The Best Bodyweight Workout For Beginners

Let’s start your journey into bodyweight training with an assessment of your current fitness level. 

Do one set of the following exercises to failure and record how many reps you get of each.


Bodyweight 
Squat 
Pushup 
Chin-up 
Burpee

After 8 weeks of the workout routine, I lay out below, retest yourself to see how you’ve progressed.

And the workout routine itself:

Day 1

Upper Body & Abs

2 x (sets of) Pushup (or regression to build up to the standard pushup)

2 x Pike Pushup > Dive Bomber Pushup > Handstand Pushup

2 x Triceps Dip > Chest Dip

6 x Chinup (or regression) > Pullup

3 x Ab Circuits

Day 2

Lower Body & Cardio

2 x Bodyweight Squat

2 x Bodyweight Squat > Squat Jump > Shrimp Squat > Pistol Squat

2 x Lunge

2 x Russian Hamstring Curl

3 x Burpee

Day 3

Upper Body & Abs

(Same as day 1)

Day 4

Lower Body

(Same as day 2)


Let’s break down how all this works. All sets are done to one or two reps short of failure. You don’t have to go to absolute muscle failure every set to make progress, but you need to come close. 

You want to rest enough in between sets for your heart rate and breathing to settle down but not so much that you lose your pump and workout intensity. 

Rest 1 to 2 minutes in between sets.

Once you can do 20 reps of a given exercise in one set, progress to the harder variation of the exercise. Progressions are indicated by the > symbols. 

So, for example, once you can do 20 pike pushups, you then start doing dive bomber pushups for that and all future workouts. Once you can do 20 dive bombers, you start doing handstand pushups instead. 

In this way, your workouts will change over time.

And in the cases where there are no progressions, your goal is to simply increase the number of total reps you can do each workout. 

If you can’t do a pushup or chin-up yet, start with a regression that you can do. For example, if you can’t do one chin-up yet, do chin up-holds until you can do 20 and then progress to chin-ups. 

The ab circuit consists of one set of hanging leg raises followed by one set of air bicycles followed by one set of planks. 

Do these sets back-to-back without rest (3 sets is one circuit).

Do cardio separately.

Bodyweight workouts (and the lower body workout in particular) are pretty cardio intensive.

If you need or want to do more cardio, though, do it either several hours before your bodyweight workouts or sometime after (you want to be as fresh as possible for your resistance training).

If you’re not sure how much or what type of cardio you should do to reach your goals, check out this article. 

One rep of a one-legged exercise consists of one rep for each leg.


What about supplementation?

Something you should know. You see, supplements don’t build great physiques–dedication to proper training and nutrition does. 

As a part of my work, it’s been my job to know what these substances are and find products with them that I can use myself and recommend to others. Finding high-quality, effective, and fairly priced products have always been a struggle, though.

Creatine

#1 Best Seller and Top-Quality

You can check it out here.

You may have heard that creatine is bad for your kidneys, but these claims have been categorically and repeatedly disproven. 

In healthy subjects, creatine has been shown to have no harmful side effects, in both short- or long-term usage. 

People with kidney disease are not advised to supplement with creatine, however. 

This gives you the proven strength, size, and recovery benefits of creatine monohydrate plus the muscle repair and insulin sensitivity benefits of L-carnitine L-tartrate and corosolic acid. 

Protein Powder

GOLD STANDARD 100% Whey delivers 24g of whey protein, has 5.5 grams of naturally occurring BCAAs, and 4 grams of naturally occurring glutamine per serving.  Gluten-Free.

The best of the best. I have been using this for the past 3 years.

You can find ON Gold Standard here.

You don’t need protein supplements to gain muscle, but, considering how much protein you need to eat every day to maximize muscle growth, getting all your protein from whole food can be impractical. (There’s also evidence that whey protein is particularly good for your post-workout nutrition.)

Pre-Workout Drink

The world's first two-stage natural pre-workout energy drink for men and women

You can find Vintage Blast here.

There’s no question that a pre-workout supplement can get you fired up to get to work in the gym. Many others don’t even have stimulants going for them and are just complete duds.

Others still are downright dangerous, like USPLabs’ popular pre-workout «Jack3d,» which contained a powerful stimulant known as DMAA. Even worse was the popular pre-workout supplement «Craze,» which contained a chemical similar to methamphetamine. 

The reality is it’s very hard to find a pre-workout supplement that’s light on stimulants but heavy on natural, safe, performance-enhancing ingredients like beta-alanine, betaine, and citrulline. So, if you’re an experienced weightlifter looking for a new challenge, this could be for you. You can use bodyweight workouts to maintain your muscle and build muscle endurance. 


In Conclusion

Bodyweight workouts have many advantages but aren’t necessarily for everyone.

They’re fantastic exercise and so-so strength and muscle builders, but they’re not as practical as weightlifting for maximizing muscle growth and sculpting a physique.

So, if you’re an experienced weightlifter looking for a new challenge, this could be for you. You can use bodyweight workouts to maintain your muscle and build muscle endurance.


If you’re new to working out and want to dramatically transform your body, though, bodyweight training is an acceptable place to start, but a good weightlifting program is going to get you there faster.



Credit to: Michael Matthews of Muscle For Life