Bodyweight training pdf

Strength tools such as kettlebells , dumbbells, barbells , and sandbags are useless without having the proper bodyweight strength and conditioning foundation. Most of my clients and even advanced athletes have HORRIBLE form and technique when they first come in; this is totally normal, and quite frankly, all too common. The rule of thumb I have for my clients and athletes is that they have a solid level of bodyweight strength before they go on to any external types of resistance.

You should easily be able to perform the following:. Standing Poses — Build leg strength as well as flexibility in the hips and hamstrings. One of the best types of tests that I like to put my athletes and clients through challenge their general bodyweight conditioning and strength levels is the Bodyweight Gauntlet.

Yes, there are progressions to follow, but the bottom line is that in order to get the best results possible, you must attack your workouts relentlessly. Basics are always important, but intensity and focus should be number one over everything else! For a beginner, this can get brutal real quick.

While this may look like nothing more than a simple conditioning test, the real key to success is having a solid base of bodyweight strength to begin with. Leave your comments and score! Now, beyond the basics of bodyweight training, you must understand that in order to get stronger with your own bodyweight, you must start to progress in difficulty.

Being able to bang out squats, push-ups, lunges, and pull-ups by the dozens or even hundreds is pretty good, but to what point? In order for your training to be truly effective in helping you gain more strength, you must start to build more strength with more progressed movements over time.

This is where different forms of advanced bodyweight exercises come into play. A great way to enhance your training and make it more advanced is to make it explosive by increasing the speed of the movement. The faster you can move, the better. One of my main coaching cues to my athletes and clients is to always be as explosive as possible with your movements during the concentric phase. I want my people to be thinking about lifting fast, never slow.

An example of this would be the push-up. Imagine yourself at the top of the movement; as you descend down into the push-up, you want to keep your whole body tight from head to toe core especially. A key point is that your whole body should work as one solid unit, never in parts, so keep your whole body engaged throughout the movement.

As you come down you want to be in control. This is the eccentric portion of the movement. Now, as you come back up, you want to imagine moving your body as fast and as explosively as possible. This is the concentric portion of the movement and you always want to focus on moving as fast as possible here. I refer to this point a lot when training push ups, pull ups, and rows. I see too many people do these movements to failure, and when you train like this all the time, you fry out your central nervous system.

The overall point of this is to focus on being FAST with your movements and avoiding taking your sets to failure most of the time. Just think: quality over quantity. Another way to increase your overall strength is to use advanced variations of movements.

When it comes to building up more strength via bodyweight movements, it should be a no-brainer to make the movement harder. One of the simplest ways to make a bodyweight movement more advanced is by moving the positioning of your feet or hands. You could also implement the use of a suspension trainer and do push ups while holding the straps or having your feet suspended in the straps. You could also do extended range of motion push ups with your hands on medicine balls or boxes.

The number of training days — 4 days a week for beginners and five days a week for intermediate. However, depending on your fitness level, you can increase or decrease the number of workout days.

The ideal interval time between sets seconds to 2 minutes. Download and use the above calisthenics workout plan PDF based on your fitness level if you like it.

You can increase or decrease the number of sets, repetitions, interval time between sets, and the number of exercises depending on your strength and fitness level. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for the newsletter! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Then, as you exhale, engage your shoulders to push back up.

That is one repetition. This is a highly challenging bodyweight workout that strengthens triceps, shoulders, back, glutes, and quads while stretching your hip flexors, abs, and chest. Remember to breathe!! Pro tip: If this is too challenging, start by using an exercise ball to support bridge pose. This requires a lot of chest, shoulder, and back flexibility so you may need to work on flexibility in those areas before doing this exercise.

In our experience, to strengthen leg muscles with bodyweight and consistently achieve muscle failure, two things are essential.

That is unilateral one-legged moves and explosive, plyometric jumping exercises. The majority of our legs and glutes bodyweight exercises incorporate one, or sometimes both, of these techniques.

