Bodyweight workouts, also sometimes known as calisthenics, are fun, easy, portable, usually less injury-prone and more conducive to travel, or just fitting a workout in on a beautiful summer day. They are also great for beginners, since there is less equipment to worry about, but that doesn’t mean they have to be easy. While you might have to get creative, there are plenty of ways to make bodyweight (or any) exercises harder without needing to add weights or resistance.
The thing I love most about bodyweight workouts is that it reminds me of my time doing gymnastics when I was younger. Gymnastics was workout meets play. My friends and I would practice for hours on our back walk-overs, back handsprings, even back flips (I always needed a hefty mat).
You don’t need to do such complicated maneuvers, however. You can get an excellent workout, geared to get you into excellent shape, on a simple diet of push-ups, lunges, pull-ups, and other fairly standard movements.
But how do you progress without adding weight?
1. Add plyometrics.
Plyometrics is “exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time, with the goal of increasing power (speed-strength)” (Wikipedia). Basically, jumping.
Examples:
- Lunge and jump up. Lunge back, jump up on front leg, return to lunge, repeat.
- Jump lunges (different from above). From a lunge position, jump up in the air, mostly off the front heel, and in the air switch leg positions and come down in a lunge on the opposite leg. Continue.
- Jump squats.
- Explosive push-up. Go down into a push-up. On the way up, push your hands off the ground in a jump. Or, get extra frisky and jump your hands and feet in the air.
2. Add pulses.
A pulse is just a small micro-movement in the most contracted part of the exercise. You can add just one, or add three or five or more.
Examples:
- Squat with triple pulse. Squat down and pulse three times. Stand up or jump up.
- Jump lunge and pulse. Between jump lunges, pulse in the lunge position.
- Bulgarian lunge and pulse. Get in lunge position with your back foot up on a step or chair. Lunge down, pulse, and come up.
3. Hold or add isometric pauses.
This one is similar to above, but don’t pulse, just hold. Isometrics can be brutal, and the only trick here is that you have to not cheat.
Examples:
- Pull up with isometric hold. Do a pull up, and at the top, hold yourself above the bar for 3 seconds. Come down.
- Squat with isometric hold. Do a squat and hold yourself in an isometric movement for 3 seconds before coming up or jumping up.
- One leg squat with a pause. Do a one leg squat and pause at the point where your thigh is parallel to the ground. Pause for 1-3 seconds. Come up.
4. Adjust tempo.
This is also similar to the isometrics, but you don’t necessarily hold, you just go slower. You can make the entire exercise slow, or you can make one part slow and another part regular speed. It’s a great way to perfect your form, balance and agility, too.
Examples:
- Slow pull ups. Do pull ups. Slowly.
- Slow-down, fast-up push-ups. Be slow on the way down, and fast (or regular) on the way up.
- Dancer deadlifts. From standing, on one leg that’s straight but not locked, bend your torso forward, with your arms above your head while bringing your other leg behind you. Your arms, torso and the back leg should be in a straight line, ideally. Slowly reach a T position, so your torso and back leg are parallel with the ground, and hold for 3-5 seconds. Slowly return to standing.
5. Stop midway.
Stopping midway can get rid of relying on momentum to carry you through a movement. You can continue on in that direction, or reverse back and repeat.
Examples:
- Elevator push-up. Do a regular push-up, but stop mid-push-up before reaching the bottom, and again before reaching the top. It’s like you’re an elevator stopping at a floor in the middle.
- 1.5 pull ups. Do a pull up. Come down half way, pause for a split second, come back up, then all the way down.
- 1.5 push-ups. From the plank position, go down to the bottom of a push-up, your face close to the floor. Come back up halfway, then go back down, then come up.
- Step-ups with a stop. Have something to step on to, about chair height. Put one leg up and push through your heel, using your glutes, to lift yourself up, but stop once your weight has entirely shifted on to your front leg. Stop for just a moment, and continue to standing. This is a step up but with a slight stop in the middle to stop the momentum from the push off the bottom foot.
6. Adjust the angle or height.
There are multiple ways to do this, depending on the exercise. But think about putting yourself in a position to use gravity, and your angle, to your advantage.
Examples:
- Elevated push-ups. To make them harder, have your legs up on a chair and your hands on the ground. To make them easier, have your hands on a chair and your feet on the ground.
- Handstand push-ups. This is a more extreme example of the elevated push-ups. Go into a handstand against the wall (or freestanding, if you’re able). Lower yourself as much as you can, then back up to a handstand.
