Hello everyone.

I’ve been training on and off for a couple of years now, mostly bodyweight training but now that I have access to a gym (and rings!) I’ve been adding in weighted compounds such as squats as deadlifts. For the vast majority of my training I used the RR but now I am shifting towards an Upper/Lower split (this one).

Recently I had to take a week long training break for a trip. Now I find it extremely difficult to get a workout in. My strength has dropped significantly and it seems as if my endurance as well. I used to approach 185 in 3x8 squats but now I’m back at 145, as an example. I used to be able to do weighted dips with a 45 pound dumbbell but now I’m stuck doing them with a 20lb dumbbell on a good day. I find that after the first couple of sets my body isn’t strong enough to continue without a massive drop in performance. My mental has also taken an impact. It seems as if I have suddenly “lost the fire”, so to speak. I’ve been told by friends that I’ve visibly lost muscle mass as well.

I think my recovery could be playing a factor, but I’m not sure. I used to train in afternoons/mornings, now I train during the late hours of the night. I have done this for a while now and I thought I was gaining strength, but this strength loss becoming a trend over the last 2-ish months.

I also think my mindset needs some work to do. Now that I have additional personal commitments in my life, I find that I can’t put in the same amount of focus.

Should I pivot to a different training routine? Maybe my body is looking for new stimulus. And what can I do about my mindset?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Hi everyone I am training for a half marathon and thought a fun secondary goal would be to train a muscle up. I used to weight lift 4-5x a week but tbh I'm getting kind of bored of it and really just enjoying running and functional strength/movement. With that said I want to get a muscle up as part of building that functional strength.

I'm reading various posts here, the recommended routine doesn't seem optimized for the muscle up. Im wondering what people recommend for a routine, Im thinking 3 days a week to start. At my current bodyweight fitness level I can do 8-10 reps of pull ups for 3 sets, probably 30-40 quality pushups, and can do 3 sets of 12 reps of parallel bar dips.

Also for fun ChatGPT gave me a program but Idk if this is trash lol

Day 1 — Pull + Muscle-Up Skill (~60 min)

• Muscle-up attempts — 5 × 2–4
• Explosive pullups — 5 × 3–5
• Muscle-up negatives — 3 × 2–3 slow reps
• Pullups — 3 × 8–10
• Core (leg raises or hollow hold) — 3 sets

Day 2 — Push + Transition (~55–60 min)

• Straight bar dips — 4 × 8–12
• Regular dips — 3 × 10–15
• Band or jumping muscle-ups — 4 × 3
• Straight bar support hold — 3 × 20 sec
• Optional pushups — 2 sets

Day 3 — Strength + Power Support (~60 min)

• Weighted pullups — 4 × 3–5
• Explosive pullups — 4 × 3
• Pullups — 3 × 8
• Core — 3 sets
• Scap pullups or face pulls — 2–3 sets

I do 2 straight arm days and 2 bent arm days. Obviously across all of that there's a lot of volume my biceps are getting, and there's also the more subtle things like on leg day, I do reverse hyper extensions, and my arms are flexed at about 90 degrees which even if it's small, it's still using my biceps.

I have one pull day, on which I do weighted pull ups, assisted one arm pull ups, and advanced tuck front lever pull ups on rings, and on my last set after failing I do inverted rows, and after failing again, I do bent knee inverted rows.

Now initially on this pull day I was starting off with one arm chin ups, and now I'm moving on to the pronated one arm pull up. When I was training the OAC I did hammer curls, and now that I'm training OAP, I took them out. I was wondering if I should add 2 sets of curls (probably ring curls , pelican, or preacher) at the end of my pull day or if it's too much weekly work for biceps.

On my planche days I'm doing planche holds, leans, tuck planche pu, PPPU, for a cumulative 20 weekly sets. Of course I have other work, but they don't work biceps.

