You’ve seen those shredded guys on TV, sprinting their way through high-rep, gymnastic WODs in the CrossFit Games.
Who doesn’t want to look like that and be able to do workouts like those?!
Maybe you just don’t have a ton of equipment and want to do some bodyweight WODs.
Either way, we’re going to look at the top 30 bodyweight CrossFit workouts and all of ways you can use just your body to push yourself to the limit.
Table of Contents
Top 13 “Pure” Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts & Exercises
So which exercises are actually classified as “bodyweight exercises”? It depends on how “pure” you want to define the term.
If we consider exercises that you can do anywhere and without any kind of equipment, there are a number of options. Classic exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, and burpees fall into this category. For those who are a bit more advanced, handstand push-ups, pistol squats, and L-sits can be added to the list.
For those who are able to get outside, walking and running are obvious bodyweight exercises as well as various jumping exercises.
With a little creativity, you can come up with a lot of bodyweight CrossFit workouts solely with these movements. Let’s take a look at 13 of the best ones:
Alan
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
The plank shoulder taps are deceptively difficult. Between those and the v-ups, your core will be smoked.
The 1.5-mile bookends ensure your heartrate will be elevated throughout.
Capoot
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
If you ever fantasized about running through the forest, doing Army PT, this is the WOD for you. The mix of longer running pieces with high-rep push-up sets has the vibes of the old PT Test events.
Dee
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
I actually think most CrossFitters are going to go a bit faster than the times above, but the running, sit-ups, and push-ups give a mini-Murph vibe. The burpees thrown in before the run will ensure you’re never going into it “fresh”.
Griff
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
I did this once early in the morning on my university’s indoor track. Thankfully, I had the place to myself or there would have been some collisions!
I have to admit, while not a huge demand on my stamina, the backpedalling presented a unique challenge. I can’t imagine even Ferdie Adoboe sprinting through this!
MA3 Oscar Temores
Equipment: n/a
This one looks easy enough, but I can assure you that the lunges will be the “silent killers”.
Don’t discount the fatigue your body accumulates simply getting up and down continuously over the course of 8 rounds, either.
Marguerita
Equipment: n/a
If you can’t quite freestand, handstand hold at this point, hold against the wall for 3-5 seconds. Over 50(!) rounds, I can assure that you’ll end up working plenty hard enough!
Like the “MA3 Oscar Temores” above, moving just to get into position for each exercise will be tiring enough!
Mark Klement
Equipment: n/a
On the bright side, after that first round, you’re well more than halfway finished! However, 74 burpess to start a workout is tough, any way you slice it.
With such a small amount of space required for this one, you really don’t have an excuse not to get these 387 reps in.
Maupin
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
Like many of the others on this list, the Maupin WOD has similar vibes to the Murph WOD. In this case, you have the same amount of running and comparable push-ups.
You get a bit of a break on the squats, but I hope your abs are up for the burn of ~200 reps!
Ozzy
Equipment: Air runner (optional), paralletes
With all of that running, you may as well call this one “Crazy Train”!
I still classify this in the “pure” bodyweight CrossFit workouts because you can use just about anything to create the deficit. Got some textbooks you’re not going to read anyways? May as well use them for this one…the thicker and more boring, the better!
Rocket
Equipment: Swimming pool!
You use just your bodyweight to swim, right? I understand that access to a pool or beach is a bit tricky for some, but for those who can get a swim in, this one is perfect.
The combination of swimming, push-ups, and sit-ups doesn’t seem particularly “sexy”, but over the course of 30-minutes, these are going to evolve into heaviest bodyweight movements of your life!
Terry
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
You’ll get your cardio in and your upper body will be blown up What more can you ask for (maybe this is actually the ideal, pre-beach day workout!)
The push-up/bear crawl, 1-2 punch is going to be so much harder than you think it is going to be. Like, those 100-meter bear crawls…you might wish you had another 1-mile run instead!
Three Fathers
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
This is essentially the Canadian Murph and is very similar to “Maupin” from earlier.
Your runs are only about half as long as they are in Murph so you may as well up the pace…significantly. Also, try to “rest” during the 200 sit-ups because, like Murph, the back half is killer on your legs!
Whiting
Equipment: Air runner (optional)
That first mile is going to feel great and there is a good chance you’ll blow through the squats and push-ups pretty quickly.
At least on your first time through.
You’ll start to question just how bad you really want to get 2 whole rounds in somewhere during the first 1/4 mile of your second run. At this point, fatigue has built up and it won’t feel anywhere near as nice as the first mile!
Apparatuses For Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
While some bodyweight “purists” may disagree, most people would classify exercises using certain apparatuses as “bodyweight exercises” as well.
