Calisthenics Workout Plan For Beginners To Start Your Fitness Journey

Do you want to start building lean muscle and strength at home but don’t have the budget for expensive equipment? Then maybe it’s time to try calisthenics.

Calisthenics is a form of resistance training that utilizes body weight to overload muscle tissue. It uses exercises such as push-ups, squats, lunges, and pull-ups to increase muscle mass and improve function. Best of all, it requires no equipment, meaning it can be done anywhere.

But we know what you’re thinking — how do I start?

In this article, we discuss a calisthenics workout plan for beginners. We cover exercises, ideal repetition recommendations, benefits, and expert training tips to help you achieve results!

4-Day Full-Body Calisthenics Workout Plan For Beginners

The workout below contains several calisthenic exercises to increase muscle mass, endurance, and function.

This is a full-body calisthenic workout to be completed four times per week, with a rest day in between. The rest day should contain walking and stretching. This will relax your muscles and joints, enhancing recovery.

This workout contains five blocks: cardio warm-up, upper body, core, lower body, and cool down. Each block should be repeated three times, with a short rest in between. Once you have completed three rounds, you can move on to the next block.

For individuals who would like a further challenge, consider increasing the intensity, performing more rounds, and reducing rest times.

Cardio Warm-Up

This cardio warm-up is designed to increase heart rate, warm muscle tissue, and prepare the nervous system. This readies the body physically and mentally for exercise, improving performance while reducing injury risk.  

This warm-up block consists of three exercises to be performed in succession with no rest. Perform the circuit for three to four rounds; after each round, we recommend taking a short 30-second rest. 

Each exercise is specifically chosen to dynamically take our muscles and joints through the full range of motion. Jumping jacks engage the shoulders, hips, and calves, which increases heart rate. High knees engage the calves and hip flexors. Finally, butt kicks dynamically lengthen the quadriceps, and engage the hamstrings.

Upper Body

The upper body component is designed to increase muscle mass and strength. It targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The combination of these exercises increases upper body training volume, promoting growth. 

The incline push-up targets the lower chest while reducing the total weight placed on the upper extremities.  

Chair tricep dips are a compound movement that requires us to lift our entire body weight. This requires us to produce maximum force against an external resistance, enabling us to develop strength. Meanwhile, knee push-ups decrease resistance, making them an appropriate exercise to finish each round.

These exercises focus on muscle growth. For the best results, perform sets of 8–12 repetitions at a moderate to high intensity. Aim for 60%–80% of your one repetition maximum. This is the maximum amount of weight you can lift for one repetition with the correct technique.

These exercises are to be performed one after another with no rest for three to four rounds. After each round, take a short 30–45 second rest.
In addition to this upper body circuit, consider performing a calisthenic shoulder workout or a calisthenics back workout. This will help you increase muscle mass, enhancing your physique.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest (between sets)
Incline Push-Up	3–4 sets	10–12 reps	0 seconds
Chair Tricep Dip	3–4 sets	8–12 reps	0 seconds
Knee Push-Up	3–4 sets	10–12 reps	30–45 seconds

Core

This core circuit aims to increase core strength and rigidity. It targets the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, erector spinae, and internal and external obliques.

Consisting of three exercises: the hollow hold, plank, and Superman, this workout utilizes isometric contraction to increase core strength. This is when the muscle contracts, without changing in length, which can increase muscle mass, and improve tendon health. 

Furthermore, core engagement may help reduce the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders, which are disorders affecting muscles, tendons, joints, etc. These can come from poor posture and a sedentary lifestyle. This often is accompanied by excessive load on the spine and loss of spinal muscle mass. Imbalances of hip extensor muscles (hamstrings and glutes) can also be found in these cases.

Like the other blocks, you will need to perform each exercise for 30 seconds with no rest for three to four rounds. At the end of each round, have a 30-second rest.

For each exercise, focus on correct breathing and tensing your core muscles. This will increase core rigidity, and enhance your mind-muscle connection, improving results.

Exercise	Sets	Duration	Rest (between sets)
Hollow Hold	3–4 sets	30 seconds	0 seconds
Plank	3–4 sets	30 seconds	0 seconds
Superman	3–4 sets	30 seconds	30–45 seconds

Lower Body

This lower body block increases muscle mass, function, and endurance. It targets the glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings.

Consisting of three exercises, it centers around the hip hinge, making it excellent for developing lower body function. Sumo squats and side lunges are great for glute, quadriceps, and adductor development. The glute bridge allows us to directly target the glutes, improving function and increasing training for added growth.

