Yes, you can still build the summer muscle and strength that you want, even if you don’t have access to a gym. You just have to get creative and resourceful.
Strength training is strength training, whether or not you have dumbbells and kettlebells. You can still build plenty of strength with basic bodyweight exercises, and with slight level-ups to those basics too.
The key is finding ways to push your body while using just your bodyweight, and that means evolving basic exercises. It also means being willing to challenge yourself not just by piling up reps and doing 100 pushups, but by attacking new positions that force stabilizing muscles to fire in new ways. You’ll learn how to do that during this full-body workout.
How To Push Your Muscles With Bodyweight
If you’re training without weights, you have to make your bodyweight count, and you have several tactics that can help you do that. Let’s run through them.
Unilateral Training: Sure, a pushup or squat with only bodyweight may seem easy — and will eventually get easy. But a single-arm pushup doubles your bodyweight load for one side of your body. A lunge or Bulgarian split squat can offer similar challenge. Experiment with unilateral loading to challenge yourself with bodyweight.
Tempo and Pauses: Slowing down your reps and pausing at targeted points will help you lock in good form, and will also increase time-under-tension, the amount of time a muscle actually has to stay contracted during a set. Utilize them heavily to master bodyweight exercises, and to add challenge once those exercises start feeling “easy.”
Mental Focus: Yes, a pushup seems like a simple bodyweight move. But what happens if you flex your abs and glutes actively on every rep and tighten your shoulder blades? And what happens if you think about that after you’re five reps in, when your muscles may have relaxed slightly? Creating tension throughout your body makes basic exercises that much more effective. I often say that every move can (and should) be a total-body move if you do it with the proper overall body tension.
The Workout
Now you’re ready for the workout. You’ll want to do this session four or five days per week, depending on your training level. Aim to rest at least two days a week, though, but you shouldn’t truly be resting. On rest days, go for a 20-minute walk or jog.
Warm up for every work with 2 rounds of this circuit: 20 jumping jacks, 10 reverse lunges per side, and a 30-second plank. Then get to work.
Bulgarian Squat Smash Superset
Work through this Bulgarian series; you’ll need a chair or bench for it. Ebenezer Samuel does it with weight, but even doing it with bodyweight, you’ll get a vicious leg pump. Do 3 sets per side.
Inverted Row
You may not think you have a spot to do this, but there’s a good chance you do. Just set up under a sturdy kitchen table (and test it first), grabbing the outsides of the table. Keep your glutes tight. Do 5 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between each set, so you can recover and focus on creating total-body tension.
3-Step Archer Pushup Series
Now, attack your chest, and push yourself with a bit of unilateral loading. Do 3 sets of this archer pushup series, taking your chest to its limits.
Sprinter Situp Challenge
Finish with some vicious core work. Do 2 sets of this sprinter situp challenge, attacking abs and obliques.
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