Below are the best bodyweight strength exercises for your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and hips. This lower body bodyweight exercise targets your leg and butt muscles and improves your balance.

Bodyweight reverse lunges are an important exercise because they point out strength imbalances in your legs. Start in a reverse lunge on the right side.

Reach your left leg back and keep your front knee right behind your toes and weight in your heels. Then, while returning to the top of the lunge, drive your left knee up to the sky in front of you, maintaining your balance on your right leg. Lastly, repeat the reverse lunge knee driver on the left side to complete one rep. Pro tip: While lunging, make sure your knees stay in line with your ankle and resist them from tracking in or out.

Start with your feet squared, shoulder-distance apart, and your fingers on your temples and elbows extended out engaging your upper back and shoulders. Shift your weight into your heels, keeping your knees behind your toes as you squat. Only go as low as you can without arching your lower back.

Use your momentum to hop your legs in, so that your knees are touching. Without stopping, sink into a squat, squeezing your knees together engaging adductors and your elbows together engaging pectorals. Lastly, explode back up, hopping your legs back out and pulling your elbows apart. This is a total-body bodyweight exercise with a focus on your adductors.

This is a hip stabilizing muscle that is often overlooked. This is critical for injury prevention and performance. Start in chair pose with your feet shoulder-distance apart and arms up. Remember, keep your weight in your heels and knees behind your toes. The lower you go in this exercise the more challenging. Then step left, pressing your hands back up to the sky, and repeating the exercise on alternate sides going forward. Perform as many reps as possible, with one rep constituting a step to both sides.

Pro tip: You might think doing shoulder presses without weights is a joke. Well, pull your shoulders back and squeeze your shoulder blades together during the entire exercise and let us know what you think! This is an incredible exercise for improving posture. Get into a wide stance, and sink your butt down into a low squat. Keep your back straight and eyes forward.

Crawl to the right and to the left to complete one rep. As you sumo squat, imagine your tail bone and shoulder blades are sliding up and down a wall to keep your chest up. As always, keep the weight in your heels. Start at the top of a sumo squat with your fists up, on guard. As you shift your weight to your left leg, engage your core, and lean away slightly.

Continue alternating sides for the entire set and do as many reps as possible. During this bodyweight squat variation, you must only touch the floor if your flexibility allows. DO NOT arch your back. Start with your feet shoulder-distance apart. Next, squat down and touch the floor with your palms if your flexible or only touch your shins if not. Explode up and jump into the air while clapping your hands behind your back. Focus on maintaining tight core muscles, engaged glutes, and perfect posture pull your shoulders back during the entire set.

Then, the next time you do this exercise, hopefully, you can record that you touched your ankles. These little progress indicators are huge confidence and momentum boosters! Start in low side plank, balancing on your forearm elbow under your shoulder and stacked feet. Keep your core and glutes engaged so that your body is straight. Lift your top leg and start drawing circles in the air with your toes. Change directions halfway. After finishing the set, flip over and work the other side.

You should target matching reps on both sides and make note of any imbalances. If you get tired or need to modify, drop down to your lower knee as shown by Alex below.

The last time I checked my math, one-legged bodyweight exercises are twice as difficult as two-legged moves.

So, gear up for some serious quad burn in this one. Start on your right leg with your left foot hovering off the ground like Ryan. Or, you can keep your resting leg on the ground to lightly assist your working leg like our modifier, Alex. In a slow and controlled manner, squat down with your right leg. Then, explode up, still on your right leg only, and get airborne. Finally, land softly, and squat down into your second rep.

Once finished with the set, switch to your left leg. These are an insanely effective bodyweight exercise for legs and glutes. First, make sure you have enough space to jump from side to side.

Begin with your feet together. Then leap sideways, land softly on your right foot and move your straight left leg behind you to maintain balance while you squat down and touch your toes with your left hand. Then explode up and repeat the movement on your left foot. To make this move more challenging, sink lower to the ground, jump farther, and move faster. Conversely, you can modify like Alex and only touch your shins.

