I Like a Mixture...

I've noticed that pull-ups and pushups work a bunch of muscles. Which is great for getting fit, but isn't that great for isolation and building up muscle. When I do pushups, I want to build up my chest and shoulders. A problem with push-ups is that they seem to make my arms tired before my chest is really that tired. So the pushup is great workout, but has it's limitations. Another problem (kind of) is that I can do so many reps that it's more toning and building endurance than building up muscle.

I have the same issue with pull-ups. I don't mind the fact that pull-ups build shoulder strength almost more than bicep strength. Biceps aren't very good if you can't use them to their full potential if your shoulders are too weak. The problem I have with then is that I can do a lot of reps. The weighed vest helps, but sometimes the vest pinches or strains my neck muscles when I do pull-ups. A minor issue is that some times I want to isolate my shoulders or my biceps, but I can't with a pull-up.

You know what's very good for isolation? Weights. You can isolate almost any muscle at a gym. You can also use heavy weights. Instead of doing pushups (which is like pushing 50-70% of your body weight) you can use a bench press, which you can lift less than that weight, or more than that weight.

To isolate the back of your shoulders, you can do rows. These are great for pull-ups and pushups. The back of your shoulders are also the counter muscles for your chest. So mixing rows with bench press is a great shoulder and chest workout.

You can also do bicep curls which isolates your biceps, obviously. Mix all of those workouts and it should improve your pushup and pull-up capability.

Now, do NOT quit doing pushups and pull-ups! These don't only work the muscles I listed above, and they also work them all at the same time. I've seen very 'buff' guys on my track team. I was on the stronger end, but still they were much stronger than me. I could do 22 pull-ups then. Most of them couldn't do more than 12. That's probably because they lifted a lot of weights, but didn't do much body weight workouts. It was kind of the same result with pushups. Two of the guys came quite close to my amount of reps though.

So I'd say having a mixture of body weight workouts and weight lifting workouts is a good thing. You can mix them up all in one day, but if you only have a few days at the gym, you may want to do only weights then, and then body weight workouts on your home days.

I'd say over all weight lifting builds certain muscle groups faster, while body weight workouts make you more fit, while strengthening several muscle groups.