How to create a good personalized bodyweight workout plan

Question

I'm currently in the position where I want to start working out, but I do not want to aimlessly begin doing just anything.

First my target goal for training is an overall fitness to counter my all-day office job. This overall fitness should include strength, endurance, balance and coordination.

My second premise is that i do not want to go to the gym. So the training has to be mainly with body-weight exercises.

The basic question now is how do I get a good personalized workout plan?

Sure, there are tons of plans on the internet. But let's be realistic; none of this basic workouts considers my fitness level and weaknesses.

So, from my perspective, an optimal workout plan will start with an fitness tests in which will be determined what fitness level the person has and which muscles are stronger or weaker. Is there any test that would test these things and show which body parts have deficits?

Based on these facts, it would be perfect to create a workout plan in which the weak parts of my fitness will trained harder, than the good ones until I have reached an balanced good fitness level.

So now the question:
Are there any tools, websites, books, information that will help to create an good personalized bodyweight workout plan?

Any suggestions are welcome.

Answer 1

As mentioned in the comments by @Dave Liepmann, you could try a coach with an individual assessment of your level and a personalised training plan. But this will cost quite some money.

I try to recommend some books (and Apps and videos), which I quite like. As @Alex L mentioned the YAYOG by Mark Lauren are a good starting point, which considers all parts of the body with strength and endurance strength.

I also like the convict conditioning program by paul wade. Forget the name and the "story" around it, I guess that´s for marketing only. He has 4 (resp. 6) big movements which sound crazy heavy, but you´ll start at a low level and progress e.g. from Wall push ups to one arm push ups.

You can test on the first levels where you are right now and start from there or you can try to start all exercises from level 1 and focus on the proper form. Wall push ups will sound easy, but 30-50 of those with proper form and really slow will also kick your butt (or in this case your arms and shoulders).

Other places to start with calisthenics would be:

• Al Kavadlo (Pushing the Limits)
• Kelly Starett (Becoming a Supple Leopard)
• The Barbrothers

Answer 2

I would have just commented, but it won't allow me since I apparently don't have enough "reputation points". There are a lot of good plans online, and I would suggest you give one a try. I am new to working out, and I currently use the Big Man On Campus 12 week training program. Its a free program, includes a diet plan, supplement plan, and 12 week workout plan - bodybuilding.com/bigman. If you use that plan or find another one, always watch the videos and learn how to use proper form. If you're at the gym and having trouble with a certain workout, ask someone around you for help. Most people who workout take honor in a new learner asking them for assistance. Believe me, I have asked many people for help, and they always smile and tell me what to do. Also remember if you feel like you can't do a certain workout in the plan due to your current strength, you can always lower the weight or repetitions, or completely skip that exercise and come back to it at a later time, when you are stronger and more confident. You don't need a coach to workout, I promise. If you have trouble with self discipline and organization, a coach would help, but you can always train and learn to be self-sufficient. Good luck.

Answer 3

Under fairly simple means of evaluating fitness, there are the various "Six Weeks" (last I saw, upgraded to Seven Weeks) programs, often known by their individual names such as "100 pushups", "200 situps", etc. All of these start with an evaluation test at the beginning where you do as many as you can of that exercise, to exhaustion, then check your results against a chart to see where to start. The programs themselves suffer slightly from how they focus on only one exercise at a time, with it being kind of difficult to mix them (believe me... I've tried), but the evaluations give you a simple way to determine which exercises you're more deficient on (Pushups and Pullups, I had to start at Week 1, or example, but jumped to Week 3 on squats because I could do more of them).