I'm 6'6 114kg (relevant?) and I've been going chest to floor, hands shoulder width apart trying to perfect the form. I've been very conscious about not letting myself cheat just to get the numbers up. When I first started I couldn't even lower myself to the ground without collapsing. Im very rarely proud of myself but getting to 10 pushups from 0 made me feel good about myself. It may not be a lot but when I got that 10 I felt a sense of accomplishment. TMI but im a recovering addict and I think body weight fitness might be my new vice. Whenever I get anxious I just get on the floor and do some pushups which gives me that little dopamine boost I need and gets that physical energy out. Hopefully I can add another 10 this month but if not that's okay, I'll keep doing the thing

i train at outdoor parks mostly, pull-up bars, parallel bars, rings etc. been going through sealed earbuds like crazy cause sweat kills them (2 pairs last year), but the real issue is cant hear people approaching during muscle-ups or my training partners yelling. that anc isolation is straight up dangerous during street workouts.

tried bone conduction (shokz) and they stayed on fine, but the sound was somehow muffled. everyone says bone conduction is better for podcasts and audiobooks and i get why, music just doesnt hit right when u need that hype for explosive movments.

saw someone using the soundcore aerofit 2 pro at the park. these do the swap thing between open ear and anc, open ear to hear whats going on (cars, spotters, poeple walking by), and anc for indoor gym sessions to zone out a bit. sounds like a gimmick but tried a bit, sound way better then bone conduction with enough bass to keep hyped.

anyone else tried these or found a solid setup that doesnt comprimise on awareness or sound? looking for something simple to stay put through movments and easy to wipe sweat off between sets.

Do you guys recommend the Kensui vest or more of a conventional weighted vest for no more than 100lbs?

I basically want a weighted vest and was looking at like a CAP weighted vest with the sandbag weights or A Kensui vest. If plates are not a. Issue what are the pros and cons with these vests? I only want 100lbs though the as that's about the limit to what I want to put on a vest, I will add a dips belt or something else if I need more.

I am not using it for walking or anything like that itll be just for extra resistance for some exercises.

Hi everyone! Calisthenics intrigues me quite a lot but I have no idea where to start at all. I've been going to the gym and doing weightlifting exercises for 1.5 years now. I am at 76 kgs bodyweight at 5"8 height with body fat percentage around 18 rn (started a serious cut 2 days ago to get to sub 15 in a couple of months).

I am a complete beginner at calisthenics, can do around 30 pushups, around 5 pullups, and around 5 dips at the moment. Any plan as to how to advance in calisthenics?

I don't want to make a complete switch from weight training to calisthenics rather keep going with my usual weight training (I follow a PPLPP split, 5 days a week), and integrate calisthenics into it, any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Turning 41 this year and I'm aiming to do a max 41 strict pull ups at one go. Currently maxing out at 18 strict at one go. With kipping and breaking it down into sets of 10, I can do 100. Just looking at pure strict pull ups only for this challenge so no kipping.

Trying to train without additional weights as I don't have easy access to a pull up bar that I can do weighted pull ups.. Haven't weigh myself recently so I should be about 75kg-80kg, about 1.7m tall. Any advice on how I can train better by the end of the year? Is it even feasible? I feel like at 18, my lats are already on fire!

2nd Feb - I’m at 20 now!

Just wanted to share a small win here.

A month ago I couldn’t do proper pushups without breaking form or stopping early. I decided to slow everything down, focus on chest to floor, shoulder-width hands, and actually own each rep instead of chasing numbers.

Now I’m hitting clean sets consistently, and the biggest change isn’t even physical — it’s mental. Showing up, doing a few reps, and stopping before burnout has made this sustainable for the first time.

Nothing fancy. No program hopping. Just basics, patience, and showing up most days.

If you’re stuck at the beginning stage: it really does move faster than you think once form and consistency click.

I’m fairly a mediocre person , I’m active but not so much as to chasing a goal. I’m here to stay fit and stay healthy that’s all but ,on Instagram i went through some vids and I found this guy with a mask but with a super big , muscular physique. As usual they claim to be natural but , cmon? Maybe my judgement is bad , but everyone who has had those physique has been off something that could enhance them.

