Welcome to /r/bodyweightfitness! 🏸

So I’ve been climbing for about 2 years now, and I’ve also been a bboy for about 5/6 years. I also do some physical conditioning to develop my pushing/pulling strength and to train my legs.

I’m 198cm and in the past 5 years I think I’ve gone from 90kg to 95kg, and in the last year my weight has basically been unchanged

Despite that my strength has increased tremendously and my body composition has changed even though my total weight hasn’t (a bit more muscle, a bit less fat)

I’ve always had some issues with recovery though

In a week I have 5 active days: 2 climbing days (1h to 2h each), 1 day bboying(1h30), 1 day for upper body where I train pull ups/muscle ups/front lever/rows and dips/push-up/handstands/planche, and 1 day for legs with squats/deadlifts/lunges/leg extension/core. I train for strength so for all the dynamic exercises I work at 4x10-12 at an appropriate weight with ~4/5minutes between sets.

I usually can only go 3 or 4 weeks with that program before I need to take a week off because my body aches all over and my grip strength just disappear (I drop 1 level on the climbing wall cause I have flashes of pain in my forearm if I grip to hard)

So my question is: is this lack of recovery due to exercising to hard/often or am I not eating enough (see my lack of weight gain)?

I sleep around 8 hours per night, I stretch after workouts (most of the time) and I feel like I’m eating to my full so idk what to think anymore

I am out of shape. I have some calisthenics and cardio experience from what I used to do before. I want to do circuits as my primary form of working out. Walking and jump rope for cardio….would run but long story. I want to combine body weight and some dumbbells, maybe also a jump rope. I wanted to ask if someone would like to chat here to answer questions I might have. Questions about exercises, workout structure, etc. I would google and spend time on YouTube, but better talking with one single person and some googling. Saves time, confusion, more planning than action, etc.

So I am not a beginner at the exercising but it was my first day at a gym and on my first day my trainer made me do 3 sets of 15 situps. I successfully could do them and after coming home I had this really really bad pain in my stomach and my obliques for which I literally couldn't move for 2 days straight and then I took a break to heal for about 3 days and then went to the gym. That day I could do about 10-12. I again took a break to rest and it's been 6 days. Today I tried doing a situp but I couldn't do a single one. I tried multiple times but I literally can't do a single situp. I know I don't have a bad form because I used to have very good physique and a very good core strength.

This is freaking me out as I can do situps but suddenly it seems like I don't have the strength and it doesn't hurt but it's like I just can't. I have zero strength. I have the core strength as I did perform those 45 situps just days ago.

One thing I also realized today was I can't get up straight with my legs down. This has never happened before

So I have been thinking about changing my workouts because they have been a bit stale lately. I do upper/lower, 4 days a week. So my idea is doing one upper day heavy weighted exercises for 5-8 reps and the next upper day do them just bodyweight for 15-25 reps.

Would this work when I want to gain more muscle and get stronger?

Rn I can do 8 pull-ups with + 8kg and 9 dips with + 20kg, so it’s not like I am a beginner.

Place the pumpkin, shallots, ginger and some oil in a large saucepan and sauté until soft. Add the stock, coconut milk and chilli powder. Season, then bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Blitz in a food processor then serve with the fresh herbs, lime juice and a splash of coconut milk.

I like the idea of working out at home and am trying to find something that will work with limited space. The gymnastic rings seem great, but unfortunately don't have anywhere to put them.

I really like the Baseblocks products, but am a bit overwhelmed by all the various options. My question for you all:

-If you could only pick one piece of Baseblock equipment. Which do you think would give me the best bang for my buck and allow me the most different workouts? FWIW, I am a beginner, so I don't imagine doing anything crazy to start.

Thanks.

In December I did the St Judes 3000 pushup challenge. I was turning 58 on December 12th so my goal was to be done by then, I made my goal doing several 35 rep sets a day. Despite doing all these I could never really get past 35 pushups in a row without straining the last 5. I did feel my oats one day and did a set of 50. I am very strict in form and range of motion, my speed is medium with no jerkiness. I got covid in the end of December. I have been back at the gym and doing pushups on my off days when I road bike. I still have issues getting past 35 with no strain. I do seated rows at 265 (stacked) and benchpress 3 sets of 12 at 165. I do weighted dips 3 sets of 12 with no strain. I weight 163lbs and lean... what gives??? I am thinking my chest is underdeveloped....

