Calisthenics for Beginners: 6 Basic Exercises and a Home Workout

Calisthenics means training with your own bodyweight: push-ups, pull-ups, squats, lunges, dips and planks. To start as a beginner, train three times a week on non-consecutive days, learn six basic exercises, and use an easier version of any exercise you cannot do for 5 clean reps yet. You can do all of it at home with no equipment, and add a pull-up bar when you are ready.

This guide covers what you need, how to do the six basic exercises (with an easier and a harder version of each), a beginner workout you can do at home, how to progress over your first month, and the mistakes that hold most beginners back.

Want a plan set to your level? Our free calisthenics workout plan builder asks for your push-ups, pull-ups and squats, the days you can train and your equipment, then gives you a 4-week plan with the right version of each exercise.

What is calisthenics?

Calisthenics is strength training that uses your bodyweight as the resistance. It covers basic exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, squats and lunges, and gymnastic skills like handstands, the L-sit and the muscle-up.

The word comes from the Greek kallos (beauty) and sthenos (strength). It is used in the military, in martial arts, in street workout parks, and by athletes as part of their training.

You can use calisthenics to build strength, build muscle, lose fat or improve general fitness. What changes is which exercises you choose, how you put them into a workout and how often you train.

Why calisthenics works for beginners

You can train anywhere

Most bodyweight exercises need nothing but a little floor space, so you can work out at home, in a hotel room or in a park. No travel to a gym means fewer reasons to skip a session.

It costs little or nothing

Many exercises need no equipment at all. A pull-up bar and a pair of dip bars are the only things worth buying, and most outdoor workout parks have both for free.

Every exercise has an easier and a harder version

You do not need to be strong to start. Every exercise can be made easier or harder by changing your body position, not just by doing more reps. For example:

Wall push-ups, then incline push-ups, then push-ups, then decline push-ups, then archer push-ups

That ladder is what makes calisthenics work for complete beginners: you start on the version you can do and move up when it gets easy.

It is easy on the joints and trains your whole body

Any exercise can cause elbow, knee, or shoulder pain, but bodyweight exercises are easy to adjust to your height, limb length and range of motion. They also make your whole body work together. Leg presses build leg strength, but single-leg pistol squats build strength, balance, mobility and coordination at the same time.

That does not make free weights or machines bad. Calisthenics mixes well with any other training, so you can use it on its own or alongside the gym.

What you need to start

• Nothing, for your first workouts. Push-ups, squats, lunges and planks need only floor space.
• Something to pull on. Pulling is the hardest pattern to train at home. Until you have a bar, do rows under a heavy table that cannot tip, or with a towel knotted over the top of a solid door that opens away from you, with the door shut. Test either one with a gentle pull before you lean your weight on it.
• A pull-up bar, when you are ready. A doorway or wall-mounted bar opens up pull-ups, negatives and hanging leg raises. See our guide to the best pull-up bars for home gyms.
• Dip bars, optional. Parallel bars at a park or a dip station at home. Until then, pike push-ups give you a second pushing exercise.

The 6 basic calisthenics exercises

There are hundreds of calisthenic exercises, and many of them are much too hard for a beginner. Trying a human flag or a front lever before you have a base of strength leads to frustration and injury.

Master these six first. They work every major muscle group and they are the base that every advanced skill is built on.

1. Push-ups
2. Pull-ups and rows
3. Dips
4. Squats
5. Lunges
6. Planks

1. Push-ups

Push-ups work your chest, shoulders and triceps, and they teach you to keep your whole body tight, which almost every other calisthenics exercise needs.

How to do it:

1. Place your hands flat on the floor, roughly shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing forward. Walk your feet back until your body is straight. Tense your legs and abs, keep your shoulders away from your ears and your head in line with your body.
2. Bend your arms and lower your chest to within an inch of the floor. Keep your abs braced so your hips do not sag.
3. Push yourself back up until your arms are straight.

Easier: do them with your hands on a wall, a kitchen counter or a sturdy table (incline push-ups). The lower the surface, the harder it gets. Push-ups on your knees work too; see our guide to kneeling push-ups.

Harder: decline push-ups (feet raised), diamond push-ups, then archer push-ups.

Long-term goal: 30 perfect push-ups without stopping.

[Related: 13 Next Level Push-Up Variations For Mass, Strength, and Performance]

2. Pull-ups and rows

Pull-ups are the exercise beginners find most daunting, because they mean lifting your whole bodyweight with your arms. Most people cannot do one at first. That is normal, and rows are how you get there.

