How Many Exercises Do You Need In A Bodyweight Workout?

“Hey, Alistair - how many exercises do you need to create a good bodyweight workout?

There simply isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question.

You could do a brutal sprints workout with just the one exercise. You could do an upper body workout with just push ups and pull ups. You could do a much longer circuit with 30 different strength exercises, cardio exercises and stretches providing a blend of different benefits.

So the answer is completely dependent on the context.

The template I use to form most of my workouts starts off with 5 exercises.

One lower body exercise, one pushing exercise, one pulling exercise, one hip exercise and one core exercise.

By choosing a single exercise for each of these 5 categories you can effectively hit every major muscle group across your body giving you a well-balanced workout session.

Then if you have particular body-parts you would like to give some extra attention to you can add some additional exercises targeting these areas. For example some extra leg exercises, shoulder exercises or core exercises.

Alternatively you might want to improve your metabolic conditioning in which case you could add some cardio-focused bodyweight exercises like sprints, burpees or bear crawls.

But it all starts off with a foundation of 5 exercises!