Equipment

Bodyweight exercises

Bodyweight training needs nothing but floor space, and it still lets you train every muscle group. Instead of adding weight, you change the leverage: shorten the base of support, slow the tempo down, or move to one leg or one arm.

The atlas has both the movements that teach the pattern, like the bodyweight squat and the plank, and the harder variations you use in place of adding load.

Bodyweight exercises by muscle group

Pick the muscle group you want to train and see which exercises cover it.

Core88Planks and crunchesQuads79Squats and lungesFront delts46

More muscle groupsMid chest 29·Glutes 19·Calves 11

Exercise library

All Bodyweight exercises

29 exercises
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29 exercises

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Training guide

About training Bodyweight exercises

Choose one movement, perform it well, then progress it over time.

How do you progress without weight?

Since you cannot add plates, change how hard the movement itself is. The simplest levers are slowing the lowering phase, adding a pause at the hardest point, increasing the range of motion and moving to a single-side version. Only when that stops being enough is it worth reaching for a weight vest or a band.

Can you build muscle without equipment?

Yes, as long as your sets finish close to failure and the difficulty keeps climbing over time. The limit is usually the muscle groups that are hard to load without equipment, mainly the back and the hamstrings. A pull-up bar or a resistance band fixes that fastest.

Where to start

Pick one push, one pull, one leg movement and one core movement, and train them two or three times a week. That covers the first few months and it is easier to stick with than a plan with a dozen exercises.

Where to start

Progress the movement

01

Own the position

Clean form first, for the time or the reps you planned. A short set with your torso holding its line is worth more than a long one with form falling apart.

02

Change the leverage

Move the base of support further from your center, raise your feet higher, or slow the tempo down. Here progress comes from geometry, not from plates.

03

Go to one limb

When the two-sided version stops being hard, the next step is one leg or one arm - it doubles the load with no equipment at all.

Explore further

By muscle group

Core88Quads79Front delts46Mid chest29Glutes19

Other equipment

Resistance bandDumbbellKettlebell

Browse the exercise library

Workout tracker

Add this exercise to a workout and track your progress

Add it to a plan or to your current session, log sets, weight and reps, keep the instructions and tips at hand while you train, and check your previous results, records and volume.

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  • Progress - history, records and volume
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