Pulling builds your back and biceps and balances all the pushing in a calisthenics workout. It might take you several weeks or even months to get your first pull-up.

How to do a pull-up:

1. Hang from an overhead bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width overhand grip (pull-ups) or a shoulder-width underhand grip (chin-ups). Arms straight, shoulders down and back, abs braced so your legs stay still.
2. Without kicking or swinging, lift your chest, bend your arms, and pull your chin up and over the bar.
3. Lower yourself back down under control; don’t just drop.

Easier: rows. Lie under a sturdy table, hold the edge and pull your chest up to it, or use the towel-and-door row from the equipment list. With a bar, do inverted rows with the bar at waist height. Once rows feel easy, add pull-up negatives: jump or step up so your chin is over the bar, then lower yourself as slowly as you can. A resistance band looped over the bar also helps. Our pull-up progression covers every step.

Harder: more reps, then different grips, archer pull-ups and weighted pull-ups.

Performance goal: your first pull-up is a real landmark. After that, build to 5 and then 10 strict reps. At 10, you are ready for advanced variations and for training toward the muscle-up.

3. Dips

Dips work the same muscles as push-ups but much harder, because you lift your whole bodyweight with your arms. They also work your muscles from a different angle.

How to do it:

1. Place your hands on parallel dip bars, palms facing in. Support your weight on straight arms. Push your shoulders down and back and brace your abs.
2. Lean forward slightly, bend your arms and lower until your upper arms are about level with the floor, or less if your shoulders feel strained. Stay in a range that is pain-free.
3. Push yourself back up and repeat.

Easier: negative dips (start at the top and lower slowly over 3 to 5 seconds), or a resistance band looped across the bars under your knees. With no dip bars, do pike push-ups instead.

Performance goal: like the pull-up, your first full dip is a major achievement. Then build to 5 and 10 strict reps. At 10, you can start training for the muscle-up.

4. Squats

Squats work your whole lower body, and you already do them every time you get out of a chair.

How to do it:

1. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly out. Hold your arms in front of you. Brace your abs and spread your weight across your whole foot.
2. Push your hips back, bend your knees and lower until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor. Keep your chest up, your back flat (don’t let your lower back round at the bottom) and your heels down. Your knees should track over your toes, not cave inward; it is fine for them to travel forward past your toes.
3. Drive your feet into the floor and stand up.

Easier: squat down onto a chair or box and stand back up, using a lower seat as you get stronger. You can also hold a door frame or a table edge and use your arms a little.

Harder: split squats, Bulgarian split squats, then the pistol squat.

Long-term goal: 30 and then 50 non-stop squats.

5. Lunges

Lunges work one leg at a time, which builds balance, coordination and hip mobility. More of your weight sits on the front leg, so they are harder than squats.

How to do it:

1. Stand tall with your feet together and your hands on your hips or by your sides. Brace your abs.
2. Take a long step forward and bend both legs. Lower your back knee until it is about an inch above the floor, keeping your torso upright.
3. Push off your front leg back to the start. Repeat on the same leg, or alternate legs each rep.

Easier: split squats (static lunges), which need less balance. Hold a wall if you need to.

Harder: Bulgarian split squats, walking lunges, then jumping lunges.

Long-term goal: 15 reps per leg.

6. Planks

Planks work your anterior core, the muscles on the front of your abdomen and the deeper muscles that steady your spine. Almost every calisthenics skill needs a strong core.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your stomach with your forearms on the floor and your elbows under your shoulders.
2. Lift your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels. Tense your legs, abs and upper body.
3. Hold, breathing normally. Stop when your hips start to sag.

Easier: plank on your knees, or with your forearms on a bench or step.

Harder: lift one arm or one foot, then hollow body holds, L-sits and rollouts. You can also plank on a stability ball or BOSU.

Long-term goal: a 60-second plank with no sag.

A beginner calisthenics workout you can do at home

Do these two workouts on alternate training days, three days a week: Workout A on Monday, B on Wednesday, A on Friday, then B, A, B the next week. Rest 90 seconds to 3 minutes between sets of the push, pull and leg exercises, and about 60 seconds between core sets.

Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes first: march or jog on the spot, then do arm circles, leg swings and a few easy squats and push-ups.

Workout A

Workout B

Pick the version of each exercise you can do for at least 5 clean reps, and stop each set one or two reps before your form breaks.

