No matter what equipment you have available or even no equipment at all, you can still build muscle, burn fat and sculpt the physique you have always wanted. Not being able to get to the gym is never an excuse not to get a workout in. You can always use your own body. Utilizing just your bodyweight for a workout can sometimes be even more demanding than if you had all the equipment in the world.
Just look at gymnasts, and guys who swing around on monkey bars and climb mountains. They may not be super huge, since this would not be good for them in their chosen sport, but they are shredded to the bone and have the strength capacity to go along with it.
With summer quickly approaching, you are going to want to get ready to show off the hard-earned muscle that you built this winter. Try this extreme bodyweight circuit 3 days per week and watch your physique transform.
The Workout
The key to designing a great bodyweight workout is to utilize all of the major movements. Pushing, pulling, squatting, crawling, sprinting and jumping. By combining these types of movements into one workout, you hit nearly every single muscle in your body.
Since you’ll be fatigued early into the workout, I like to use a descending ladder system. This helps keep the pace up without breaking form on each movement. It also gives you a mental edge as you gasp for air. As you finish each round of exercises, the reps and distance decrease, so your body and mind have something to look forward to.
This workout will surprise you when you try and complete it as fast as possible. Your muscles will be screaming from the lactic acid build-up and your lungs will be begging for mercy. Using only your bodyweight will humble you and make you realize that you don’t always need a room full of equipment.
Directions
After a quick dynamic warm-up, perform all of these exercises in a circuit fashion for the prescribed number of reps or distance. Once you finish each of the exercises, repeat the circuit with minimal rest between exercises and rounds. A total of 5 rounds will complete the workout.
Stand with your body in a split stance position, this will look like you just performed a lunge. Jump as high as you can and as you are in the air, switch your legs so that the opposite one is forward.
