Help getting hyooge. (Milk ain't doin' it.)

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Anoop Balachandran

So are you saying he is better off doing body weight stuff than doing squats, dead lift and press's with weights if he wants to put muscle?

No.

He might put some muscle but that's definitely limited because there is no progression in weights with body weight stuff.

This is the part that is wrong. There is progression implemented through multiple ways of decreasing leverage.

[Kevin Perry]

Originally Posted by Anoop Balachandran

So are you saying he is better off doing body weight stuff than doing squats, dead lift and press's with weights if he wants to put muscle?

He might put some muscle but that's definitely limited because there is no progression in weights with body weight stuff.

Says the armchair exercise science expert

[Geoffrey Thompson]

Though I believe we would all agree about the lower body, Steven Low's contention is that bodyweight exercises can be used to gain significant strength and mass on the upper body through gymnastic progressions. I believe he's written extensively on the topic on his web page. I still think barbells are better for it, but some of the gymnastic progressions would certainly require you to develop significant amounts of strength.

[Anoop Balachandran]

There are some crazy ways to use your body weight. Ross has some stuff in Never Gymless and I am pretty sure there are more creative stuff that people can do if they think about it.

And for someone who "wants to get hyoooge" and wants to get 240lbs, I am not sure sticking with body weight exercises is the best advice, unless he just cannot find a gym or something.

[Steven Low]

Weights are definitely superior for lower body in almost all instances (although some people can get pretty huge off just doing sprinting and stuff like that).

Weights can and would help getting big in the upper body that much is obvious.

Based on where Patrick currently is with his gymnastics progressions (actually having seen him do them and being his actual coach IRL -- although not doing his programming for him).... correctly implemented bodyweight work would help him gain mass at least on par with weights. Strength most definitely.

I think he can attest to such if he wants to post again.

Anyway, that's my last post here. This isn't very productive.

[Garrett Smith]

There's really two things here.

Patrick's perception of a "role model" here was, by him, admittedly skewed. The 6' 240# ripped/jacked guy was actually only 200#. As also mentioned, he might be bumping the ceiling of drug-free lean mass at his goal weight. Not easy to get to either, I'm sure Grimek would agree, and Grimek was (I'm guessing) very BB/DB-centric in his own training.

Lastly, his BW program...simply isn't working even in the context of a massive surplus of calories. If it isn't working, change something.

How about this compromise? Weighted dips and weighted pull-ups. Don't forget the back squats.