Q: Can an Asian male get big by doing only body weight exercises? -J. Yu My Answer: You can, but it's very tough. You're going to have a much easier time getting big off of barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells. I get this question all the time on my strength blog. There's a number of reasons for why it's more difficult to get big solely off of calisthenics. For one thing, most people think of calisthenics as just push-ups, pull-ups, air squats and crunches. There's a lack of variety in people's minds when it comes to body weight exercises. In reality, there is a wide variety of calisthenic exercises, but most people don't know more than a handful. In order to grow bigger, you have to expose your muscles to a variety of exercises. You can certainly work on just push-ups and abs and get toned triceps and abs, but your overall musculature will not be very big. The other mistake people make when doing just body weight exercises is that they do