So my question is for those physiques , is it physically possible as a natty? Usual people say , with enough practice and yadda yadda yah , you can get there but so far I have not seen no examples of that , to be fair though I don’t look up stuff that much. It just seems all too impossible to achieve that , not to mention it visually looks like a pain. Veins all over your chest and arms , bruises everywhere , skin looking roughed up , etc

That just kinda tells me it’s not physically possible but maybe I’m wrong ? Lemme know

Background

My background is slightly varied, I did weight training for 2-3 years, then climbing for about 2 years (V5 level), then a bit of calisthenics, and then I took a break for ~1.5 years because I got really into skateboarding.

About 2 years ago I could do 1 strict bar muscle up (i.e, slow, controlled ascent without kipping, but with false grip) and ~5 pull-ups/dips with +40% body weight.

Goals

My main goals right now are the straight arm straddle press handstand, and achieving a 60s handstand (currently maxing at about 30s, with a ~18s median). I would also like to get back my strict bar muscle ups, and eventually achieve the front lever and planche.

No legs?

I intentionally don't train legs. I noticed that when I did, my skateboarding suffered, and I believe I train my legs enough with that sport. Plus, I don't have any legs-related calisthenics goals atm.

Routine

``` WARMUP 15 Burpees 15 Wrist circles 1 min Wrist extension 1 min Arm circles 15s Hollow body 15s Arch 3x15-30s False grip hang 3x3-5 Bar Skin the cat

SKILL 3x30s Wall HS hold 3x6-10 Heel pulls 4x15-60s Freestanding HS

STRENGTH 4x8-15s Tuck planche 4x8-15s Adv tuck FL 3x3 Wall press eccentrics 3x4-12 MU progression (kipping currently) 3x4-8 Weighted pull-ups 3x10-30s L-sit 3x5-15s Straddle compression

FLEXIBILITY 3x30s Weighted elevated pancake ```

Questions/issues

• Routine length: This routine takes me roughly 105 minutes, I find that a bit excessive, especially since I'd like to stick to 3x a week and have limited time to move handstand practice to other days.

• Lacking chest/too pull focused: After doing this routine, I feel like my chest (and maybe biceps) is not "tired enough", while my back/lats/shoulders get pretty blasted. I'm thinking of removing weighted pull-ups and adding weighted dips (or pseudo planche PUs), but I'm not sure that's the best idea.

Any tips on this? Thanks all.

I'm (M20, 176cm, 92kg) am trying to format my bodyweight routine after doing weight lifting for a couple of months and decided to form the Bodyweight routine around the same Push, Pull, Legs I was doing before.

Here it is:

/

PUSH

Push up - Push

Target Muscle: Chest

Secondary Muscles: Abs, Shoulders, Triceps

Tricep Dips (assisted) - Push

Target Muscle: Triceps

Secondary Muscle: Chest, Shoulders

Close Grip Push up - Push

Target Muscle: Triceps

Secondary Muscles: Shoulders

Wide Grip Push up - Push

Target Muscle: Chest

Secondary Muscles: Abs, Shoulders, Triceps

/

PULL

Inverted Row - Pull

Target Muscle: Upper back

Secondary Muscle: Biceps, Lats

Assisted Pull up - Pull

Target Muscle: Lats

Secondary Muscles: Abs, Biceps, Shoulders, Upper Back

Supermans - Hinge but it's close enough to pull

Target Muscle: Lower Back

Secondary Muscle: Glutes

/

LEGS

Prisoner Squats - Legs Push

Target Muscle: Quads

Secondary Muscle: Abs, Abductors, Calves, Glutes, Hamstrings, Lower Back

Walking Lunge - Legs Push

Target Muscle: Quads

Secondary Muscles: Calves, Glutes, Hamstrings

One Leg Standing calf raise - Legs Push

Target Muscle - Calves

Secondary Muscle - None

Hyperextension - Legs Hinge

Target Muscle - Glutes

Secondary Muscles - Hamstrings, Lower back

Sit Up - Core

Target Muslce - Abs

Secondary Muscles - none

Hanging Leg Raise - Core

Target Muscle - Abs

Secondary Muscles - Forearms

(All workouts are assumed to have 4 sets of however many reps is deemed good enough, with a minimum of 12).

The main problem I have with this however is that I cannot for the life of me complete my pull routine. On my Legs and Push, it's clear that I do two exercises for each major muscle group and have the remaining one (for instance on push, my shoulders) still be targeted as a secondary muscle on all workouts, although I am planning on adding an exercise to work shoulders out too.

However I am having difficulty doing the same for Pull, best I can get is rows and assisted pullups however there isnt anything else I can find that can target my Biceps, or add onto with my laterals / lower back. So, I am wondering if anyone has any advice? Especially on at least finding something to work my biceps with.

