As a certified personal trainer, I regularly go to CrossFit classes to get a good workout with little or no equipment. Some of my favorite days are bodyweight WODs because you can simply focus on your body.
And because these are ideal exercises to do at home, I got together with a CrossFit coach to help me create a list of tried and tested bodyweight CrossFit workouts.
This took a couple of weeks to put together as I went through each of these routines to see how tough they would be.
Quick Summary
- Bodyweight CrossFit workouts introduce multiple different movements for the lower and upper body, like air squats, push-ups, pull-ups, and box jumps.
- More advanced WODs will introduce handstand push-ups and high rep ranges like 100 sit-ups.
- Some of our routines are based on rounds for time or completing as many rounds as possible before you collapse.
10 Different Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
Here are ten different bodyweight workouts that you can do on different CrossFit exercise days at home or at the gym.
Double-Unders For Time
You want to be doing these rounds for time, so get your stopwatch ready on your smartwatch.
You’ll need a good-quality weighted jump rope and enough space to not start bumping into stuff.
It’s a simple setup and involves just two things:
- 500 double-unders
- 10 air squats at the end of each round
Each round should take about 6 minutes, but see how your personal best develops. You can also add to the air squat reps if you need more punishment.
Mary WOD
For this workout, you want to do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.
There are some advanced movements here, and you’ll need a pull-up bar:
- 5 handstand push-ups
- 10 air-squats
- 15 pull-ups
Maximize your range of motion for pull-ups and push-ups to get maximum strength results [1].
Bedroom WOD
This is a workout that you can do pretty much anywhere, even in a hotel room while you’re traveling.
It’s just three exercises, and try to complete 20 rounds for time:
- 10 push-ups
- 10 sit-ups
- 10 air-squats
You can take short breaks for the 10 push-ups, but your first goal should be completing each set without disruptions.
Angie WOD
The goal here is to complete 100 reps of each exercise for time.
You can split them up into sets of 5, 10, 20, or more:
- 100 pull-ups
- 100 sit-ups
- 100 air-squats
It’s usually the max pull-ups that dictate the reps.
Annie WOD
You count the reps backward across five rounds for time.
The reps should be 50-40-30-20-10, and it’s just two exercises:
- Double-unders
- Sit-ups
You will feel these hurt by the end, but that’s the goal.
Hero WOD
We’re going for three rounds as fast as possible with 21-15-9 reps in the hero WOD.
And there are four tough workouts involved:
- Handstand push-ups
- Pull-ups
- Air-squats
- Ring dips
If your max push-ups are below 21, then take a short break, but don’t reduce the reps in the first round.
Blastoff Burpees
The concept here is simple, and it’s all about completing 10 rounds as fast as possible.
And your reps are going to count down 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1:
- Burpees
- Sit-ups
Aim to have as little rest as you can handle without fainting.
Cindy WOD
Here’s another workout that you do for 20 minutes and complete as many rounds as you can:
- 10 push-ups
- 15 air-squats
- 5 pull-ups
Pay close attention to the form in your push-ups and get the full range of motion.
20-Minute Burnout
Set a repeating one-minute timer, and every time it beeps, switch to the next exercise.
Plan this carefully, as you’re doing as many reps as possible for 20 minutes:
- Minute 1: Pull-ups
- Minute 2: Sit-ups
- Minute 3: Lunges
- Minute 4: Push-ups
Don’t go full speed from round one; that’s a mistake you’ll only make once.
Cardio WOD
Your aim is to do eight rounds of this workout in as little time as possible:
- 400-meter run
- 60-second rest
You can extend the 400-meter run as you get fitter, and make sure that you’re walking or slowly jogging for the rest time.
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Timing and Integration With Your Workout Plan
Bodyweight CrossFit workouts are a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and you need to carefully plan how you integrate these into your weekly routine [2].
What I mean is that you don’t want to pick the toughest programs from the list above and do them every day.
“HIIT may provide the same health benefits as regular exercise in less time by helping increase calorie burn and reduce body fat, heart rate, and blood pressure.”
- Danielle Hildreth, RN, CPT
Instead, plan to separate the really tough ones with maximum push-ups and muscle-ups with lower intensity or rest days in between.
For example, you could do the Mary, Hero, and Angie WOD on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
And then, on Tuesday, do the cardio WOD, and on Thursday, do the double-under and air-squat combination.
FAQs
What Are the Four Components of CrossFit?
Endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility are the four main components of CrossFit, and bodyweight exercises can help achieve all four of them. However, you need to carefully plan the movements you combine and the intensity you choose for different days.
What Are the Bodyweight Exercises for CrossFit?
Bodyweight exercises for CrossFit include push-ups, muscle-ups, air-quat movements, and sit-ups, among many others. The great thing is that you can go through many weeks of training without requiring much equipment.
Transform Your CrossFit Workout at Home
Whether you’re doing the hero WOD in rounds for time or you’re aiming for maximum reps and sets, using your own body weight is one of the easiest ways to make a difference.
And when you’re doing extreme numbers of push-ups, muscle-ups, and air-squat movements, you need to make sure that your body has all the nutrients it needs to recover:
We have tested dozens of protein shakes to find the best-quality ones, and our testing has narrowed them down to a pretty short list for you to choose from.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6977096/
- https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/high-intensity-interval-training
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