The Bodyweight 500 Challenge is a training routine developed by Trainer Craig Ballantyne. The challenge involves performing a series of bodyweight exercises where the repetitions all add up to 500.

The challenge actually is not a stand-alone workout. The challenge is what you would do after your regular weight routine. Hence, this is not a bodyweight-only program.

However, the challenge has been used by many individuals as a way to replace their boring cardio workouts, or even as a stand along program. I personally use the program sporadically to supplement my regular training.

Bodyweight 500 Challenge – The Breakdown

The challenge is actually broken down into 4 parts – bodyweight 100, bodyweight 200, bodyweight 350, and bodyweight 500:

Bodyweight 100 Workout (Time Limit: 9 minutes)

• 20 Prisoner Squats
• 20 Pushups
• 10 Jumps
• 10 Inverted Rows
• 20 Forward Lunges (10 reps per side)
• 15 Close Grip Pushups
• 5 Chin-ups or Inverted Rows

Bodyweight 200 Workout (Time Limit: 15 minutes)

• 30 Prisoner Squats
• 30 Pushups
• 10 Jumps
• 10 Stability Ball Leg Curls
• 10 Stability Ball Jackknifes
• 20 Step-ups
• 5 Pull-ups or Inverted Rows
• 30 Forward Lunges (15 reps per side)
• 20 Close-Grip Pushups
• 15 Inverted Rows
• 15 Squats
• 5 Chin-ups or Inverted Rows

Bodyweight 350 Workout (Time Limit: 30 minutes)

• 45 Prisoner Squats
• 40 Pushups
• 20 Jumps
• 20 Stability Ball Leg Curls
• 20 Stability Ball Jackknifes
• 40 Step-ups (20 reps per side)
• 10 Pullups (No Substitutions)
• 40 Forward Lunges (20 Reps per side)
• 40 Close Grip Pushups
• 20 Inverted Rows
• 40 Squats
• 15 Chinups (No Substitutions)

Bodyweight 500 Workout

• 50 Prisoner Squats
• 50 Pushups
• 25 Jumps
• 25 Stability Ball Leg Curls
• 25 Stability Ball Jackknifes
• 50 Step-ups (25 reps per side)
• 25 Pull-ups (NO Substitutions)
• 50 Forward Lunges (25 reps per side)
• 50 Close-Grip Pushups
• 50 Inverted Rows
• 50 Squats
• 25 Chin-ups (NO Substitutions)

Make sure to time each workout, and do not move to the next challenge until you’ve completed the workout in the recommended time frame. However, if you surpass the time limit, keep going.

The key is to get a good workout and build yourself up. If the Bodyweight 100 took you 12 minutes, instead of 9 minutes. Don’t worry. Your body will get stronger, and you’ll be able to do the workout in under 9 minutes soon.

For the Bodyweight 500 Workout, the idea is to do the best that you can. Once you get up to this level of fitness, strive to consistently beat your own PR.

Craig’s best time is 27 minutes.

Bodyweight 500 Technicalities

Technically, you’re only supposed to do the bodyweight challenge once per week after you regular dumbbell workouts. However, you can turn this into a 3-day per week routine.

Or, you can just add this challenge to any Turbulence Training program you may be currently doing. Here is what a sample schedule would look like:

• Monday – Dumbbell Workout A
• Tuesday – Interval Training
• Wednesday – Dumbbell Workout B
• Thursday – Interval Training
• Friday – Dumbbell Workout C
• Saturday – Bodyweight Challenge
• Sunday – Rest

Here are some modified versions of the schedule based on how many days you wish to train:

 

• Day 1 – Dumbbell Workout A
• Day 2 – Bodyweight Challenge, Interval Training
• Day 3 – Dumbbell Workout B
• Day 4 – Interval Training
• Day 5 – Dumbbell Workout C

 

• Day 1 – Dumbbell Workout A
• Day 2 – Bodyweight Challenge, Interval Training
• Day 3 – Dumbbell Workout B
• Day 4 – Dumbbell Workout C, Interval Training

Week 1

• Day 1 – Dumbbell Workout A, Interval Training
• Day 2 – Bodyweight Challenge
• Day 3 – Dumbbell Workout B, Interval Training

 

