Beginner Home Workout Plan (No Equipment)
Balanced full-body sessions three times a week using nothing but bodyweight. Low impact, simple progressions, and no equipment to buy.
Routines
Day 1 — Foundations & Core
Full-body basics with gentle balance and core focus.
Day 2 — Posterior Chain & Pull
Glutes/hamstrings, gentle pulling, and core holds.
Day 3 — Total Body & Stability
Simple full-body work with balance and core.
About this plan
A first plan for someone who has not trained before, built entirely from bodyweight and household objects. Three sessions a week, low impact throughout, and nothing in it assumes you can already do a push-up.
Day one lays the foundations: sit squats, knee push-ups, bird dogs, dead bugs, calf raises, single-leg foot touches, oblique crunches and a bent-leg side plank. Day two covers the back of the body and the pull that most home plans skip — single-leg hip extensions, a towel row, diamond knee push-ups, a hollow hold, wall squats, reverse push-ups, stair calf raises and rear lunges. Day three brings it together with squats, wide-hand push-ups, hip abduction, another towel row, leg raises, plank arm lifts, side kicks and standing calf work.
The towel row deserves attention. Loop a towel around a door handle, lean back, and pull — it is the closest thing to a rowing machine that costs nothing, and it is the only real pull in the plan. Skipping it leaves the upper back untrained.
Knee push-ups and the sit squat are starting points. The knee push-up graduates to a full push-up once you can complete every set with your hips in line; the sit squat becomes a free squat once standing up no longer needs the chair. Both usually take a few weeks, not a few days.
Do not chase soreness. Being sore after the first week is normal and tells you very little; being sore after every session for a month means the jumps are too big. Progress by adding one rep per set per week, and hold a weight for another week whenever form starts slipping in the last two reps.
Leave a day between sessions — Monday, Wednesday, Friday is the usual answer. Two sessions done every week for three months will take you further than four sessions done for two weeks and then dropped, which is the outcome this plan is shaped to avoid.
Train this plan in the app
LoadMuscle carries all 3 routines with a demo for every exercise, and logs your sets as you go, so next session you can see what to beat. Free on iPhone and Android.
Want something built around your own schedule and equipment instead? Try the free workout planner.
