It’s taken for granted amongst weightlifters that you have to use resistance to gain muscle, but does this assumption hold any truth? How about protein and weight-gainers? The companies who produce this stuff say we need it, but is all this true? Here I intend to supply you with an unbiased answer to these questions and see whether the current paradigm is at all warranted.

Before we can address whether or not weights are necessary, we must understand why lifting weight works in the first place. The basic premise is much like why runners get faster by running and jumpers jump higher through jumps. When you do an exercise you are stressing and tearing your muscles. The body’s natural solution is to build up and strengthen those muscles so that the next time you exert them to that extent, it won’t be as taxing. This is why most weightlifters go through a several week period of teardown, where they lift extremely heavy weights in hopes of tearing as many fast twitch muscle fibres as possible. This is often followed by a build up period, where they lift lighter weights and allow the body to repair itself.

So then I guess the real question is whether or not we can tear muscle fibres without lifting weight. The answer is yes. A short walk to the refrigerator is tearing muscle fibres, but likely not enough to achieve a noticeable increase in size. The same goes for consciously flexing a muscle in hopes of gaining muscle mass. You might tear some muscles but virtually none compared to the amount torn while using heavy weights and taking the muscle to failure. It’s important to note though that there are techniques that flexing can be used for in addition to a weight training program by temporarily restricting blood flow to the muscles. I will discuss these techniques in a later article but for now it’s safe to say that muscle gains are virtually impossible unless you have some form of resistance that puts a substantial amount of stress on the muscle.

How about weight-gainers? The supposed need for these sorts of products is twofold. One is that intense weight training causes you to burn more energy and it can be difficult to replenish yourself solely through food. The second is that since your muscles are made up of amino acids which are what constitutes protein, the quicker you can get protein to your muscles the quicker they will heal. Many lifters feel it’s a necessity to use these kinds of supplements but the truth is that you don’t really need them. The supplement companies would never tell you this, but you can get everything contained in those products and usually of higher quality, just by having a balanced diet. In fact, if you read the suggested intake on many of those products they’ll tell you to take a ridiculous amount to ensure maximum muscle gain. What they fail to tell you is that if your body doesn’t use all that protein, it gets converted to ammonia and organic acids, and is a complete waste.

So the conclusion is that you’ve got to have some form of resistance to build muscle, there’s just no way you can stress them enough to get bigger solely by flexing. As for weight-gainers, they’re an easy fix if you don’t have time for a meal but the truth is that they’re not necessary and they often go to waste. Hope this helps and be sure to check out the continuation of this weight gain without weights discussion when I discuss different applications of flexing in a weight training routine.