Welcome to /r/bodyweightfitness! 🏸

I've been doing a wrist warm-up/strengthening routine before pretty much every workout I've done in the last two or so years (let's call it 3-4 times a week on average). I think it's the 'standard' exercises you might find in any YouTube video on this topic, e.g. 'wrist push-ups'/pulses on both palms and the back of the hand, leaning over the wrists (like a planche lean), side-to-side motion while resting on the knuckles etc.

In spite of all this, I would say my wrist mobility is average at best - doing push-ups on flat hands is uncomfortable, when I train planche leans I have to do it on my knuckles for the shoulders to become the limiting factor, same with pseudo-planche pushups - and even then, the wrists still feel uncomfortable. Practicing handstands also hurts my wrists after a little while.

I suppose this is partially a vent-thread, as I'm just so frustrated with my wrists limiting my progress in exercises I'd like to improve - but I'm also curious if others have dealt with poor wrist mobility and perhaps solved it with some silver-bullet exercise I haven't considered?

I by all means, have come a very far way from where I began. However, due to comparison I’m not sure if my progress is realistic and normal, or have I not done enough within this time period.

I started off my fitness journey at home with a couple of 3kg dumbells resistance bands, and two high chairs for dips. I was using these three things for about 3 months from about May to July, whilst in a calorie deficit (1500cal). I then started hitting the gym and went consistently for a couple months. Around November I started getting inconsistent as I was feeling very burnt out. The reason for this was, I was still in a 1500cal limit and was just dying of exhaustion every day. Around November I went on my first bulk, and this went on until January.

In January I have managed to find myself a gym bro and it motivated me to go consistently and not skip any days. So up about until April I was training pretty consistently but I would say my workouts were still pretty lazy.

Around May I started a cut since I was going on vacation in July. With this cut I also started to train the hardest I ever had, I did crazy cardio as well. This was when I really saw crazy progress, my abs started popping, my shoulders, chest, and all of my muscles really started showing some definition. I went so hard in these 3 months that I was so burnt out again, and after my vacation I took a 3 week break from the gym.

Fast forward to now, even after no excercise I’d say I somehow look my best. But I’m worried that because of all the “Breaks” and “Inconsistent Periods” I’ve had, I’m worried that I’ve haven’t made as much progress as I could have. Thus, I need yall to judge and see if I’m tripping, or should I lock in.

My Physique Progress: https://imgur.com/a/oCtQPJx

Hi all :)

I startet with calisthenics around 6 months ago. I was not able to do one push up and pull ups were more then impossible.

Over the last 6 months I increased my overall strength and I’m quite happy with my progress; with proper (or decent) form I’m now able to do 3 sets of:

7 - 8 pull-ups 15 - 20 push ups 10 dips 10 - 15 elevated pike push ups

I was not really focusing on any skills the last months, but I’m now able to hold a proper L-Sit for 20 seconds on parallettes.

I’m not quite sure on how to progress now, besides adding more volume? My goal in mind is to be able to do 10 pull ups in three consecutive sets. I think that’s doable in a couple of weeks. But besides that I’m not quite sure on how to progress. I started to incorporate different pushup variations like pseudo push ups and working on archer push ups.

What would you recommend me to do to add or proceed? I would like to get to handstand maybe, but I don’t have the space to practice at home?

Current workout routine: I don’t follow a specific routine, but I try to work out 4 to 5 times a week for 40 to 60 minutes each. 1 session is focused on cardio, 1 leg, 2 to 3 times strength (push / pull focus). That works quite well for me.

I’m fairly skinny / lean.

I’m not always able to work out on equipment (family father).

Thanks!

What I notice, is more people complain about how they struggle to gain mass, rather than strength.

I have always found it's infinitely easier to gain muscle mass, and i can notice physical changes month to month. It doesn't really take multiple months to note a difference between photos.

With a couple years training experience now, I technically haven't graduated the bwf primer. Yes, I am bigger and have gained weight, but it seens most people in this time frame would probably be moving more than my bodyweight in total for weighted bwf movements.

