The Best Damn No-Weights Workout

1. The Overcoming Isometrics Method

Overcoming isometrics are actually synergistic to bodyweight training. The former is very
effective for building strength but not so much for hypertrophy, while the latter is effective at
maintaining or increasing muscle mass but isn't great for strength. As such, using both methods
can give you a very effective workout.

All you need to practice overcoming isometrics is something heavy enough to not move when
you're trying to lift it. It could be a super heavy table, the doorway (to do lateral raises or
presses), the back of your car (for deadlifts), etc.

The best loading parameter for strength is doing sets of 6 seconds. Normally you ramp up force
production over the first 3 seconds and then you go all-out for 3 seconds. Do 4-5 sets this way.

One method that works well for strength AND size is to perform five 6-second "reps"
interspersed with 10-20 second rest periods. This will have an effect similar to cluster training in
that it will be very effective in increasing strength while giving more than a passing nod to
hypertrophy.

Here are some examples of exercises you can use:

Table Curl
Table Front Raise

Door Lateral Raise

Door Pec Squeeze
Door Leg Press
Door One-Arm Row
Door Rear Delts

2. The Loaded Stretching Method

Loaded stretching is where you hold the stretched position of an exercise under load. It fits in
nicely with the previous two training approaches. Bodyweight training will build muscle,
isometrics will get you stronger, and loaded stretching will improve mobility while also adding
muscle and strengthening the tendons (which will increase strength potential).

I wrote a whole article on the topic of loaded stretching (Stretch With Weights to Build Muscle)
with several exercise examples. Yes, a lot of those exercises use light dumbbells, but you can
easily find non-gym objects that will be heavy enough to suit your purposes (jugs of milk or
laundry detergent, grandma Thibaudeau's pot roast, etc.).
My favorite exercises, though – the push-up and split squat – don't require any weight. You
simply pause at some point in the eccentric/negative contraction and hold the position for a
pre-determined amount of time.

I recommend a total time under tension of 3 minutes. This could be:

3 sets of 1 minute
2 sets of 90 seconds
1 set of 2 minutes and one set lasting 1 minute
4 sets of 45 seconds
But each set has to be done to failure or close to it. The duration depends on your strength
level and the resistance you have available.

Ideally, you'd start a typical workout with the isometrics. On top of increasing strength, they'll
have a strong effect on activating your nervous system, making the bodyweight work more
effective. Then perform bodyweight exercises and finish with loaded stretching.

Do two isometric exercises (1 set of 5 reps lasting 6 seconds, with 10-20 seconds of rest), then
two to three bodyweight exercises for 3 sets each (using the methods mentioned in my
previous article), and finishing up with the push-up and split squat loaded stretch.

That will give you a super effective session, regardless of your goal.

3. Sprinting

Sprints of 20-60m will be very effective for power development (and speed of course), whereas
sprints of 200-400m are awesome to help you get lean and improve conditioning. There are, of
course, tons of other options, but you can't go wrong with these zones.

Sprinting is very straightforward, but the risk of injury can be high if you aren't used to
sprinting, haven't done it for a while, or if your strength level exceeds your sprinting technique.
Here are some recommendations to avoid injuries:

Uphill sprinting.

Sprinting uphill is safer than sprinting on a flat surface. This is because you can't go into full hip
extension when running uphill and the slope forces your body into more efficient sprinting
mechanics (forward lean). This dramatically reduces the risk of muscle pulls.

Avoid static starts.

Until your sprint mechanics are good and your body is used to sprinting, a "flying start" is much
safer than a static start. A flying start is where you gradually build up speed over 20-30 meters
before beginning the actual sprint.
If you decide to attack a 30m sprint, for example, you might gradually accelerate for 20m until
you reach your sprinting speed (around 90% of your top speed) and then continue on for 30m
(the flying portion doesn't count as part of the set). You can also emulate Gabriel in the video
and start with some bounding or slower sprinting and then build up to your speed.

I also like "push-up starts" to decrease the shearing forces of the start, thus further reducing
the risk of injuries.

Don't go all out!

Even elite sprinters rarely go all-out on sprints. It's just too demanding on the body and nervous
system. Going all-out on a sprint is exactly the same thing as going all-out to complete failure
on a set of squats or deadlifts.

As a general rule, the less efficient your technique is, the more you should refrain from going
close to your top sprinting speed. Going to 90% is fine, but trying to go as fast as possible
should be left for when you're super-efficient, and even then it should represent a very small
portion of your training volume.

When going fast, keep the distances short.

The less efficient your sprinting mechanics are, the shorter your fastest sprints should be. If
you're a newbie to sprinting, you'd be better off sprinting 20-30m rather than 40-60m. The risk
of injuries increases as the distance increases, especially in non-qualified sprinters.

