The best bodyweight exercises for women to get stronger and build muscle, in the gym or at home

An easy bodyweight workout looks like four to six exercises targeting different muscles in the upper body, lower body, and core. If you're short on equipment or just getting into strength training, it can be the best workout.

But which exercises should you choose? Compound exercises make for a great base for any strength training workout, says Sally Moss, a certified personal trainer and strength specialist. "Compound exercises such as squats and deadlifts are great for building muscle because they involve using multiple muscle groups at once," she says, and bodyweight exercises like push-ups and planks also fit into this category.

It can be very useful to have a selection of bodyweight exercises in your back pocket, whether you're doing strength training at home for beginners, working out in the gym, or following a class on one of the best workout apps. Here is a selection of the most popular ones and how to do them...

Best bodyweight exercises for women

Squat

To do a squat correctly, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your feet slightly turned out. Push your buttocks back and sit down as if there's a chair below you, making sure that your knees come down in line with your feet.

Once you reach a 90-degree angle or as close as possible, push up to the starting position.

Foward lunge

A lunge is an excellent strength training exercise to boost strength in the lower body muscles, like the quadriceps (thighs), glutes (buttocks), hamstrings (back of thighs), and calves.

To do a lunge, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take a step forward on one leg, then drop both legs down to form a 90-degree angle but keep your weight on your front leg. Once your knee brushes the ground, push back up with your front leg to your starting position.

Backward lunge

The backward lunge, as the name suggests, is the same as the forward lunge but going backwards. Instead of stepping forward with one leg, you'll step backwards, bringing both legs down to a 90-degree angle. When your knee reaches the floor, push back up to standing.

Compared to a classic lunge, a backward lunge works more of the glute (buttocks) muscles and hamstrings. It may also be easier on the knees.

Side lunge

If you're looking to challenge your stability, try a side lunge. This exercise requires more core engagement and balance, making it harder than a forward or backward lunge.

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, hands by your sides, take a step out to the side, bending your knee as you do so. Put your hands on your hips if this is more comfortable.

Keep your hips back and facing forward. Keep this position until you reach the bottom of your lunge. It should feel like you're sitting on a chair with one side of your body. In this position, press up from the leading leg.

Walking lunge

After holding one position for a few minutes, it can be refreshing to do something different, says Walter Gjergja, Sports Master, ex-pro athlete, Olympic training advisor, and co-founder of a fitness app Zing Coach.

"The walking lunge improves balance, stability, and leg strength, at the same time helping to stretch out the hamstring and glutes," he says. "Keep your movements controlled and your core engaged."

Step-ups

Step-ups combine strength-boosting movement with stability and balance benefits. Standing in front of a box in the gym or a sturdy chair (lean it against a wall for extra stability), step up onto the flat surface with your entire foot, putting your weight into that leg. Bring your other foot up to follow it.

At the top, carefully step back down. To make this exercise harder, try picking up some light dumbbells or a set of kettlebells, but make sure you're fully confident doing the exercise with your body weight first.

Deficit lunges

Taking the regular lunge position, if you put your leading foot onto a weight plate in the gym or a stack of sturdy books against a wall at home, you can do a deficit lunge.

The 'deficit' is the additional space you have to move through in the lunge. As your foot is in a higher position, the exercise works more of your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, making it harder than the standard lunge.

Bulgarian split squats

Even harder than a deficit lunge is the Bulgarian split squat. While many bodyweight exercises are perfect for beginners, you'll want to already have some experience under your belt and good balance before attempting one of these.

Before getting into the lunge position, place a chair, stack of books, or weight bench behind you. It should be about in line with the back of your knee.

Standing the lunge stance, reach back with one leg, placing it on the platform behind you. You may need to adjust your position to find a comfortable one - but from here, you can lunge down as normal. The elevated foot means you have more range of motion, making the exercise more challenging.

Curtsy lunges

If you're not feeling any burn in your glutes from any other type of lunge, try a curtsy lunge.

From your regular lunge starting position, cross one leg behind the other, keeping your body position tall and your hips facing straight on. Bend both knees as you would normally, dropping your back knee to the ground.

Just as your knee brushes the floor, push through your front leg and come back up to standing.

Sumo squats

Sumo squats are one of the many types of squats you can do, with or without weights. It's much like a regular squat but your feet come out slightly wider.

Instead of standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, bring them out wider. Then do your squat as normal - pushing your buttocks back and down as if you're sitting on a chair behind you, making sure to extend your knees out in line with your feet.

This squat particularly works the inner thighs and glute muscles and improves hip mobility. It may also be easier on the lower back for some people.

Jump squat

Jump squats combine cardio with strength work. It's an exercise that works the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and lower back, as well as boosting explosive strength and building the smaller muscles that support the hip and knees.