To add tho, compared to other weight gain transformations at similar height and weight as me, I seem small for my height and weight?

Like here I look more like the left, rather than the right, and I have similar stats. I'm also still very lean. I'm not sure if it's how I hold mass/weight.

First of all, I've been using a combination of calisthenics and barbells. Hopefully I'll still get some good advice here.

Basically, I took a pretty long hiatus from serious lifting (5 years or so) since moving to an area without good gym access. I have access to some basic benches and weights so I've been casual lifting for the last 5 years. Of course, my muscle mass and strength shrunk immensely over that period.

A couple of months ago I started getting into calisthenics, at first on a mostly casual basis, doing stuff like pistol squats, dead hangs, muscle-ups, etc. The initial idea was just to improve my flexibility, range of motion, and functional strength. Fast forward to about a month ago and I decided to actually get back on a serious strength training program. With a few minor setbacks (subluxed my shoulder and sprained my wrist a few weeks ago doing an exercise I shouldn't have been doing), I regained a ridiculous amount of former strength and size over the past couple of weeks, from basically 40-50% of my peak fitness level to probably somewhere around 70-75% now.

My question is if there's anything I can do to maximize and extend the rate at which I'm regaining strength, if I should expect it to taper off soon, and if it's possible to push these "newbie" gains to exceed my previous strength peak.

The program I'm doing now is basically Westside Barbell (4 week mesocycle) but with barbell lifts replaced by calisthenics moves.

After 1.5+ years of following the RR essentially (in the big movements at least) with the only major modification that i split it into an upper/lower routing I decided to change things up a bit more.

My main goal (apart from the obvious being fit for my day to day and future self :) ) is become better at pulling and especially going towards low chest pull ups (and eventually to muscle ups)

My constrains are that on average I have 3 days a week to workout max 1 hour per session (including warmup and a tiny bit of cardio) and usually the days are consecutive. Like Tuesday:Upper Wednesday:Lower Thursday: Upper

By reading in the internets and videos and some questions to ai robots I came up with a plan of having an upper heavy day: With "a lot" of weight on my main compounds and in the 4-6 rep range and light/explosive day where I aim for speed+height in my pull ups and for lowe weight and higher reps on the other moves.

1. Have any of you tried it ? Is it a good enough plan if I only work out 3 days a week? (Knowing progress would be slow it's fine)
2. My "heavy" weights are still light compared to my bw. I do pull ups 3x7 with +3kg (I could do + 7kg on july but lost some strength due to august vacation with no training at all). So is the heavy light ady stil valuable? Maybe focusing on increasing my weighted pulls first before aiming for speed and height?
3. I just did a light session yesterday and tbh I wasn't that explosive and on the 5th rep I had already lost height (started by comfortable hitting my clavicle to squeezing to reach lower neck) is ti any indication I am not there to try this yet or it will get better if I stick to it?
4. last one, I am on a deficit these pat 1.5 year and went down a totla of 12Kg) Im not that committed to weight loss right now although I would liek to shed mayb 3-4 more Kg. Do you thing this is incompatible with my plan/goals?

Thanks!

So recently I was able to do RTO hold without pain which was one of the most aggravating exercises to me! Plus a lot of pulling movements without pain, I just wanted tl share my story in case anyone is going through the same.

So in short I got golfer's elbow because of trying to get back into my routine straight away after quite some time away from exercising, at college I think I had an intermediate level (front lever, one arm pullup, ugly straddle planche, sup back lever, etc). Then I kind of stopped exercising or just went to do basics like 2 times a week, about a year ago I got inspired to get back into my routine after taking some adult gymnastics classes.

Naturally being so pumped and wanting to show off my old strength I jumped back too quick and with too much volume. Eventually when doing chin ups I felt my elbow and had sone days where it just felt like mildly throbbing pain when sleeping and waking up with quite a bit of pain. I kind of pushed through it and then I couldn't do chin ups, or straight arm work, handstands and RTO holds made it hurt too.

