How Effective Are Bodyweight Workouts for Building Strength?

If you’ve been skipping the weight room and sticking to yoga, Pilates, or home workouts, you might be wondering Do bodyweight workouts really count as strength training?

The answer is a strong yes. According to fitness experts, you don’t need dumbbells, resistance bands, or machines to build strength your own body weight is more than enough.

“In order to get stronger, we simply need to recruit and fatigue our muscle fibers,” says certified exercise physiologist Luke Carlson, CEP. “This can be done using machines, weights, or just your body weight.”

So before you write off bodyweight workouts as “not enough,” here’s everything you need to know about how they work, what makes them effective, and how to level them up when they start to feel too easy.

Yes, bodyweight workouts count as strength training

“Bodyweight workouts absolutely count,” says ACE-certified personal trainer Nicole Thompson, CPT. “Exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and squats use your own body as resistance to challenge your muscles.”

Whether you’re training with equipment or not, muscle growth happens when you push your muscles close to failure aka, the point where you can’t finish another rep with good form.

In fact, a 2023 study in Experimental Physiology found that people who performed bodyweight resistance training for eight weeks experienced similar strength and muscle gains as those using free weights. Another study, published in Scientific Reports, showed comparable results between barbell squats and progressive bodyweight squats in young women.

The bottom line? It’s not about how much weight you lift but how hard you work.

How to make bodyweight workouts more challenging

If you’ve hit a plateau or your workouts are starting to feel too easy, you might need to increase the difficulty to keep building strength. Thompson suggests using the FITT principle:

• Frequency–Increase the number of workout sessions per week.

• Intensity–Make the moves harder (try jump squats or clapping push-ups).

• Time–Add more reps or longer time under tension (like a 60-second plank hold).

• Type–Switch up the exercise (try single-leg or elevated versions).

Additional tips to up the challenge:

• Add isometric holds (like pausing mid-push-up).

• Try unilateral moves (like single-leg squats).

• Reduce your rest time between sets.

• Incorporate explosive plyometrics (like tuck jumps or burpees).

If you’re consistently training and no longer feeling sore or seeing results, these tweaks can help reignite progress without touching a weight.

Other benefits of bodyweight workouts

Beyond strength building, bodyweight training offers a host of other health perks:

• Improved functional fitness: These exercises mimic real-life movements, helping you move better in everyday life.

• Increased core stability: Many bodyweight moves (think planks or mountain climbers) engage the core, which can improve balance and posture.

• Cardiovascular benefits: When performed in circuits or with high intensity, bodyweight exercises can double as cardio.

• Greater body awareness: Moving without external resistance can enhance your mind-body connection, coordination, and control.

• No-equipment convenience: You can do them anywhere, making it easier to stay consistent on the go.

One 2021 study in the International Journal of Exercise Science found that even just 11 minutes of bodyweight training was enough to boost heart health in sedentary adults. Another study in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living showed that four weeks of high-intensity bodyweight training improved cardiorespiratory fitness in young adults.

When to add equipment

While bodyweight workouts are incredibly effective, they do have limitations, especially for more experienced exercisers. If you’re no longer feeling challenged and you’ve already tried to modify your moves it might be time to add resistance bands, weights, or suspension trainers to keep progressing.

“Bodyweight exercises can absolutely stimulate muscle growth,” says Thompson. “But as you get stronger, you’ll need to adjust your workouts to continue making gains.”

The bottom line

You don’t need a fancy gym or heavy weights to build strength. As long as you’re pushing your muscles to fatigue, bodyweight workouts can help you get stronger, fitter, and more resilient.

To build a well-rounded strength routine, include a mix of upper-body, lower-body, and core exercises and aim for at least two to three sessions per week, with rest days in between.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking for a low-equipment way to stay in shape, bodyweight training is a smart, scalable, and science-backed way to improve your fitness. As Carlson says, “It’s not about how much weight you use. It’s about how much effort you bring.”

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