Pick one of two goals: speed/power or fat loss/conditioning.

For speed/power work, keep the rest long and volume low. Don't try to do both at the same
time. When you want fat loss, the volume should be higher and the rest intervals shorter. If you
keep rest intervals short and do too many fast sprints, you'll run into trouble.

People underestimate how demanding fast sprints are to the body and nervous system. If
training in the 20-60m zone, limit yourself to 4-6 work sets. Sprinting is qualitative, not
quantitative. Also, keep the rest intervals fairly long (3-4 minutes). This is necessary to optimize
performance and reduce the risk of injuries.

4. Jumping

Jumps are great movements to include in a gym-less program. They can increase power and are
a great complement to sprinting. They can even help you increase strength by improving
muscle fiber recruitment.
If you perform isometrics, sprints, and jumps, your nervous system will be primed for strength
gains once you get back to the gym. And bodyweight training and loaded stretching will help
you maintain or even increase your muscle mass, so you shouldn't skip a beat.

There are two large categories of jumps that I use:

Reset
Series
In a reset jump set, you jump as high (or as far) as you can, land solidly, and take your time to
reset before doing the next one. In the video below, Paul (a pro football player) is doing a broad
jump with reset. He jumps, lands solidly, walks back, and does his next rep:

In a series, you connect all the jumps. Use the landing from one jump as the dip for the next
one. Here's an example of hurdle jumps:

You should always start with reset jumps. Do not engage in a jump series until your mechanics
are solid for both the jump and the landing. Otherwise you'll be all over the place and the
improvement in performance will be much less and the risk of injury much higher.

Jumps should then be further divided into different directions:

Upward jumps: These are less demanding on the body and have the lowest risk of injuries.
You should master upward jumps before moving on to forward jumps.

Forward jumps: These are more demanding on the body because the landing involves more
shearing forces. That is why you need a lot of experience practicing upward jumping and solid
landing mechanics before moving on to forward jumping. Forward jumps have a greater
transfer to sprinting speed and target the posterior chain muscles more than the upward
jumps.

Lateral jumps: This type of jump should always be introduced into a program last. And,
honestly, unless you're involved in a sport that incorporates changes of direction, I'd avoid
them. They have the highest injury risk and don't really provide benefits over the other two
types of jumps, unless you need lateral power.

Bilateral and unilateral jumps: Jumping and landing on two legs is less demanding and safer
than jumping/landing on one leg. If you plan on eventually moving to single-leg jumps, you
must be extremely competent with jumping in general and landing with both legs.
The main issue concerning jumping is doing too much volume. Jumping is qualitative. It's a tool
to improve power and, indirectly, strength. It should not be a conditioning tool (like you see in
CrossFit). Furthermore, all jumps should be as explosive as you can make them.
People tend to do too much volume because they chase fatigue out of habit. They do jumps
until they "feel it." That, or they see it like a lifting workout: "I do 4 exercises for 4 sets of 10 for
chest, so I'll do the same for jumps." Don't do that.

Limit yourself to 30 jumps per workout and stick to sets of 5 reps or fewer. Remember, you
cannot do maximum effort for high reps. We're thus talking about 4-6 work sets. It could either
be 2-3 work sets of two different jumps, or 4-6 sets of one type.

A good jumping/sprinting workout would consist of two jumping exercises for 3 sets of 5,
followed by 4-6 sprints (and 3-ish warm-up sprints).

The Plan!
If you want to make the most of the time period when a gym isn't available, follow a certain
structure. If you're a lifter, chances are that bodyweight work, loaded stretching, isometrics,
sprints, and jumps aren't part of your area of expertise. You can't just wing it.

A good starting point is to do three weekly "strength" sessions where you do:

Two to three isometric exercises for 1 set of 6 reps lasting 6 seconds, with 10-20 seconds of rest
between reps.
Three bodyweight exercises using some of the methods I gave you in my previous article.
Three minutes of loaded stretching on push-ups and split squats.

One or two sprint/jump sessions where you do:

One or two jumping exercises for a total of 4-6 sets of 5 reps.

Four to six sprints of either 20-60m (for power and strength) or four to six sprints of 200-400m
(to lose fat and improve conditioning).
You can't go wrong with that and you will likely come back to the gym better than ever and
primed to make gains.
1 – Iso Pre-Fatigue

This is one of my favorite intensification methods. It helps stimulate growth, but I like it even
more as a way to improve the mind-muscle connection.