Eventually I found out about eccentrics, and targeting the tendon. I also wasted some time not knowing exactly what tendon was injured, and doing exercises which didn't help much I believe, in my case I had it on my forearm, if I pressed my fingers on a surface it would flare up.

So what I did is in the gym I go I used an elastic band and tried doing wrist curls in an angle where I felt the tendon flaring up, I progressed by doing it with bent arms and quite close to the band, until I could do it with a straight arm and farther away. Always taking pain into account. Also I started doing forearm and grip strength exercises.

Yesterday I was able to do a RTO hold without pain, it still is not fully healed, at least my left arm still hurts a bit, but my right one feels great maybe about 90% healed. It was a few months of this.

Hope it helps someone and as a tip if you already have it, localize it first and then really focus on it while removing or minimizing aggravating exercises. And don't give up, plus try to not go all in even if you're feeling hype about it.

Hi i was training for muscle ups and all by just doing pullups on back day and eventually i got so good and started flying especially when i started doing weighted pullups but i increased my weights over time and have got better but after a month my muscle ups has got worse and i feel heavier todo pullups and my muscle ups have been stuck at 2-3 for months now even though I’m training hard idk What’s wrong i was flying before but now i cant and It’s making me feel like I’m doing something wrong idk what it is and my weighted pullups are getting better but regular pullups are just heavier now and i weigh the same i maintained my weight idk What’s going on

Hello,

i just started working out. I do pushups and inverted rows using 2 tables. I dont have money to buy equipment. My friend wants to lend me his dumbbells with option to add more weight as I will need.

However i have no idea how to choose correct exercises so that i dont neglect any muscle part because im really scared about creating imbalances. I dont want to hurt my body.

Can anybody help me to select a few good exercises for upper body with dumbells that combine well with pushups and inverted rows?

Legs are okay, im trying to progress with regular squats into one one leg squats.

I dont want to become big, just some muscles to gain so i dont look like a stick.

Many thanks and im sorry if this is inapproptiate to ask.

I'm doing 531 fsl and for the 5x10 assistance work i want to do a bodyweight circuit and I'm hoping you will help choose the best exercise to compliment the big lift of the day. For example today i did bench press, diamond push-up, ring rows, weighted crunch

For those that don't know, after your big lift of the day you do 5x10 assistance push, pull, legs/core

This is what I've come up with so far. I can't think what to do on squat or dead day.

Squat - push - pull - hamstring?
Bench - push up - row - crunch
Deadlift - push - pull - quad?
Ohp - dips - pull up - leg raises

I'll be doing mwf 3 day week pushing the 4th day into the following week. Do you think it doesn't really matter if i do vertical/horizontal on particular days? Just alternate between pushup/rows + dips/pull-ups? And do crunches on press days and legs on squat and dead days?

Hi there! Sorry for the newbie question. I’m a long-time weightlifter looking to get into bodyweight training and am excited to try out the recommended routine.

In my regular split I hit legs twice a week, usually 4-5 exercises each day, for around 4 sets each. The rep range varies depending on the exercise but I always make sure to incorporate compound lifts like squats and deadlifts.

Now I’m looking at the recommended routine and it looks like 3 days a week you’re supposed to do barbell squats and deadlifts for 3x5. How has that felt for other people? It seems very little to me compared to my regular leg day volume so I wonder if I will still see leg gains? Or should I just up the weight to increase difficulty? Curious to hear other people’s experiences and if I should stick to the exact routine or incorporate more leg work. Thanks!

Welcome to the r/bodyweightfitness Daily Discussion! This is the place to post simple questions, anecdotes, achievements, or just about anything that's on your mind related to fitness!

Commonly asked questions about training and nutrition:

• Recommended Routine is the original full-body workout program of the subreddit.
• Fitness FAQ covers all questions related to nutrition - gaining muscle, losing weight, etc.
• BWF FAQ covers many of the commonly asked questions.
• Even though the rules are relaxed in this thread, asking for medical advice is still not allowed.

