Perform a bodyweight exercise to strengthen the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
A versatile lower body exercise that builds strength and stability.
Hold this static position to fire up your core and build endurance.
A simple yet effective core exercise targeting the lower abs.
Perform a bodyweight exercise to strengthen the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
A dynamic lower body exercise to build strength, balance, and flexibility.
A powerful static move to build oblique strength and improve core stability.
Strengthen your glutes and improve your core stability.
Common questions about this plan: schedule, goals, equipment, and substitutions.
Yes — up to a point. For a beginner, push-ups, squats, lunges, and planks provide enough resistance to build noticeable strength and muscle in the first 2–3 months, especially if you've never trained before. Your body responds to the new stimulus, not the exact load.
After that, plain bodyweight stops being enough for most muscle groups. You'll need to make exercises harder (one-arm push-ups, pistol squats), add a resistance band, or move to a plan with weights to keep growing. Beginner Full Body Routine is the natural next step once you have access to dumbbells.
Bodyweight progression has four levers, in order of how much most beginners should use them:
Don't add intensity by training more days — stick with 2 sessions and progress within them.
If you have access to dumbbells and a bench by week 4, jump to Beginner Full Body Routine — same beginner level, but the added load lets you keep progressing past the limits of pure bodyweight.
If you still have no equipment, you can run this plan for another 4–8 weeks while making exercises harder using the levers above (slower tempo, harder variations). At some point you'll need resistance to keep gaining — a basic dumbbell pair is the smallest investment that unlocks the next 6+ months of progress.