If you are trying to build muscle, this bodyweight workout for teens can help you burn some body fat, build some muscle, and improve your overall health. Building muscle as a teen can be hard due to lack of gym equipment, no way to get a consistent ride to the gym, or you may not have enough money for a gym membership.
Fortunately, there are exercises you can do at home to build lean muscle and burn some body fat without any weights.
If you can get your hands on some dumbbells, the added resistance can improve your gains.
Protip: Grab some plastic grocery bags or fill your backpack full of bottled waters for weight. A 16.9 ounce bottle of water is around 1 pound. A couple of cases and some creativity and you have yourself a decent cheap home gym.
Full Body Bodyweight Workout for Teens
The CDC recommends children aged 6 to 17 years to perform 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity each day. Along with your 60 minutes each day, the CDC recommends 3 days of activities that build muscle, and 3 days of activities that strengthen bones.
In short, you should get 60 minutes of running, jumping, playing, jogging, shooting hoops, playing a sport, or otherwise sweaty activities every day and three days a week of climbing, doing pushups, bodyweight exercises, and other strength-focused activities.
This bodyweight workout is designed to be used daily — alternate between Workout A and Workout B. Take a day off if you need to or if you plan on getting some other form of exercise in.
Consistency is key, so find a schedule that you can hold yourself to.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Push Ups | 4 | 20 |
| Bodyweight Squats | 4 | 20 |
| Pushup Position Planks | 3 | As Long As Possible |
| Sit Ups | 4 | 20 |
| Mountain Climbers | 4 | 20 |
| Jumping Jacks | 3 | 30 |
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Burpees | 2 | 10 |
| Dips | 4 | 20 |
| Elevated Pike Pushups | 3 | 20 |
| Side Planks | 3 | As Long As Possible |
| Russian Twists | 4 | 20 |
| Pull Ups | 3 | As Many As Possible |
Workout Tips
If you’re willing to use objects as dumbbells, you can substitute the elevated pike pushups for traditional exercises like front and side lateral raises.
Exercises Using Objects as Dumbbells
- Overhead press
- Arnold Press
- Skull Crushers
- One Arm Tricep Extensions
- Curls
- Hammer Curls
- One Arm Bent Over Rows
- Shrugs
- Goblet Squats
Pull Ups – This is a great exercise to build a solid back and nice biceps. Save up some money and get yourself a decent pull up bar. You’ll be able to train in a doorway and remove the pull up bar without any damage to the door frame.
Nutrition
It can be hard to control everything that you eat. You don’t always have the choice of eating home cooked meals full of fresh vegetables and lean protein.
Do your best to eat all of the vegetables, fruit, and whole foods you can. Instead of eating a drumstick ice cream cone, grab a couple of apples and a salad. You’ll feel fuller longer and replenish vital nutrients your body needs.
Weigh yourself around the same time on the same day each week and log your food.
You’ll be able to control your bodyweight, build muscle, and get healthier. After a few weeks, you’ll know exactly how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight. If you need to lose weight, eat 300 fewer calories per day. If you want to build muscle, eat 300 extra calories per day.
Be consistent, push yourself, and strive to do better every workout.
Nice workout. Would this be good for a 14 year old? Should I expect good gains?
Cameron,
Yes. I think this workout would be great for a 14 year old. Body weight exercises at a young age helps with building muscle, strength, and improves balance and performance.
Stick with it and eat as healthy as you can and I think you’ll like what you see after about 8 weeks of training. Get creative and add weight once the workout becomes too easy or really push the intensity by shortening the rest periods.
Good luck, let me know how things go.
Cutty
Thanks a lot! I’ve been looking for a good workout like this! I’m starting today! And as a side note, I found a good muscle diet for 14 year olds on a website that looks something like this: (below). It just goes on top of normal meals and adds extra meals, and it also works well for school. Do you think it would be suitable for this workout?
Meal 1:
Egg Whites x4
Apple x1
(Workout)
Meal 2:
Tuna x1 can
Almonds x1 serving
Meal 3:
Chicken Breast x170 grams (6oz)
Salad x2 cups
Meal 4:
Tuna x1 can
Almonds x1 serving
Peanuts x1 serving
Cameron,
Sounds good. I would watch weight and see, you may need a little more food but overall that’s a well rounded diet. Making sure it works well with parents and in school is important. Don’t worry if you have to eat some “dirty” items, you are growing and being active will burn it off.
Let me know how things go!
Cutty
Thanks a lot! I’ll guess we’ll see in two months! I’ll let you know how everything goes. On top of this, could I fit in extra exercises, mainly aimed at the arms or chest, or would it be unhealthy?
Getting a set of dumbbells wouldn’t hurt. There are a few different sets I like. The cheapest start will be going to like Dicks Sporting Goods and buying the old school twist on bar ends like this.
Ok thanks! I’ll see you in two months. Thanks for the advice!
So 8 weeks of doing this would give me good results? Should I do it in the morning or evening (limited time due to school), and what should I eat before/after the workout and throughout the day. Also how long would this take altogether? And also, for wall sits, it says 48. Does this mean 48 seconds? Sorry for so many questions. Thanks
8 weeks of solid consistent work should give you some good results. I would recommend working out whenever you feel you have the time to… the time of day doesn’t necessarily matter, it’s more of a preference.
Keep eating like you do now, clean up your diet where you can and start taking your lunch if you can – you’ll have more control over what you’re eating and will help you see better results. I fixed wall sits, I meant to have 4 sets of as long as possible.
