No gym, no dumbbells, no pull-up bar required. This three-day plan trains every movement pattern with your own body weight, gives you an easier and a harder version of each exercise, and shows you how to keep progressing when you cannot add a plate.
What bodyweight training can and cannot do
Bodyweight work builds real strength and muscle, especially in the upper body, where push-ups, dips and rows scale a long way. It is excellent for the first year of training and stays useful forever as a way to train anywhere.
Where it runs short is heavy lower-body loading. Legs get strong enough to handle body weight quickly, so squats and lunges become endurance work long before your upper body runs out of room. The plan below answers that with single-leg movements, pauses and slower lowering, which is how you keep the legs working without a bar.
The weekly schedule
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| Monday | Workout A |
| Tuesday | Rest or a walk |
| Wednesday | Workout B |
| Thursday | Rest or a walk |
| Friday | Workout A |
| Saturday | Rest or a walk |
| Sunday | Rest |
Alternate A and B, so the following week starts with B.
The full workout
Workout A
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Push-up | 4 | 8-15 |
| Bodyweight squat | 4 | 15-20 |
| Inverted row under a table | 4 | 8-12 |
| Reverse lunge | 3 | 10-12 each leg |
| Plank | 3 | 30-60 sec |
Workout B
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Pike push-up | 4 | 6-12 |
| Bulgarian split squat | 3 | 10-15 each leg |
| Inverted row, feet elevated | 4 | 8-12 |
| Single-leg hip thrust | 3 | 12-15 each leg |
| Hollow hold | 3 | 20-40 sec |
Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets. Take every set to within a couple of reps of failure; with light loads, effort is what makes the set count.
Easier and harder versions
| Movement | Easier | Harder |
|---|---|---|
| Push-up | hands on a table or wall | feet elevated, then one arm assisted |
| Inverted row | feet under you, body upright | feet elevated, pause at the top |
| Squat | hold a doorframe for balance | slow three-second lowering, then a pause |
| Split squat | both feet on the floor | rear foot on a chair, then a pause |
| Pike push-up | hands on a chair | feet elevated on a chair |
How to progress without weight
The lever you would normally pull — more load — is gone, so use the others in order:
- More reps inside the range, on every set.
- More sets, up to about five per exercise.
- Slower lowering, three seconds down, which makes the same rep harder.
- A pause at the hardest point, one to two seconds.
- A harder variation from the table above, dropping back to the bottom of the rep range.
That last step is the equivalent of adding a plate, and it is the one most home plans forget to tell you about. When a push-up set of 15 feels comfortable, do not chase 30: elevate your feet and go back to 8.
Run this plan in Trackist
Bodyweight movements are part of the exercise library, and equipment is one of the questions asked before the plan is written, so a no-equipment answer gives you a block made of movements you can do at home.
A bodyweight set is logged as reps, with last session's number under the cell, so the slow progression is on the screen rather than in your memory. Timed movements like planks and hollow holds log seconds, with the same comparison and the same records: the most reps and the longest hold you have managed are both tracked.
When a movement gets easy, swap it for its harder version from the library, for today or for the rest of the block. If something starts to hurt, report it and you get a movement that trains the same muscle without the pattern that bothered you. More on training without a gym on the Trackist blog.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Can you build muscle with bodyweight exercises only?
Yes, particularly in the upper body, as long as the sets are taken close to failure and the movements get harder over time. Legs are the limit: once body weight is easy for 20 reps, single-leg variations, pauses and slower lowering are what keep them working.
How many days a week should I train with bodyweight?
Three is a good default and four works if the sessions are short. Because the loads are lighter, recovery between sessions is quicker than with heavy barbell work, so frequency can be higher.
What do I do when push-ups get easy?
Make the movement harder instead of doing more reps. Elevate your feet, slow the lowering to three seconds, add a pause at the bottom, or move toward one-arm variations with a hand on a step. Then start again at the bottom of the rep range.
Can Trackist write a no-equipment plan?
Yes. Answer the equipment question with what you have at home and the block is built only from movements that fit, including bodyweight and timed exercises. Reps and seconds are both logged and compared against last time.
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Run this plan in Trackist
Six questions, and the block is written around your gym and your week. Log every set and the load climbs from what you lifted last time. Free on the App Store, Android coming soon.
