How I'd Build Muscle at Home (Complete Guide with No Equipment)

For most people, the idea of building muscle at home with no machines, no equipment, and not a single dumbbell in sight seems unrealistic. In order to grow, we often think that we have to

follow the most ultra specific optimal workout routine that requires us to go to the gym. But the evidence says otherwise. A 2025 systematic review

otherwise. A 2025 systematic review covering 102 trials found that both free weights and body weight training increased muscle size. Free weights

alone did lead to greater gains, but body weight training also produced a significant effect when it came to gaining muscle. The authors concluded

gaining muscle. The authors concluded that what mattered most wasn't the presence of weight, but the training intensity, the load used, and how close the participants were working to

muscular failure. This also aligns with

muscular failure. This also aligns with Shafeld's wellestablished principles.

Muscle growth is driven by mechanical tension and mechanical or progressive overload. So, it's not necessarily true

overload. So, it's not necessarily true that you need weights to grow. You

simply need to follow structured progressions, which we'll advance through in today's video in three core levels. Level one, the foundation. The

levels. Level one, the foundation. The

goal here is to learn the core movement patterns that will allow you to train each muscle group effectively. Start

where you can build consistency and progress when you've mastered the basics. First, chest, shoulders, and

basics. First, chest, shoulders, and triceps. If you guessed our foundational

triceps. If you guessed our foundational chest exercise would be the pushup, you'd be right. I mean, it's supported by the research which demonstrates that push-ups can elicit similar strength

gains when compared to lowloadad bench pressing. The push-up can also be varied

pressing. The push-up can also be varied in its hand positions to target different areas of the body. So, the

chest, shoulders, or triceps, making it a great overall upper body exercise. To

start us off, let's learn the basic push-up. Drop down to a plank with your

push-up. Drop down to a plank with your hands just wider than shoulder width.

Tuck your pelvis. Brace your core and keep your back flat throughout the movement. As you lower, keep your elbows

movement. As you lower, keep your elbows around a 45° angle. Touch the floor.

Then press back up, keeping everything tight. If you can't quite do a full

tight. If you can't quite do a full pushup yet, don't fret. Here are some progressions that you can follow that will naturally lead to your eventual push-up. First, start on a wall. Once

push-up. First, start on a wall. Once

you have that down, move on to incline push-ups on a raised surface. Slowly

decrease the raise of that surface over time as you get better until you reach the floor. Once at the floor, start with

the floor. Once at the floor, start with push-ups at the knees and eventually move on to the full push-up. Second,

back and biceps. I'm sure you'd expect me to say here that the foundational exercise for the back would be the pull-up, but to be honest, it's not.

Now, I'm not saying that pull-ups aren't foundational, because they absolutely are. But is it likely that you'll be

are. But is it likely that you'll be able to do them right from level one?

Probably not. Also, unless you have access to a pull-up bar or a very sturdy tree, you're probably not going to be able to do a pull-up anytime soon. You

can get pull-up bars on Amazon, but if you're like me and you live in an old rickety house, I wouldn't put those on your door frame. Girl, it cracks. So, a

great alternative to this that's much more accessible for most people working out at home is the inverted row. This

movement doesn't quite work exactly the same as the pull-up because it's a horizontal pulling exercise, not a vertical one, but it will help us build more general back and arm strength,

which may also indirectly support our pull-up progress in the future. To do

this, all you need to do is locate a sturdy desk or a table or really anything that's about waist height.

Slide yourself underneath and grab it with an overhand grip just wider than your shoulders. Keep your body in a

your shoulders. Keep your body in a straight line, squeezing your glutes and bracing your core. Pull your chest to the bar by driving your elbows back.

Then slowly lower down. If you can't quite get your legs straight when you first start doing this, just bend your knees to begin with and slowly work on straightening your body out the more you

do it. Third, abs. Abs are pretty

do it. Third, abs. Abs are pretty straightforward to do at home given that most ab exercises do start with body weight. Because the main function of the

weight. Because the main function of the abs or the rectus abdominis is to bring the pelvis and the chest towards one another. Our foundational move here will

another. Our foundational move here will be the reverse crunch. Why reverse?

Well, the traditional crunch doesn't have the greatest range of motion. So,

the reverse version allows us to provide a touch more range and sets the stage for more advanced progressions in the future. Simply lie down on the ground,

future. Simply lie down on the ground, preferably on a mat, blanket, or towel, and pop your legs up around 90°. Put

your hands at your sides for stability, and think about curling your tailbone up to your chest and slowly lowering back down. Fourth, quads. For quads, of

down. Fourth, quads. For quads, of course, our foundational exercise here would be the squat, specifically the bodyweight squat or the air squat. To do

these, first, pick a foot placement that's most comfortable for you. Some

people can do these at shoulder width, some people are a little bit more narrow, and some people are wider. It

really takes finding the stance that works best for your body. Brace your

core, keep your chest nice and proud, and sit your hips down and back as if you're lowering into a chair. Go as low as you can while keeping your heels on the floor and back neutral, ideally to

parallel or lower depending on your mobility. Then drive your knees out

mobility. Then drive your knees out slightly to come back up. If you can't quite get the squat, then we'll start here with box squats. Simply pop a chair or a couch behind you. Sit down until

your bum touches the chair and then come back up. Fifth, glutes and hamstrings.

back up. Fifth, glutes and hamstrings.