Two exercises in Workout B are not covered above:

• Pike push-ups: from a push-up position, walk your feet in and lift your hips high so your body makes an upside-down V. Bend your arms and lower the top of your head toward the floor just in front of your hands, then press back up. Easier: put your hands on a bench or step.
• Dead bugs: lie on your back with your arms pointing at the ceiling and your knees bent at 90 degrees above your hips. Press your lower back into the floor, then lower one arm and the opposite leg toward the floor, breathing out. Return and switch sides.

How to progress in your first month

• Week 1: learn each movement. Stay at the bottom of the rep range and stop at least one rep short of failure.
• Week 2: add one rep per set where your form holds.
• Week 3: keep adding reps. If your reps drop a lot from set to set, rest longer, up to 3 minutes.
• Week 4: retest how many push-ups, pull-ups and squats you can do in one set. Any exercise where you now hit the top of its rep range on every set (for example 3 sets of 8, or 3 holds of 30 seconds) moves up to its harder version.

That is the whole method: do the version you can manage, add reps until it is easy, then move to the next version. Our plan builder sets the starting version of each exercise for you, and if you save your plan and log your sessions, it tells you when an exercise is ready to move up.

Three days a week on non-consecutive days, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday, gives your muscles time for rest and recovery.

Common beginner mistakes

• Starting on versions that are too hard. Two shaky pull-ups teach you less than three solid sets of rows. Start where you can do 5 clean reps.
• Going to failure on every set. Stop a rep or two short. You will recover faster and keep your form.
• No plan. Random workouts make random progress. Repeat the same workouts and add reps each week.
• Skipping pulling and legs. Push-ups are easy to do anywhere, so many beginners do only those. Rows and squats keep you balanced.
• Training through joint pain. Muscle burn is normal; sharp pain in a wrist, elbow, shoulder or knee is not. Drop to an easier version, and see a professional if it persists.

For more, see common calisthenics mistakes.

3 more workouts to try after your first month

Once the basic workouts feel routine, swap one session a week for one of these. Use the version of each exercise you are on: rows or negatives if you cannot do pull-ups yet, pike push-ups or negative dips instead of dips.

Workout 1: Keep it simple

Do as many clean reps as you can of each exercise, stopping one rep before your form breaks, then rest 60 seconds and move on. Your rep count will drop from set to set; that is normal and just shows you are getting tired.

Workout 2: Ladders

In a ladder, you start with a very low number of reps, rest a few seconds, then do a few more. Keep adding reps until you cannot do the next step with good form. Rest, then start again at the bottom.

For example, for push-ups:

• 2 push-ups
• Rest 10-15 seconds
• 4 push-ups
• Rest 10-15 seconds
• 6 push-ups
• Rest 10-15 seconds
• 8 push-ups
• Rest 10-15 seconds
• 10 push-ups (too tired to manage 12)
• Rest 90 seconds, then start over with two reps.

Pull-ups and dips are the hardest, so they go up one rep at a time (1, 2, 3). Lunges and push-ups go up two at a time (2, 4, 6), and squats three at a time (3, 6, 9).

Planks don’t fit this format, so finish with 2 to 4 planks of 30 to 60 seconds.

Workout 3: Timed circuit

Do one set of each exercise in turn, as many good reps as you can in 45 seconds. Rest 15 seconds between exercises and 60 to 90 seconds after the last one. If 45 seconds is too long, work for 30, or do fewer laps.

Where to go next

When the six basics feel solid, you have three directions:

• Keep building strength and muscle with a plan matched to your numbers: build your calisthenics workout plan, or compare the best free calisthenics programs.
• Learn a skill like the muscle-up, handstand, L-sit or front lever. Each skill page has a one-minute check that tells you which step you are on: calisthenics skills and progressions.
• See how you compare: our pull-up standards show how your reps stack up for your age and bodyweight.

More on Calisthenics:

• The 11 Best FREE Calisthenics Programs
• Best Calisthenics Triceps Exercises
• The 12 Best Calisthenics Biceps Exercises and Workout
• Hardcore Calisthenics Arm Workout To Build Muscle Mass and Strength
• Calisthenic Shoulder Exercises and Workout
• The Best Calisthenic Leg Workout
• Calisthenics Workout Plan: Build Your Own for Free
• Weighted Calisthenics Best Exercises and Workouts
• Calisthenics Back Workout for Size and Strength
• Savage Calisthenics Abs Workouts For Beast Gains (All Levels)
• Calisthenics skills and progressions: where to start