The Only 4 Bodyweight Exercises You Need to Build Your Best Physique

Here’s all you need — minus all the BS

Photo by James Barr on Unsplash

Exercising regularly can be tough.

And we actually made it harder than it has to be by adding things on top of it. We subscribe to gym memberships, while not thinking about the long commutes and fixed work schedules that all of us have.

We think that by doing complicated workouts in the gym, we can be one step closer to achieving our goals. But with all the ongoing activities happening in our lives, it’s hard to stay consistent and get ourselves to the gym.

Everyone has some issues when it comes to exercising.

I learned this when I was doing an internship in the States.

With little income, paying for a gym membership didn’t make sense to me. The next best thing I could do was to practice calisthenics.

I imagined myself to master full control of my bodyweight since my bodyweight itself is already acting as a huge resistance that can help to build muscles. It’s how fitness YouTubers such as Chris Heria and CalisthenicMovement have built such incredible physiques.

Calisthenics won’t help you to build muscles and become ripped in a week but there are a few basics that can get you closer to it in a couple of months.

They are used by militaries worldwide to build high-resistance soldiers and prisoners who developed an insane physique from their prisoner bodyweight workouts.

So I decided to simplify my workouts and focus on 4 amazing exercises that are literally all you need to build muscle, reduce fat and improve your level of fitness.

The One Everyone Knows but Few Do It Well

Push-ups are those simple exercises that everyone thinks they can do but not everyone does them well.

The push-up is a huge compound exercise that works the upper body, mainly your chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominal muscles if done correctly.

The problem with the push-up is that most people rush to hit the reps rather than getting a good quality push-up that can target your chest well.

To do the perfect push-up:

• Find the perfect hand placement

• Engage your core and glutes to keep your body at 180 degrees

• Lower your body and keep your elbows at 45 degrees from your body

A huge part of the push-up that many people easily dismiss is the mind-muscle connection between your chest and the action itself. Whenever you’re doing the push-up, you should be able to feel your chest tightening and loosening to some extent.

If you’re not able to perform a push-up yet, start with the first progression and work your way up to the top.

Once you’ve managed to hit the goal for each step, move on to the next step.

1. Wall push-up
   Aim: Lower yourself from the wall to a bench to the floor
   Focus: Control your body as you push off and come back down with your chest and tricep

2. Negative knee push-up
   Aim: Do 15–20 reps comfortably
   Focus: Focus on the mind-muscle connection as you lower yourself

3. Knee push-up
   Aim: Do 15–20 reps comfortably
   Focus: You should feel your chest working and pushing yourself up

4. Negative push-up
   Aim: Do 15–20 reps comfortably
   Focus: Get used to the additional weight that your legs provide

5. Push-up
   Aim: Do 15 reps comfortably
   Focus: The involvement of your legs adds additional weight to push-ups so doing the same movement slowly strengthens your upper body

6. Weighted push-up
   Aim: Increase your reps till you hit 15 again and increase your weight
   Focus: Same thing as a normal push-up. It’ll be tempting to rush for the reps but don’t do it, only you are accountable for yourself.

In the future, you can even transition to calisthenic movements such as:

• L-sit

• Handstand

• Handstand push-up

• Front lever

The push-up might seem simple but it's incredibly effective in building a strong chest and it’s definitely a staple when it comes to building the upper body.

The Biggest Ego Buster

Pull-ups are one of the hardest exercises anyone can do.

It is a compound exercise that works for multiple big muscle groups in your upper body. It not only works your back, but it works parts of your chest, arms, and abdominal muscles as well.

The pull-up is the act of pulling your body weight up to the top of the bar and coming back down. But when you first start doing the pull-up, you’ll realize that it’s incredibly difficult because naturally pulling your own body weight with your back is too heavy.

The good news is that pull-ups are a progressive form of exercise such that you can always do something to get yourself up to the level where you can perform 1 pull-up and even 10 pull-ups in the future.

Once you’ve managed to hit the goal for each step, move on to the next step.

1. Start with hanging on the pull-up bar
   Aim: Hang for 10–15 seconds
   Focus: Improve your grip strength to get used to your body weight

2. Do negative pull-ups
   Aim: Feel that you are in control and not dropping down with your weight
   Focus: Control the movement of coming down slowly by squeezing your back

3. Banded pull-ups
   Aim: To use a light band at the end to move on to normal pull-ups
   Focus: Perform the action of the pull-up and reduce the resistance of the bands as you progress

4. Normal pull-ups
   Aim: Do 10 controlled pull-ups
   Focus: Focus on engaging your whole back when going up and continue to control the movement coming down just like the negatives

5. Weighted pull-ups
   Aim: Increase your reps till you hit 10 again and increase your weight
   Focus: Same thing as a normal pull-up. It’ll be tempting to rush for the reps but don’t do it, only you are accountable for yourself.

If you’re interested, pull-ups are also the foundation for more interesting movements such as:

• Front lever

• Back lever

• Muscle up

And so many more.

Even militaries across the world are using pull-ups as one of the fitness tests so jump right into it.

There’s literally no excuse to not do the pull-up.

The Foundation of All Workouts

The squat is the most basic of all exercises.

Needless to say, training the lower body with your own body weight is not easy because most of us are so used to the weight of our body since we literally walk around every day with them.

But there are ways that calisthenic athletes use to train their lower body with squats.

Instead of performing the usual bodyweight squats, try out a bunch of other workouts such as:

• Bulgarian Split Squat

• Sissy squat

• Pistol squat

These squat variations work every single muscle in the lower body and are just as progressive as the first 2 upper body exercises.

Based on my experience, these squat variations are also not easily done since it requires a pretty good foundation of lower body strength and abdominal muscles for balance.

They are definitely a staple to building strong athletic legs and can pack on some muscles as well.

Most athletes would usually pair these squat exercises that are done with high volume, along with other exercises such as plyometrics which can increase their performance on the court or on the field.

The Staple

Building a strong upper body and lower body can pack on muscles as your foundation.

But you should also pair them up with a strong cardiovascular system and the best way to do it is to do long runs.

The problem with running is that most people think they can’t run fast or long distances or even both. But to build your cardiovascular health, the main focus should be to build your aerobic base.

To do that you shouldn’t be doing intense interval training to make you feel out of breath after every workout or long run that lasts up to 15km.

Instead, practice an 80/20 principle when it comes to running:

• 80% of your runs should comprise slow runs at 70–80% of your max heart rate

• 20% of your runs should comprise interval training

But the main focus should be on the 80% of your runs where they shouldn’t make you feel all too tired at the end of the run. After each week, increase your mileage by no more than 10%. That’s how you can build your aerobic base.

I personally hated running in the past but I managed to find peace with it and I’ve loved it ever since.

In a nutshell

Building your best physique is not difficult.

It just takes consistent effort that focuses on the basics and slowly progresses yourself along the way.

The best way to do this is to build a strong body along with a strong cardiovascular system to help you build your best self.

Give these exercises a try and see how much you can progress!

Want to know about my journey to becoming a senior engineer?

I’m Maguire, a Software Engineer at Wise and I love experimenting with Fitness. I write about engineering and fitness. If you’re interested, join my newsletter to get actionable insights on decoding life with Software Engineering and Fitness.

🤓 Check out my other social links here.