- Box jumps. With a stable elevated place to jump on to, go down in a squat and explosively jump up and land on the platform. Step back down.
7. Adjust the stance or hold.
Even a small adjustment can elevate the difficulty because you’re using slightly different coordination or muscles to complete the exercise.
Examples:
- Side lunge or diagonal lunge. Instead of a standard back lunge, bring the back leg to the side or diagonally behind you.
- Outward palm or inward palm push-ups. Do a push-up, but rotate your hands so your fingers are pointing outward. This will use your bicep muscles more. Or turn them inwards and get extra work on your triceps.
- Parallel dips. These are dips, but where you are dipping from a single bar. Hoist yourself up on a single bar, arms locked. Dip down as far as you can go or until your upper arms are parallel with the ground. Come back up. You might have to
8. Adjust the balance.
Use one hand or foot instead of both, or lean more to one side. You can even adjust the weight mid-way.
Examples:
- Pistol squats/one-legged squats. Squat down on one leg, the other leg held out in front. You might want to put your hands in front to keep balance. Be sure to keep that weight forced through the heel. Use a chair or hold for balance. You can go down until your thigh is parallel and come up, or you can go all the way down as far as you can go and then come up.
- Around the world pull-ups. Go into a regular pull up stance, engage your shoulders, then come up to the bar mostly using one arm and using the other for support. When you get to the top, shift weight from that side to the other, still staying above the bar, and come down on that side. When you do the next rep, come up on the same side you just came down on.
- Pseudo planche push-ups. Ever see men’s gymnastics when they hold their whole body parallel above the floor? That’s a planche. Your hands have to be closer to the fulcrum of your body, if you’re attempting to lift it, which is much harder. You can work up to this by placing your hands further back towards your hips but keeping your feet on the ground.
- One legged push-ups. Do a push-up, but lift one leg up. Switch legs each rep.
9. Add instability.
Do your exercise on a balance ball, medicine ball, disc or Bosu ball. Don’t put yourself in a position where you might fall over, though!
Examples:
- push-ups on a balance ball. Do a push-up with your feet on a balance ball.
- Medicine ball mountain climbers. Put your hands on a medicine ball and get in a plank position. Bend one knee and bring towards your chin, but keep your back straight. Don’t round it or stick your butt in the air, and keep your shoulders above your hands. Quickly switch places with your feet, bringing the other knee up while you place the other back. It should be like a running motion.
- push-up with one hand on medicine ball. Perform a push-up with one hand on the ground and one on a medicine ball. Your weight should fall more heavily on the hand on the ground. Between reps, roll the medicine ball between hands, or do all reps on one side and then switch.
10. Combine exercises.
Do an exercise combo! I find this is fun when I need something more interesting to occupy my brain.
Examples:
- Mountain climber push-ups. Do three mountain climbers, lift the front (bent) leg up and back and do a push-up. Return leg and continue. Since you’re doing an odd number of mountain climbers, each push-up should be an opposite leg up.
- Raeburns. Have a chair in front of you. Step up on the chair on one leg. Once up, do a one leg chair squat, come up, step down.
- Dolphin plank (plank up-down) and push-up. From plank, go down on your elbows one arm at a time, trying to rock as little as possible. When you’re back in a push-up plank, do a push-up.
11. Combine the tactics above.
The possibilities here are literally endless. I love making exercise combos such as this one: side lunge and kick, back lunge and kick, 2 triple lunge tap and knee up, squat, 5 jump squats. You can do that combo 30 times for a good 15-minute section of a workout. Plank variations can be combined with push-ups. You can even do two that aren’t linked, like a pull-up and push-up combo, which gives you a nice rest between pull-ups.
The ball’s in your court.
I first got really into calisthenics by following Al Kavadlo, who has a number of amazing books and videos on the topic, not to mention a whole certification program. I got inspired and stuck with bodyweight only workouts for about two solid years, so I’ll frequently post workouts and exercises here on this blog. Also check out Coach Wade’s Convict Conditioning, which is a fantastic resource on bodyweight strength training, if you can get past the machismo.
Bodyweight exercises are perfect for HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts, as going fast usually won’t be cause for injury, and it’s a nice way to add intensity to a bodyweight workout. If HIIT isn’t your thing, or you want something a little more deliberate, check out other ways you can structure a bodyweight workout. One of my personal favorites is using calisthenics supersets, or bodyweight supersets.
Most importantly? You don’t need a gym to get in amazing shape. Strap some shoes on, head to a park (or a beach!) and get going. What are you waiting for?