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

If someone came up to me and asked “What is the one exercise I need to do to put on muscle mass with Dumbbells?” I would respond: “Dumbbell Cleans.” I know I’ve written about this exercise many times in the past. But, this time I want to take it a step further and really give you some concrete information you can start using right now to progress with your dumbbell workouts.

Does Power equal Intensity?

The short answer is “YES.” When I talk about an intense workout, I’m not necessarily talking about how high your heart rate is, or how tough the workout actually feels, although these aspects are important as well. All I really care about is what you’re doing, and how fast you’re doing it.

Someone who can do 50 Burpees in 3 minutes is going to be in much better shape aesthetically, and athletically compared to someone who can do 50 Burpees in 10 minutes. There’s no way you can perform 50 burpees in such a short period of time and still carry a big giant gut.

On the flip side, someone who can lift their bodyweight may be big and strong. However, someone who can lift that same amount of weight faster, will be leaner. The perfect example is between the majority of Olympic Lifters and the majority of Power Lifters.

Power Lifting is all about strength. Get the weight up, and get as much weight up as possible. Olympic Lifting is about strength and speed. There’s no way you can do a slow clean. You need to generate an incredible amount of power (speed x strength) in order to perform a Barbell Clean.

Olympic Lifters are also a lot more leaner than Power Lifters. Yes, a lot of it has to do with diet. But the part that doesn’t have to do with diet is this – train to be faster and generate more power, and you’ll be leaner, stronger, and bigger.

Click here for some Great High Intensity Workouts you can Do with a Pair of Dumbbells and your Bodyweight

Getting Started with Dumbbell Cleans

I believe that the starting point for anyone who wishes to train with dumbbells should be the dumbbell clean. This movement sets the stage for all other high intensity dumbbell power movements, including the dumbbell snatch and swing.

Here’s how you do a dumbbell clean:

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and place a dumbbell right between your feet, with the handle parallel to the insides of your feet.
• Lower your hips as if you were performing a squat. Keep your back straight and chest out. Grab the dumbbell with one hand, making sure that your palms are facing your thighs.
• Your shoulders should be right above your feet. In other words, if you could draw a straight imaginary line from your shoulders to your toes, they would be directly on top of each other.
• In one motion, shrug your shoulders and straighten out your body as you bring the dumbbell in a straight line motion towards your shoulders.
• Once you get close enough, dip down, and reverse your elbows so that you “catch” the dumbbell right near your shoulders.

This movement is extremely difficult to describe by writing. Perhaps a video may be better help:

Click here for some Great High Intensity Workouts you can Do with a Pair of Dumbbells and your Bodyweight

The best way to master the dumbbell clean is to practice. Either tape yourself and critique your own technique, or find someone who is more experienced to help you out with the movement. Even friends helping each other will greatly improve your dumbbell clean technique.

Beyond Dumbbell Cleans

Once you get really good with dumbbell cleans, it’s time to start including the movement into your regular training program.

The following are some sample workouts you can use to get started:

Workout A

Perform 8 rounds of the following exercises in a Tabata format:

• Dumbbell Clean
• Bodyweight Squats
• Pulllups
• Hindu Pushups

Tabata Intervals are where you perform the exercise for 20 seconds, followed by a 10 second break. With this workout, start with Dumbbell Cleans, the move directly do Bodyweight squats. Continue in this manner until you complete one Tabata Interval of each exercise.

After the Hindu Pushups, start again with Dumbbell Cleans. Complete a total of 8 circuits.

Workout B

3 rounds of:

• Mixed Grip Chinups, 10 repetitions
• Push Ups, 10 repetitions
• Dumbbell Clean, 10 repetitions

3 rounds of:

• Ankle Grabbers, 20 repetitions
• Bodyweight Squats, 20 repetitions
• Dumbbell Clean, 10 repetitions

Complete each set of exercises as a circuit. Complete 3 rounds of the first circuit (upper body), then move immediately onto the 3 rounds of the second circuit (lower body).

Workout C

Perform 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 reps of the following:

• Dumbbell Clean
• Feet Elevated Pushups

With this workout, start with 20 repetitions of each exercise, and gradually reduce 2 repetitions after each set until you get down to 2 repetitions for the last set. Alternate between the two exercises and time the entire workout.

These are full body workouts and will literally challenge every single muscle in your body. I suggest resting 1-2 days after performing each workout.

Click here for some Great High Intensity Workouts you can Do with a Pair of Dumbbells and your Bodyweight

The Power Principle

Make sure you take the power principle into every single workout your perform. Power is equal to (force x distance) / time. By changing just one of these variables, you’ve successfully improved your power output. For example, lets say you can do 50 Dumbbell Cleans with each hand with 50lbs in 5 minutes.

The following week, you decide to use 60 lbs. The only way you would see an increase in power output is if you were able to complete the workout in under 6 minutes. In other words, the power output for your first workout can be measured as 50lbs x 50 reps/ 5 minutes, or 500 units.

Lets assume the second workout took you 6 minutes. So your unit of power was 60lbs x 50 reps/6 minutes, or 500 units. Now, I know from a physics standpoint my equation doesn’t make much sense. But the bottom line is that you need to figure out a way to measure your level of work that you complete.

I hope you learned a little bit more about power and intensity from this article. For more high intensity (or high power) workouts, check out Gladiator Body Workout.

Click Here for More Information

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