Start squatting, with your feet shoulder-distance apart and arms up over your head. Keep your weight in your heels and it will be easier to go deeper in the lunge while preventing your front knee from jutting out past your toes.

From the bottom of your lunge, hop back into a squat, and then repeat your left side. Perform as many reps as possible, counting one rep each time you return to center. You can always modify and step instead of hop like Alex.

These are incredibly effective at building lower body strength and stability. Our Bodyweight Workout Plan would have had a void without them.

Place your hands shoulder-width apart, while hovering your knees two inches off the ground with feet together. Then, start hopping right-center-left-center as quickly as possible. Try to keep your back flat like a table. Shift your weight out of your shoulders and into your quads to increase difficulty. Move as quickly as humanly possible while maintaining form. Count one rep each time you return to center.

Bodyweight curtsie lunges are an excellent exercise to isolate your glutes. Start by moving into a reverse lunge on your right side, but cross your left leg over your right to isolate your right glute.

At the bottom of the lunge, engage your back to push your elbows back as far as possible. Alternate sides going forward. Position yourself in bridge pose with your shoulders, arms, and heels on the ground.

During this exercise, make sure you keep your feet and knees aligned slightly narrower than shoulder-width. Start by marching your right knee up.

Squeeze your left glute at the top of the movement. Next, lower your right leg to starting position and continue alternating sides for the rest of the set. Keep your core engaged so your back remains straight. Get ready for an incredible lower body strength and balance exercise.

Since this is a one-legged exercise, you will need to switch sides after each set to work both legs. Start standing on your right leg and begin by moving into a deadlift. Maintain a slight bend in your right leg, and push your left heel behind you as you attempt to touch the floor.

You should feel a stretch in your hamstring, but no pain. Then, return to standing without touching your left foot to the ground and kick your opponent in the ribcage with your left leg while jabbing them in the cheek with your right fist.

Once you find your balance and coordination, pick up the pace and do as many reps as possible on both sides. Side lunges require hip mobility, and if you go too low, you can easily hurt yourself. As you learn this exercise, move into the lunge position in a slow and controlled manner. However, you can always explode up and jump as high as you can. Start in the center with your feet shoulder-distance apart. Push off the ground, explode back up to center, and jump off of both feet as high as you can to shoot that three-pointer.

Repeat on your left side. Start on your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Assume hovering position by lifting your knees inches off the ground so your weight is in your toes. Next, lift your right heel to the sky. Squeeze your buttocks to lift your heel higher. Then, lower into hovering position without touching your right foot to the ground.

Continue lifting the right leg for the entire set and enjoy the burn in your left thigh. Start in warrior 3 pose on your right foot, with your arms and your left leg parallel to the ground. Keep the weight in your heel as you slowly lower into a one-legged squat. This move is not about speed but control. The deeper you sink into the squat the more of a challenge it is. Finish the set on your right leg and then switch to your left leg for a second set.

Keep your hips square and rotated towards the floor. Pro tip: If you are experiencing muscle failure early in the set, you can make the exercise less challenging by pointing your arms out to the sides or along your body demonstrated by Alex below. This is an advanced bodyweight leg exercise. Start by balancing on your right foot, with your arms straight in front of you and your left leg bent.

Keep the weight in your heel as you slowly lower into a one-legged lunge. Once your left knee is hovering inches off the ground, lift yourself to the top of the lunge. The core, which includes abs, obliques, and lower back muscles, can significantly benefit from bodyweight exercises. Begin by lifting your legs towards the ceiling, and striving to keep them as straight as possible. Reach with each hand towards your feet, as if climbing up a rope.

Perform as many reps as possible, with one rep constituting a reach by both hands. From a high plank position, jump your feet in twice towards your hands with straight legs. Perform as many reps as possible. Start in downward dog position. Then, hop back to center and continue alternating sides. Perform as many reps as possible, with one rep constituting a hop on both sides. To modify this exercise, continue to hop, but in a straight line like Alex.

A strong back is imperative to a strong core. Lift both arms and legs from the floor while laying on your stomach. Start flutter kicking, never touching the ground.