This training block utilizes moderate to high repetition ranges to promote muscle growth and endurance. Each exercise is to be performed one after another with no rest, this is one round. At the end of the round, have a 30-second rest.

For greater lower body development we recommend adding this calisthenics leg workout to your program. This increases muscle mass and improves function.

Cool Down

The cool-down block helps to gradually decrease the heart rate, mobilize joints, and stretch our muscles. The exercise below consists of static and gentle mobility exercises mobilizing the spine, and lengthening the hamstrings and glutes.

The forward fold and child’s pose target our posterior chain which are the muscles located at the back of the body. Therefore, these movements lengthen the erector spinae, glutes, and hamstrings. The cat-cow flexes and extends the spine, improving mobility.

Perform these movements at low intensity, focusing on correct breathing techniques. This will promote relaxation and reduce tension, easing into your stretch.

Perform for three to four rounds with a 30-second rest in between.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Duration	Rest (between sets)
Forward Fold	3–4 sets		30 seconds	0 seconds
Child’s Pose	3–4 sets		30 seconds	0 seconds
Cat-Cow Stretch	3–4 sets	10–12 reps		30 seconds

Benefits Of A Beginner Calisthenics Workout No Equipment

Performing a beginner calisthenics workout with no equipment is great for increasing muscle mass and strength. Below, we highlight three main benefits.

Increases Muscle Mass

Calisthenics are excellent for increasing muscle mass. Building muscle requires mechanical tension and muscle damage to stimulate muscle growth. 

This is achieved by performing compound and isolation exercises at a moderate to high intensity. Compound exercises utilize multiple joints and muscle groups, allowing us to increase load significantly to increase strength and growth. Isolation exercises increase the training volume of specific muscles, for targeted growth.

The exercises programmed above are prime examples of compound exercises. Movements such as the incline push-up, chair tricep dip, and sumo squat engage many joints and muscle groups. This allows us to increase resistance to growth.

Additionally, performing these exercises together within a program increases total training volume. This leads to greater muscle growth. 

Improves Function

Developing function requires performing compound movements that replicate daily activities such as sitting down, maintaining posture, and lifting objects. This can be achieved by performing multi-dimensional movements (in different movement planes) to enhance strength, stability, and balance.

Calisthenics exercises are compound movements that simulate daily movements. For example, lunges, mimic walking, and squats resemble sitting down and standing up. Side lunges replicate side-stepping, promoting stability and balance.

Furthermore, these exercises use our body weight which is incredibly safe. This enables us to take each movement through a greater range of motion which can increase muscle growth. 

To ensure you are being challenged and continue to improve function, focus on progressively overloading each exercise. This can be done by incrementally increasing sets, repetitions, and intensity, increasing strength, power, and balance.

Scaleable Exercises

Calisthenics are scalable, which makes them great for all experience levels. Calisthenic exercises such as push-ups, chair triceps dips, and lunges can be modified to increase or decrease difficulty. 

For example, push-ups can be performed on knees to decrease resistance, or with the feet elevated to increase resistance. Chair dips can be performed with feet on the ground to decrease weight, or off the ground to increase weight.

This is perfect for beginners, as their training focus is to increase muscle mass and improve technique and function. Calisthenics offers a gentle entry point, allowing beginners to safely, and gradually develop their technique and build muscle mass. Once they have established a solid foundation, they can easily modify each exercise for continued growth and development.

Expert Training Tips 

• Perform dynamic stretches before your workout.  Warm-ups increase muscle tissue and joint temperature while preparing your cardiovascular and nervous systems. This will improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.
• Complete static stretches and mobility exercises after your workout. This will help you improve and maintain flexibility and mobility, enhancing function.
• Focus on correct breathing techniques and engaging your core for each exercise. This increases torso rigidity and supports your spine, improving the movement of external loads. 
• Concentrate on engaging your target muscle with every repetition. This will help develop your mind-muscle connection, improving results.
• When performing your stretch, focus on breathing and relaxing into the stretch. Aim for a feeling of tension, and avoid painful stretching. This will help you lengthen muscles without causing injury.
• Concentrate on engaging your target muscle with each exercise. This will help develop a mind-muscle connection, which can improve results.
• Perform the upper body, core, and lower body blocks at a moderate to high intensity with minimal rest between exercises. This can increase muscle mass, strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness (heart and lungs).

Conclusion

Calisthenics are excellent for individuals of all experience levels. They are a great entry point for beginners to start resistance training, enabling them to increase muscle mass, strength, and function. 

If you want to begin calisthenics training, try our programs and follow the programming recommendations and tips. This will help you create a solid foundation for long-term growth.