Starting with glutes, our foundational move here, of course, will be the hip thrust. To do these, plop down on the

thrust. To do these, plop down on the ground and rest your back against something chest height. Once you're

there, lie your legs out in front of you, marking where your knees sit with your hands. Then, scoot your feet into

your hands. Then, scoot your feet into that position. This should give you the

that position. This should give you the perfect angle to reach full hip extension and not jerk your back out at the top of the range. To start, simply think about a string pulling your bum

down, then thrust back up to the top.

You really want to think about hinging your back around the back support behind you and then thrusting back up explosively until you hit that glute squeeze at the top of the movement. For

hamstrings, we have the Nordics. To do

these, hook your feet under either a couch, something, or someone heavy. Keep

a nice neutral spine. Lower yourself as far down as you can with control. Then

drop to the ground and push yourself back up. Now, do not worry if you can't

back up. Now, do not worry if you can't get these right away. Start with having something that is elevated in front of you. So, you only go down as far as you

you. So, you only go down as far as you can. Land on that elevated surface and

can. Land on that elevated surface and then come back up slowly. You will try and reduce that elevated surface until you're at the ground, but believe me, they are hard. Take it slow. Keep

everything nice and tight and progress over time. And last, but by no means

over time. And last, but by no means least, we have the calves. To set our foundation for these, we'll do body weight straight leg calf raises. To do

these, simply find yourself any elevated surface. Start with your feet neutral,

surface. Start with your feet neutral, lower down, then come back up. Really

focus on controlling the movement and not springing up and down in this. To

progress on level one, for each and every foundational exercise, start by aiming for two sets on each exercise for around 8 to 12 reps, trying to push

yourself as close to failure or until you can't do any more reps as you can.

Don't worry if when you're just starting out, you can't quite make eight reps even on the easiest progression. Just

keep trying and eventually you'll get there. Start with the initial

there. Start with the initial progressions that you can do and then slowly build up to the more advanced progressions once you can reach the end of our rep range. So once you can do 12 reps on both of the two sets. Once

you've nailed your foundations completely and you can hit your rep range on both of your sets, we can move on to level two. Level two, overload with leverage. We aren't going to

with leverage. We aren't going to reinvent the wheel on this level. We're

simply going to apply one of the basic principles of muscle building, mechanical overload. Since we don't have

mechanical overload. Since we don't have traditional equipment, we're not going to advance here by piling on extra sets or reps. Instead, we'll use the best

or reps. Instead, we'll use the best tool that we've got, our body. During

the next two levels, we'll gradually utilize more of our body weight, increasing the challenge of the exercise over time. We're also going to be using

over time. We're also going to be using more challenging leverages or variations of our foundations in order to progress.

Once we have our main push-up nailed, we'll keep this in our rotation, but also add in a variation that works the triceps. Start by putting your palms

triceps. Start by putting your palms together in a diamond shape. Keeping the

elbows tucked into your sides, focus on pushing your elbows behind you, tapping the ground with your chest as before, and coming back up. We can also add in a shoulder exercise here, the pike press.

Here we'll start with our hands and feet on the ground. Slowly walking our hands away from our feet until reaching a sort of downward dog position. The further

your hands are away from your feet, the less weight will be placed on the shoulders and the easier this will be.

So, if you're new, start there. Simply

press your head down towards your toes in a diagonal angle. Then come back up.

The inverted row is pretty easy to grasp once you've nailed your progressions. So

to progress this a little bit further and to get a bit of bicep and lat work, we'll do the underhand inverted row. The

principles exactly the same as our last inverted row. Grab your sturdy object

inverted row. Grab your sturdy object this time with an underhand grip and focus on rowing your elbows into your back pockets. To progress on our reverse

back pockets. To progress on our reverse crunch, all you want to do is slowly straighten your legs. Don't let yourself use this as an opportunity to start swinging your legs and using momentum.

Just follow the same movement as before, curling your pelvis up. And once you've nailed your squat, it's time to get real diabolical with some unilateral work.

We'll start off slow with the lunge and then move on to the Bulgarian split squat. To lunge, simply start in an

squat. To lunge, simply start in an upright position, then step forward and come back to standing. Once we've got that, we can move on to Bulgarians. For

this, find an elevated surface around calf or knee height. Doing one leg at a time, pop your non- workinging leg up first, keeping the top of your foot flush to the surface and sit back on it.

