Programme guide
Bodyweight Basics: how the block runs
Bodyweight Basics is a 3-day-per-week beginner programme built for muscle growth. Zero-equipment full body foundation. Across the week it covers 10 exercises and roughly 33 working sets, loading chest, quads, back, core and glutes, with rest periods between 45 and 60 seconds depending on how heavy the movement is.
Who this programme suits
It is written for beginner trainees who can commit to 3 sessions a week in a home setting with little or no equipment. Age bands teens, 20s-30s, 40s-50s and 60plus are supported, and the app scales volume and tempo to the band you selected during calibration rather than handing everyone the same numbers.
If you miss a session, run it on the next available day rather than doubling up. Missing one session in a week costs almost nothing; two heavy sessions back to back costs recovery you will pay for later in the block.
Day 1 — Upper Push
Push Up: 4 × 10-15, 60s rest. Pike Push Up: 3 × 8-12, 60s rest. Diamond Push Up: 3 × 8, 60s rest.
Push Up — Body one line, elbows 45°. Pike Push Up — Hips high, crown toward floor. Diamond Push Up — Hands under sternum, elbows tucked.
Day 2 — Lower & Core
Bodyweight Squat: 4 × 20, 45s rest. Reverse Lunge: 3 × 12/side, 45s rest. Glute Bridge: 3 × 15, 45s rest. Hollow Hold: 3 × 30s, 45s rest.
Bodyweight Squat — Sit between hips, chest tall. Reverse Lunge — Step long, drop back knee. Glute Bridge — Squeeze glutes at top, ribs down.
Day 3 — Pull & Posterior
Doorway Row: 4 × 10, 60s rest. Superman: 3 × 12, 45s rest. Single-Leg RDL: 3 × 10/side, 60s rest.
Doorway Row — Lean back, pull chest to hands. Superman — Lift long, don't crank neck. Single-Leg RDL — Hinge from hip, spine long.
Progressing the block
Keep the prescribed sets and reps for the first two weeks and treat that as your baseline. From week three, add load when you finish every set of an exercise at the top of its rep range with clean technique — roughly 2.5kg on upper-body lifts and 5kg on lower-body lifts, or one extra rep per set on bodyweight movements.
Rest matters as much as load. The 60-second rests on the heaviest movements exist so the following set is not compromised; cutting them short turns a muscle growth session into a conditioning session. The in-app countdown handles this automatically and rolls straight into the next block.
Recovery and fuel around the session
Drink through the session — the runner prompts you between exercises — and eat a protein-led meal within a couple of hours of finishing. The Fuel section carries matching meal blocks, macro targets and a one-tap grocery list, and the Recovery dashboard tracks sleep alongside your completion meter.
Frequently asked
- How long does one Bodyweight Basics session take?
- Most sessions run 35 to 55 minutes including warm-up and prescribed rests, depending on how quickly you set up between exercises.
- Do I need to sign in to run it?
- The programme is free, but an account is required so your sets, completion percentage and resume point sync across devices.
- What if an exercise is not available to me?
- Open the exercise card and use the substitute suggested for the same movement pattern, or generate a replacement session in Session Forge with the equipment you actually have.
- How long should I run this block before changing?
- Run it for four to eight weeks. Change programme when progress stalls for three consecutive sessions, not because the sessions started to feel familiar.