• Day 1 – Dumbbell Workout C, Interval Training
• Day 2 – Bodyweight Challenge
• Day 3 – Dumbbell Workout A, Interval Training

* Follow this pattern

Craig Ballantyne’s Recommended Bodyweight 500 Strength Routine

Lets go over one of Craig Ballantyne’s sample Dumbbell routines he recommends in the Bodyweight 500 program:

Superset #1

• DB Push Press – 6 reps
• Front Loaded Forward Lunge – 8 reps per Leg
• Rest 1 minute and repeat superset 2 more times

Superset #2

• DB RDL – 8 reps
• Stability Ball Mountain Climber 10 reps per side
• Rest 30 seconds and repeat superset 2 more times

Superset #3

• DB Row with Elbow Out – 12 reps
• DB Chest Press – 12 reps
• Rest 1 minute and repeat superset 2 more times

Craig Ballantyne has developed hundreds of fitness programs that revolve around the basic concepts of Turbulence Training.

To get an overall introduction to Turbulence Training, you should grab the original Turbulence Training manual. The manual includes everything you need to get started on your fat loss journey. There are workouts for beginners, intermediate, and advanced trainees. If you go through each program separately, in a few months you’d have literally transformed your health and physique. Click here for more information.

For individuals who have had some experience with exercise or even Turbulence Training, then Craig has numerous other workouts specifically designed for women, muscle mass, bodyweight only, abs training, and more.

You need to make the decision today: Are you going to continue to follow pointless, boring workouts and never get any impressive results, or you going to take a chance and try some trully unique ideas using Craig Ballantyne’s workouts? Start today with either one of the Turbulence Training workouts:

• Click here for Turbulence Training Original workout Review
• Click here for Turbulence Training ab Workouts
• Click here for Turbulence Training for Muscle Mass
• Click here for Turbulence Training Bodyweight Only Workouts
• Click here for Turbulence Training for Women

A while back, I introduced to you guys Craig Ballantyne’s Bodyweight 500 workout. For those of you that missed the workout, here it is again:

Click here to grab all the workouts in the Bodyweight 500 challenge.

The bodyweight 500 actually starts with bodyweight 100. In other words you do the 100 repetition circuit, then move onto 200, 250, 300 etc. all the way up to 500 repetitions. This way you can steadily build your strength and endurance up so that you can get a good time for the bodyweight 500 workout.

Here is  the bodyweight 100 workout:

These Turbulence Training bodyweight challenge workouts are great measures of fitness. The best way to incorporate them into your programs is to do them every fourth workout. In other words, lets say you train 3 days a week.

You would train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then, the following week on Monday, do one of the challenge workouts. Return back to your regular schedule and train Wednesday, Friday, and Monday, followed by another challenge workout on Wednesday.

Or, you can just keep it simple devote the Weekends to doing these challenge workouts. Either way, they’re effective.

Click here to grab all the workouts in the Bodyweight 500 challenge.

The “300″ workout is still a very popular workout that was used to help the cast and crew of the movie “300″ in shape. Craig Ballantyne has his own version of this workout, which is known as the Bodyweight 500.

What is the difference between these two workouts, and which one is better?

According to the original Men’s Health article on Gerard Butler, and where the 300 workout first appeared, the 300 workout was just a “right of passage.”

In other words, not all the actors performed the workout, and it was certainly  not the only workout used in their training regimen. In fact, MarkTwight, the trainer of the 300 crew, explicitly states that you should not perform a workout more than twice.

The closest thing to what Mark Twight was using at the time was Crossfit. Click here for some more information on Crossfit.

And according to Craig Ballantyne, the 300 workout should not be used on a weekly basis. You can perform it once a month, but training at such a high intensity level without proper recovery would be setting yourself up for failure.

Here’s a video of Craig Ballantyne demonstrating the 300 workout:

The Bodyweight 500, on the other hand is an actual workout program. It starts off with the basic Bodyweight 100 in week 1, and then steadily progresses up to the bodyweight 500 workout.

The main idea here is that you progress based on your fitness level. For some, it may take just 4 weeks to complete the Bodyweight 500. For others, it may take up to 8 week.

Here’s the bodyweight 500 workout:

The main lesson here is that when embarking on any sort of high intensity program, it’s better to start slow and steady than to jump right into it.

Click here to grab the full 500 workout program