Transform Your Body With a 12-Week Calisthenics Program

When it comes to building muscle and getting in shape, most people head to the gym and start lifting weights. This makes a lot of sense given how effective conventional strength training is for sculpting a better physique.

However, there are a few downsides to gym-based training that could stop you from reaching your fitness goals.  

For starters, going to the gym usually involves some traveling, making workouts less convenient and harder to fit into a busy schedule. In addition, gym memberships can be expensive. Gyms can also be loud, crowded places, which some people find off-putting.

The good news is that you don’t actually need to go to a gym to transform your body from flabby to fit. Calisthenics, or bodyweight training, can be every bit as effective. This isn’t just my opinion but a science-backed fact (1)!

Related: Calisthenics vs. Weightlifting: Which Is Best?

That said, you can’t just do a few push-ups or air squats and expect to get in great shape. Instead, just like at the gym, you must follow a program designed to challenge your muscles, forcing them to adapt and grow.

I’m a veteran personal trainer and former British Royal Marine and in this article, I share a tried and tested 12-week calisthenics program designed exclusively for Fitness Volt. Combined with a sensible diet, this plan will get you in great shape without going to a gym.

Weeks 1-4: Building a Foundation

Every tall tower is built on a solid foundation. The better the footings, the higher you can go. This is as true in fitness as it is in structural engineering. Consequently, the first phase of this 12-week calisthenics program is all about developing your basic fitness and conditioning.

Time spent mastering a handful of basic bodyweight exercises and establishing a regular workout habit will ensure that you don’t “blow up” before reaching the end of the 12-week program. It’ll also help you avoid the injuries that often come with trying to do too much too soon.

So, for the next four weeks, you’ll be training three times a week while alternating between two full-body calisthenics programs. The last workout of this phase is a test workout, where you’ll assess your current conditioning. This workout appears at the end of every training phase, so you can see how you are progressing.

Of course, before you begin any of the workouts, you must spend a few minutes preparing your muscles and joints for the demands that follow. So, warm up with 5-10 minutes of easy cardio, e.g., jogging or jumping rope, followed by dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for the muscles you are about to train.

Ready to go? Then let’s begin!  

Training Schedule:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Workout A	Rest	Workout B	Rest	Workout A	Rest	Rest
Week 2	Workout B	Rest	Workout A	Rest	Workout B	Rest	Rest
Week 3	Workout A	Rest	Workout B	Rest	Workout A	Rest	Rest
Week 4	Workout B	Rest	Workout A	Rest	TEST	Rest	Rest

Feel free to change training days according to your schedule. However, try to avoid training two days in a row as fatigue from one workout may affect your performance of the next. You can do some cardio on the rest days if you wish, and I recommend walking 8-10 thousand steps every day to improve your fitness and help with fat loss.

Workouts:

Workout A

	Exercise
1	Pull-up
2	Push-up
3	Air squat
4	Single-leg Romanian deadlift
5	Front plank
6	Back extension

Workout B

	Exercise
1	Table row
2	Bench dip
3	Lunge
4	Prisoner good morning
5	Side plank
6	Crunch

Test Workout

	Exercise
1	Pull-up x 5 reps
2	Push-up x 10 reps
3	Air squat x 15 reps

 

Do as many rounds of these three exercises as possible in 20 minutes. Record your score and try to beat it next month!

Reps, Sets, and Regressions/Progressions:

It’s impossible to accurately prescribe how many reps to do with calisthenics as fitness and strength levels vary from person to person. Ten push-ups may be too hard for one person, but much too easy for another.

Instead, pump out as many reps as it takes to come within a couple of reps of failure. So, if you feel you could do 15, stop at 12-13. Gradually strive to do more reps over the coming four weeks.

In addition to doing more reps per set, you should also increase the number of sets you do from one week to the next. This gradual increase in volume will elevate your fitness and work capacity.

• Week 1: 2 sets per exercise
• Week 2: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 3: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 4: 4 sets per exercise

Rest 60-90 seconds between sets, or until you’ve caught your breath and feel ready to restart your training.

If any of the exercises are too difficult for you, i.e., you can’t do more than a couple of reps, please choose an easier variation. For example, you can do kneeling push-ups instead of full push-ups, or band-assisted pull-ups instead of bodyweight pull-ups.

Conversely, if any of the exercises are too easy, you can switch to a more demanding version. For example, strap on a weight vest, add some mid-rep pauses, utilize a slower tempo, or change the exercise for something more challenging, e.g., decline push-ups instead of regular push-ups.

Weeks 5-8: Maintaining Your Momentum

After four weeks of three weekly full-body workouts, your body will be ready for a new challenge – an upper/lower body split. This schedule allows you do to more exercises and sets per muscle group, which will accelerate your progress while keeping your workouts fresh and interesting.

An upper/lower body split requires one extra training day a week but, because each muscle group is only trained twice per seven days, you’ll actually be getting more rest between workouts than with phase one, which should enhance your progress.

In addition to switching up your training schedule, phase two of this program also introduces a new type of training – ladders. This underutilized calisthenics method is one of the best ways to increase the number of reps you perform while preserving movement quality.  

As before, this training phase concludes with a test workout. Make sure you record your performance so you can see how much you’ve improved in the last four weeks.

