Wondering how to build muscle without equipment? Don’t get me wrong, all those shiny dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells and the like are great tools for helping you get ripped. But not everyone has the kind of cash you need to stock up a home gym.

So the question is, how to build muscle at home without equipment? Well, answering that is easier than you might think. You just need a little creativity.

Here are a few things you can use to pack on muscle from the comfort of your own home: 

1. DIY Dumbells

Did you know that a gallon jug of water weighs 8 lbs? Did you also know that you can buy one of these at a local grocery store for under a buck? Compare that to the cost of an 8-pound dumbbell, and you’re saving over 10 dollars. That means you can literally get yourself over 100 lbs of weight for the cost of a single 8-pound dumbbell. You can use the water jugs in your workouts for some resistance training. Remember, your body has no idea where the resistance is coming from. It just knows that it’s being worked.

Here’s where it gets even better: water jugs are super adaptable. To get even more weight, you can empty the water out and fill them with sand or gravel. Then you’ll really have some resistance to work with.

When doing exercises with the jugs, you can weave a towel through the handle of one or multiple jugs and grip onto it. This will help promote better grip strength and really target your forearm muscles.

2. Your Own Body

The body itself makes a great instrument to build muscle. It doesn’t get any more convenient than that. You can work out at home, at work, whilst travelling and even when you’re sunning it up at the beach.

Exercises like push-ups, dips, squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, planks, mountain climbers and hip bridges work pretty much your entire body. Plus, you can easily integrate these with exercises that require the use of your water jugs.

Draw up a hard-hitting bodyweight routine that you can take with you wherever you go.

3. Makeshift Pull-up Bar

Pull-ups are great upper-body exercises. And some people would class a pull-up bar as a piece of gym equipment, that’s not necessarily true. You can use any object as a pull-up bar, as long as it is sturdy enough for you to hang from it. This is not the time for you to be ripping the plaster out your wall.

For example, if you have an open beam in your basement, you can grip the top of it and use it to do pull-up variations and several different ab exercises.

The reason this tool is so valuable is because it causes a huge amount of tension in your body, which helps your muscles to grow. When doing a pull-up, your lats, biceps, shoulders, chest and abs all get a tremendous amount of tension, which will help you pack on a serious amount of muscle over time.

Put a solid workout plan together

The key to sparking muscle growth is to do enough work, and to do it regularly. A good rule of thumb is to perform a full body workout 3 days a week on alternating days. You may experience some soreness at first, but don’t be a sissy-ass! Deal with it and move forward.

Select 5 to 8 exercises that target all of your major muscle groups and perform 5 or 6 sets of each. Do between 10 and 15 reps and make bloody sure that your form is perfect.

Move through a full range of motion, never rely on momentum and remember the rule of tension. Basically, squeeze your focus muscles as you near the midpoint of each rep.

Let’s Do This

You don’t need a gym to get buff. The solutions you need are waiting for you at home, and the supplements to help you are available right here. Take them alongside your workout routine, and you’ll be making serious gains in no time. Want to learn more about bulking up? Read our 101 on how to build muscle guide for more expert advice.

Good nutrition plays a huge part in building muscle as well, so be sure to work on getting your macros right. Don’t be afraid to look into supplementation to support your nutritional intake. Crazybulk’s Bulking Stack is the ultimate starter package to boost your muscle growth, but for those on a budget, any of the key components of this package will help.