DISCORD SERVER:

Our Discord server is very active and is truly the heart of the community. It is not only a social space, but it is also a great place for live discussion on training and nutrition compared to the slow pace of reddit! Come say Hi!

---

If you'd like to look at previous Discussion threads, click here.

Hello, I'm an absolute beginner looking to improve my overall health. I'm currently working through the BWF Primer and plan to move on to BWSF later. I'm looking to buy a pull-up station because I don't trust the door-mounted pull-up bars. I'm considering these.

DONIUZ cheaper, includes dip bars. $87.90

Bongkim more expensive, without dip bars but more space $159.99 with discount

Cap Barbell Without dip bars, $119.99

Since I'm a beginner, I'm not sure if I need a dip bar or if more space is more important for me. I'm also thinking about getting rings for rows, and I'm considering Vulken. $39.99. Since I’m 5 feet tall, I think a smaller grip might suit me better.

Could you please share your thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I was always told that the reason my wrists popped out of place was because I had a weak grip. But after we tested it in PT a few months ago, it was 110lbs? He didn't have anything to help my wrists as it is just from hypermobility.

But yea...? How did that happen? We did it a few times and the first week was 100lbs in both, and 110lbs in right and 105lbs in left at the end. He grabbed his reading glasses and everything 😂

I see that that's not common, but it is annoying my wrists will forever pop out if I am not careful grabbing my wallet from my pocket 🙄

Small victory I guess!

I'm only on the second week of this workout I picked up to target upper body. 3x 10 push ups 3 x 10 decline push ups 3 sets of bicep curls: 12-10-8 3 sets of Hammer Curls: 12-10-8 3 sets of Dumbbell Rows: 12-10-8 3 sets of Lat push-ups: 12-10-8 3 sets of shoulder shrugs 15-15-15 50 crunches

I've been to the gym before, inconsistently. this is the first plan I've followed, and I do it tuesdays thursdays and saturday. I use around 30 lbs for the weights, I tried progressing to 35 this tuesday, and today I couldn't get to six bicep curls without stopping from the pain.

Any advice?

I've been slowly watching the months go by and I have vacation coming up, but I've gotten weaker and fatter since the pandemic, and I've put off fixing things until now.

can someone help me with a basic bodyweight routine to follow that isn't going to destroy me instead of making me better able to move around and not need to sit down every 10 minutes? I'm 46, 330lbs, with some experience with exercise, but it's been awhile since I've done anything.

thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

First, I want to thank this community, It has provided me a lot of knowledge and motivation!

I'm a M26, 174cm, 85kg (187lb) and have been training since the beggining of the year, but not so consistenly, with some weeks doing 2 sessions of the RR, some not working out at all (just doing jiu-jitsu), and rarely completing 3 sessions in a weeks. This has changed in the last 4 weeks, where I did 3 workout sessions all weeks + 7 hours of jiu-jitsu on average. This week I felt very tired, and my progress stagnated, so I decided to do a deload next week, but I'm still worried of undertraining and loosing progress after the deload. Also, I'm on a cutting (started the year at 97kg (213lb).

Currently, my workouts stagnated at the following marks: Weighted pullups (+10kg, or 22lb): 8-7-7 Pistol squats: 6-5-5 Ring dips (+RTO at the top): 7-6-6 RDL(with some bands I haver): 5-5-5 Tuck FL rows: 5-5-5 PPPu (alternating with elevated Pike HSPu between workouts): 6-6-5 (7-7-6 for HSPu) Leg raises: 6-6-5

TLDR: Have been training consistenly for the last 4 weeks, now I feel tired and not progressing on workouts and want help for planning a deload.

Hey there, I found this subreddit a couple years ago and read the beginner routine and sort of ended up with a routine that looks like this

Birddogs - 4x10 Deadbugs- 4x10 Gluten Bridges- 4x10 Squats- 4x10 Reverse Rows- 4x10 Push Ups- 4x10

I also do a stair step thing I sort of came up with on my own. I do 40 steps on each leg. And I ride my bike for about 15 minutes or so.

