouble even maintaining all of his muscle mass.
A lean beginner can certainly gain muscle with bodyweight training. The speed of progress is nearly identical to free-weight training. The same is true for most intermediate lifters. They can still make good progress with bodyweight training, but their sessions can become more complicated and painful than weight training.
Bodyweight sessions are quite good for gaining overall strength. Maybe not for the seasoned powerlifter who measures his strength. I am talking about the measurement by how much weight he can lift in the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
If you are a slim man who wants to gain size, strength, improve your health, and improve your appearance, bodyweight training is effective. In fact, especially when it comes to your chest, shoulders, upper back, and abs, you can progress just as fast as you would when training with weights.
The Principles of Total Body Fitness Exercises
Adding repetitions is not always is easy. If you can only do four chin-ups, adding a fifth reps is almost equivalent to adding ten pounds to the bar. It’s a big jump. In addition, with each series we do, the more exhausted we are. That is why it is common for the number of repetitions to decrease from one series to the next. As a result, especially when using lower rep ranges, our struggle to add more reps can look like this:
- Session One: 4 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps (11 reps total)
- Session Two: 4 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps (12 reps total)
- Session Three: 5 reps, 4 reps, 4 reps (13 reps total)
- Session Four: 5 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps (14 reps total)
Increase the number of series
Another way to increase the challenge for our muscles is to do more total sets per session. This way, instead of doing three sets of push-ups, we could do four, and then five. So, this not only increases the number of challenging sets we do in each session, but it also increases the total number of repetitions. This increases our training volume over time.
Shorten rest times between sets
As we do more sets in a session, we will probably do fewer reps. Maybe we will do twenty reps on our first set. Also, we will do fifteen on the second, and twelve on the third. Normally this is not good. But, when we are training with higher rep ranges, this is a benefit.
We can do the same number of repetitions as in the previous session but with shorter rest times. It is an excellent way to increase the challenge for our muscles and to shorten the duration of our sessions.
Progress to a more challenging variation
When you can do multiple sets of 20-40 reps, it’s time to progress to a more challenging variation. For example, when you can already do twenty split or one-leg squats, it is better to start doing Bulgarian squats. And when you can do twenty of those, try pistol squats.
Total Body Fitness Exercises for Muscle Growth
When doing a bodybuilding routine, I don’t want to just do a bunch of exercises put together for no purpose. This can stimulate muscle growth, but it is confusing, and people usually get lost along the way. I would rather have a routine organized through a clear hierarchy. It shows what the priorities are and how each piece fits into the puzzle. It is also about what I need to improve in each session.
When training for muscle size, we like to organize our sessions around the top five weight lifts. There are other ways to do it. However, after helping a few of my friends for some years, I have identified these five lifts as the best for gaining size and strength. These are best total body fitness exercises for improving our overall health and appearance.
- The Front Loaded Squat: Starting with the goblet squat and progressing to the front barbell squat.
- The Bench Press: starting with the raised push-ups and progressing to the dumbbell or barbell bench press.
- The Deadlift: starting with the Romanian deadlift and progressing to the conventional deadlift.
- The Shoulder Press: starting with the lateral raises and the dumbbell press, progressing to the overhead shoulder press.
- The Chin-Up: Starting with eccentric chin-ups, pulley pulls, or supine grip paddles, progressing to weighted chin-ups.
With these five lifts we can stimulate all the main muscle groups of the body. And it is with different muscle groups worked by more than one of these. Our shoulders are worked by the bench press and the shoulder press. We can also work our back by both the deadlift and the chin-up, and so on. As we get stronger in these lifts, adding reps, adding sets, and adding weight, we gain muscle.
Push ups
Push-ups are the foundation of bodyweight hypertrophy training. It is the best total body fitness exercise. That’s why we put them first. These are responsible for increasing the size of our chest. However, it also increase muscles of the shoulders, triceps and abs. We can start with easier variations (such as elevated push-ups). Then we progress to more difficult variations (such as deficit push-ups).
The vertical Push ups
Instead of the shoulder press, we have the vertical push-ups. These are responsible for the growth of the shoulders and traps, but also the upper chest and upper back. We can start with easier variations (like pike pushups). Then we progress to more difficult variations (like deficit handstand pushups).