Stick your working leg out around one step in front of you, and push up into the top of the movement. This should

allow you to get into the right position for this movement for your body. Then,

making sure your foot is still flat to your surface and your torso is nice and upright, simply sink down into the movement and come back up. Don't rush

this one and really think about pushing through your working leg and working that quad. I'm sorry. After we have

that quad. I'm sorry. After we have nailed our hip thrust, we can alter this movement pattern slightly to make it more challenging with the single leg hip thrust. This follows the same principles

thrust. This follows the same principles as before, only now we're pushing our non-working leg in front of us just a touch, placing more load on one glute,

simply working one cheek at a time. For

hamstrings, I'm going to just leave it as Nordics for now because I know they do take a long time to master. I have

been training for four years. Granted,

not doing Nordics, but I struggled when filming this video. I couldn't do it.

So, yeah, it takes time. For calves,

we'll keep our straight leg calf raises for now, but add a slight pause at the bottom of the movement. So, follow the same trajectory as before. This time

pausing for 1 2 3 4 and coming back up.

To progress on level two again for each of our new variations, aim for two sets of 8 to 12 reps. Starting with the initial progression of the new variation, pushing as close to failure

as you can. And once you master that initial move, you can start to try out the more advanced progressions, ensuring that you are keeping your form consistent and not putting yourself at

risk of injury. And once you've progressed through level two with confidence, nailing your sets and your reps, it's time to move on to level three. Level three, advanced body weight

three. Level three, advanced body weight overload. Within this level, we'll

overload. Within this level, we'll really be stepping up how we leverage our bodies to increase the difficulty and loading of our foundational and our level two exercises. If you aren't

confident with these new progressions, but you do still want to try them out, I would recommend starting out by doing them for one set and then doing the

level two progressions for your sets two or your sets three. This will allow you to slowly build up to this more advanced level. And once you nail your rep range

level. And once you nail your rep range on that first set, you can then do the advanced progression for your second set or your third set. basically just for

all your working sets. Back in level two, we started to learn the pike press.

And by now, if you're on this level, you should have mastered it. So, let's take it up a notch, shall we? Now that we've nailed it on the floor, we're slowly going to work our way up the wall,

eventually leading into the handstand press. This will take time, and I

press. This will take time, and I big-headed went into it thinking I could definitely do a handstand press. I tried

it. I bailed. I didn't even attempt it.

It's hard. So, take your time and slowly elevate the legs up the wall. Don't just

try to do a handstand press like I did.

It's not a good idea. You will hurt yourself. For the push-up, you can also

yourself. For the push-up, you can also now increase the challenge of this exercise by doing the deficit push-up.

Propping your hands on something elevated like books to give yourself a greater range of motion. And once you've nailed both the overhand and underhand

row, you can now slowly begin to elevate your feet and row parallel. This may be difficult to do at home, but I just did it by elevating my feet on the chair in

front of me. So, just work with what you've got. For abs, we'll simply keep a

you've got. For abs, we'll simply keep a reverse crunch progression that we had before, but now we'll add in the Vup.

The V-up is essentially the love child of the reverse crunch and the regular crunch. Starting with your arms fully

crunch. Starting with your arms fully extended and curling your chest and pelvis towards each other to meet in the middle. Now, for the quads, it wouldn't

middle. Now, for the quads, it wouldn't be much of a body weight exercise video without including the pistol squat. This

is one of the toughest leg exercises you can do body weight. So, if you're not quite there yet, don't panic. You can

start by working through similar progressions that we did with the body weight squat, doing box pistols or assisted pistols, holding on to something sturdy beside you. I also want

to pop in a variation to get the rectus forous here for the quads, the squat. The movement is simple. Keep your

squat. The movement is simple. Keep your

hips extended, lean back, bending only at the knees, and lower under control before pushing back up. Feel free to hold onto a post here for stability, eventually working your way up to

handsfree if you're absolutely insane.

For the glutes, once you've nailed your single leg hip thrust, you can also try and elevate your shoulders and your feet further. Again, by using things like

further. Again, by using things like books or anything you've got lying around to create the deficit hip thrust.

This basically just allows for a greater range of motion in the lengthen position, still following the same movement pattern as our hip thrust. For

hamstrings, the natural progression from the Nordic curl is the full Nordic curl, where you can lower yourself the whole way down and not need to spring back up on your hands. If you can do that, I am

so impressed. That is our goal. I can't

so impressed. That is our goal. I can't

do it. So, let us know if you can. For

calves, we can now add some single leg calf raises into the mix. Starting

exactly the same as how we did on level one. And once we nail our sets and reps,

one. And once we nail our sets and reps, we can then move on to the pause variation to progress on this exercise.

Like I mentioned before, for each of our new variations, you're going to want to aim to nail your 8 to 12 rep range within the two sets. Starting with the initial regression and then moving on to

the more advanced progressions. The key

principles to muscle building never change. Mechanical tension and

change. Mechanical tension and mechanical overload or progressive overload. Weights do make this easier to

overload. Weights do make this easier to apply in order to build muscle, but they're not absolutely necessary, especially for beginners. These levels

can take weeks, months, years to progress through, which means you have plenty of room to grow, especially as a beginner, before even touching a barbell. If you find this breakdown

barbell. If you find this breakdown useful when building muscle at home, don't forget to like and comment down below which level you're currently at.

Don't forget to subscribe while you're down there and join us, Pookies.

Hopefully, I will catch you guys in my next one.