Training Schedule:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Upper A	Lower A	Rest	Upper B	Lower B	Rest	Rest
Week 2	Upper A	Lower A	Rest	Upper B	Lower B	Rest	Rest
Week 3	Upper A	Lower A	Rest	Upper B	Lower B	Rest	Rest
Week 4	Upper A	Lower A	Rest	Rest	TEST	Rest	Rest

Workouts:

Upper Body A

	Exercise
1	Pull-up ladder (*)
2	Deficit push-up ladder (*)
3	Inverted rows
4	Wide push-up
5	Isometric biceps curl
6	Isometric triceps pushdown

Lower Body A

	Exercise
1	Wall sit
2	Squat jump
3	Isometric leg curl
4	Walking lunge
5	Single-leg calf raise
6	Hanging knee raise
7	Bicycle crunch

Upper Body B

	Exercise
1	Chin-up ladder (*)
2	Decline push-up ladder (*)
3	Single-arm table row
4	Dip
5	Doorway lateral raise
6	Handstand hold

Lower Body B

	Exercise
1	Rear-foot elevated split squat
2	Jumping lunge
3	Chinese plank
4	Kickstand prisoner Romanian deadlift
5	Ankle hop
6	Dead bug
7	Inchworm

Test Workout

	Exercise
1	Pull-up x 5 reps
2	Push-up x 10 reps
3	Air squat x 15 reps

Do as many rounds of these three exercises as you can in 20 minutes. Record your score and try to beat it next month!

Reps, Sets, and Regressions/Progressions:

As before, take your sets to within 2-3 reps of failure. Adapt the exercises to your current fitness level, making them easier or harder as necessary. Follow the weekly set increases as shown below:

• Week 1: 2 sets per exercise
• Week 2: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 3: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 4: 4 sets per exercise

For the ladder exercises, marked with an (*) on the training plan, follow this protocol:

1. Do 1 rep
2. Rest 5-10 seconds
3. Do 2 reps
4. Rest for 5-10 seconds
5. Do 3 reps
6. Rest for 5-10 seconds
7. Do 4 reps, etc.
8. Keep adding reps until you are unable to continue
9. Rest for 2-3 minutes and start back at 1 rep.

For the isometric exercises, push/pull as hard as you can and as long as you can against an immovable object. Ideally, you should fatigue your muscles within 20-30 seconds. If you don’t, you are not pulling or pushing hard enough!

Weeks 9-12: Finishing Strong

After eight weeks of consistent training, you should be leaner, stronger, and more muscular than when you started this program.

However, this is NOT the time to sit back and rest on your laurels!

Instead, we’re going to increase both training frequency and volume, so you reach even higher levels of fitness and strength.

Consequently, for your final phase of training, you will be following a push/pull/legs routine and training six times per week. However, because each muscle group will only be trained twice, you should still get all the rest you need to recover and grow between workouts.

That said, you will only have one non-training day per week, so you must look for any signs of overtraining, and back off if you start to feel that you are not recovering sufficiently between workouts.  

This phase ends with the dreaded test workout. Make sure you push hard and go for broke to see how much you have improved over the last three months.

Training Schedule:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Push A	Pull A	Legs A	Push B	Pull B	Legs B	Rest
Week 2	Push A	Pull A	Legs A	Push B	Pull B	Legs B	Rest
Week 3	Push A	Pull A	Legs A	Push B	Pull B	Legs B	Rest
Week 4	Push A	Pull A	Legs A	Push B	Rest	TEST	Rest

Workouts:

Push A

	Exercise
1	Archer push-up
2	Decline push-up
3	Push-up
4	Doorway lateral raise
5	Bench dip

Pull A

	Exercise
1	Wide-grip pull-up
2	Close-grip chin-up
3	Inverted row
4	Isometric biceps curl
5	Dead hang

Legs A

	Exercise
1	Shrimp squat
2	Box jump
3	Nordic curl
4	Sissy squat
5	Single-leg calf raise
6	RKC plank

Push B

	Exercise
1	Pike push-up
2	Dip
3	Wide push-up
4	Diamond push-up
5	Isometric triceps pushdown

Pull B

	Exercise
1	Archer pull-up
2	Paused chin-up
3	Single-arm inverted row
4	Isometric inverted row
5	Single-arm dead hang

Legs B

	Exercise
1	Pistol box squat
2	Standing long jump
3	Heel slide hamstring curl
4	Cyclist squat
5	Single-leg donkey calf raise
6	Hanging straight leg raise

Test Workout

	Exercise
1	Pull-up x 5 reps
2	Push-up x 10 reps
3	Air squat x 15 reps

Do as many rounds of these three exercises as possible in 20 minutes, doing your best to beat last month’s score.

Reps, Sets, and Regressions/Progressions:

Take your sets to within 2-3 reps of failure, adjusting the exercises to make them easier or harder as necessary. For the isometric exercises, push or pull as hard as possible so your muscles are fatigued in 20-30 seconds.

Increase the number of sets as outlined below:

• Week 1: 2 sets per exercise
• Week 2: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 3: 3 sets per exercise
• Week 4: 4 sets per exercise

Closing Thoughts

Anyone who tells you that calisthenics is not an effective way to build muscle and strength is mistaken. Invariably, those people who fail to get the results they want from bodyweight training are not working hard enough or they’re following an ineffective program.

Ultimately, your muscles can’t really tell the difference between doing push-ups and an exercise like bench presses. Providing you train hard and often enough, even simple calisthenic exercises can produce amazing transformations.

Best of all, because you can do calisthenics almost anywhere and anytime, it’s the ultimate excuse-free workout so it’s much easier to train consistently. In my experience as a 30-year veteran personal trainer, workout consistency is the key to achieving your fitness dreams and goals.

References:

1 – Calatayud J, Borreani S, Colado JC, Martin F, Tella V, Andersen LL. Bench press and push-ups at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gains. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Jan;29(1):246-53. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000589. PMID: 24983847.

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