Hello I'm 29 years old male, 62Kg trying to start calesthenics at home, I have prior experience in kickboxing and Normal Gym workouts but in the recent years I have not been working out at all and I want a free program that integrates streching and calesthenics workouts that starts from early skills till I can reach an advanced skill.

I have been searching for such a program but all of it is paid and other than that I need to spend alot of time reasearching each skill set progression and make my own program which is time consuming, So if anyone could help me I would appreciate it.

Need some help/ advice about burnout and overtraining. I keep pushing too far and burning myself out. My work is reasonably physical as I am on a bar and going up and down stairs the whole time(some shifts would be comparable to a hike). I workout most days of the week but its very low volume e.g some days is just a couple sets of pushups or pullups. Some days I go rockclimbing. I eat well, my weight is healthy (although in low end of healthy bmi). I read that 10 sets per muscle group is the weekly target for growth but that doesnt feel sustainable for me. (Looking back i was doing more 12 sets a week per muscle group). This week my body crashed with a three day migraine, I was stressed from personal life and I believe that tipped me over. Not the first time this has happened either. My new plan is to lower weekly volume( 5 sets of pushups, pullups, leg and core exercises) plus more cardio work in the hopes that cardio fitness could improve my work capacity. I have concerns, one being would cardio help or would it be more to recover from? Is 5 sets enough volume to even do anything. Is there anything I can do to improve recovery? I am aware I do daily sets, should they be split into the traditional 3 days a week. Thank you.

My name's Ian. I'm a 19 year old male, 176cm, used to be 48kg and now I'm at 56kg and still going up. I have been doing calisthenics for about 2 months now but I had been lifting for a month before picking up calisthenics. Right now my routine consists of:4x5BandedPullUps+4NegativePullUps (I can do 3 PullUps right now at the start of my workouts)

4x10-15DifferentVariationPushups (Close grip, archer, want to introduce pseudo planche)

4x8Dips

4x8Horizontal Rows

3x a week

I have been practicing the Frogstand, the elbow planche and I want to start practising the handstand. As for legs, I do a lot of skateboarding and mountain biking, so I honestly don't think I want to spend time on these, at least for now. Bulking has been the hardest part but I started eating more calories and drinking calories and protein and I gained a lot of lean weight.

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So I have a few questions now. I want to build my pecs and I'm seeing great progress with the routine I'm following, but I would like to know if there are any other good alternatives. I tend to do posture exercises during rest days and I've also seen progress there. I want to start doing things like back lever, front lever, planche etc but I honestly don't know where to start. Can someone give me advice on what should I focus on? My main goal is to get very strong (1) and get more aesthetic (2).

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What equipment should I buy? Parallettes? Rings? I have all sorts of dip stuff and pullup bars on my local park.

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This was me before starting and this is me today

Say you have a goal, you want to be able to perform 10 000 push ups in a row and you have to do that in three years.

How much training would be optimal scientifically? You obviously would need to do dedicate a ton of effort to it, but how much exactly? Would training every day doing 20 sets be optimal? Would training 3 times a week doing 200 sets be best? Of course, it largely depends on your genetics, so say you have average genetics. And along with the sets of push-ups you do, would doing something else help? Like core training, arm training or cardio? How much of those would you need to do? What about stretching?

And please don't add comments saying it's not possible or similar. This is a hypothetical question to figure out what is the most optimal amount of exercise if you ignore everything else but that one goal.

Seriously, gymnastics rings are the best purchase I've made in my fitness world, probably overall the best purchase I've ever made for anything

I'm 29, I tried the gym countless times, I tried swimming, I tried personal trainers, I really felt like working out at home was right for me so I bought the shake weight when it was popular, I bought resistance bands, I bought dumbbells and gave up on them, nothing was working, NOTHING!

