Dumbbells and barbells may be the most common way to build strength and muscle, but if you can’t get to the gym and you don’t have any equipment what can you do? This workout instead. These three bodyweight exercises won’t just keep your gains intact, but it’ll help boost your stamina too. Plus, it targets your entire body, so it doesn’t matter if you’re skipping an upper or lower body session.
Using your bodyweight is still an effective way to help you build strength and muscle mass, the key is to make sure you increase the intensity of the exercises – whether that be by increasing your reps or shortening your rest periods – so that your muscles continue to be challenged. The workout below is a ‘for time’ workout, where you complete the exercises for a set amount of rounds as quickly as possible. Not only will this place your muscles under more tension, but it will also help you burn fat and improve your cardiovascular fitness too.
You're going to want a gym water bottle for this workout (trust us). You’ll do each exercise below for 10 reps, one after the other – so far sounds ok right? – but you’re going to do 10 rounds in total. Don’t panic, you just need to go into this with a bit of a game plan! We’d recommend doing two rounds back to back, followed by a 30-45 second rest, so it would feel like you’re only doing five rounds. If this sounds too difficult, just do one round at a time with a 20 second rest in between. The beauty of this workout is you can suit it to your own ability, but aim to complete it as quickly as possible. Here’s your exercises.
- 10 air squats
- 10 sit-ups
- 10 push-ups
We hope you enjoyed that! If you're looking for a similar workout, then why not give this five-move bodyweight workout a go next? Don't worry, this one is only five rounds, but it's great for burning lots of calories and building strength particularly in your legs. If you'd rather turn things down a notch though, this full-body workout is a lot more steady paced.