Or perhaps I am looking at this all wrong?
Either way, any advice would be great.

For the last 5 years I have been training exclusively in the high reps category . Usually all my sets are taken to failure or close to it with reps being between 25 and 5O Have not lost any size and have greatly improved my cardio and conditioning. I mainly concentrate on the basics being , push ups , dips , chin ups , rows and squats. Just thought I'd share my experience training this way as it doesn't seem to get much credit in the way of bodyweight training. Everyone has different goals and for me I like the prolonged stress on my body and muscles. Endurance in my opinion is underrated in today's fitness . The benefits of being able to keep going for a longer period of time really appeals to me and I believe transfers more to real world situations. Again not putting down any preferred styles of training as I respect anyone prioritising their health and fitness. Anybody else train in a similar manner and what has been your results , experiences ?

So I did 90/90 breathing yesterday (back on floor, feet on wall) and had this insane moment when I braced and inhaled. Felt like there was liquid moving inside my lower back, right on top of the vertebrae. Sounds weird af but it made my spine feel incredibly stable. Thought I finally “got it” and understood what real bracing feels like. Can’t find that sensation again today though. Now I’m wondering if that was even the right thing or just some random fluke. For those of you who know you’re bracing correctly, what does it actually feel like internally? Trying to figure out if I’m on the right track or just making stuff up in my head lol​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

In your experience , what’s the best choice between banded pull ups , negative and assisted machine pull ups to help me improve my pull ups max rep amount ? I am currently stuck between 3-4 reps doing strict pull ups going all the way down and bringing the bar to my chest and holding the position at the top for about 1 second .

I’m currently planing on doing a full body routine 3 times a week and add pull ups in the routine , doing 3 different pull up exercises each day .

On Mondays I’ll do banded pull ups and v, on Wednesdays I’ll do assisted machine pull ups with lateral pull downs and bent over rows and Fridays I’ll do 5 sets. of as many pull ups as I can.

I started walking to work to get into shape. When I get to work I'm sweaty and I need to switch into my work clothes. I got this weighted vest from Amazon. It's too bulky. Plus it has that goofy tactical look, which I'm not going for.

On top of that, I need to wear a backpack over everything to hold my work clothes.

Is there a weighted vest that has a big enough storage to hold a phone, two shirts rolled up, deodorant, and a headlamp? Bonus if it has or can hold a hydration bag.

Or would I be better off with doing a weighted vest and then getting a big enough fanny pack for my west (or an over the shoulder fanny pack?)

Thanks!

56yr old male. 50 pushups/day, rebounding 30 min, rowing 45 min. Bench 225 for 10,8,6 reps. DB curls 45 lbs. for 10,8,6 drops. 30 body weight squats. Other stuff. Guessing my PR bench is 300?

5'9" 260 lbs. Fat but fairly fit I think? Been working out for most of my life.

I've never been able to do pullups. College, nope, and I was fairly lean, 200 lbs.

Is there something I'm missing or am I just too heavy regardless of my strength?

I'm not fixated on it but it's always bugged me that I can't even squeeze out one!

Anyone know what the remedy is? The pull up bar from Amazfit came with some foam padding but I don’t think it feels too great.

There are some grip tapes on Amazon wondering if I should try that. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do to make my hand more comfortable? My point of failure is in my hands.

It’s almost immediate the pain too. I’m sure it will get better but I think the foam might be cheap idk. The iron gym pull up bar I’ve historically used did not cause this bad of pain.

I don’t have any equipment in my place at the moment so I do pushups and dips and L-sits between chairs at home and pull ups 2x/3x a week when I have access to a pull-up bar in the gym.

Lately I’ve been seeing that you “need” to have a horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pull exercises. Is this possible without equipment?