I wanted to try fitness one more time because I'm tired and I'm out of shape so I can't not try because that's giving up on my health so let's go through the cycle one more time, but this time I'm on Reddit and I found a little link to r/bodyweightfitness while on the sub of the first thing I searched r/fitness

The RR caught my attention, cool tricks seems like a good enough goal to have, I bought gymnastics rings, a doorway pull-up bar, and swiveling hooks and 80 dollars later I have everything I need

A 40 dollar set of rings and I have damn near EVERYTHING I need for isolation exercises (bicep curls, hamstring curls, tricep extensions, chest flies) and full body compound exercises (dips, push-ups, rows) and even ab exercises (ring rollouts and pallof press), and the best part is I'm probably still a beginner (maybe I'm beginning to be an intermediate) and I still have a million professions so I can build a ton of strength and skill and still find a good challenge)

On top of free and at home and easily portable, it's damn fun, I would have lost interest a dozen times by now with other exercises but I'm almost doing full sets of pull-ups and looking into Archer pull-ups and I'm doing Archer push-ups looking into Pelican push-ups, doing cool stuff and looking forward to so much more cool stuff

And the freedom of it got my kids interested in it! They copy the movements I do when I'm working out and I leave them up so they can hang off of them, do flips, put their legs through them and sit on them like a swing, and we put a wooden dowel between them and used that to pin up sheets for an awesome fort in the living room

All for the price of 40 dollars and some hooks, if I know what I know now and could only find gymnastics rings for 300 dollars I would still want to do it, I'm hooked man!!

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 everyone, I’m trying to create a UL routine to use but am struggling to create a routine, this is what I have so far anyone have any improvements?

Pike push ups 4x15 Scapular pull ups- superset with pike push ups pseudo planche push ups 4x13 Dips or ring dips 4x8 Pelican curls 4x?- superset with dips Pull up negatives 4x9 Inverted row 4x11 Ring face pulls 4x?- superset with inverted row Side lateral raise 3x15

Gear wise I have a pull up and dip stand with sideways parallettes attached, rings, and a yoga mat. I’m primarily using this routine to focus on my back muscles and my chest since I feel those are lakcking. Anyone have any recommendations on how I could make this better?

Hey guys, I really need some help. I have a bar for bodyweight rows and L sit pull ups. There's no bar available unless I get gym membership for pullups. Can L sit pull ups work the same muscles as pull ups? I know the center of gravity is a bit different but how much of an l sit pull up lends itself to a pull-up? Like if I start off with a max of 2 l sit pull ups and get to 6 or 7. Will that increase my pull up max as well or is too different of a movement to train the biceps/back and lats the same way? Please advise in detail if possible. Sorry for the trouble. Thank you so much

https://imgur.com/a/Q4Lby6t

Two months ago, I began incorporating pullup variations, dips, and pushups into my routine following the greasing the groove method. Despite these exercises being symmetric, I've noticed uneven development in my lats, with my right lat and right arm being noticeably larger. My workouts have been light, never reaching failure or causing me to break a sweat. Now, I'm interested in starting a more structured training program while also monitoring my calorie and nutrition intake. My concern is avoiding further muscle imbalances. Additionally, I experience upper body discomfort during pushups and dips, despite incorporating stretching and mobility routines.

On Mondays I have a workout plan with a bunch of guys and I end up giving out on the push ups before everyone else. I just bought protein powder for this, Im also not one to exactly work out, but I breakdance and have power moves so I’m not completely wimpy.

Was wondering if anyone had a push-up regimen I could do to get stronger. We do pretty slow pushups and at the end of the day I’m pretty damn sore with spaghetti arms. I know I want to have a day or two to rest before Monday but what about during the whole week? Thanks for reading 🙏

Hey I feel as if I have a pretty significant disadvantage with my ability to grip onto a pull-up bar (or any metal grip or bar in a gym).

Let me explain: I have generally short and stubby fingers but they’re also not thick they’re boney and skinny. When I grip a pull-up bar my ring finger does not go all the way around maybe 75% of the way around the bar and my pinky goes literally about 50-60% around the bar. I feel as if because I am working with LESS surface area than a guy whose fingers completely wrap around the bar. And I feel as if I’m at a significant disadvantage i feel like I have to power grip extra strong just to hold my body up.

Any solutions for this, it’s incredibly frustrating and I feel like if I had bar I could fully wrap my fingers around I could do way more pull-ups and not have to put so much energy to even just hanging off the ground.

Also am I crazy or just very observant of the realities of biology here?

Is it better to do normal parallel bar dips on chest/back day as ring dips do exhaust the lats since they act as stabilizers or does it not matter? I want to do ring dips since I don’t do as much weight with them and feel way better on my joints but would exhausting the lats limit how hard I can train my back leading therefore to a lesser stimulus? I know this is the logic behind why some people think PPL might not be effective for arms since you’re gassed out doing isolations from doing compound movements earlier in the workout but does it apply here?

