News flash: You don’t need weights to get fit. Yes, when it comes to building a huge one-rep max on the bench, deadlift, and squat, you can’t escape the barbell. But a shredded six-pack and toned physique can be accomplished sans iron. Just YouTube “calisthenics” and you’ll see what we mean. With a minimum amount of stationary equipment—a pullup bar and dipping bars—or no equipment at all, you can train your entire physique. So, when you can’t get to a gym or its closed down due to the virus you have no excuse for not squeezing in a workout.
Use this guide, complete with targeted tips for each body part, to build the ultimate bodyweight workout routine. We even threw in a freebie bodyweight chest and back workout to help you along.
1. Bodyweight workouts can be done almost anywhere.
2. The easiest way to use virtually all your bodyweight as resistance is to pull or push while suspended, as with a pullup or dip.
3. Because choices are limited, you may need to focus on a single exercise for eight or more sets.
4. Change hand or foot placements.
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Bodyweight Training Tip Sheet
1. When you can do 15 reps of a bodyweight exercise, increase difficulty by reducing rest.
2. Boost intensity by doing supersets, trisets, or giant sets.
3. Use a training partner to add or reduce resistance.
4. Legs exercises usually require high reps and maximum ranges of motion.
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Biceps
Go underhand on pullups or inverted rows (and set the bar higher so you’re more upright), and you’ll work the biceps more and your back less. You can also shorten your range of motion to keep the tension on your biceps.
Stay upright on your dips and do your pushups with narrow hand placement to focus more on your triceps and less on your pecs. You can also do bench dips with your hands slightly behind you and your legs straight out in front of you, or elevated on another bench.
Dips focus on your lower pecs (be sure to lean into each rep to take tension off the triceps), while a standard pushup is the bodyweight version of a barbell bench press. But there are several variations you can perform: Elevate your legs on a bench to target your upper chest; place your hands on a bench for your lower pecs; and do them with a close grip for more triceps and inner-chest activation.
Like your chest, the back is an easy body part to hit without weights thanks to the almighty pullup.
Pullups are great because they can be performed with a variety of grips: wide, moderate, close, overhand, and underhand. You can also vary the difficulty. For example, if you’re not strong enough to get more than a few, then you can use a band or an assisted pullup machine to help you bang out more reps. Conversely, if you’re a pullup deity who can rep out more than 15, you can hang weight from a dip belt or close your feet around a dumbbell to make them harder.
The other key back exercise is the inverted row, which is essentially a pullup with your heels on the floor and body held flat. Set a Smith machine bar or a barbell in a power rack at slightly higher than arm’s length when you’re lying on the floor, and pull yourself up as if rowing upside down.
Though extremely difficult to do, the handstand pushup is a suitable substitute for the barbell military press.
Face away from a wall, with your heels against the wall. Get into an extended handstand position, and then press yourself up and down. A regression of this is to prop your feet onto a bench in a pushup position and then walk your hands in so your body is making an L shape. From there, press yourself up and down.
This is called a modified handstand press, and will help you build up to the handstand pushup.
Stand barefoot on a flat floor, not holding on to anything to steady yourself, and rise up very slowly, squeeze hard, and hold each contraction. You can also do weightless calves raises unilaterally, raising and lowering yourself with only one calf at a time.
Perform air squats, split squats (with your back foot elevated on a bench), assisted pistol squats (holding on to a suspension trainer), unassisted pistol squats, jump squats, and walking lunges. All of these should be done for high reps, in the 20 to 30 range.