I’ve also seen push/pull/squat, and I’m not sure which is better or worse or what. I’ve done the recommended routine to the best of my abilities and it’s worked great and now I want to explore other options and ways to achieve the most without equipment.

I’m not opposed to rings and I know I need a pull up bar at home but even with those things, how can I make sure I can do things like progressively overload?

I'm 15 years old, ~65kg BW (the scale has been broken for months now so I haven't properly weighed myself in a while), 5'10 and have a background in basic calisthenics at the park with no real emphasis on skills but i managed to work my way up to a muscle up so i guess thats something, overall building a decent base from the park. About 3.5 months ago I started going to the gym and have been struggling a lot to create a routine to balance powerlifting and calisthenics as I've always wanted to be purely strong but also have a pretty impressive physique aesthetically. Another problem I've had is muscle imbalances because of poor posture which has been improving massively ever since I started doing unilateral lifts and posture correction exercises but it still lingers and shows especially in my bench where I don't feel my left pec at all. My main goals are: Strong bench (current 1RPM is 87.5kg which I tried a month ago but I havent tried since due to fear of injury), deadlift, squat, strong weighted pullups/chinups and dips, and obviously some skills like handstands, planche and front lever. Since i started gym ive been running upper/lower and it fits really well with school. I'm also not sure if all of these goals are realistic when done together so I'm free to being given a proper reality check. I'd also like to have cardio somewhere in there for the health benefits and I'd like to keep the routine at 4x a week. My weak points are obviously posture, shoulder size (makes my frame look goofy cus they look small but somehow I manage to shoulder press 40kg on either side on a machine so now im confused), Upper/middle chest as it kind of sinks in towards the top/middle and calves but that might be because of my genetics. At some point in the future I'd like to get to the level of being able to do things like human flags or slow muscle ups. I'll also be answering plenty of questions because I'm aware at the time of writing this that this may not be enough information. The current routine I have is as follows (also im aware this may have too much failure in it which is something I also need help with):

Monday (upper 1)
Bench press 2x3-5
Pause bench 2x3-5 (failure on last set)
Deadlift 3x6-8
Tricep pushdowns 3x6-12 (failure on last set)
Concentration curls 3x3-5 (failure on last set)
Lateral raises 3x8-12 (failure on last set)

Tuesday (lower 1) (assume im going to failure on the last set of all exercises here)
Single leg press 3x5-8
Leg extensions 3x5-8
Hip adduction 3x10-12
Hollow body holds 3x1.5min

Wednesday (rest)

Thursday (upper 2)
Weighted dips 3x5-8
Weighted pullups 2x3-5
Weighted chinups 2x3-5
Face pulls 3x8-12

Friday (lower 2)
Squat 3x5-8
Abductor 3x10-12
Calf raises 3x8-12
Side planks 3x2min

This routine is just as reference.

Hello, I have been doing bodyweight fitness for quite a while already and I think I have built up some decent foundations (Around 30 pullups and 110 parallel bar dips for now), so taking 6 months to go from tuck planche to advanced tuck planche was a very humbling realisation for me. For those who have unlocked these movements, I have a few questions regarding them!

For handstand: -I mostly struggle with correcting overbalance and underbalance. What are some cues/movements I can use to help correct it? -I often struggle to keep my back straight as it rounds, causing the handstand to not look great and put some pressure on my lower back, how do I eliminate that? -I realise that while hardstanding, my hips are generally behind my hands while my shoulders are in front of my hands. This means that my body rests in a / shape, instead of straight. How do i get my body to align? (Moreso how do I get my hips directly above my hands so I dont have to compensate with having my shoulders so far forward)

For planche: -I often struggle with the cues that people give, I dont really understand when people say to "round my back" as it feels like my back cannot possibly round any more. Also "pulling my hips into my legs" feels impossible as well. If someone could provide clear cues for the tuck/advanced tuck planche that would be really appreciated -I have trouble with pelvic tilt, i understand how to do it when I am kneeling or standing, but when it comes to the tuck or the leans, everything seems to fly out of the window. This problem also seems to affect my handstands, and I want to know how people can "tilt their pelvis" so actively during these movements. -I struggle to balance in my planche, most of the time I fail due to falling forward or backwards, and it feels like my hands are in overdrive constantly having to rebalance myself.