Is it more efficient to workout one body part rather than multiple areas, allow the CNS to fully recover and then do another body part for example in 3-4 days rather? I'm thinking on the lines of what's purely optimal for the effort put in rather than optimal for growth or any other factor. Bear in mind, I'm not asking how much capacity the CNS has in one period. Going further, if working multiple body parts, and generally volume training, in one day, does eat into the work output, what would truly be the optimal rep range? 1 rep? 10 reps? To me, this magical number of 10 seems just that. A nice round number. What's to say 112 reps isn't optimal? Or 7? Or multiples sets, or 1 set? A lot of these numbers seem arbitrary and there are arguments and tests on either side which claim their method is superior.

Thanks.

So my partner and I are both female, and while I'm bigger than her I know this is quite the goal to accomplish.

My partner has chronic pain and that's why I want to do this. If she has a flare-up while we're out i don't want it to ruin her fun. Also we just moved to the 3rd floor, I don't want her to deal with that during a flare-up either.

I usually just take walks for exercise, I've never really looked into any sort of body-building. I don't really know what specific muscles I'll need to work out for this task/how intensely I'll need to work out to make this happen in a decent (1-2yrs...) time frame.

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.

I've been trying to progress in my inverted rows, so I've been looking around for what form I should target. I've scoured multiple guides and links that teaches me how to perform the exercise correctly, and I feel that I'm never reaching a proper consensus.

Here's what I do know vs what's contradicting it:

• Elbows are expected to flare out a bit, and you're supposed to do it as if you're elbowing someone behind you. However, some demonstrate the exercise with close grip, with elbows close to the lats.
• Your chest is supposed to touch the bar, but I use rings, and most of the forms I've seen online has chests being half a fist away from the rings.
• Your arms are supposed to bend a bit, as if bringing the bar to the chest, but some have bars hit a few inches below the chest.

One thing that's consistent is that the exercise targets the lower back muscles, and some supporting muscles like the lats, biceps and the upper and mid traps. But I mostly feel it on my lower traps. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

i’ve been working out for like 4 montjs ( 2 months of consistent good work) , i was at 0 chin ups and now i’m at 8, it’s like i’m stuck here, i do weights as well as calisthenics, i also run and do sprints. i’ve been stuck on 8 chin ups for about 2 weeks, also i train 6x a week, and i’ve been seeing results, i feel great all my lifts are going up and my chin ups shot up but it feels like i’m stuck. pull day which is where i do my chin ups is only twice a week, i don’t know why i’m stuck here, is this normal? and if so how do i break through it? also i do 2 sets of failure on the chin up , because i do preacher curls and neutral grip pull ups as i’m afraid to overwork my bicep

Hi there (M14),

After consistently training for 6 months (I began working out 9 months ago), I still consider myself a beginner, particularly in pulling exercises.

Here are my current max reps:

Push-ups: 34 (chest to the ground)

Pistol squats: 10

Pull-ups: 0

Chin-ups: 1

I've been dedicating 3 days a week to pull exercises (2 pull-days and 1 upper body day). However, recently, I've been contemplating switching to the Recommended Routine (RR). Perhaps I'm a bit too worried, but unlike with pushing and legs, I started pulling just 3 months ago.

I train push twice a week (push day and upper), legs onces a week (leg day) and pull 3 times a week (2 pull days, 1 upper day)

I've thought lf various options:

Shifting toward a muscle-building approach. Starting the RR.

Doing multiple sets of 1 chin-up.

Less negatives

Reducing the intensity of my leg and push workouts to prioritize pulling.

Incorporating more "whole" movements (feet assisted pull-ups/chin-ups)

Eliminating the upper body day and replacing it with another pull day.

Currently, my workout routine looks like this:

Workout A (with rep numbers from my last workout):

Negatives: 4 sets of 7 (5-second descent with chin grip)

Rows: 4 sets of 11

Hollow body hold: 4 sets of 50 seconds

Workout B (with rep numbers from my last workout):

Negatives: 4 sets of 6 (5-second descent with chin grip)

Rows: 4 sets of 11

Hangs: 4 sets of 50 seconds

Upper workout (with rep numbers from my last workout):

Negatives: 4 sets of 6 (5-second descent with chin grip)

Pike push-ups: 4 sets of 13 (with hands 2 feet apart)

Knee raises: 4 sets of 8

I think I'm too worried. Anyways, Thanks for any input and advice!

