There are two different genres of muscle training. What are they called? Body weight training and free weight training. Both take a long time to get really good at, and both take a long time to build muscle with. So which one is better? Let's talk about this, and you can decide as I share my opinion as well.
So the differences, what are the difference? Body weight tend to strengthen connective tissue and focus more on that than deep muscular strengthening.
Weight training hammers the ligaments pretty hard, don't get me wrong here, and you're just as capable if not more so prone to tearing a ligament during a weight training session.
With my own experience from the gathered thoughts of others who have done so as well has made obvious that connective tissue is broken down more in body weight than in weight training. My days I've done 1,000+ push ups workouts I've been very sore in my frontal deltoids and the edges of my shoulders where the muscles connect to bone and each other.
In the days of heavy weight training with barbells and dumbbells, I've experienced a deep almost bruise like muscular soreness deep within the muscle tissue focused in the center of my targeted muscle tissue. This is what breaks your muscles down fully and causes a large boost in testosterone and makes them grow more than in body weight because with the time under tension, you can stay in the same rep range and just increase the weight which you cannot do with body weight. Thus resulting in a harsher muscle fiber breakdown. Your muscles will grow larger and harder to support heavier weight.
Now, bodyweight exercises, they truly focus on the connective tissue of the muscles as equally as the muscle fiber. To gain size in body weight, you work with time under tension. You ligaments with resistance that isn't your own body weight tend to beef up and get used to things as they're under the stress for a specific amount of time and your muscles are on overload.
With body weight, you have to increase the time under tension, so 500 push ups vs 1000 push ups, is say ten minutes of push ups all together vs 20 minutes of only push ups all together.
It's like friction on a rubber band, let's pretend the ends of a rubber band is the connective tissue in your muscles. You put a ten pound weight on this rubber band and swing it around until it snaps in the middle, thus mimicking what weight training does.
But now, you take a bunch of small lead weights, and put them on the rubber band which come to out to be say five pounds. You swing the rubber band many more times than with the ten pound weight and it snaps at the ends. You take out the middle piece and it's frayed and torn up and has little tears all over, this is what bodyweight is like because the time under tension. There is a heavier focus on the connective tissue verses the inner tissue. It breaks it down, indefinitely, but gives a more resistant and hard strength that keeps the muscles from tearing like your chances are higher of in weight lifting.
There are very difficult movements in body weight that will tear your muscles apart I do guarantee, and I have been just as sore after as after weight lifting. What are these exercises? Ones with added resistance and the very difficult compound movements.
Weighted pull ups, weighted push ups, one arm pull ups, pistol squats, one arm push ups, so forth. These things are very hard on the muscle fibers.
The other difference between weight training and body weight training is body weight is easier on the joints and free weights are harder. Body weight is what your body is meant to do but just with many many more repetitions, and free weights are your own weight plus added resistance when advanced thus causing more joint pressure.
But with your time and work, both offer stronger joints, harder muscles and ligaments, a healthy heart, and tougher bones.
So it's up to you to decide what's best for you. I've seen people get incredible results off of both, weights tend to add more mass. Body weight adds mass, but is mostly toning. All is good on the contrary though. So good luck!
-The Fitness Cookie
