Calisthenics exercises the ideal training for at-home workouts. And since so many people have transitioned to work at home after COVID-19, it’s no better time to build strength, lose fat and improve your health with calisthenics exercises.
If you are looking for the perfect workout on your lunch break or before you pop open your laptop for the day, I encourage you to try this Full Body Burpee Annihilator using calisthenics exercises. It will take you about 20-30 minutes.
Plus! I’ve included beginner to advanced modifications for each exercise so if you are just starting out on your calisthenics journey, I’ve got you covered and will show you perfect form you so can get a great workout without risking injury.
Of course, if you are already an advanced street workout master and have been doing calisthenic exercises for years… I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve that will have your heart racing.
Why Are Calisthenics Exercises So Effective?
One word. Scale. You can literally scale them down to any fitness level. Or scale them up to build tremendous strength in your entire body.
Not only that, calisthenics exercises help keep you safe. When you lift weights, there is a risk of placing too much weight on a bar or grabbing an insanely heavy dumbbell and dropping it on your face. I never heard of someone dropping themself on their face! haha.
Of course, any exercise can be dangerous if you don’t do it properly. But after 10 years of teaching calisthenics exercises, you don’t have to worry.
The Full Body Burpee Annihilator Calisthenics Workout Brief
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Muscle Worked: whole body
Equipment Needed: pull-up bar
Fitness Level: Beginner to Advanced
Workout Plan PDF: Included as a download below
Benefits: Build muscle, lose fat, improve mobility
Also, at the end of the post, you’ll even have the option to download a calisthenics training sheet so you can follow along to these bodyweight exercises for free.
This is just one step we are taking in our quest to create the most helpful and most popular bodyweight exercise site in the world.
I look forward to continuing to serve you and help you achieve your calisthenics goals!
The Full Body Burpee Annihilator Workout Using Calisthenics Exercises
Below, you will find a challenging full-body workout using only calisthenics exercises.
Instructions:
Do each exercise for 1 minute then immediately move to the next exercise. Once you finish 1 round, rest for 30 seconds. Do 5 total rounds for maximum strength and conditioning development.
Exercises Instructions:
Barbwire Push UpsThe starting position will be with your hands shoulder-width apart. Your feet will be 2 times as wide as your shoulder width. Press your butt up into the air. You’ll look like you are doing a downward dog exercise with wide legs. Now pretend you are in front of barbwire and you have to arch under it without scraping up your back. Once your lower back is under the “barbwire”, slowly press your hands into the ground to push your body back under the barbwire to starting position.
Beginner Modification: Don’t go all the way under the “barbwire”. Just go a few inches down, then press back up. Remember the key to bodyweight exercises is to scale to your fitness level. Allow your body to build strength and your calisthenics training level will slowly improve.
Advanced Modification: Try performing this exercise with one arm behind your back. Crazy challenging and will really engage your upper body. Your pecs and shoulders of the arm that’s on the ground will hate you. Another option to make this exercise more challenging is to lift one leg off the ground. This will force your core muscles to engage even more.
The is one of the classic bodyweight exercises that engages almost every muscle in your body. Start from a standing position. Drop down to the ground and place your hand’s shoulder-width apart. Hop your feet out behind you until you are in a high plank position while keeping one leg up in the air. This leg will not touch the ground throughout the exercise.
Now lower your body down until your stomach touches the ground. Press back up and hop to the starting position and do a little hop at the end. Again, remember that you’ll be keeping your left leg off the ground the whole time.
Advanced Modification: Instead of doing a “little” hop at the end, do a plyometric hop and jump as high as you can in the air. You can do a tuck with your right leg if you want. This will burn out your leg real quick. Additionally, on the downward portion, you can spread your hands out wide into a “wide pushup” variation (make sure to still keep your left leg in the air). The wide push up will engage your pec minor muscle group.
Beginner Modification: Instead of single-leg burpees, keep both legs on the ground. Don’t do the hop at the end and don’t do the push up at the bottom. Just bring your body to the plank position and then rise back up.