A couple months ago I really decided I wanted to give this routine my all and stick to it and have been able to do this every day.

I'm a 33 year old male. About 245 lbs and 5'9". 5'10" if I don't slouch I guess.

Excersizing is pretty new to me. It wasn't until two years ago that I really started to try and figure out what my routine would look like.

I was going to post a vid that I filmed with my phone of the individual exercises to see if I could get some feedback on them, but it doesn't seem like people do that here so I'll just say they are available to anyone who is willing to look at them. I'd appreciate no judgement.

Thank you!

Male, 5’10 160 LBS, 28 y/old. I seem to have an easy time with weekly progressive overload on things like push-ups and bicep curls (for example: currently at 130 push ups per session and currently incrementing 5 a week, started at 40 3 months ago ).

I do chin ups in sets of 3 and am averaging 10 now.

I have put on visible muscle mass and probably a little fat from bulking but I’m still the same waist size. When I started my calesthenics routine I was 158 lbs and now I’m 165 lbs.

That said, my dead arm hang times are fluctuating and hindering me from reaching my goal of 90 seconds and above (see below):

Date Duration 08/20: 70 Seconds 08/25: 70 Seconds 08/28: 80 Seconds 09/06: 60 Seconds 09/10: 80 Seconds 09/28: 67 Seconds 10/02: 70 Seconds

My questions are:

(1) is this normal?

(2) how can I better train this? I am basically just doing overhand hangs till failure with a timer.

Thanks for your insight! Happy to provide any more info if needed.

I am 19 years old, 165cm (5'4'' I think in Inches), and 40Kg (88 lbs). I want to start building my body so I check the sidebar in r/Fitness which titled "Getting started" and it recommends to do "5/3/1 for beginners". I am also using the spreadsheet named 531 for begginers. I posted it there for questions but got deleted by bot, I think because I hardly ever used reddit so my karma is low. I hope this is the right place to ask.

Question 1:
From what I read, I go to the gym for the first time -> calculate TM by choosing weight which I can do 3-5 reps on good speed. Is reps means how many pull/push in around? If I push 1 2 3 4 5 then rest ,1 2 3 4 5 then rest, this is 2 sets of 5 reps? or I understand it wrongly? English is my 4th language so I am having a trouble in understanding this.

Question 2:
This is the work sets. Does it goes like this for the first week?
Squat
12345 at 65% weight based on excel - rest -
12345 at 75% - rest -
12345 but as many as I can since + (I am not sure with AMRAP here, I can do 123 but stop because tired? and also I can do more than 5 until tired so 123456789?) - rest -
12345 on 65% but 5 round/sets

and then repeat again but with bench instead

Work Sets

• Week 1
  • 5 reps @ 65%
  • 5 reps @ 75%
  • 5+ reps @ 85%
  • 5 sets of 5 reps @ 65%
• Week 2
  • 3 reps @ 70%
  • 3 reps @ 80%
  • 3+ reps @ 90%
  • 5×5 @ 70%
• Week 3
  • 5 reps @ 75%
  • 3 reps @ 85%
  • 1+ reps @ 95%
  • 5×5 @ 75%

Question 3:
I have friend who help me before but since I study abroad now, I don't have any spotter. I was lifting just the bar at that time and I am not sure if I should do without one. I can't have any spotter because they limit the number of people in gym since it's really small with 4-5 machine. Should I just do it by myself? How to correct my position? Or should I go with alternatives?

Question 4:
This is what it means right?
Squat
https://i0.wp.com/www.muscleandfitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1109-Barbell-Back-Squat-GettyImages-614107160.jpg?quality=86&strip=all

Bench
https://www.gymmaster.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GM-BNC-001-6-scaled.webp
Deadlift
https://www.kettlebellkings.com/cdn/shop/articles/barbell-deadlift-movement.gif?v=1692228918
How about press? I have no idea what it looks like

In my dormitory's gym, it has:

• Reverse Hyperextension
• Leg Curl Machine
• Leg Extension Machine
• Lat Pulldown Machine
• Rowing machine and some that I am not sure what it's called

I still have a lot of questions but these are my main questions, Thank You!

