I’ve just finished his Naked Warrior book but am concerned that performing each movement, abs and glutes tense with power breathing, won’t lead to any muscle gain but in fact is only a way to boost strength. After all, your not really feeling the muscle work, but rather the body as a whole working as a unit.
Not only that, but am I the only person who notices a distinct similarity between people who single-leg squat and one-arm push-up and their lack of muscle? Thats a shame, because gaining muscle is one of my top priorities.
Has anyone saw gains after incorporating his techniques (if you read the book of course)?
[quote]B.b. in stress! wrote:
I’ve just finished his Naked Warrior book but am concerned that performing each movement, abs and glutes tense with power breathing, won’t lead to any muscle gain but in fact is only a way to boost strength. After all, your not really feeling the muscle work, but rather the body as a whole working as a unit.
Not only that, but am I the only person who notices a distinct similarity between people who single-leg squat and one-arm push-up and their lack of muscle? Thats a shame, because gaining muscle is one of my top priorities.
Has anyone saw gains after incorporating his techniques (if you read the book of course)?[/quote]
I incorporate body weight work such as single leg squats and one arm pushups all the time for conditioning purposes. naked warrior is not optimal for mass gains and an external weight program would be better. But for good metabolic work and strength work body weight or body weight plus a vest or back pack is optimal.
So if hypertrophy is your main focus then do a hypertrophy program, not a bw strenght one.
so r u saying that single leg squats and one-armed push ups arent optimal for mass gains? or are you just saying the protocol used in the naked warrior?
the thing is, single leg squats and one arm pushups will indeed be difficult for me now but later when I can knock off >8 reps for each exercise, won’t it then be considered a ‘hypertrophy’ exercise if I can add weight to myself?
one-legged squats/one-armed pushups are not great muscle building exercises simply because there are so many alternative exercises that you can add load to much faster and hit the muscles more directly.
Which do you think is going to build more impressive thighs, a one-legged squat holding a 20lb dumbbell for 10 reps…
Or a 365lb deep squat for 10 reps?
I would say your observation is correct because in general people that care about being able to do many one-armed pushups or one-legged squats don’t care much about bodybuilding, or don’t find themselves successful at it anyway.
Sure, except a 250lb person can lift more weight and hit the pecs more directly doing a BB or DB bench press than they could doing a one-armed pushup. It is just an inferior exercise as far as bodybuilding goes.