The Weightless Squat
Our quadriceps and our glutes are the two largest muscles in the body. This is why the squat is the best total body fitness exercise to gain fat-free mass. It is also good for reaping the full health benefits of resistance training. We can start with easy variations (like normal squats without weight). Then we progress to more difficult variations (like pistol squats).
The Chin-Up
Unfortunately, even bodyweight workouts require a bit of equipment. Without a chin-up bar or gymnastic rings, it is extremely difficult to increase the size of your upper back and biceps. Still, there is nothing wrong with starting with inverted paddles (using a table) and progressing to chin-ups. Chin up is also a great total body fitness workout.
The Body Weight Deadlift
Up to this point, we have already stimulated most of the major muscle groups in the body. Our hamstrings might benefit from a little extra stimulation. However, the most important thing is to ensure that our spine is heavily loaded to stimulate erector spinae growth. This is what will give us a stronger and thicker torso. Also, this is where exercises like the towel deadlift come into play.
How Long Does It Take To Achieve A Total Body Fitness?
The million-dollar question. The time required is mainly determined by two factors: training and diet. If the starting point is a muscular body on which only a few kilos of fat require removal removed, you can achieve this in a few months. Although, you need to know about a couple of “definition” phases, alternated with a “maintenance” phase.
If your starting point is a lean body with few muscles and little fat, it will probably take longer depending on how your body reacts to training. In general, gaining muscle mass is a much longer and slower process compared to losing fat. The starting point is a body with a lot of fat and without muscles. So, it will take much more time, years, depending on how unfavorable the starting point is.
How to Get Into Routine?
An evaluation of the volume based on the capacities to recover and the conditioning of the subject is missing. We have different detailed guides on how to program some gym routines. You can check my blog articles to know about them. Let’s explain a few things:
We use alternate series push / pull, which allows a high pace (no more than 60 seconds of rest). However, it avoids too much local fatigue in a certain muscle. More rest between sets on leg days because they generate more systemic fatigue. We don’t want to kill ourselves with fatigue, but rather to provide an adequate quality stimulus.
The legs start one day with the quadriceps and the other with the hamstrings and glutes to maintain a certain balance. The general volume is important to think about according to the diet. In the phase of caloric surplus (volume) we can dare with a few more series and also a few more repetitions.
In caloric deficit (definition) the ability to recover and pump the muscles are lower (due to half-empty glycogen stores). Therefore the training volume must be adjusted accordingly. We particularly like this technique because it is useful when doing very general work (as in this case) to keep the training pace high.
The Diet for Total Body Fitness
We are going to summarize some very important concepts of a diet for a man’s fitness body. Actually the concept is very simple: If we have to lose fat there has to be a caloric deficit. Also, if we have to gain muscle, there must be a caloric surplus.
Is it possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time? It is possible, on the condition that you are a beginner. It means that you have minimal muscular development. Also, it is far from your maximum genetic potential and a medium-high fat mass.
In this case, a normal calorie diet, adequate protein intake and excellent training may make you lose fat and gain muscles. As a general suggestion:
- 2gr of protein for every KG of body weight.
- Do not go below 40-50gr of fat.
- Maintain a moderate, consistent and long-lasting attitude to calories.
- A surplus or deficit of 500kcal is ideal for many, with a gain / loss of 1-2% of the total weight per month.
- For people with a medium fat percentage (men 15%, women 22-25%), losing about 2kg each month is an excellent result.
- Do not take the scale too seriously, the weight varies according to the loss of fat and according to the gains of muscles. The value indicated by the scale could lose its meaning.
- Use the mirror and the photos as a reference, a photo every 3-4 weeks is a good period of time to notice visible and concrete changes.
Conclusion
I must say it is not easy to achieve total body fitness. It requires time and patience. You have to change your exercise routine. Similarly, you have to focus on diet that is useful for total body fitness.
Moreover, there are hundreds of exercises you can do. However, I have mentioned the best exercises for total body fitness. These exercises help you lose weight. Also, it supports you gain muscles. Remember, total body fitness is all about weight loss and muscle gain. Lastly, you have to bring consistency in your diet and exercise regimen to see good results.
