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Bodyweight Strength

Push-ups, rows, squats, and hinges with nothing but the floor and something to hang from - progressions that keep getting harder without adding a single plate.

Maya LindqvistStrength instructorIntermediate4.8(4 reviews)

A man holding the top position of a push-up on a gym floor
Photo: Gordon Cowie

Bodyweight training has an image problem. It gets sold either as a beginner substitute for a gym or as a route to gymnastic tricks, and neither framing is much use to someone who just wants to get stronger in a spare room.

This course treats the floor as a piece of equipment with an adjustable load. You change the difficulty by changing leverage, tempo, and range - and once you understand those three dials, you have a training plan that travels, costs nothing, and keeps working for years.

What you'll learn

  • Progress a push-up eight ways without ever needing a bench
  • Build a real pulling pattern before you can do a single pull-up
  • Load a squat and a hinge with tempo and leverage instead of weight
  • Write a three-day week that fits inside a hotel room
  • Recognise when bodyweight training stops being enough, and what to do then

The curriculum

6 lessons · 49 min · 1 quiz

  1. What bodyweight training actually trainsThe honest scope of what the floor can and cannot give you.Preview8 min
  2. The push-up ladderEight rungs from hands-elevated to one-arm work, and how to know when to move up.Locked lesson10 min
  3. Pulling without a pull-upHow to build the pattern from zero, using a table, a towel, and patience.Locked lesson9 min
  4. Legs, tempo, and leverageMaking a bodyweight squat and hinge genuinely hard, without a barbell.Locked lesson9 min
  5. The hotel room weekA three-day template that needs a floor, a door, and about thirty minutes.Locked lesson8 min
  6. Bodyweight checkQuizFive questions on the three dials, the progression rule, and press-to-pull balance.Locked lesson5 min

1 lesson is free to preview - no account needed.

Portrait of Maya Lindqvist

Maya Lindqvist

Strength instructor

Maya teaches strength, conditioning, and the programming choices that hold up under real schedules. She spent six years coaching before teaching full-time, and still tests most of what she assigns herself.

Student reviews

What students say

4.8

4 reviews

  • Elliot F.

    The three dials framing is worth the whole course. I have not touched a barbell in four months and my pressing has genuinely improved.

  • Anja L.

    The push-up ladder gave me somewhere to go after ordinary push-ups got easy. The progression rule stopped me jumping ahead as usual.

  • Hugo S.

    Honest about the leg limitation, which I appreciated. Single-leg work plus slow tempo is harder than I expected.

  • Bea N.

    Got my first pull-up in nine weeks following the rows-hangs-negatives sequence. I had been randomly attempting them for a year before this.

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