Today we are going to cover how to do a bodyweight workout plan at home for all the people who are a little more experienced.
I’m going to share with you below, some really great stuff on how to get a quick, efficient and above all effective muscle building workout plan in the comfort of your own home!
There are a ton of ways to structure your bodyweight workout plan depending on your time available and the way you mentally like to do things. You should also take into consideration your recovery abilities when you look at these three following workout splits. All three workout splits are very common.
There are a couple of areas that I will explain so you can get in a great workout. If you need more information than this you can email me. The areas we will cover are:
Push
Pull
Lower Body
Core
Sets and Reps
Equipment
First the pushing muscles (for upper body) are shoulders, chest and triceps. These will get worked with any movement where you push yourself or any object away to create space between you and that object. Weight training examples would be dumbbell bench presses and machine bench presses. Bodyweight exercise examples would be push-ups and dips.
The pulling muscles for the upper body are the back muscle complex and the biceps. These will get worked with any weight training or bodyweight exercise where you pull yourself or an object closer together. weight training examples would be dumbbell rows and pulldowns. Bodyweight exercise examples would be chinups and inverted bodyweight rows.
The lower body has a ton of functions but anything that simulates running, jumping, sitting and stepping up on objects will work the best. You can easily isolate the leg muscles as well but you can do that to infinity so I just want to get you the best workout for the time invested. You can work the lower body with weight training exercises like leg press and lying hamstring curls. Your lower body bodyweight exercises include speed squats and lunges just to name a few.
Now for core. The core is a complex area for sure. It does a lot of things but you’ll get the majority of it by extending and shortening the distance between your hips and your chest. So for weight training the crunch machines, ugh, are “designed” for that purpose. Now with the bodyweight exercises you have hanging leg raises, dragon flags, fire beetles and the regular old situp. Tons of options, that are better in my humble opinion.
Lets talk sets and reps. If you are just getting started shoot for 15 reps on everything for 3 sets. If you can’t get 15 reps then just do what you can. When you finally get to 15 repetitions on all three sets, then look for a harder bodyweight exercise variation or add more weight via a back pack or chain around your waist.
Now equipment. Do you have thousands of dollars? If yes then go ahead and spend money on expensive exercise equipment if you get a kick out of it. There are specific uses where exercise equipment can come in handy but you never absolutely need it to get amazing results. I would say that I train 95% of my people using only bodyweight workouts and that is even when I am at my gym and have access to the weight training equipment if I wanted it. So don’t let money for gym memberships and exercise equipment be an obstacle at all. You can do an at home workout routine without exercise equipment and get started on your goals today.
Bodyweight Workout Plan At Home For Beginners – A Couple Options
The 3-day split workout is usually push, pull, lower or some variation of that. So with bodyweight exercises, that may look like this:
Day 1: Push
Handstand Pushups 5 x 5
Chest Dips 4 x 6-8
Pushups 3 x failure
Bar or wall triceps extensions 3 x 15
Day 2: Pull
Chin ups 4 x 6-8
Horizontal Rows 3 x 10-12
Close Grip Top Chins 3 x failure
Hanging Leg Raises 3 x 15-20
Day 3: Lower Body
Pistols 4 x 6-8
Jumping Lunges 3 x 10-12
Squatting Calf Raises 3 x 20-50
The 2-day split workout with bodyweight weight exercises usually is an upper lower split workout. The two day split is usually upper, lower, day off, upper, lower but by now you are probably seeing that it is all a matter of preference and personal workout recovery ability. The one workout split that I have found to work well over and over again for almost everyone however isn’t a split at all. It’s the full body workout using bodyweight exercises, done three times a week on non-consecutive days.
There are many great things about the full body workout. One is that sometimes you may actually go from three days a week to two days a week if you feel yourself getting overtrained or if progress starts to stall a little. Another is that because everything is getting worked all in one day, less bodyweight exercises overall need to be used. The overlap of muscle groups causes everything to get work either primarily or secondarily in a very natural manner.
Doing less exercises overall means that your workout is done quicker without any sacrifice in effectiveness. Scheduling is a big plus with the full body workout with bodyweight exercises because when you are doing a 2 or 3 way split sometimes something comes up on a certain day. You get thrown off and then you have to start shuffling workouts around so you don’t start messing up your schedule. If you were doing a split that had you doing arms, then a day off and then back or chest you could end up hitting biceps right before a big back day. That’s not going to be a good thing.
So what I’m trying to say I guess is that the easiest to understand way to structure your workout is also one of my favorites. The full body workout three days a week using bodyweight exercises that you can do anywhere.
In a workout plan it could look like this:
Monday-Wednesday-Friday Also Consider 2xweek with Monday And Thursday and the rest of the days for general activity, physical jobs or sports recreation.
General all round warmup like skipping or mobility flow for 2-5 minutes
Pistols 4 x 6-8
Jumping Lunges 3 x 10-12
Handstand Pushups 5 x 5
Chest Dips 4 x 6-8
Pushups 3 x failure
Bar or wall triceps extensions 3 x 15
Chin ups 4 x 6-8
Horizontal Rows 3 x 10-12
Close Grip Top Chins 3 x failure
Hanging Leg Raises 3 x 15-20
Squatting Calf Raises 3 x 20-50
**PLEASE NOTE – I understand some of these exercises are advanced and I will be posting the tutorials and easier versions so that beginners can do them and work up to the hard stuff.
Ask any questions and I’d be glad to help in any way I can.
Hope that helps,
Raymond Burton
http://RaymondBurton.com