A 15 Minute Bodyweight Workout For Beginners

If you are looking to tone up your muscles and boost your fitness levels, but don’t necessarily want to join a gym or buy your own exercise equipment, there are lots of really effective bodyweight workouts that you can do anywhere and at any time without any equipment.

One really good workout that I have recently discovered on YouTube only includes four exercises, but is really effective because it works your whole body to some degree. You should find that in addition to strengthening your core, it is also beneficial for your arms, legs, chest and shoulders.

Plus it will also help improve your overall fitness level to prepare you for more vigorous exercises and workouts that you might want to try in the future, and will also help you to burn fat if that is also one of your main objectives.

This workout is 15 minutes long and is demonstrated in the video below:

As I say there are four different exercises altogether – air squat holds, alternating knee planks, push ups and half supermen – and you are supposed to do 3 reps of each exercise for the first cycle and then add 1 rep to each exercise with every cycle, finishing with a final cycle of 10 reps for each exercise.

Air Squat Holds

The first exercise is one of the simplest ones to do because you are just doing bodyweight squats without any dumbbells or barbells, and holding the pose for a second or two at the bottom. So as long as you practice good form, ie keep your back straight, avoid going down too low and avoid pushing your knees in front of your toes, you should be able to bang these out without any problems.

Alternating Knee Planks

This exercise is a lot more difficult to perform, but because you are not doing that many reps each cycle, it shouldn’t be too challenging. Once you have the technique right of keeping your hips low and squeezing your abs, you should be able to do 3, 4 and 5 reps at the very least.

Push Ups

Even people who have previously had no interest in health and fitness whatsoever know how to do a push up. However not everyone knows how to do this exercise correctly. So as pointed out in the video, you need to make sure that you place your hands shoulder width apart and keep your elbows tucked in, and I would also add that you should try to keep your body straight as well.

Half Supermen

The final exercise involves getting down on your hands and knees and basically raising your left arm as you extend your right leg, and vice versa with your right arm and left leg. This is harder than it looks, but it will work a number of different muscle groups.

Closing Comments

If you can complete the whole routine, progressing from 3 reps all the way up to 10 reps and completing 8 cycles, it should take you around 15 minutes.

However this workout is designed for beginners, so it is unlikely that you will be able to complete the full workout straight away. Subsequently you should aim to do as many cycles as you can to start off with, and you should find that it gets a lot easier over time as your body starts to become fitter and stronger.