With a standard pull-up bar, a number of pulling exercises can be performed. Anything from basic dead hangs to the bar muscle-up is possible (assuming you have enough space between the bar and the ceiling!)
Add a basic pair of wooden gymnastic rings and you now have an entirely new range of exercises to perform. You can also modify standard bodyweight exercises, as well.
Ring rows are excellent pulling exercises while the ring dip combines a stability exercise with a tough pushing movement.
Ring push-ups, ring pull-ups, and ring muscle-ups are all more challenging versions of their bodyweight and pull-up bar counterparts.
A small set of steel parallettes can be thrown in to make your handstand push-ups more challenging or your L-sits a bit easier. Depending on their height, parallettes might allow you to perform bar dips, as well.
Add a jump rope to the mix and you don’t even need to go outside to get a serious cardio workout. Get yourself a climbing rope and the sky is literally the limit (…for the most part!)
Resistance bands are extremely underrated, cheap, and low-maintenance tools. The list of banded exercises is endless and if you never intend to purchase traditional gym gear, a good set of bands might be all you need!
Now let’s tackle the 17 best bodyweight CrossFit workouts with bodyweight apparatuses.
Top 17 Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts & Exercises
(with Apparatuses and Accessories)
Angie
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
If you have access to a pull-up bar, you can do one of the most famous of the “CrossFit Girls” WODs.
“Angie” also happens to be one of the most effective CrossFit benchmark workouts.
The Angie WOD is intimidating due to the intense, upper-body focus of the first two sets of 100. Make it through these and you should be able to sprint through the second half!
Annie
Equipment: Jump rope, Abmat
The big sets of double-unders in “Annie” create a weightless, flying-like feeling.
Assuming you’re not slapping yourself with your rope every 4th rep (like me!)
Don’t sugar coat this. Annie is a sprint WOD. it is also one of the top CrossFit double under workouts!
Mary
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
“Mary” has always seemed like a “hard” version of “Cindy” (which we will cover shortly). Swap out your push-ups and squats for their handstand and single-legged cousins and triple the pull-ups.
There are certainly more boring bodyweight CrossFit workouts you could be doing!
Bradley
Equipment: Air runner (optional), pull-up bar/rack
Those 30 seconds of rest each round are going to feel very bittersweet.
So necessary…so short…
Remember, the “Bradley” WOD explicitly calls for 100-meter sprints. Don’t get lazy on these!
Burgess
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
If you’ve got 10 minutes, the least you can do is 60 pull-ups and 60 burpees.
I’m not going to claim it will be the easiest or most fun 10 minutes, but you’ll be able to tell your friends “I did ‘Burgess'” today.
Candy
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
If you ever wanted to prep for “Murph” without actually doing Murph (particularly the running!) you can get some practice with the movements by doing “Candy”.
You’re splitting the reps up, but 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats are still 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats!
Cindy
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
The Cindy CrossFit workout is up there with the likes of “Fran” as legends among the “CrossFit girls”. I’d venture to guess you’ve done it before, even if you’ve never set foot in a CrossFit box.
Cindy is great for tracking your progress. I remember feeling stoked when I first did it and scored 11+ rounds. I can do a few more than that today!
Coffland
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack, air runner (optional)
I’m just going to say it:
Reading this workout makes me sick! More like “bodyweight torture” than one of the bodyweight CrossFit workouts we’ve seen so far!
I guess if you have some iron, climber’s grip, this may look like a pretty simple, maybe even boring workout.
Personally, I look at it as a 5K and close to 200 push-ups…on a day where my grip is at its strongest!
Dale
Equipment: Air runner (optional), climbing rope
20 feet up the rope is a bit higher than normal, but I would challenge you to take things a little further, at least for one round.
In the 2019 CrossFit Games “First Cut” WOD, athletes had to start with a 400-meter run and 3 legless rope climbs. There were about 15 women who didn’t make it up a single time and 6 or 7 men who only made it up once.
Finish that first run and get up that rope using only your arms and congratulations: you’re up there with Games athletes!
Now…keep moving. You still have, like, 18 minutes to go!
Forrest
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack, air runner (optional)
Between the L-pull-ups and the toes-to-bars, get used to your feet being in your eyesight for a lot of this workout.
Just when you’ve recovered from the “L” position each round, you get to do a lot of burpees and a lot of running!
GI Jane
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
This was one of my first CrossFit workouts. To be completely honest with you, I did not finish.
Word to the wise, wear a grip or some other type of palm protector. When my hands tore at around rep 70, I had no desire to jump up to that bar anymore!