I can do pistols squats without struggle on my right leg, but when I even try to go down on my left I fall. I also feel like this is affecting my weighted squats too because my thigh sometimes feels fatigued and unstable when putting on weight (though it doesn’t make me any weaker and my mobility is fine with both legs) I don’t think it is balance because I can stand on one leg pretty comfortably. I think this is an issue with mobility and/or impingement but I don’t know how to fix it. Any advice?

When I do my second 5 Minute plank, after 5minutes, I don't feel any resistance and I feel not numb but like I don't feel any pain and I was looking it up and I can't find anything anywhere, I'm gonna talk to my doctor about it, its like going from doing a plank for 5minutes in a little pain with resistance to then nothing, no resistance no nothing but I'm still doing the plank which scares me because I should be feeling resistance and then I let go because I feel like maybe I'm harming myself in a way and my body is trying to block it out? Has someone experienced this and do you know why this happens?

I (23F) just started working out again last week. It's been a while since I worked out. I ended up going from 145 lbs to 169 lbs during the spring. I was making bad habits like eating late at night, getting 4-5 hrs of sleep, sleeping right when I got home from work, eating junkfood.

I think all this happened because I lost motivation and became lazy.

But now I'm trying to get back on my routine and fix my life.

I would like some advice or tips on my workout routine!

So what I was doing for workouts before was jumprope using my weighted jumpropes : 1/4lb and 1/2 lb for 15-20min 3-4 times a week. I was going to the gym maybe 4-5 times a month.

Now I'm doing the same thing (minus the gym) but I've added strength training with dumbells (5lbs).

I'm pretty new to weights so I've been watching many videos about how to use them and proper forms.

So far I've been doing upper body workouts with my dumbells.

What advice can you give me? What should I add or change? How should my workout routine look like?

I don't know if what I'm doing will get me results. I want to lose weight and gain muscle.

Hello! First time posting in this sub.

I have a question and I was looking up some information but is quite difficult to find online information as specific to calves. My calves are huge and I've been training muay thai for years, so they're quite big in size. My height it's 1.87 cm so aesthetically speaking I have no problem. The problem is that my endurance is minimal and the burning I get with sprinting, kicking and jumping is beyond frustrating. I've tried working with weight and hits, but nothing seems to change and after 6 to 10 minutes I'm done for.

Do you have any suggestions?

Has anyone else had issues with their grip/forearms fatiguing before their back muscles on pull days? Any solutions? (Gloves? Straps? Extra grip training?).

I have been following a training plan using rings for a couple of weeks. I love the rings, they are so good for the joints! I do a Push/Pull/Legs split, which I also like a lot. But the only problem is that on pull days -- where I do chin ups, rows, and b/w bicep curls -- I often find that my forearms and my grip fatigue before I feel it in my back. This is especially true for the b/w rows, where by rep 8/9, just at the point when I am just starting to feel a stimulus in my back, my forearms and/or grip (brachialis?) reaches failure and my form goes all out of whack.

What is the best solution to grip limiting back exercises?

Hey everyone,

having all 3 in a program seems pretty difficult in terms of progress and recovery.

I think the HSPU/HeSPU/Pike push-up is irreplaceable because pushing in the vertical plane mean sa lot of shoulder flexion and also trains the traps additionally to the delts, upper chest and triceps.

Now if we can only choose one to pair it with, which one would you choose between PPPU and dips (all variations, which means weighted, bars, rings etc.) ?

I feel like the popular answer would be PPPU on the subreddit, but I'm wondering if it's not redundant?

Personally I prefer dips, you can do them weighted, on rings so there's a lot of variation.

Also PPPU develop a lot of muscles similar to the HSPU like the front delts and upper chest, while the dips would help develop the lower chest more so I feel like it would give a more well rounded physique ?

Of course if your goal is full planche push up you should train the PPPU, but I'm talking more in a sense of overall physique aesthetics and general and functional strength that has transferability to other sports etc.

Weighted bar dips can be loaded very heavy which could produce theoretically more strength than PPPU ? And ring dips would help strengthen the stabilizers and connective tissues more ? Granted you can do PPPU on rings too so maybe that one isn't relevant?

Overall my current opinion is that HSPU + weighted dips/ring dips is the best pair if you can only chose one, but I'd like to know what you guys think and correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you !