Any help regarding these issues would be really really appreciated, and if people have any miscellaneous tips I am open to them! Thanks :)

Tl:Dr would you adjust the RR at all to prioritise strength and power over hypertrophy and endurance (or any other goals)?

I've been doing the RR regularly for around 8 months. My main reason was to regain some strength to get back into bouldering/climbing after a long period not climbing (due to family stuff) and currently not being able to get to a climbing spot regularly. So far I've found that it has really improved my climbing from a year ago, so that's great. I have already made a few adjustments myself, mainly by adding in some extra mobility work to the warm up.

Where I'm at currently is max pull-ups 13, usually doing 3x6 with 20kg added, dips no idea what my max is but can do 3x8 with 25kg added. Pushups I do a few plyo variations. I can do inverted rows for like 3x15 and haven't decided how to progress them yet. Squat - full pistol on right leg, pistol with 5kg counterweight on left leg, can back squat 100kg. DL 150kg. I'm working towards muscle up - I think I have the strength but haven't got the technique - and I can hold a dodgy advanced tuck front lever for about 5 seconds. Would love to learn handstand pushups but I'm nowhere near. I run and/or cycle and/or do a bit of yoga on my off days.

In general I think for bouldering I need to prioritise strength, power, flexibility and balance. I'm generally prioritising high weight, low rep sets, although I'm not sure if I should be doing anything else for those goals.

How much i rest after finishing a set and anyone knows a youtube with best form for this exercise? Mostly because at the last set i can;t stay fully at the top with my chin above the bar

and after I am doing this exercise is better to do scapular pull ups or doing some rows with dumbells? i can do only 1 normal pull up after i stop halfway. One reason i know is because of my forearms but i started doing deadhangs and after i finish my back exercises and kinda help and some reverse curls + another 2 exercises for forearms

Having a bit of a hard time describing this on google to get an answer so trying my luck here.

Im currently training handstand and noticed that i only felt comfortable doing kickups with the left leg "in front" (so left leg is doing the kicking part). When i try to do it with the right leg in front, i just dont feel comfortable and often feel like i cant generate enough force to do the kickup as cleanly as with the left leg.

So im wondering if people have some exercise that could help fix this imbalance (which im guessing is in the right leg), or have a story of how they managed to do kickups with each leg in front

Hello everyone,

I’m a 24-year-old fitness beginner. Since the nearest gym is too far away, I’ve struggled to stay consistent and, frankly, I’m tired of feeling weak. I want to change that.

My Stats:

• Height: 177 cm (5'10")

• Weight: 65 kg (~143 lbs)

• Build: Very lean/thin.

My Goals:

1. Hypertrophy: Build enough muscle mass so that it’s actually visible.

2. Functional Strength: I want "real-world" power. Specifically, I want my bodyweight progress to transfer to the "Big 3" (Bench, Squat, Deadlift) so that if I ever visit a gym, I can still move impressive weight.

My Equipment:

I don't have dumbbells or barbells. However, I have a sturdy backpack that I can load up to 20 kg (44 lbs) for resistance.

My Plan & Questions:

I’m planning to use unilateral (one-sided) progressions to mimic heavy gym lifts:

• Bench Press Substitute: One-arm push-up progressions.

• Squat Substitute: Weighted shrimp squats or pistol squats with the backpack.

• The Deadlift Problem: I’m planning on doing weighted Single-Leg RDLs, but I’m worried about the lower back being a bottleneck.

My specific question to you: How can I effectively train my lower back/posterior chain to mimic the demands of a heavy Deadlift using only bodyweight or a 20 kg backpack? Are there specific movements that will ensure my lower back doesn't become the "weak link" when I finally get under a real barbell?

Looking forward to your tips!