It's fairly straightforward: You start each set with an isometric hold at a key position in the
movement. If you're after muscle growth, use the position where you can feel the most tension
in the target muscle:

Bodyweight Squat: Hold the isometric in the mid-range position for 10-60 seconds, then do as
many reps as you can. (See video.)
Push-Up: Hold the isometric in the mid-range or near the bottom position.
Pull-Up Variations: Hold the peak contraction position.
Start your set with the isometric hold. The hold should be anywhere between 10 and 30
seconds depending on how strong you are. On bodyweight squats, you could go up to 60
seconds, but most people should try a 10-30 second hold with maximum tension.

In the video Paul is using the 60-second version because he's a pro football player who squats
over 500 pounds, but even bodyweight alone crushes him!

Once you're done with your hold, do as many solid reps as you can. And here's the secret, try to
feel the same tension as you did during the hold. If you can get more than 12 reps, lengthen the
hold, or slow down your reps.

The Hold Position: Make it as demanding as you can! This means creating as much tension as
possible.

For instance, if you're holding a position on a push-up or dip, try to "squeeze inward" in an
effort to bring your hands closer together, even though they won't move. That intent will
greatly increase pectoral contraction.

In a squat, try to "screw your feet into the floor" by attempting to externally rotate them, or
"press the floor with the toes" and "tense the abs as if you were going to get punched in the
stomach."

In a pull-up, flex your biceps and upper back hard by trying to pull the bar toward you even
though it'll likely already be against you.

These actions will not only create more muscle fiber recruitment, they'll also develop your
capacity to contract and feel key muscles. That way, when you get back to lifting weights, these
muscles will respond a lot better.

2 – Intra-Set Holds
Do three holds during your set (same position as for the previous method) then do reps after
each hold. For example:

Hold the bottom position of a push-up for 10 seconds, then do 5 reps.

Hold the bottom position again for 10 seconds, then do 5 reps.
Hold the bottom position once more for 10 seconds, then do as many reps as possible.
That's all one set. So don't stop between the reps and the holds.

You can play with the amount of time you spend on the holds. If you can get more than 12 total
reps, lengthen the time of the holds.

Now, the holds don't all have to be the same length. You could do 20 seconds on the first one,
15 seconds on the second, and 10 seconds to finish.

3 – Stato-Dynamic Reps

I use this method quite a bit with athletes on the big basic lifts, but it can also be very effective
for bodyweight movements. You can also design a progression model by varying the type of
holds you do.

First, everything I said earlier about maximizing tension in a hold and making it hard still
applies... and that goes for every type of hold here.

We can vary the difficulty of a set by changing any of the following parameters:

The number of holds: You can do one to three holds within each rep. It's hard to do more than
that because you'll run out of range of motion.

The length of each hold: We normally use three to six seconds per hold. Of course, longer is
harder. Normally, the more holds there are in a rep, the shorter they are. Here's a good rule of
thumb:

1 hold per rep = 5-6 seconds per hold

2 holds per rep = 4-5 seconds per hold
3 holds per rep = 3-4 seconds per hold
When you do the holds: Doing holds during the concentric (lifting) phase is harder than doing
them during the eccentric (lowering) phase. We can build a hierarchy of difficulty for this
category, from the easiest to the hardest:

One hold on the eccentric

Two holds on the eccentric
One hold on the concentric
Three holds on the eccentric
One hold on the eccentric, one hold on the concentric
Two holds on the eccentric, one hold on the concentric
Two holds on the concentric
One hold on the eccentric, two holds on the concentric
Three holds on the concentric
So you can progress either by doing more reps per set under the same conditions or by
maintaining your number of reps while making the conditions harder. Holds are one way to do
that.

4 – Darden 30-10-30

To give you an idea of how brutal this one can be, take a look at the video and keep in mind
that this is a pro football player who squats over 500... and he's not able to finish the last 30
seconds with bodyweight only!

The next few methods will focus on making a set more difficult by lengthening the duration of
the eccentric phase of a movement (or the concentric in some cases). Might as well start with
the most excruciating one!

You start by doing a 30-second long eccentric (lowering) phase, then immediately do 10 normal
reps. Still control the eccentric on the normal reps – two seconds down is a good target.
After your tenth rep, finish with one final 30-second eccentric, after which you may or may not
try to stand up (or push/pull yourself up). My guess is that you won't be able to do it.
Is 30-10-30 too easy for you? It might be on bodyweight squats. Just do 15 or 20 reps instead of
10. Or for an even greater challenge, do this with Bulgarian split squats and see how your legs
(and pride) feel after that!

5 – Slow Eccentrics

Paul, who's demonstrating this exercise, has a do-or-die mentality. I'd recommend stopping 1-2
reps before he did.

