I am always expressing my huge appreciation for body weight exercises. They are quick and very effective. They are also very effective for someone who is already very muscular on their lower body and wishes to not gain any more muscle, like myself.

As a trainer, I am all about using your bodyweight to lose fat and improve your strength. All of my clients do push ups, chin ups or pull ups and squats or lunges. Watching them do their first set of 10 full on push ups is so amazing and you can just see how proud AND surprised they are!

I have entered myself into a small pull up/chin up challenge and am so pumped! The first person to do 5 full pull ups or chin ups wins a prize! For me, it will be prize enough to be able to do 5 without assistance! About a year back, I was doing pretty good, and practicing these, but I kind of let it slide, so now what better way to motivate me than a challenge!

Below is a article from IDEA Fit which explains a good body weight training program!

Body-Weight Training Program
by Jason R. Karp, PhD

Remember when you were in high school and your physical education (PE) teachers made you do push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups? What about those long-forgotten Presidential Physical Fitness Tests, which required you to run different distances for time? Whatever happened to those “old-fashioned” exercises?

While free weights and machines can certainly make your clients stronger, they often target muscles rather than movement. In addition, many free-weight and machine exercises, such as lat pull-downs and biceps curls, are open-chain exercises, which use only one joint as the resistance is moved away from or toward the body using freely movable limbs.

In contrast, most body-weight exercises are closed-chain exercises, which use multiple joints as the resistance is moved away from or toward an anchored body part. Closed-chain exercises, which are more functional, result in greater motor unit activation and synchronization and better strength performance compared with open-chain exercises (Augustsson et al. 1998; Brindle et al. 2002).

As they master their own weight, your clients will not only look better; they will also learn how to train three-dimensional movement, acquire a greater kinesthetic awareness and become empowered as they perform tasks with their bodies. Moreover, body-weight exercises make your clients’ workouts portable, an added benefit for people who travel a lot or for those who have trouble motivating themselves to go to the gym.

9-Week Body-Weight Program
Training is the same for the first 2 weeks of each 3-week cycle, with the third week used for recovery and adaptation. Have your clients do these workouts 2-3 times per week. As clients progress, initially increase volume (# of reps with body weight), then decrease volume and increase intensity (by adding additional weight) and recovery period.

Weeks 1 and 2

* chin-ups: 2 x 10 reps with body weight (or weight-assisted machine), with 1-minute rest
* squats: 2 x 10 reps, with 1-minute rest
* push-ups: 2 x 8–10 reps, with 1-minute rest

Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 20 reps for each, with 1-minute rest.

Week 3 (Recovery)

Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 1 and 2 for each exercise.

Weeks 4 and 5

* chin-ups: 2 x 15 reps with body weight (or weight-assisted machine), with 1-minute rest
* squats: 2 x 15 reps, with 1-minute rest
* push-ups: 2 x 12–15 reps, with 1-minute rest

Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 30 reps for each, with 1-minute rest.

Week 6 (Recovery)

Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 4 and 5 for each exercise.

Weeks 7 and 8

* chin-ups: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight (or of weight lifted using weight-assisted machine), with 90-second rest
* squats: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight, with 90-second rest
* push-ups: 2 x 10 reps with 105%–110% of body weight, with 90-second rest

Choose two exercises each workout from traditional crunches, V-sits, stability ball crunches, reverse crunches, twist crunches and medicine ball crunches: 2 x 20 reps with 105%–110% of body weight for each, with 90-second rest.

Week 9 (Recovery)

Same as above, using 66% of # of reps from weeks 7 and 8 for each exercise.

Source: IDEA Fit Tips