Here is the session: full body, 35 to 45 minutes with the warm-up, four blocks (push, pull, legs, core), two exercises per block, three levels of the same eight exercises. You need the floor, a wall, a chair, a table and a towel. Nothing else.
One thing up front. Pulling is the limit of any workout without equipment. Most articles either hide rows under a table in a “no equipment” list or skip the back entirely. This one gives you the best you can do with a towel and a door, then tells you where that stops.
It is written for the beginner who wants to start today and for the practitioner stuck without a park for a while. If you have never trained at home before, the home calisthenics overview tells you what is possible and what is not.
The session at a glance
Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets and 2 minutes between blocks. Do the exercises in this order.
| Exercise | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push-ups | hands on a table or counter, 3×8 to 12 | on the floor, 3×8 to 12 | feet on a chair or diamond, 3×8 to 12 |
| Pike push-ups | knees down, hips high, 3×6 to 10 | standard, 3×6 to 10 | feet on a chair, 3×5 to 8 |
| Towel rows in a door | body at 60°, 3×8 to 12 | body at 45°, 3×8 to 12 | body at 30°, 2 s pause at the top, 3×8 to 12 |
| Floor pulls (prone) | 3×10 | 3×12, 2 s pause | 3×15, towel held taut between the hands |
| Squats | to a chair, touch and stand, 3×10 to 15 | full squat, 3×15 to 20 | split squat, back foot on a chair, 3×8 to 12 per leg |
| Glute bridge | two legs, 3×12 to 15 | single leg, 3×8 to 12 per leg | single leg, foot on a chair, 3×8 to 12 per leg |
| Hollow body | knees bent, 3×15 to 20 s | legs straight, 3×20 to 30 s | hollow rocks, 3×10 to 15 |
| Plank | forearms, 3×20 to 30 s | straight arms, shoulder taps, 3×10 per side | one leg raised, 3×20 s per side |
Towel rows, in one line: close the door, drape a bath towel over the top, pull from the side where the door cannot open, and load it gently before you lean back. The full setup and its limits are in the back article. Floor pulls: lie face down, arms stretched forward, lift the chest and drive the elbows toward the hips.
The level rule, in three sentences. Start at level 1 if you have never followed a structured session. Move an exercise up one level when you finish every set at the top of the rep range two sessions in a row. One exercise at a time, not the whole session at once.
Before you start, 8 minutes
Do not skip this part, especially on cold mornings.
- Two minutes to get warm: jumping jacks, jogging on the spot, or fast air squats.
- Three to four minutes of wrists, shoulders and hips: circles, cat-cow, deep squat holds, wrist rocks on the floor.
- Two easy sets of the first exercise, at the level below the one you will use.
The full routine, with reps, is in the warm-up article.
Pulling, the real problem of a no-equipment workout
With nothing at all, your back trains badly. Floor pulls strengthen the lower back, the lower traps and the rear shoulder, but they do not load the lats or the biceps the way a pull-up does. A towel over a closed door, or a heavy table, gives you a real horizontal row, which is why towel rows are in the session. Nothing replaces hanging from something above your head. What each substitute really works, and a full back session, is in the back article. If you can reach a bar somewhere in your week, the first pull-up progression is where to put that time.
Block by block, what you should feel
Push. Chest, front of the shoulders and triceps do the work, and the body stays in one line from head to heels. The most common mistake is a sagging hip that turns a push-up into a back exercise. Technique is on the push-up and pike push-up pages.
Pull. Shoulder blades squeeze together at the top and the elbows stay close to the body. The usual mistake is pulling with the arms alone, chin forward, blades doing nothing. The row page covers the movement.
Legs. Quads, glutes and hamstrings, and your heels never leave the floor. The common error is a knee that collapses inward on the split squat. Form is on the squat and lunge pages, and a reverse lunge replaces the split squat if your chair is not stable.
Core. Lower back pressed into the floor during the hollow, hips level during the plank. If your lower back arches off the floor, bend the knees more. See hollow body hold and plank.
How often, and what comes next
Three times a week on non-consecutive days, for four to six weeks before you change anything. Whether three is the right number for you is another article, and how the session is built is explained in the workout structure piece.
After that, four directions. The 8-week program gives you a plan that moves week after week instead of one fixed session. Progressive overload is what you read when level 3 gets easy. The 20-minute session is for short days. And if one area lags, there is a leg session and a core session.
If you have 20 minutes today and not 45: push and legs today, pull and core tomorrow, two sets each instead of three.
When a workout without equipment is no longer enough
The sign is simple: level 3 done everywhere, with pushing and legs getting easy before the rest. At that point the floor has given what it had. What is worth buying first is its own article, and the pull-up bar guide explains the tool that changes the most at home.
The whole thing fits in a living room
That is the only merit this session needs. What makes the difference is not the eight exercises, it is doing them again on Monday. When you want the version that changes every week, take the 8-week program. When you want to see how this fits with everything else you can do at home, the home calisthenics overview draws the map.