Thank you for the help, I will ask in other subreddit!

I am 230lb and started my journey at 255. I wished to be those guys flying up and down on fitness rings, but could not (and still cant) do a pullup just yet. After I want to say hours of looking at fitness rings online I took the plunge about a month ago and got a pair. Has been a game changer in my workouts, confidence and availability (you can travel with rings and mine came with a door attachment, although it will be my last resort and situational). Now I do not feel so limited in my working out just at a gym, or utilizing some weights to build up strength. With a little self-confidence boost, and a few days to just play around and get comfortable, they are my main source now for muscle training.

Way easier said than done, I have a little more confidence just due to my upbringing (NYC Native) so I did not care and just grabbed a bar at the gym, and hung my round self up and tried modified workouts till I got comfortable. After some online research I have a modified routine that works for me; so get the rings and make them work for YOU.

I hope this helps someone out there as maybe that spark of confidence, because do not limit yourself, I did for way too long. What is the biggest thing do you think holding you back?

EDIT: For everyone asking about the door anchor attachment and what kind of workouts you can do, I found a good video that goes over a few workouts you can do with a door anchor attachment. You are a bit limited so I would say this is more for us beginners.

https://youtu.be/4c_7y9NGmzg?si=CVMCDgSilxq0b2kK

Been doing weighted pullups for about 6 months and have seen crazy gains. Started at only 5 reps with 15 added pounds but now can do much more than that. My progression scheme has just been the russian fighter pullup program from 5 max reps to 7 reps. When i get to 7 reps i add 10lbs and go back to 5 reps. This has worked up untill 55 added pounds. It seems that i am stuck at 5 reps max and cannot progress to 6 reps. I took 2 rest days from pullups and am still struggling to finish the 5th rep. Any tips?

Hey, so I tweaked my upper body routine recently so I could progress in high pull ups, with the goal to do muscle ups eventually. I'm 177cm, 81kg. Here is how it goes;

-Weighted pull ups 3x3 (currently at 20kg) -High pull ups, as high as I can, 3-4x3 -Light weighted wide grip pull ups 1-2xMax reps

Along with the rest of my upper body exercises (weighted dips, barbell rows, OHP, curls and tri ext.)

Two times a week

I'm looking for advices to see if I could change anything to make it better.

Thanks

so I get the concept of warmup --> skill work --> strength train.

if you are just beginning a skill though, like say right now (just as an example) I'm just starting handstands. I would say it's fairly taxing even just doing 3 reps of one min against the wall.

would it not be better to just do that as a separate session?

I totally get the benefit habit-wise that it's better to just do it while you're already at the gym and warmed up, etc

just wondering...maybe I need to tone down my "skill" work??

Hi All,

I've been doing RR since March, with only a few weeks or so off for holidays, I've seen some decent strength gains since then, but I'd say I'm at a point where its getting harder to progress, my current stats are as follows;

44 (almost 45) years old 72kg and 5 foot 11" Plant based diet, plenty of protein from Seitan, Tempeh, Tofu, nuts/seeds, lentils, beans etc. I also started taking EAAs. Intermittent fasting - I'm doing it as I enjoy doing it and it helps with my gut health, mood etc Sometimes cold showers!

In the gym RR:

Pull ups 3 sets 7,6,5 Squats 60kg 3x5 Dips - really struggle here with form. I can do negatives fine, but then dips I cannot seem to hold the right posture, shoulders in place etc 3x7 RDL or DL 75kg Rows, I can do these 3x8 on rings starting at a decline PPPU - 3x8 and getting the lean forward further now.

I then do the triple abs of ring rolls outs, banded palloff and hyperextension. I added in some hanging leg raises here.

