The best thing about bodyweight workouts is that they can be done anytime, anywhere. The second best thing about using your own bodyweight to build muscle and get stronger is that you learn how to actually move and use your body.

Sedentary lifestyles have left most of us locked up and immobile. Getting down with some push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, and some jumps will leave you feeling like a kid again and can be a better option if you’ve been toiling away in the gym for years under a heavy barbell.

This past weekend, I was able to head down to the local football field a couple of times to hit a killer bodyweight workout. Here is what it looked like. I hit a big circuit and repeated it several times until I felt like I was done. Nothing set in stone, just going with the flow.

ROUND 1
1. 50 yard tempo run (about 50% effort)
2. 10 push-ups
3. 20 crunches
4. Glute Bridges with feet together
5. Inverted Rows*
7. 100 yard tempo run (50%)
8. Pike-ups**
9. Squats
10. Lunges
11. Quick double leg hops across line markers
12. 400m jog (once around the track)

* I found a turned over stand and it had a horizontal bar on it so I improvised and hit inverted rows with it. Perfect! I could have also used the bleachers for the rows.

** I found a frisbee on the field so I turned it upside down and put my feet on it – like a furniture slider – to perform ab pike-ups.

I repeated this 4-5 times, and then headed to the bleachers.

Again, I hit lunges up the bleachers for several rounds with no set rep scheme. I stepped up two bleachers at a time and as my front foot planted, I dropped my hips down to actively stretch my hips before driving up to the next steps. After my hips were warmed up, I hit strides up three steps at-a-time.

ROUND 2
1. 2-step strides at a time x 5 trips up the stairs
2. 3-step strides at a time x 5 trips up the stairs

For Round 3, before I headed home, I finished with 100 push-ups and 100 inverted rows.

ROUND 3
1. Push-ups, 100 reps
2. Inverted Rows, 100 reps

There you have it. Simple, quick, and super-effective.

Summer is here and getting outside to train and changing up your workouts to include more bodyweight training can give you a big jump start if you’ve been in a rut with your workouts and need to get excited again about working out.

Trust me, training has to include a balance of several different training protocols – not just heavy barbell training – if you want to keep your movement fluid and unrestricted as you age.

Try out my BODY ARMOR program. It contains a huge video library and has some of my favorite bodyweight-only workouts!