Home Gym Workouts: Hybrid Bodyweight/Barbell Training

In my recent post dealing with building a home gym (and designing home gym workouts), I ended with a discussion of effective workouts using nothing other than a barbell.  And then I gave some brief tips for "getting creative" with your workouts.  One of the things I mentioned was combining your barbell exercises with bodyweight movements, but I didn't go into any detail.  In my next post on building a home gym, and the training that goes along with it, I will discuss workouts incorporating a bench and some dumbbells.  But the more I thought about it, the more I decided I needed to write a post - and, in fact, the subject is worthy of multiple posts - dealing exclusively with bodyweight movements combined with basic barbell (and dumbbell) exercises.

George Hackenschmidt was a turn-of-the-century (19th to 20th) strongman who built almost all of his strength with nothing other than a barbell and bodyweight movements.

These workout ideas are effective for both home gym training and training at a commercial gym.

When I started training (with weights) in the mid to late '80s, you never saw articles extolling the benefits of bodyweight training combined with weights in the major magazines (and there wasn't an internet - well, there probably was, but no one knew about it yet, and, honestly, very few people even had a computer back then).  I was doing a lot of bodyweight training in my karate classes, but I actually thought that was a bad thing!  I had trained myself, through listening to people at the gym and through reading magazines, that the bodyweight training could possibly stifle my progress.  At the very least, I believed, it was holding me back some from achieving my goals in size and strength.  Too bad I can't go back in time and tell my younger self to not listen to these voices of dissent - not only is bodyweight training not detrimental to progress with barbell lifting, but the two forms of training seem to work synergistically together, making 1 + 1 somehow = 3!  And this post is exactly the sort of article I wish my 16 year-old-self had read.  (I believe this is why you often hear quotes such as "youth is wasted on the young," or, "I wish I would have known then what I know now."  So if you're young, or fairly new to training, pay attention!  Some of us who have trained for 30+ years might actually know what we're talking about.)

Full-Body Program 

The first example program here is a full-body routine that has you training 3-days-per-week, on alternate training days.  The most popular, for example, are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with the weekends off, although some lifters - such as myself - prefer to begin the first day of the training week on Sunday, and then train again on Tuesday and Thursday.

Day One

Power Cleans: 5 to 8 sets of 5 reps.  Work up over 5 to 8 progressively heavier sets until you reach your "max" set of 5 reps.  The amount of sets you do will depend on how advanced you are.  If you're not as strong on these, you'll hit your 5-rep max sooner.

Uphill Walking Lunges: 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 24 reps (6 to 12 reps each leg).  Find a steep hill in your neighborhood - or, if you're like me, the steep driveway you already live on! - and perform walking lunges going uphill.  This is a GREAT way to add resistance without having to actually use weights.

One-Arm Dumbbell Overhead Presses: 4 to 5 sets of 6 to 8 reps (each arm).  For these, perform two or three "warm-up" sets, followed by the sets listed above.  Take each set a couple reps shy of failure.  So these should be "hard" but not "all-out".

Chins: 4 to 5 sets of near max-reps.  For this final exercise of the first day, perform chins to "close to failure".  If your max set of chins is 6 reps, for instance, then stop once you have done 4 or 5 reps.  If your max set is 12, then stop at 10 - you get the picture.  If you don't have a chin bar or a rack to perform these on, you can always go outside and do these on a tree limb.  I actually enjoy doing them this way, as you can challenge yourself by utilizing a different size limb, or sometimes two limbs next to each other, one for each arm.  This offers almost constant variation in how you have to do them.

Day Two

Power Snatches: 5 to 7 sets of 3 reps.  Work up over 5 to 7 progressively heavier sets until you reach your max set of 3 reps.

Bulgarian Split Squats: 4 to 5 sets of 12 to 16 reps (each leg).  Perform these on either a bench or a chair.

Push-ups: 5 to 7 sets of 10 to 30 reps.  Here, the amount of repetitions will simply depend on your strength levels.  Stop your set once you still have two or three reps left "in the tank."  This will allow you to be stronger throughout all of your sets.

Barbell Curls: 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 16 reps.  Perform one or two warm-up sets.  For your 3 to 4 "work sets", stop each set a few repetitions shy of failure.

Sit-ups: 5 to 7 sets of 10 to 30 reps.  The same principle applies here that applied with the push-ups above.

Day Three

Sumo Deadlifts: 5 to 7 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  Work up over 5 to 7 progressively heavier sets of 3 to 5 reps until you hit a "max" for those reps.