Laying on your back, lift yourself into a v-sit position and bring your opposite elbow to your opposite knee. Then, return to start position but keep your shoulder blades and heels hovering off the ground between reps. Perform as many reps as possible, with one rep containing both sides. Get into a forearm plank and rotate your body to drop your right and then left hips to the floor. This is one rep.

Keep your back flat and squeeze your core to avoid lifting your butt. Engage your back muscles to maintain superperson pose while simultaneously doing bodyweight lat pull-downs. Pro tip: To get the full benefit of bodyweight lat pull-downs, squeeze your shoulder blades together as if gripping a pencil. Begin in a low plank position on your forearms with your feet wide.

Then, jump your feet as close to your hands as possible while keeping straight legs and spine. Do this move as quickly as possible. It should feel like someone is pulling a string straight towards the sky from your hips. Get on your back on the floor with your right arm overhead and left arm at your side, palms facing in.

Lift your feet off the floor and engage your core muscles to lift your shoulder blades. Then swap the position of your arm once, and then twice so that your right arm is overhead. This is a favorite bodyweight core exercise. Start in the lunge position with your right foot forward, fingers on your temples, and elbows pointing out. Crunch forward and bring your elbows to your knee as close together as possible. Then return to the start position and push your elbows behind you for a chest opening stretch.

Start in side plank position with your right forearm on the ground and feet stacked. Lift your left heel to the sky and place your left fingers on your temple. Then, begin crunching, trying to touch your left elbow to your left knee. Once you finish the set, switch to your left forearm and repeat. To modify, bend your lower knee instead of holding it out straight. This is a fast-paced bodyweight core exercise that also has a cardio benefit.

Begin on your hands and toes, with your bent knees under your hips crouched forward. Lift your right hand and rotate your torso to swing your left leg across your body. Then, move to center and quickly switching sides. This is a challenging bodyweight exercise that will put your balance to the test. Stand in sumo squat stance, push your heels as far off the ground as you can.

Then, fight to maintain balance while doing side crunches, touching your elbow to your knee and alternating sides. This bodyweight exercise is truly incredible. Get on your mat and assume sky diver position with your elbows and knees flaring out. Then, fire your glutes and your posterior chain to lift your heels and elbows to the sky. We have conducted controlled experiments to determine what is the most effective form of cardio. What we learned was that the best cardio workout challenged not only our lungs but our total body strength at the same time.

To get the most benefit from this bodyweight cardio exercise you need to move as fast as humanly possible. Start in your natural fighting stance, with your dominant foot forward. Then, drop low, as if dodging a punch, and jab cross. Next, stand up and jab cross. This total body cardio exercise challenges your leg strength calves specifically and agility. Start on your right foot with your calf engaged and your heel raised off the ground. Then, bend your left knee and kick your foot forward and backward that counts as one rep while hopping on the balls of your right foot.

Once you finish the set, repeat the exercise on your left foot. This total body cardio exercise is going to get your lungs pumping and your core and shoulders burning. Begin in low plank on your forearms, with your elbows under your shoulders. Then, do alternating leg butt kicks as fast as you can. Begin in the high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders.

Pump your knees toward your elbows as fast as you can. Perform as many reps as possible, with one rep containing both legs.

Pro tip: Remember to keep your back flat and butt down. During all plank variations, spread your weight into your fingertips to decrease the load in your wrists. Additionally, with your hands planted on the mat, you can further engage your shoulder muscles by trying to push your hands toward the outer edges of the mat. During this total-body exercise, keep your core engaged, lift your knees above your hips, and reach your hands high into the sky.

Start by doing jumping jacks but with your legs only. Keep your biceps flexed as you uppercut. This move is courtesy of Shaun T from his Beachbody workout, T Explode up, kick your left foot in front of your right, and then quickly return to starting stance. Keep your arms pumping during this exercise to increase intensity. Do as many reps as possible during the set, then switch to your left leg and repeat.

Does anyone else hate this move? Or is it just me?