In this method you start with slow eccentric or negative reps. Lower down in 8-10 seconds per
rep and go up normally. Do as many reps like that as you can.
When 10 seconds start to feel like a dinner at the in-laws, you can speed things up and even use
some momentum to try to get a few extra reps.
It's pretty straightforward, and if you can endure pain, this will be very effective for you.

6 – Tempo Contrast

I've always loved this method (even with weight training exercises) to maximize growth and
improve the mind-muscle connection. It consists of alternating between slow and normal reps.

You start by doing two slow reps, then do two fast reps, two more slow reps, two more fast
reps, and so on.
First Rep: Slow (6 seconds down, 3 seconds up)
Second Rep: Slow (6 seconds down, 3 seconds up)
Third Rep: Fast (2 seconds down, 1 second up)
Fourth Rep: Fast (2 seconds down, 1 second up)
Fifth Rep: Slow (6 seconds down, 3 seconds up)
Sixth Rep: Slow (6 seconds down, 3 seconds up)
Seventh Rep: Fast (2 seconds down, 1 second up)
Eighth Rep: Fast (2 seconds down, 1 second up)
And so on...
Ideally, you wouldn't have to do more than twelve total reps. If you can, either change the
movement (e.g. Bulgarian split squat instead of bodyweight squat) or add weight (holding a dog
or a backpack loaded with books for example).

7 – Regressive Range Of Motion

This will work best for bodyweight exercises where it's hard to get more than 12 solid reps (like
chin-ups or handstand push-ups) or for which you can add some weight (bodyweight squat
holding a loaded backpack). It's not ideal for exercises where you can pump out 30-plus reps,
but I'll give you an alternative in a moment.

You start by doing the full range of motion for the movement. The "easier" the exercise is for
you (i.e. the more reps you can get), the slower the tempo should be. At the most, you should
be getting 10-12 full-range reps with the slow tempo.
When you reach a point close to failure, shorten the range of motion and continue doing partial
reps until failure. For these, the partials would be at the top of the range of motion.
If you want to use the method for exercises where you can normally pump out 30-plus reps –
like push-ups or bodyweight squats – just start the set with a 30-second hold (like in our first
method), then proceed with the regressive ROM set.

8 – Myo Reps

Myo reps are essentially a multi rest-pause set.

First go to failure on an exercise (ideally in 20 reps or fewer, so you might need to add
resistance).
Once you reach failure or close to it, rest around 10 seconds and do three more reps.
Rest 10 seconds and do three reps.
Repeat until you either fail to get three reps in a mini-set or reach five mini-sets of three reps.
Adding Resistance
These methods will make the basic bodyweight movements a lot more demanding and more
effective at triggering growth. But don't forget that it's possible to add resistance if you're a
little bit creative.
I already mentioned the loaded backpack method, which can be used on squats, split squats,
chin-ups, and even push-ups and dips. On squats you can put it on your back or even hold it in
front Zercher style, getting a bit more core and arm work in the process.

Any fairly light object that's not too cumbersome can be used to add resistance. Remember: It
doesn't matter if you don't know the exact weight of the object you're using, nor that you can't
progress in 5-pound increments like in the gym. We're not talking about a lifelong solution
here, but a temporary one to help you keep building muscle until you can get back to the gym.

Bands
Adding Band Work
A simple and inexpensive way to improve a home workout is to buy exercise resistance bands.
You can go with the looped ones or those with handles.

You can very effectively do curls, tricep pressdowns, lateral raises, front raises, shoulder
presses, and straight-arm pulldowns with bands. You can also use them to make push-ups,
squats, and split squats harder. They're fairly cheap too.

The Obstacles and How to Beat Them

I see two problems with at-home training using bodyweight exercises. Both are psychological
issues.

First, the proximity factor. It actually requires more discipline to train at home than to go to the
gym. You're probably thinking, "How could that be if going to the gym is a bigger commitment
and more effort?"

Well, that's the exact reason! At home, you can do it any time. It's easy to think, "I'll do it a little
later," but in reality most people get to the end of the day not having trained, and now they're
too tired to get after it.

The second element is that for most of us, bodyweight training isn't motivating, especially on
the simpler exercises. We love lifting weights, seeing the loads increase, and the feeling of
heavy resistance on our body. I get it. I'm like that too.

But I learned to appreciate proper bodyweight training when I started doing a lot of
international seminars. Traveling on a tight schedule and presenting makes it hard to find a gym
and take the time to go train. I started doing hotel bodyweight workouts (as well as using
resistance bands) which allowed me to keep muscle mass intact when traveling.

I won't lie to you, it's an acquired taste, but if you want to maintain your gainz, you need to do
it!