Bodyweight Exercises: Strength Training Without Equipment

For effective strength training you do not necessarily need a gym. Your own body weight lets you train the whole body – if you know how to adapt and progress the exercises.

The most important bodyweight exercises

• Push-ups: chest, front delts and triceps. Easier on an elevated surface, harder with elevated feet.
• Squats: legs and glutes. Also possible on one leg as a variation.
• Lunges: legs and glutes with an extra balance demand.
• Pull-ups or inverted rows: back and biceps. For rows, a sturdy table or a bar at hip height is enough.
• Glute bridge: glutes and hamstrings.
• Forearm plank: core.

How to progress without extra weight

Your body weight stays the same, so you have to use other levers:

• Change the leverage: push-ups from the wall, via an elevated surface to the floor, and further with elevated feet.
• Train one side at a time: single-leg squats or one-arm rows make an exercise much harder.
• Slow down the tempo: a slow lowering phase of three seconds increases tension.
• Shorten rests and add reps: the same exercise with more reps remains an effective stimulus.
• Extra material: a loaded backpack or resistance bands are inexpensive additions.

This follows the principle of progressive overload: you raise the demand step by step, just not via weight plates.

An example session

Three sets of push-ups, three sets of squats, three sets of inverted rows, two sets of glute bridges and two sets of forearm plank. Rest one to two minutes between exercises. Train like this two to three times a week and start with variations you can perform cleanly.

Limits of bodyweight training

For legs it is hard to train really heavy with body weight alone, and a vertical pull is hard to replace without a bar. If you want more resistance later, you can add weights. For getting started and for phases without a gym, bodyweight exercises are often entirely sufficient.

Typical mistakes when training without equipment

• Reps that are too fast: If you “fall” through the movement, you use little muscle tension. Lower in a controlled way, push up powerfully.
• A shortened range of motion: Half squats or half push-ups bring less than full reps.
• Sagging hips in push-ups: Keep body and legs in one line, otherwise you unload the muscles and strain the lower back.
• Endlessly adding reps: Beyond about 20 clean reps it is usually more useful to switch to a harder variation.

Write it down even without equipment

Note the exercise, the variation and the reps. That way you can see when to move to the next level. In KTOK you can simply activate “Bodyweight” for exercises such as push-ups. More about recording in the article on the training log.

Note: This article does not replace medical or professional coaching advice. If you have complaints or pre-existing conditions, talk to a doctor before you start training.