Jason
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack, gymnastics rings
I used to do this one a lot in my “be that guy doing CrossFit at the university gym” days. The gym didn’t have rings so I got pretty good at doing bar muscle-ups in the functional trainer.
Even then, by the set of 15, I wanted it to be over…
Now just imagine how much fun you’re going to have on the rings!
Maggie
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
If you want to do Mary, but A. don’t have a ton of time and/or B. want to knock out big blocks of reps in a row for each movement, “Maggie” is for you!
Ryan
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack, gymnastics rings
35 muscle-ups and 100+ burpees really start to add up. Your body will feel a little queasy bouncing up and into the air so much.
The best part? If you miss the target on any rep, you get to do it all over again!
Weaver
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack
If you’re going to skip “Leg Day”, at least skip it to do this workout.
The complexity of the pull-ups drops each round, but the push-ups in between ensure that there are no easy sets in this workout.
Wilmot
Equipment: Pull-up bar/rack, gymnastics rings
This is the kind of workout you might look at and think you’ll be able to gut through pretty quickly. However, if you don’t have a great kipping ring dip and you try to go strict too soon…
Just remember, when those chest muscles go…they go!
Doing 300 squats over a relatively short period of time is no walk in the park, either.
2012 CrossFit Open Workout 1
Equipment: n/a
You knew we had to save the “best” for last!
Imagine if this was your first CrossFit Open workout…7 minutes of burpees!
I don’t have to imagine…it was my first Open workout.
I honestly don’t know why I’m still doing CrossFit at this point!
Benefits of Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
There are a number of arguments for bodyweight work, but the most compelling one to me can be made with only three words:
Goal
Line
Stalker
For those of you unfamiliar with the greatest running back in college football history, let me introduce you to Herschel Walker.
It doesn’t matter what you think of the man’s politics…dude is ripped!
He was quite the physical specimen when he was playing for the Georgia Bulldogs, too.
The legend goes that Mr. Walker had never touched a weight before he got to Georgia.
The legend continues that Mr. Walker didn’t touch a weight while he was at Georgia.
I don’t know the rest of the legend. Maybe he started lifting sometime after, but I’m already sold. If you can look like college-era Herschel without weights, anyone can benefit from bodyweight exercises!
On a more “practical” level, bodyweight exercises are great because they can be done almost anywhere without any equipment cost. If you want to up the diversity or intensity, you can do so for ~$150 or less with any of the accessory items listed in the last section.
You even have guys like “Coach Paul” Wade who have written entire books about getting jacked with no weights in prison.
Others, like the Kavadlo brothers, have taken bodyweight work to the next level in their “Explosive Calisthenics” line of books.
Any excuse you have for not being able to work out is invalidated when considering the accessibility of bodyweight exercises.
Bodyweight exercises can promote a special kind of body awareness and stability. Learning to brace in a heavy squat or to bring yourself under control after a heavy clean is one thing. Systematically working your way through each portion of a strict ring muscle-up, pausing along the way, is a different beast entirely.
If you’re still in doubt, think back to the days of Covid-19, especially those early days when everything was closed. If you were comfortable with bodyweight exercises and had a couple of bodyweight accessory implements, you were good to go!
In most places, gyms are open again, but is it out of the question to foresee a similar lockdown happening again in the future?
Get comfortable with bodyweight CrossFit workouts and you’ll be ready for anything!
Downsides of Bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
Don’t get me wrong; you can get plenty strong with only your body as your resistance.
But can you get really strong (particularly if you’re someone other than Herschel?)
Consider how much resistance your bodyweight can truly offer.
You can make a squat more challenging by doing it on one leg. That leg is essentially doing twice the work it would normally do with a regular air squat.
Time for some “Bro Science”!
If you do a regular (both legs), weighted squat with more than your body weight on the bar, you are using more resistance than even a pistol squat offers.
Most lifting people can handle more than their body weight on their weighted squats.
Even for upper body movements where we generally are not able to use as much weighted resistance, bodyweight exercises simply don’t have as much potential for absolute strength gains.
You can make big muscle endurance gains with high rep push-ups, pull-ups, and squats and if your diet is in check, you’ll look pretty good on the beach, too.
But it is unlikely that your strength will exceed someone who resistance trains with the same intensity and is of comparable size.
My suggestion, do bodyweight CrossFit workouts and barbell, CrossFit dumbbell, and kettlebell workouts!
I’m sure Herschel won’t mind…unless you end up with a bigger squat than him!
Already finished all 30 of these bodyweight adventures? Check out our list of the top 20 Chipper WODs (your cardio capacity should be perfectly primed for these bad boys at this point!)