Side Lunge Squat: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 20 reps (each leg).  I first encountered this exercise in a Karate class, and although I didn't know the value of it back then, I love it now for building strength and muscle AND increasing flexibility.

Dips: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 20 reps (depending on your strength level).

Hanging Leg Raises: 3 to 5 sets of 10 to 30 reps.  I love these not just for building abdominal strength, but for getting a good stretch, decreasing pain in your shoulders, improving shoulder mobility, and spinal decompression.

Upper/Lower Split Program

You could honestly do the above workout, or something very similar, changing exercises when you need to, for the rest of your workout life, and you wouldn't need anything else.  But most of us are creatures of variety.  With that in mind, here is a workout plan/idea for those of you advanced enough that you can get away with more "in-the-gym" training - and more frequent training overall - than what the above plan allows.

For this workout plan, you will have an "upper body day" and a "lower body day".  What I personally love about this program - and ones similar that I have used in the past - is the flexibility that it allows.  If you want, you can just train every day for as long as you like, alternating back and forth between the two programs, and only take a day off when you finally feel as if you need to.  Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you can take a day off after each session if you're the kind of lifter that thrives on more infrequent training.  I used to enjoy training three days straight, take a day or two off, train another three days straight, and then take off another day or two, sometimes three if I felt as if I really needed it.  Sometimes it's good to "overtrain," and then back off to allow your body to grow.  With that out of the way, here's what the workout looks like:

Day One - Upper Body

Decline Push-ups (feet elevated): 4 to 6 sets of approximately 20 reps each.  Elevate your feet on either a chair or a bench, and keep your knees slightly bent.  This will work your upper chest.

Wide-Grip Chins: 3 to 5 sets of max reps (or close).

Barbell Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  Perform 5 progressively heavier sets until you hit your max on either 3 or 5 reps.  Some people will want to include this exercise at the beginning of the workout, but I prefer it here, once I'm well-warmed-up from the previous two movements.

Shrugs: 3 to 5 sets of 6 to 10 reps.  For these, perform a couple of warm-ups, and then 3 to 5 "work" sets of 6 to 10 reps.  You can use either barbells or dumbbells.  In fact, it's best if you alternate between the two forms of shrugging on a regular basis.

Flat-Footed Hang Cleans: 3 to 4 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  For these, unlike regular power cleans, or regular hang cleans, you will keep your heels on the ground, and not "power" the weight up.  This forces more upper body and back muscles to help out, and it makes for a more difficult movement, but also one that is less explosive, and therefore incorporates muscles in a different way than more traditional cleans.

Hanging Leg Raises: 3 to 4 set of 10 to 30 reps.

Barbell Curls: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps.  Perform a couple of warm-up sets, followed by 3 to 4 "work" sets of your chosen rep range.

Diamond Push-ups: 3 to 4 sets of max reps.  This is your last exercise for the day, so make sure you get a good "pump" on these to finish your upper body day.

Day Two - Lower Body

Bodyweight Squats: 2 to 3 sets of 40 to 50 reps.  This is an excellent way to start your lower body day by getting a great warm-up by doing a few high-rep sets.  If you don't think you can do the rest of this workout after doing these sets, then you are NOT ready for this level of training.

Walking Lunges: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 reps (each leg).

Sumo Deadlifts: 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets until you reach your max for either 3 or 5 reps.

Dumbbell Squats: 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps.  You can do this with the dumbbells hanging at your sides, or, as I prefer, you can hold them on your shoulders.

Stiff-leg Dumbbell Deadlifts: 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps.  Take a warm-up set or two, if you need them, and then work the 2 to 3 "work" sets hard.

Jumping "Frog" Squats: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 20 reps.  I prefer to do these up a steep hill or driveway.  Squat down just like you were going to do a typical bodyweight squat, then jump up and forward on each rep.

Conclusion

For these workouts, feel free to add or subtract, or replace, exercises after a few weeks of doing them.  You may find, for instance, that jumping hurts your knees, so you need to replace the frog squats with a non-jumping movement.  Just make sure you always replace an exercise with an equally hard movement.

For my next installment on building a home gym, I will discuss the kind of equipment you need, then some example workouts using the addition of a bench and a few other pieces of equipment that you may want to add at that point of your home-gym creation.

Until then, keep up the hard training, and don't - for one second! - believe that you can't build a great physique with nothing but your body and a barbell.