Bodyweight Basics
Three full-body sessions a week, no equipment. The starting point when you have nothing but a floor and your own weight.
VARIATION
Move to a harder exercise instead of stacking more weight.
Equipment: None
Who this is for
You have no equipment, no gym, and no plans to get either right now. Maybe you travel constantly. Maybe you're just starting out and want to see what your body can do before buying anything.
Bodyweight Basics builds real strength in the patterns that matter — push, pull, squat, hinge — using progressions that scale from "I've never trained" to "I can do a one-arm push-up." A pull-up bar (door-frame, park, anything) unlocks the full program. Without one, you'll need a sturdy table edge for inverted rows.
Structure
Three full-body sessions a week. Each session: one squat variation, one push variation, one pull variation, one hinge or core variation.
Day A: Squat 3×12-20, Push-Up 3×8-15, Inverted Row 3×8-12, Glute Bridge 3×15. Day B: Bulgarian Split Squat 3×10 each leg, Pike Push-Up 3×8-12, Negative Pull-Up 3×3-5, Single-Leg Glute Bridge 3×10 each leg. Day C: Squat (slow tempo, 3-second descent) 3×10, Decline Push-Up 3×10-15, Inverted Row (feet elevated) 3×8-12, Plank 3×30-60s.
Progression on every exercise is rep progression then leverage progression. Hit the top of the rep range across all sets → next session, harder variation.
Typical week: A on Monday, B on Wednesday, C on Friday.
How to run it in Rackd
Bodyweight progressions are tracked by exercise variation. Rackd will queue the next harder version when you hit the top of the rep range — push-up → decline push-up → diamond push-up → archer push-up → one-arm progression.
For inverted rows, lower the table edge or your foot height to make it harder. For pull-ups, move from band-assisted → negatives → strict → weighted (eventually).
Notes
- Bodyweight is not easier. The strongest people in the gym often can't do 10 strict pull-ups.
- Pull-ups are the hardest pattern to progress without a bar. If you can possibly get one, get one.
- Tempo is your friend. Slowing every rep to 3 seconds down + 1 second up makes a 12-rep set feel like 20.
- Stuck on a progression for 3+ weeks? Don't add reps endlessly. Move to the harder variation even if you can only do 3 reps. That's how you build.