To do a jump squat, get into the standard squat position. When you come up from the bottom of the squat, launch up into a jump, taking both feet off the ground.

Pistol squat

If all the other types of squats are proving a little too easy for you, it might be time to try a pistol squat - otherwise known as a one-legged squat. Naturally, being on one leg rather than two, it's a lot more challenging.

However, the steps to do this exercise are the same as a normal squat - but keep one leg stretched out in front of you. To make it easier, put a chair behind you and squat down onto the chair.

Wall squat

If you're familiar with wall Pilates, you'll know all about the wall squat. While a pistol squat is an exercise to do if a regular squat is too easy, a wall squat is a way to make a regular squat easier.

"Simply stand back against a wall and slide down until your knees are at a 90-degree angle, so your thighs are parallel to the ground and your back is straight against the wall," instructs Dean Zweck, a personal trainer and the product development manager at Total Fitness. "Hold this position, being sure not to move up or down as you will release the tension. Try and hold this for 60 seconds."

Fire hydrant

The fire hydrant is a bodyweight exercise that you can do on a thick yoga mat that strengthens the glutes and core and improves hip mobility.

To try it, come down to the floor with your hands and knees on the ground. Lift one leg off the ground, moving your knee out to the side and up toward the ceiling. Keep your knee bent as you hold your leg in the air for a few moments, then bring it back down to the starting position.

Throughout the movement, be sure to keep your spine straight and your hips square.

Glute bridge

A deadlift is one of the best weighted exercises to do for glute strength and a glute bridge is one of the best exercises to do with your body weight.

"This [exercise] strengthens your bum and stretches your lower spine all at once," explains Abby McLachlan, a certified Pilates instructor and the founder of Pilates studio, East of Eden.

"Think of your spine as a pearl necklace, you must pick your spine up, bone by bone, by curling your pelvis and pressing up with your bum until your body is in a straight line at the top," she says. "Then melt back down, ribcage first, still squeezing your glutes until you have landed your pelvis."

Donkey kick

The donkey kick is very similar to the fire hydrant exercise, except instead of bringing your leg out to the side, you're pushing it back and up behind you.

Anna Mounsey-Jennings is a certified Pilates instructor and the founder of Avalon Pilates. She previously told woman&home exactly how to do donkey kicks correctly in a Pilates with weights workout.

She says: "With your hands on the mat and your knees below your hips, come into a donkey kick where the leg remains bent but you're lifting your foot and knee to the ceiling. Do this for about a minute then pulse."

Press-up

Push-ups, also known as press-ups, are a "full-body powerhouse move that targets your chest, shoulders, arms, and core," says Walter Gjergja, Sports Master, ex-pro athlete, Olympic training advisor, and co-founder of a fitness app Zing Coach.

"Even if you only do a few, the key is to focus on control and alignment. If needed, modify with knee push-ups or incline push-ups," he says.

If you learn how to do a push-up properly, it can work most of the muscles in your upper body, including the biceps, triceps, back, shoulders, and chest.

Assisted press-up

While press-ups are excellent strength training exercises, they are much harder than they look. Doing an assisted press-up is a way to gradually get stronger before graduating to a full press-up.

To do an assisted push-up, move into the plank position as you normally would in a press-up, making sure to stack your shoulders over your hands and keep your core engaged. Here, drop your knees to the ground and complete the push-up as normal.

Having your knees on the ground makes the exercise easier.

Wall push-ups

Wall push-ups are another handy way to start building strength in your upper body, before graduating to full push-ups. As the name suggests, you plant two hands on a wall in front of you and push against this surface, instead of the floor.

Make sure you have enough room to freely move through the movement - and take a step back if you need to. The closer you are to the wall, the easier the exercise will be, so it's a great one for beginners.

Decline push-ups

Wall push-ups can help make the process to doing a regular push-up easier - and decline push-ups make them harder.

Before getting into the push-up form, place a bench or chair against a wall behind you. Then come down into the plank. Lift one leg at a time behind you, putting one your feet on the bench or chair. Then, complete the push-up as normal.

Having the extra space between you and the floor makes the exercise much harder, boosting strength in your chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and back.

Pull-ups

If you're already a pro at the lat pull-down machine, you're probably ready to try a pull-up. Much like press-ups, these are much harder than many people make them look.

You'll need a pull-up bar for this if you're planning to do the exercise at home - but these can be purchased easily on Amazon and similar websites.

Once you have your bar, grip it with both hands about shoulder-width apart. Bringing your shoulder blades back and down, start the movement by pulling yourself towards the bar. Think about bringing your elbows down and behind you, as if you're trying to put them in your back pocket.

When your chin reaches the bar, slowly extend your arms and return to the starting position.