This exercise is primarily an upper body exercise. I’ve included it in the routine because most of the other exercises are “push” exercises. This body weight exercise is a “pull” exercise. A couple key points when doing your pull ups. Go slowly. Don’t kip or use momentum. Focus on lifting from your back muscles. Bodyweight exercises are most effective when you focus on the right muscle groups. And for this exercise, you want to focus on your back to lift you up, not your arms because your arms will fatigue faster than your back. By engaging your back or lats, you’ll be able to get more work done. Palms facing forward is a pull-up. Palms facing behind you is a chin-up.
Beginner Modification: A lot of beginners think they can’t do some calisthenics workouts because they don’t have upper body strength. But remember, there are always modifications. The pull up is a classic example. Here’s the beginner modification. Bring a chair over to your pull up bar. Stand up on the chair so that most of your body weight is in the chair. Place some weight on the bar but only enough that you can lift. Slowly transfer more weight to the bar as your back and arms get stronger. An additional tip is to place the chair further away from the bar so your legs get progressively straighter. This will force your arms to take more of your weight but still allow you to have some weight in the chair. For a complete pull-up progression guide, click here.
Advanced Modification: Place a dumbbell between your legs/ankles. This will add quite a bit of difficulty in your back and arms. A weight vest achieves the same goal. Here are 27 different pull-up variations that you can add to this calisthenics workout to make this exercise more challenging. You’ll never look at the pull-up bar the same way!
Follow the same guidelines as the Single Leg Burpee Right.
This is still my favorite bodyweight leg exercise. But there are few really important points. Start off with your feet shoulder-width apart. When you lower your body down, make sure your knees are driving outward. You don’t want your knees collapsing inward or your risk of injury. Same thing when you drive upward. Keep your knees outward. Lower your body to a full 90 degrees or as far as you can. Keep your back straight and eyes looking forward. If you look downward, you may have the tendency to lean forward which puts your low back at risk of injury.
Beginner Modifications: Lower to about 45 degrees with your knees. No need to go any further. Additionally, you can hold an isometric squat at the 45-degree point. An isometric is where you engage the muscles but don’t actually move.
Advanced Modifications: At the top portion of your bodyweight squat, you can add a jump into the air. This engages your fast-twitch muscle fibers and is a cardio burner. You can also add a knee tuck at the top of the jump for an added challenge.
Place your hands on the ground shoulder-width apart. You’ll be in a traditional “high plank” position. Bring one knee to your chest. Do this quickly, then bring it back to the starting position while simultaneously bringing your other knee forward. Repeat. Make sure to keep your back straight and press your shoulder blades outward into a hollow body position. This will protect your shoulders and low back.
Beginner Modifications: Move slowly. Just bring one leg forward at a time.
Advanced Modifications: Instead of bringing your knees to your chest, you can cross them over to the opposite shoulder. This will engage your transverse abdominis muscles and obliques.
Additional Advanced Modifications To This Workout Routine:
If you find this workout too easy, increase the number of rounds or strive to do the exercises using the AMRAP technique. After each 1 minute set, quickly write down your reps. Then the next round try to break the record.
Additional Beginner Modifications To This Workout Routine:
You can make this routine easier by setting the clock to 30 seconds instead of 1 minute. For the pull-ups, you can use a chair or rest frequently during the 1-minute sets.
Download the calisthenics exercises workout plan pdf for FREE – Click Here
Why Is Calisthenics Training So Powerful?
The street workout movement continues to grow. There are groups starting around the world that bring the community aspect to a normally at-home workout training style. This helps bring greater camaraderie and accountability.
Of course, social distancing is still important but when we get through this wild time, I encourage you to find others to train with. Calisthenics training is every bit as effective as traditional weight-based training. As long as you know HOW to make exercises more challenging, you’ll never hit a plateau and continue to improve your strength and health.
After you’ve tried the above workout, feel free to challenge yourself with these core workouts using only bodyweight exercises.
Bodyweight Todd
LOVE IT. TY
Great! Thanks for the feedback!