8 Week Muscle Building Bodyweight Workout

Calisthenics, a form of working out the body with bodyweight alone, has a rich history in fitness.

The word “calisthenics” is derived from two ancient greek words:

• Kallos: Aesthetic pleasure from the perfection of the human body.
• Sthenos: Strength – not necessarily limited to physical strength.

And, as was prevalent in the art and literature of the time, a high priority was placed on aesthetics and strength in Ancient Greece (perhaps a practice modern-day society should fall back into – but that’s another article for another day).

The fact that bodyweight workouts had such a high priority in this part of history has helped the practice transcend time.

For example, bodyweight workouts are still staples of many gymnastic organization and martial art practices. School-aged children are taught various bodyweight exercises during their physical education classes. And many of the military physical fitness tests are centered on one’s ability to perform certain bodyweight exercises efficiently.

It’s even gained a somewhat cult following after various “street workouts” have gone viral on social media and YouTube.

That’s probably why you are here today.

Indeed, bodyweight workouts are fantastic. They can help you transform your body using nothing but your body. That means you can perform a workout virtually anywhere once you’re able to learn how to use your bodyweight to create enough stimulus to challenge the muscle.

What will follow is a list of the best bodyweight exercises you can do. After we discuss the best bodyweight exercises we’ll put them together into an 8 week bodyweight workout.

This bodyweight workout will get progressively harder during the 8 weeks and is perfect for any healthy beginner to take on as they try to learn how to use their bodyweight to build muscle and burn fat.

What’re The Best Bodyweight Exercises?

Before we rush into any sort of bodyweight workout routine – it’s important to understand what bodyweight exercises one should prioritize in their training.

There’s a lot of great exercises you can do with just your bodyweight.

However, the following are more traditional movement patterns that you should attempt to become proficient at over time. If you get good at these, you’ll develop an athletic physique and be considered strong when it comes to calisthenics.

All of the exercises mentioned could be considered advanced or beginner level depending on your individual ability to perform them. It’s important to keep in mind that while the exercises are considered the best ones to do – they’re simply training movement patterns.

And these movement patterns can be trained in the same manner through any number of progressions or regressions.

Bodyweight Exercise #1: Push Up

The push up accomplishes the pressing movement pattern. Specifically, it achieves the horizontal press. It also does so in a manner that promotes shoulder health unlike some of its traditionally weighted counterparts.

In addition to promoting shoulder health, the push up also stimulates all of the push muscles of the upper body along with the core. This includes the chest, shoulders, and triceps. For those who are able to control their body and know how to activate various other muscle groups during the position’s static plank – you may even be able to indirectly target the muscles of the legs, glutes and back.

There’s a reason why the push up was probably the first exercise you were ever taught. It’s a safe exercise to perform and can build a lot of muscles as you learn to activate them. You can even progress the exercise in a variety of ways to make it even more challenging.

Bodyweight Exercise #2: Inverted Row

The inverted row accomplishes the horizontal pulling movement pattern. It too will promote shoulder health. Due to its set up, however, it is much harder to cheat your way into accomplishing the movement unlike other weighted row variations.

Thus, the emphasis is placed on the muscles of the back, traps, and rear delts. You will also get a lot of core stimulation as you hold a stable spine throughout the movement. Along with all of this, the inverted row does an excellent job at training grip strength.

The inverted row might be one of the most humbling exercises you ever do. It looks easy, but performing it correctly is fairly difficult for most who aren’t seasoned in callisthenic training. You can make the exercise easier by placing the implement you are using to pull higher. You can also make it more difficult by making it lower or elevating your feet to position your body parallel.

Additionally, you can implement intensity techniques to prolong the time under tension of the exercise. An example of this would be performing 1.5 reps:

Bodyweight Exercise #3: Bodyweight Squat

The bodyweight squat trains the squat movement pattern – a movement pattern that is extremely crucial to maintain efficiency at throughout life.

The squat trains all of the muscles of the lower body. It also involves the core and back to maintain an upright positioning for the upper body throughout the movement pattern.

A lot of people struggle performing the squat efficiently. What’s even worse is they load the movement. If you lack the mobility to perform the bodyweight variation, odds are the only reason you’re accomplishing the depth weighted is because of the weight. That’s simply an injury waiting to happen over time.

The bodyweight squat can be performed in a variety of ways to shift focus to various parts of the lower body. Once you become proficient at the movement, the best way to progress it is to increase the training frequency and training session volume to maintain that level of efficiency.

Bodyweight Exercise #4: Bodyweight Lunge

The bodyweight lunge is a callisthenic exercise that trains the lunge movement pattern. The lunge movement pattern is another exercise that is important to develop and maintain efficiency with over time.

The bodyweight lunge builds the quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Depending on the stride length you choose to take, you can overemphasize which of the three you want to develop most. If you perform the exercise properly, you will also train the core musculature while keeping the body in an upright stable position as you go through the range of motion.

From step-ups to rear foot elevated Bulgarian split squats, there’s a variety of ways you can regress and progress the lunge movement pattern using only your bodyweight.

Bodyweight Exercise #5: Pull Up

The final exercise in our list of top 5 bodyweight exercises is the pull-up. The pull up is another classic you were probably taught to do at a very young age. Not many people are capable of performing pull-ups, but it’s a critical movement pattern and one, if you get good at them, that can take you a long way in building muscle.

The pull up simply feels pretty badass to be able to perform. And performing them will build the muscles of the back, shoulders, and core.

There’s a variety of ways you can regress the pull up until you are able to perform them yourself. You can perform eccentric only pull-ups, concentric holds, and scapulae retractions. All of these, when programmed smartly, will get you to the point where you can perform complete bodyweight pull ups.

You can also utilize a variety of hand placements when performing the pull up to shift focus to various pulling muscles.

8 Week Bodyweight Workout

Bodyweight Workout Weeks 1 and 2 introduce you to the basic bodyweight exercises and progress your volume slightly each week. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Rest 30 – 60 seconds between sets.

Bodyweight Workout Week 1

Bodyweight Workout Week 2

Bodyweight Workout Weeks 3, 4 and 5 increase the intensity and difficulty. Since you will be performing more challenging moves, you will again build up your volume over time. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Rest 30 – 60 seconds between sets.

Bodyweight Workout Week 3

Bodyweight Workout Week 4

Bodyweight Workout Week 5

Bodyweight Workout Weeks 6, 7 and 8 increase the intensity and difficulty yet again, so building up your tolerance to volume will be the goal. Exercises labeled as 1A, 1B, for example, are performed back-to-back without rest. After the two sets are completed you can then rest for 30 seconds. Perform the following routine three times per week on nonconsecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Week 8 will utilize a few bodyweight assisted pieces of equipment.

Bodyweight Workout Week 6

Bodyweight Workout Week 7

Bodyweight Workout Week 8

If you have any questions about bodyweight training or the bodyweight exercises and bodyweight workout listed above, please feel free to leave us a comment in the comments section below.