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Bodyweight Push/Pull/Legs Circuit

Bodyweight Push/Pull/Legs Circuit

Stuck at home or on the road without a gym? No excuses – do this bodyweight-only, full-body circuit wherever you are to stay lean and even build some muscle.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated August 24, 2020

Consider this another "No Excuses" workout. I've given you a few others recently, including my Full-Body Workout in the Park and On the Road Band Workout routines, that give you great workout options for times you're not able to get to the gym.

This one is even more bare bones – a full-body workout that requires no gym equipment and consists of only three exercises. This is a workout I like to do in a hotel room when I'm travelling and the hotel doesn't have a sufficient gym or fitness center. Here are the exercises:

Exercise 1: Push-Ups

Exercise 2: Inverted Rows

Exercise 3: Reverse Lunges or Step-Ups

With these three exercises, you're hitting more or less all the major muscle groups in the body through an upper body pushing exercise (push-ups), an upper body pull (rows) and a compound leg movement (lunges/step-ups). It's a simple circuit, but also very effective and very challenging if you keep it fast-paced and do several rounds.

Workout Details

The workout is simple. Do the exercises circuit style – one set of each without resting in between. That's one circuit.

You may have to get a bit creative on inverted rows. In the video below, you'll see that I use a table and pull myself up underneath it while grabbing onto the sides. With lunges/step-ups, do whichever one you prefer. For step-ups, you'll need something sturdy to step onto, like a solid chair, bench or couch. With both rows and step-ups, make sure the furniture you use is sturdy enough to not break, since you probably won't want to replace or pay for a damaged table or chair.

For reps, do push-ups and inverted rows to failure each time through. For lunges/step-ups, I typically do these as a pyramid, 5 reps down to 1 rep – 5 reps stepping back with the left leg, 5 stepping back with the right, then 4 per side, then 3, then 2, then 1. You'll do this for lunges/step-ups in every round through the circuit.

I recommend doing the circuit at least three times through, resting 1-2 minutes between each round. Advanced individuals should do at least five rounds to bump up the volume.

Workout Add-Ons

As I mentioned before, the basic template of this workout is an upper body pull, an upper body push and a leg movement. If you have more equipment available (a jungle gym setup or even some dumbbells lying around), you can swap out exercises if you want. For example, you can do dips, incline push-ups or overhead dumbbell presses instead of push-ups; pull-ups or dumbbell rows instead of inverted rows; and/or bodyweight or dumbbell squats instead of lunges/step-ups. The possibilities are endless with this format.

You can also increase the circuit from three exercises to four or five simply by adding an abs/core exercise and/or a cardio activity (ala cardioacceleration). For the abs/core exercise, a sit-up, crunch or lying leg raise will work; for cardio, jumping jacks, running in place or burpees can be done anywhere with no equipment. With the abs/core exercise, shoot for higher reps (15-20+); for the cardio activity, go for 30-60 seconds.

With the added elements, the workout would look like this:

Exercise 1: Push-Ups – to failure

Exercise 2: Inverted Rows – to failure

Exercise 3: Reverse Lunges or Step-Ups – 5-4-3-2-1 per leg

Exercise 4: Lying Leg Raises – 15-20 reps

Exercise 5: Jumping Jacks – 60 seconds

Rest 1-2 minutes and repeat. Do 3-5 rounds total.