Keep the questions coming,
Cutty
Thanks a lot for the answers!
I did the Chest and Triceps section but it killed me. Should I reduce the sets or just have a longer rest before moving on?
Try longer resting periods first. If you still are unable to finish without feeling obliterated, do half the sets and work your way up from there. Body weight workouts are hard so if you have to cut back half of the sets and build up you will see some great results. Keep up the work.
Cutty
I weigh 127 pounds. Apparently for 14 year olds, you are only supposed to have 40-60 pounds of protein a day, but I thought you should have one gram of protein for each pound of body weight? Also, how much protein should I be having before and after the workout? Thanks Cutty
John,
If you are staying active outside of the gym as well, I would say you could go up to 80 grams per day. Anything over that and I don’t think you are going to see any benefit from it.
Having ~20 grams post workout should be great as well as some before you go to bed like some cottage cheese. Then evenly space the rest out through the day as you can – 20g with breakfast, 20g for lunch, etc..
Try to consume as much of it in nutritious foods as you can.
Cutty
I have been doing some research, and apparently overworking can injure and cause permanent injuries. Is this workout overworking? Whenever I finish, I feel destroyed, but I feel good on the inside and I feel like I have made good progress. Whenever I feel like I can’t make it, I take a breath and push to the end, even if it is extremely tiring/hard on the part of the body I am working. I always think ‘No Pain No Gain’ but at what point is there too much pain?
Thanks Cutty
Generally overworking involves something like: You work at fedex all night moving packages, picking them up and moving them. Your shoulders get tired at work but that’s just part of the job… you go to the gym and hit shoulders and chest hard regularly and start to develop problems. The overworking from work along with the added stress from the gym and not training the proper antagonistic muscles (back for chest and shoulders) can lead to problems.
Doing body weight exercises generally won’t lead to an overuse case, but if you start feeling like you are feeling flu like symptoms and start getting weaker, you could go for a week off and then maybe cut down the volume some. Some discomfort will come from pushing your body past its point of capabilities but for the most part it is fine. I always invite you to get checked out by a dr if you think you may be getting to injury point but I think you are tackling this routine at the right angle.
Cutty
Hey Cutty,
Sorry for the abundance of questions, and thanks so much for answering my other ones, but I have some things I need to understand:
How long after this workout should I eat protein? It usually takes me an hour to complete, and when I’m finished I immediately eat my 20-30g of protein through a variety of foods. Is this too early? How long should I wait?
Also, could this workout stunt my growth? As I mentioned, I’m 14, and I have heard that weights could affect my growth. Is this true? I might be getting some more weights and a bench press soon, and I have read various sources that all have different opinions and answers, and if so, is this workout potentially damaging my height/growth?
Thanks man
John,
While I’ll admit I haven’t trained many people under 18, I will say I know a lot of kids that train in the gym and do general exercising and they don’t have issues. I would consult with a doctor who actually lifts to get a better and more definite answer to that. The “anabolic window” isn’t like what most people make it out to be so don’t worry about the timing so much. The goal is to just get in plenty of protein and other nutritious foods. I like to have a shake on my drive home from the gym so that’s nice to have but I’ve also had similar results with training fasted and not eating for another 8 hrs and breaking my fast with a shake… it doesn’t matter that much.
Doing bodyweight exercises certainly won’t have any adverse effects on your height or growth and I’m personally not convinced that weight training does (within reason). But consult your doctor if you have a concern about it.
Keep in touch,
Cutty
Do you have any examples from people who’ve done it? I mean like a before and after. I want to try it out but I’m not sure how effective it is
No, most of the workouts I write on here I don’t generally hear from people other than how they are doing. This particular workout is more or less designed for those who have nothing and want to start getting in shape. I’m not a professional in calisthenics so I’m sure there are better routines out there for body weight training but this is what I offer.
I would highly recommend using a weight training routine – you’ll gain more muscle and will be able to adjust food intake to reach your goals easier.
Im not sure if I would be able to manage 5 sets of 48 burpees
Daniel,
Thanks for letting me know about a typo. I use the same template for the table and I forgot to change from rep goal to reps. If you see some of my workouts that say “rep goal” it would mean you should strive for 48 reps over the course of 5 sets. Anyways I’ve fixed that last table and it should seem much more manageable.
Thanks again,
Cutty
Are you supposed to do all of these at once, or do you do some of them, like Legs and core + Shoulder and arms.
P.S I don’t think I can do 4 sets of 20 reps of pull ups
Each different table is a different day. So you have 2 days rest per week. Legs and Core is one day, Full Body another, etc.
I changed up the pull ups to “AMAP = As many as possible”. I know most can’t do that many. This is an older workout and I wasn’t as careful to attention here. I plan on making more routines soon that will require minimal equipment that you can buy from our store Strength Junkies.
I’ve been doing a full body bodyweight workout every other day and most of my cardio on off days Felt I needed a better structured program like this because I wasn’t hitting every muscle group hard enough sometimes but where would cardio fit in? Just on the two off days or can I keep doing some lighter cardio on workout days. Thanks for the program good work !
And is perfect calorie counting or watching macronutrient intake vital I’ve just been eating loads and keeping it balanced+clean idm some fat gain I need it haha
Thanks for the kind words. Sounds like you’re doing it right. Everyone’s metabolism is different so you have to test to see what works best for you. Being consistent is important with whatever you do. If you eat x amount and no weight gain, add 200 calories and try again for 2 weeks, etc.