That’s a common phrase that sadly many trainers use with their clients.

They tell them that the only way to build muscle is to lift weights & that bodyweight exercises are only good for warming up.

That’s what one of my newer clients told me recently & it always pains me to hear those phrases.

Bodyweight training does build muscle - just ask my back!

Just like with weights what will build muscle is using The Law Of Progressive Overload
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Which is to progressively make exercises harder every week
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You can do this by:

• Doing slower reps
• Decreasing rest time
• Increasing the reps in a single set
• Adding more resistance AKA weight
• Practicing "perfect form" exercises
• And decreasing your leverage

Decreasing leverage is one of my favorite ways to pack on muscle & this picture is a great example of that.
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I am doing tree pull ups & I am forced to engage more muscles since this fat grip is not easy to grab.
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I can do 15-20 pull ups on a regular bar but since the grip on this tree is a challenge I was only able to do about 10.
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If I wanted to make this harder I could use a thicker tree since there will be way less leverage & I would be forced to also squeeze the tree and not just hang from it.
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So before anyone tells you that bodyweight doesn’t build muscle.
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Have them manipulate the variables I mentioned above with pull ups for 1 month.
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If after 1 month they don’t build muscle by doing slower reps, heavier reps, higher reps or harder reps then I will shut up & they can talk shit on bodyweight training all they want :)