“It's understandable to think that a bodyweight workout might not be challenging enough for you, especially if you're used to lifting weights—but you might be surprised,” says Adam Rosante, CPT, CSCS, strength and nutrition coach and creator of Gym Class with Adam, a free online gym class for kids K-6. “From adjusting reps and sets, to tweaking the tempo of the moves, to creating timed challenges and changing the angle of your body, there are plenty of ways to ramp up the difficulty of bodyweight exercises—or dial it back if you're just starting.”

RELATED: 8 Ways to Amp Up Your Bodyweight Workout

Whenever you’re trying a new workout, you want to first focus on nailing your form on each move, says Rosante. Performing bodyweight exercises allows you to tune into body alignment and what you should be feeling—so really pay attention to the muscle groups you're working as you go. Once you master each exercise, it's time to take them to the next level.

To get you started on a no-weight workout at home, Rosante breaks down the form on 12 of the best bodyweight exercises, plus how to regress and progress them, and the ideal way to turn them into a sweaty exercise session.

How to do it: Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your hips down and back, like you’re sitting in a chair. Go as low as you can without losing the natural curve of your lower back. Drive through the feet to return to standing. Repeat.

Form tip: Think about pressing the floor away from you as you stand up, keeping your weight in your heels. Make sure your chest stays tall and your core stays tight. You should feel your entire lower body and abs working.

Turn it down: If you’re new to squats, try standing in front of your couch or a chair. Tap the chair with your butt at the bottom, then stand back up.

Turn it up: To make the move more challenging, increase the tempo. Make sure you maintain strong form as you go fast and still drop it low—don't cut the move short.

How to do it: Start in a plank position, shoulders over wrists, creating a straight line from shoulders to heels, core engaged. Bend elbows back 45 degrees and slowly lower toward the ground. Then, press yourself back up, maintaining strong plank form. Repeat.

Form tip: Make sure your elbows hit that 45-degree angle, and avoid sending them out to the sides like a goal post—that’s rough on the shoulders, says Rosante.

Turn it down: Perform the same movement, but with hands on a couch, chair, or the edge of a table to elevate your upper body.

Turn it up: Perform a regular push-up, but keep the lowering phase super slow. Aim to count to five or six before you touch the floor.

RELATED: What Muscles Do Push-Ups Work? Here's How to Do Them the Right Way

Overall, the question of whether muscle weighs more than fat hinges more on the size of what's being weighed—taking it back to the bricks versus feathers example, a pound of feathers will look much larger in size than a pound of bricks.

That's what's really at the root of this question: size—and for people, this centers on body composition, the proportion of fat versus non-fat mass in your body (which actually includes muscle, bones, and organs). While it should be said, first and foremost, that body size or weight is not necessarily an indication of health, there is some truth behind the saying that muscle weighs more than fat—here's what you need to know.

RELATED: 7 Reasons You're Not Building Muscle Even Though You're Lifting Weights

The short answer: Yes, to a certain extent muscle does weigh more than fat; if you simply take a bowl of fat and compare it to a same-sized bowl of muscle, the muscle will weigh more. But that's only an explanation in the simplest of terms—there's much more that goes into that question, particularly how your body responds to these two tissues, body fat and muscle.

Muscle can weigh more than fat because it’s denser, says Joel Seedman, PhD, neuromuscular physiologist and owner of Advanced Human Performance in Suwanee, Georgia. So, as previously explained, if you hold a fistful of muscle it will weigh more than the same fistful of fat because you technically have more of the compact tissue in your hand. The catch: That number on the scale shouldn’t really matter here, because the benefits of having more muscle tissue in the body outweighs having more fat tissue.

RELATED: Does Plant Protein Build Muscle as Well as Meat?

Muscle is a star player in keeping your body happy and healthy in the long-term, for several reasons. For starters, lean muscle mass can help manage blood sugar, keeping type 2 diabetes at bay. In fact, one 2017 cohort study published in PLoS One found a negative association between muscle mass and risk of developing of type 2 diabetes—specifically that a higher muscle mass meant a lower chance of type 2 diabetes. “The number one consumer of blood sugar in the human body is skeletal muscle,” says Tim Church, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of preventive medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. So, the more muscle you have, the greater your potential to metabolize blood sugar. As an added bonus, the blood sugar-regulating effect is instant and lasting after exercise. So if you do a workout today, your muscles will utilize blood sugar better over the next 72 hours, Church says.

Also, as you age, you’ll want a healthy amount of muscle, rather than fat. “Muscle is a commonly overlooked marker of healthy aging,” Church says. You lose about 1-2% of muscle mass starting around age 40 or 45, he adds. This age-related decline in muscle is known as sarcopenia, and it’s one of the biggest reasons many older adults can no longer do simple tasks without help. “You can’t put your jacket on, you can’t push yourself off the toilet, and you can’t get yourself off the ground after you fall,” Church says. “It all comes down to strength and muscle mass.”

What’s even better news is that muscle can further help you maintain a healthy weight by raising your basal metabolic rate, or the number of calories you burn at rest. Exactly how many extra calories you’ll burn by adding muscle is unclear: “That number has been widely discussed and argued over the years,” says Seedman. “But we do know the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism.”