Assisted pull-ups

Assisted pull-ups use the same form as a regular pull-up but before starting the movement, you'll need to wrap a strong resistance band around the bar. Hold tightly onto the bar and step into the bottom of the resistance band's loop.

Doing this will assist you in your pull-up by taking away some of your weight. You'll find it easier to learn the movement and with time, get strong enough to remove the band and do a regular pull-up.

Tricep dips

Tricep dips are one of the only single-muscle exercises we have on the list - which must mean they are truly worth doing. This is what's known as an isolation exercise.

Sitting on the floor with a gym bench or a stable chair against a wall behind you, place your hands on the platform, bringing your body up with you until you sit at a 90-degree angle. From here, slowly and in a controlled way, lower your body down to the floor. Once your legs have brushed the floor, push your hands into the bench or chair to bring yourself up to the starting position.

Burpee

Burpees aren't for the faint-hearted, but if you're looking to boost strength in your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, arms, chest, shoulders, and core, then it's a good one to add into your routine as a finisher.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart to start the movement. Drop into a squat, pushing your buttocks back and down as if you're sitting on a chair behind you, then kick your legs back so you come down into a high plank position.

From here, lower towards the ground. Rise back up to the starting position, moving through those steps backwards - come up into a high plank, into the squat, and then as you come to stand up, jump.

Plank

As Sally Moss, certified PT and strength specialist says, "exercises such as planks, Russian twists, and mountain climbers are all great for strengthening the core muscles".

Lying face-down on your yoga mat, push up onto your forearms and raise your body from the ground, forming a straight line from head to foot. Make sure your shoulders are stacked over your elbows and hands. Your core should be engaged and your pelvis tucked in.

Side plank

Side planks are the more challenging way to do this classic core exercise as you're balancing on one arm and foot, rather than two hands and two feet. This type of plank also specifically targets the obliques and hips, boosting strength and stability.

To do the exercise, lie on your right side. Keep your legs straight and stack your feet on top of each other. Keep your neck in a neutral position, breathe out, and engage your core.

Still lying on your side, lift your hips up from the floor so that you're supporting all your weight on just one elbow and the side of one foot. Hold this position for a few moments, before coming down to the floor slowly and carefully.

Chin-ups

Chin-ups and pull-ups are very similar exercises - but chin-ups are done with a supinated grip (with your palms facing towards you) and a pull-up is done with your knuckles facing you.

But doing the exercise is exactly the same. Stand with your feet and arms shoulder-width apart. Reach up and grab the bar over your head, before pulling yourself up until your chin comes over the bar.

Supermans

Supermans are another great core exercise to do at home. "It's great for strengthening your shoulders, glutes and core, and improves stability," says Dean Zweck, a personal trainer and the product development manager at Total Fitness.

"Lie face down and extend your arms outwards with your legs straight. Then lift your arms, chest and legs off the ground at the same time, holding the position - like Superman," he says.

Mountain climbers

Mountain climbers are a simple cardio exercise that can help boost your fitness from the comfort of your own living room. You don't need a treadmill or a walking pad - just a yoga mat or a couple of Pilates sliders to put under your feet.

To do the exercise, get into the plank position. Make sure your shoulders are stacked over your elbows and hands, and that your core is engaged. Alternating with one knee at a time, bring one to your chest and kick it back out behind you. Speed up until it feels like you're almost running on the floor.

Calf raises

Calf raises are another great isometric exercise to do alongside your regular compound bodyweight exercises. As the name suggests, this exercise exclusively targets the calf muscles. As this is a muscle used a lot in running, it's one of the go-to exercises in a strength training for runners routine.

Standing up, place your toes on a small platform like pile of books against a wall or the legs of a workout bench in the gym. Pushing down from the front of your foot, lift up until you're on your tip toes. Holding for a second, come down until your foot is flexed and your heel almost touches the floor. Repeat the exercise.

Deadlift

Deadlifts are best done with weights like dumbbells, kettlebells, or a barbell if you're in the gym. However, if you're completely new to strength training, it can be useful to learn the movement pattern of the deadlift using your body weight first.

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, brace your core. Push your buttocks to the back of the room as if you're trying to hit a button on the wall behind you. Keep your knees soft to emphasise the movement in your glutes. Bring your hips back up to the starting position.

Jumping jacks

Cardio is a great starting point in any strength training routine, says Walter Gjergja, Sports Master, ex-pro athlete, Olympic training advisor, and co-founder of a fitness app Zing Coach. "You don't need a treadmill or to go for a run — good old jumping jacks will do the trick. This dynamic move warms your muscles, raises your heart rate, and activates your whole body."

Just like you would in the playground, stand shoulder-width apart. As you jump your feet out to the sides, lift your arms up to the sides diagonally. "Aim for 30 seconds to 1 minute to set the tone," says Gjergja.