Strength training without Equipment

Is it really possible to engage in strength training without equipment of any sort? In short, yes. You have to be a little bit creative, and there are certain exercises you just aren’t going to be able to do – but it’s more than possible to cover the basics and build a good base of strength simply using your body and the floor you stand on.




Here’s a couple of tips to maximise your training sans weights.


Tip #1: Use the Environment

Strength training without equipment is made much easier when you make good use of whatever is around you.

Raised ledges, door frames and (sturdy!) tree branches will all assist in your training. Can you do incline pushups with your feet on a chair or window-sill? Is that tree branch strong enough to hang from and lift yourself up?

If you answered yes to both, you’re off to a good start. Getting creative with your environment and finding a setup that works will be important if you’re going to give yourself a complete strength workout.


Tip #2: Make easy lifts harder

So say all you have is a room with a floor and four walls (perhaps you’re on holiday …or in jail). Maybe you’ve been training with weights for a while now, and sets of bodyweight pushups or squats just aren’t going to tax your body nearly enough to build strength or even maintain what you already have.

How on earth are you going to get a heavy leg or upper-body pressing workout? I can think of at least two exercise variations, involving only bodyweight, which even many advanced weight lifters will struggle to do for more than 8 reps per set. Got your attention now, huh? Read on to find out more.


Strength training without equipment: The Exercises

The Pistol

The pistol is essentially a squat with one leg. However unlike the easier “1-legged squat”, the pistol requires that you hold your non-working leg out in front of you. This means that you have no excuse not to go all the way down to the bottom of the lift.

Even if you can squat 315 for reps, you’re going to find pistols tricky.

Firstly, they require a high level of core strength and balance. Secondly they allow you to go all the way down without compromising your lower back like you might if it was supporting a heavy barbell.

Most people can’t do one, and other than professional strength athletes, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can do more than 10 on their first attempt.

If somehow you do find pistols easy, or you’ve been training them for a while, you can amp the intensity by turning them into one-legged jump squats. Go all the way down and explode upwards, then land on both feet.

If you’re really daring, you can pistol-jump from one leg to the other for reps. This is insanely good for developing functional, specific strength for sports such as rugby or football.



Pull Ups

Strength training without equipment is massively enhanced if you have access to a sturdy rafter, tree branch or door frame (or even a pullup bar, if you’re willing to pretend it’s not “equipment”). If you can find something suitable, then you simply must be doing pull-ups.

They are the king of exercises for developing raw upper body strength. If it’s not possible to get a full grip (i.e. on the branch or door frame), then it’s an ideal opportunity to develop finger strength in the process.

Finger-tip pull ups are pretty straight forward – you hold as much of the ledge, or branch or whatever it is, with the tips of your fingers, and pull yourself up from there. This particular pull up variation has a lot of sport-specific carryover for climbers.

In fact if you are a climber, or just like the idea of taking your finger strength to new heights, you can do fingertip pull-ups with 3 or fewer fingers. Bear in mind that the index and middle finger are the strongest. I’ve personally seen a climber do pull-ups using only the ring finger of each hand, which was impressive to say the least.



Close grip Incline press-ups

No article on strength training without equipment would be complete without the trusty press-up.

For most people who aren’t completely new to strength training, the standard press-up is going to be simply too easy - it will take far more than 6 reps for you to come anywhere close to failure, and that’s unlikely to occur in a rep-range where strength is built effectively.

By making a couple of variations to the exercise it’s possible to make it hard enough such that completing 6-10 reps gives you a fair strength workout.

Given away by the title, those two variations are:

bringing your hand width in so they are shoulder-width apart, and keeping your elbows close in to your body at all times throughout the movement



Placing your feet on a ledge or raised object 10-20 inches above the floor, and performing the movement with your core and legs tightened so your body is at an incline angle to the ground


This turns the basic press-up into something similar to an incline close grip bench press. If you do this with strict form you’ll find it a lot more taxing on your shoulders and triceps, possibly enough for you to give yourself a decent pressing strength workout.



Muscle-Up Pushups

This variation makes the pushup even more difficult. If you’re not a gymnast, the muscle-up pushup might be the toughest exercise in your strength training without equipment.

The “muscle up” is a movement performed by Olympic gymnasts on the rings, and the muscle-up pushup is an exercise they use to develop the necessary strength. Here’s the technique. (Warning: This exercise may be humbling for anyone who rates themselves as a decent bencher!).

Lie on the ground in the pushup position with hands placed shoulder-width apart. Keep elbows tucked in, touching body. Turn palms 90 degrees outwards so that you are lying with your forearms and the “karate chop” side of your palm in contact with the floor.

To do the muscle-up pushup correctly, you must push yourself up from this position without leaning forward onto the flats of your palms. Your hands must stay in “karate chop” contact with the floor right until the top of the lift.

If you do this right, you’ll find yourself pushing “through your forearms” which remain in contact with the floor for the first half of the lift.

It doesn’t sound like much, but wait till you try it. The angle of the muscle-up pushup makes it so much harder than regular pushups. After 3 sets, you’ll notice that you’ve given your shoulders and triceps a fairly intense workout.


Strength training without equipment - it can be done!

So there you have it – 4 excellent compound exercises to work your shoulders, triceps, back and legs. All you need is your body, and perhaps a door frame for pull ups. Strength training without equipment couldn’t be easier!

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