Looking for the most effective bodyweight exercises for strength?
You just found them.
This full-body routine of 5 monster exercises is designed to sculpt a strong and balanced physique.
First, let’s take a look at the muscles groups we will focus on:
- Quads, hamstrings, and lower back (squats variations)
- Lats, upper back, and biceps (pull-up variations)
- Chest, shoulders, and triceps (push-up variations)
- Shoulders and triceps (overhead press variations)
- Abs (leg raise variations)
In short, you’ll hit all your major muscle groups with just 5 highly effective moves.
Note: watch the video above for exercise demonstrations and a complete real-time follow-along workout.
Getting Ripped At Home with Bodyweight Exercises
The workout on this page goes in tandem with this article on getting ripped at home.
To sum it up, getting ripped (shredded, six pack abs, etc.) requires two things:
- Low bodyfat, which you achieve through your diet.
- At least a decent amount of muscle mass, which you’ll achieve through this workout.
This routine will help you build solid, dense muscle with lots of functional strength.
(“Functional” means that your strength will translate into real-world activities like picking up boxes and opening pickle jars.)
This is especially important if you’re dieting to lose weight. Dieting without strength training will lead to muscle loss. But dieting with strength training will help you maintain (or even build) muscle, so that you lose primarily fat.
That’s the main goal, after all.
Note: if your goal is to get HUGE, with ginormous bodyguilder-like muscles, then a bodyweight routine isn’t going to cut it. You’ll need to join a gym and use weights to build that much extra muscle mass. This routine is better for building a lean, athletic physique.
Suggested Equipment
The one piece of equipment I highly recommend is a doorway pull-up bar. These are like $25 and fit most doors. Without one of these (or something else you can do pull-ups from) it is really hard to work your back.
Push-up handles aren’t necessary, but are helpful for getting more depth on your push-ups and wall push-ups.
Finally, dumbbells or a kettlebell are necessary if you want to do goblet squats. If you don’t want to buy these, just skip that variation and go straight to pistol squats.
Note: these are affiliate links. I’ve used these before and highly recommend them.
Here’s How the Routine Works
Do it three times a week with at least one day of rest between workouts. I recommend Monday, Wednesday, & Friday because I like to have the weekend off. But go ahead & do whatever works best for you.
This bodyweight workout routine has 5 exercises: squat, pull-ups, push-ups, overhead press, and leg raises.
And each exercise has about 5 different variations. (Variation #1 is the easiest, Variation #5 is the hardest.)
Start with the most difficult variation you can perform correctly. For example, if you can do plyo goblet squats (variation #3) with good form, but you don’t have the strength to do pistol squats (variation #4) yet, then start with plyo goblet squats. Do them for 2-3 weeks and then try pistol squats again.
Each exercise has a rep range (example, 12-15 reps). Once you are able to do the upper limit of that range (15) for every set, it’s time to start thinking about progressing to the next variation.
Your workout will look like this:
- Squats, 5 sets of 12-20 reps
- Pull-ups, 3 sets of 6-12 reps
- Push-ups, 3 sets of 12-20 reps
- Overhead press, 3 sets of 6-12 reps
- Leg raises, 3 sets of 12-20 reps
To maximize your hormonal response, I recommend keep your rest times short—60 seconds between each set. This will also help keep your workouts from dragging on too long.
That’s 17 total sets, With 17 total sets, you should be able to finish the bodyweight workout in 30 minutes max.
Alternatively, you can do it circuit-style, where you go down the list (do one set of squats, then one set up pull-ups, then one set of push-ups, etc.) with NO REST until you do leg raises (#5). Then rest a minute or two, and do it again. Done this way, you should be able to finish in 15-20 minutes. This is less of a strength workout and more of a metcon (metabolic conditioning) type of workout.
Bodyweight Exercises for Strength #1: Squat Variations
Your legs are big, powerful muscles that elicit a big hormonal response. You may already know that barbell squats are one of the most effective exercises you can do in the gym.
One problem that arises when doing bodyweight squats is a lack of resistance. After all, doing bodyweight squats without any extra weight is not very challenging for anyone beyond a beginner.
So to really challenge your legs, we’re going to do a couple things:
- Increase the volume. Do 5 sets of 21-20 reps each.
- Add explosive movements. Any variation with “plyo” means to jump out of the squat.