Once the above is done, I recently adjusted the rings to shoulder height, kick up forwards into an upside-down hang, tuck and finish a 'skin the cat' slow and controlled.

I now want to start upping the ring skill work, so wanted to get some advice on all the above and what to do for the next skill. I'm enjoying the routine, but I'd like to start testing myself and maybe get some things going that will help increase the numbers above.

Thanks in advance all 😊

I have been grinding my weighted pull ups for years and now after a lot of work I am at +60kg(one rep max) at 67kg bodyweight. Of course my numbers are well above average, but on insta I have seen many people who are so much more talented in weighted pull ups, I have seen several people reach 100% bw pull up in a single year which is just crazy to me.

Is it just genetics ? Does it have something to do with their training ? I was always very good at statics and had easy time with skills, but my street lifting numbers are so inferior that I feel bad about my progress.

Welcome to the r/bodyweightfitness Daily Discussion! This is the place to post simple questions, anecdotes, achievements, or just about anything that's on your mind related to fitness!

Commonly asked questions about training and nutrition:

• Recommended Routine is the original full-body workout program of the subreddit.
• Fitness FAQ covers all questions related to nutrition - gaining muscle, losing weight, etc.
• BWF FAQ covers many of the commonly asked questions.
• Even though the rules are relaxed in this thread, asking for medical advice is still not allowed.

DISCORD SERVER:

Our Discord server is very active and is truly the heart of the community. It is not only a social space, but it is also a great place for live discussion on training and nutrition compared to the slow pace of reddit! Come say Hi!

---

If you'd like to look at previous Discussion threads, click here.

Can’t seem to find much about it online but does shoulder protraction ROM naturally come as you progress?

I’ve only just started the body weight program and by no means am I close to any of the advanced skills but shoulder protraction seems really important for things like the planche positions (that being the long-term goal) and I’m trying to just add in that extra shoulder protraction at the end of pushups to practice it.

To be frank, my protraction ROM is pretty abysmal - like I can’t protract any more than you would get in a normal push up position. I don’t feel tight, I don’t feel weak, I’m just straight up stuck - almost feels like my collar bone is in the way (maybe I’m doing it wrong?). I come from a competitive swimming background and so shoulder ROM I would say is better than average but I’ve never really needed that huge protraction ROM that you see with calisthenics athletes - that’s not to say that I haven’t worked on it (e.g scap pushups, cat-cows, rows, etc…) just never needed that much.

Are there other exercises that can help with this? Is it something that comes as you progress? Any clarification would be great thanks 🙏

Hiyaaaa! I’ve been trying to lose weight and fix my schedule by waking up early and starting my day right. However, I’m really struggling with avoiding naps because my body is so used to taking one every day. When something goes wrong, like taking a nap, I feel like it throws off everything else. For example, today I ended up eating a less healthy dinner because I felt like the day was already ruined. I had two slices of bread with eggs, ham, pepperoni, corn, and a lot of mayo, cream cheese, and pesto.

I also want to start working out, but I don’t want to go to the gym. I’ve been trying to find beginner workout routines that are quick, short, and not too difficult, but I’m struggling to find the right ones. On top of that, I’m having a hard time staying productive or finding things to distract myself. I feel like I need a proper plan but don’t know where to begin. Everything feels a bit overwhelming. Do you have any advice?

I started with less than five pull-ups in the beginning of this year. I painstakingly am up to 15 now, 10 if we’re talking wide grip. I had made it my goal, among other things, to achieve the front lever movement. But now the year in closing in, there are two months left, and I think I will not be able to achieve it. I have achieved back lever for about one second on a good day. I can do one arm pull-ups with my hand gripping the other arm. I have not even looked into planche because I honestly didn’t know what it was and never cared. So, I think I will have to give up on achieving front lever, and focus my energy on perfecting my other showy movements. I want to master handstand pushups by the end of this year, which I think is doable. Planche, probably not. But I can try. What do you guys think?