- Add one-leg movements. Pistol squats effectively double your resistance by putting all your weight on one leg.
The squat variations in the video include:
- Squats Variation #1: Bodyweight Squats
- Squats Variation #2: Goblet Squats (Requires a kettlebell or dumbbell)
- Squats Variation #3: Plyo Goblet Squats (Requires a kettlebell or dumbbell)
- Squats Variation #4: Pistol Squats
- Squats Variation #5: Plyo Pistol Squats
Bodyweight Exercises for Strength #2: Pull-Up Variations
If your legs are the biggest muscles in your body, your back muscles would come second. This makes your back a very important body part to emphasize in ANY workout routine, bodyweight or not.
And it just so happens (fortunately) that pull-ups and chin-ups are one of the best back exercises out there.
Many guys can’t do pull-ups, so they don’t even try. Don’t be that guy. It’s actually super easy to do assisted pull-ups using just an ordinary chair.
The pull-up variations in the video include:
- Pull-Ups Variation #1: Both Feet On Chair
- Pull-Ups Variation #2: One Foot On Chair
- Pull-Ups Variation #3: Chair Farther Away
- Pull-Ups Variation #4: No Chair (Regular Pull-Ups)
- Pull-Ups Variation #5: Assisted One-Arm Pull-Ups
Bodyweight Exercises for Strength #3: Push-Up Variations
Obviously any bodyweight routine has to include push-ups.
The problem most guys make with push-ups is not progressing to more difficult variations. They’ll keep doing regular, boring old push-ups… Again and again… Until they can do 30, 40, 50…
The problem is, at that point they’re not strength training. They’re endurance training.
The secret is to keep progressing to more difficult push-ups so that you can’t do more than 20 or so reps. Once you can do that many, it’s time to progress to the next varaition.
The push-up variations in the video include:
- Push-Ups Variation #1: Push-Ups
- Push-Ups Variation #2: Diamond Push-Ups
- Push-Ups Variation #3: Dive-Bomber Push-Ups
- Push-Ups Variation #4: Assisted One-Arm Push-Ups
- Push-Ups Variation #5: Incline Assisted One-Arm Push-Ups
- Push-Ups Variation #6: One-Arm Push-Ups
Bodyweight Exercises for Strength #4: Overhead Press Variations
If you want to look jacked, there’s one muscle group that is probably more important than any other.
Is it your arms?
Nope.
Your abs?
Try again.
Chest?
Uh-uh.
It’s your shoulders, dude. People don’t realize it, but having big, broad shoulders is one of the most visible signs of having a lean & athletic body.
The great thing about shoulders is that, unlike six pack abs, you don’t need to take your shirt off to appreciate them. Even with clothes on, people will still see how big & broad they are.
Broad shoulders also help give you that attractive, tapered, V-shaped torso. They’ll make your midsection look slimmer by comparison.
Many bodyweight routines neglect your shoulders…and that’s a mistake. Especially since you can do an amazing overhead press-type movement using nothing other than a wall.
The overhead press variations in the video include:
- Overhead Press Variation #1: V Push-Ups
- Overhead Press Variation #2: Elevated V Push-Ups
- Overhead Press Variation #3: Partial Wall Push-Ups
- Overhead Press Variation #4: Wall Push-Ups
- Overhead Press Variation #5: Elevated Wall Push-Ups
Bodyweight Exercises for Strength #5: Leg Raise Variations
Everybody wants visible abs. The truth is, you don’t necessarily need to work your abs to get a six pack; all you really need is low bodyfat.
There’s still a lot to gain from working your core, though. Doing this leg raise progression will increase the size of your abdominal muscles slightly, which will help your abs “pop” that much more.
This progression will also help strengthen & solidify your core, giving you a solid foundation for just about every physical movement you ever make.
The leg raise variations in the video include:
- Leg Raise Variation #1: Lying leg raises
- Leg Raise Variation #2: Hanging knee raises
- Leg Raise Variation #3: Hanging leg raises
- Leg Raise Variation #4: Hanging bicycle kicks
- Leg Raise Variation #5: Lying torso lifts
Ready For the Next Level?
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Note: this is not for the weak, the soft, or the noncommittal. It takes sweat, grit, and heart to get ripped. If you don’t have those things, or if you aren’t willing to give them, then feel free to ignore this offer.
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