r/bodyweightfitness

Help me solve a fitness mystery within my household.

My husband works at a desk job. He bikes to work each day but besides lifting a few heavy things a year, does not stength train his upper body. This has been the case since we married 16 years ago. He is 46 now.

But somehow, he is like…really strong. He has big arm muscles and when I made him test his bench press strength randomly a few weeks ago, could press 225 pounds.

Meanwhile I have been working out for three year and can bench press 85 pounds.

His ability to retain muscle he built decades ago should not be possible based upon everything I have read online and understand about physiology.

Make it make sense!

TLDR: Will the recommended routine work all my life if I just keep adding weights to the last exercises? What am I losing by not doing other advanced routines?

Hello everyone, I apologize if the question is stupid I'm just a beginner, but it's something I have been thinking about for like a week and feel like I need an answer despite being an early moment in my working out plan.

A bit more than a month ago, I was in type 1 obesity doing just wall push and pull ups, now I'm down to overweight BMI thanks to the recommended routine + counting calories and I'm very happy with my progress.

Eventually in a few years, I'll reach the end of the progressions in the routine, My body will be in great shape and I'll be the healthiest I've ever been. The RR is commonly labeled as a beginner routine, why is this? I feel like I would be able to weight up the exercises if I want to progress.

I don't really have other goals, cool calisthenic movements aren't my thing and I don't practice any sport, I do like the idea of being able to freely move around obstacles in the world like climbing ledges or trees, but I feel the RR already helps with that.

Also this routine is great with the little space and equipment I have available, just some gymnastic rings, a pull up bar. Considering buying kettlebells and a weighted vest or belt eventually.

What would I be losing by not doing other intermediate or advanced routines? Are they more focused in the artistic part of calisthenics or do they provide better health benefits? Will the RR be eventually unable to be scaled up? Are there other recommended routines after RR?

Thanks a lot to anyone who answers!

I have a pretty bad Donal Duck back from long years of working sitting down, which prevents me from kicking higher in martial arts, and an overall bad posture, also bad mobility. What’s a good routine that has helped you. I’m looking to work on it several times a week, man even several times a day, to get rid of it as soon as possible. Maybe a quick morning routine and an evening routine as well. I’m open to yoga routines, body weight exercises, stretching, anything that helps. I’m also thinking about investing in a standing desk. Thanks

I'm curious to hear from people who've managed to reach 25-30 strict pull-ups after turning 30. What did your training look like? Did you focus on high volume, weighted pull-ups, recovery, or something else? How long did it take you to get there? Are daily pull-ups effective? Also what's your height and bodyweight? I'd love to see whether body size makes a noticeable difference when it comes to reaching 25-30 reps. Did losing or gaining weight affect your numbers? What was the biggest factor that helped you break through the plateau?

I started my calisthenics journey a week ago and honestly it fits me way better than weightlifting. Really happy to join y'all here in this fine fitness journey. I wanted however to take up something extra. Swimming, jogging etc. Something for the heart and that I can strive to better at. However I wanna know how will that affect my workout and is it even doable. I wanna be able for example to take up swimming while doing all the other cool Calisthenics stuff. Is that achievable or will I have to pick one thing?

So I have been doing BJJ and Judo for around 5 years, and I have decided I want to start building some muscle to go with my technique since I am on the smaller side at 5'7 150. I train 3-4 days a week of BJJ/Judo, and I have been adding Pullups, Dips, Pushups, and Squats on my off days. I try to do these exercises twice a week.

My issue I am running in to is that I just don't ever feel strong, like my muscles are already cooked. I'm getting good sleep and protein is alright about 100-120grams. If on the off chance my muscles feel fresh, then I can do 3 sets of 10 pullups, but if I dont feel fresh, it feels like a struggle to get 2 reps. Any help and advice is welcome. I've always been active, but I dont know much about building muscle.

[supprimé]

When I first visited r/bodyweightfitness around 10 years ago, the Recommended Routine was heavy on gymnastic skill work, and while I didn't follow the RR exactly, I thought the bodyline drills were ace. I took ideas from GMB and Overcoming Gravity and got to a decent crow stand within a couple of weeks.

The current RR is much simpler and more accessible for regular folks, but I wonder if there are people on here still following the old RR and doing skill-based routines: https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine_2017/

These days I just do conventional barbell bodybuilding/strength stuff and martial arts, but thought it might be fun to find skills to improve my body control for BJJ and kickboxing.

It’s your flexibility. This is for anyone like me who is a mediocre athlete. Someone who is relatively fit but nothing special. A person who feels like they should be able to do an L sit or at least a better one than they’re currently achieving.

If you have the arm strength to do dips, and enough core strength to do hanging leg lifts but for some reason just can’t get the L sit, you’re most likely being limited by your flexibility. I’ve trained L sit off and on over the years and could do a tucked L sit fairly well, but the leg extension just wasn’t happening.

I began doing yoga a few months ago and the flexibility gains have been amazing. On a whim I tried an L sit today and it was much better and easier than previous attempts. It’s still not super pretty and I’m sure some of the gains are from improved core strength from yoga, but the flexibility has made the positioning so much easier. So yeah, to do some stretching.

Edit: not an exhaustive tutorial but an attempt to highlight an often overlooked aspect. Not to be misconstrued as medical/legal advice.

Hey guys! I’m 38, a single mom, and I work a lot. With my job and having so little time left for myself, it was really hard to find time to exercise.

For years I told myself I was too busy and too tired after work. But I realized that if I didn’t take care of me, I couldn’t take care of anyone else. So I found a way to carve out space for me at nights, 3-4 times a week. Even if it’s just 40 minutes to an hour daily, it adds up.

I started with the basics: some bodyweight squats, push-ups on my knees, planks, and stretching. Nothing fancy, just consistency. Slow progress is still progress. Right now I’m working on my pull-ups, my mobility, and just being stronger than I was last month. Some days are hard and I don’t feel like doing anything, but showing up is half the battle.

It’s amazing to see all your journeys here– we’re all doing our best, and that’s more than enough. Your posts motivate me on the days I feel stuck.

Let’s keep going together! 💪

Just before this post I did a set of 50 bodyweight squats, which was mentally hard, and my quads were burning, but I could tell that I was still no where near failure, probably could've done at least 10 more reps, maybe more.

Is there any benefit to doing sets like this? I know it's probably not a complete waste of time, since just moving around is good for you, but good in what way? What is actually happening to the muscles? Do they just get tired, but aren't stressed enough to actually gain anything? Do you gain endurance, so if you kept doing 50 reps over and over, even without going to failure, it'd eventually get easier, or would you have to surpass 50 to get that?

I want to try out a simple minimalistic routine, just aiming for a hard set everyday of push ups, pull ups and squats, but I don't see myself being able to consistently do it for squats, because it gets mentally difficult, but I also don't mind doing a decent amount until I feel like stopping and my muscles are burning. I suppose I want to know, am I 'wasting' my time doing this, or is it still beneficial somehow, just not optimal?

I work out in the safety of my own room and I'm quite new to working out in general especially since i do calisthenics but my problem is with dips I don't have two chairs (that are at least strong enough) or two equal surfaces and I'm looking for a way to do dips with other options if they exist or any other way of working out that could help me

PS I work out at night time while everyone is sleeping bc I don't like people knowing for some reason idk if this could help in anyway or change the outcome of what I want .. is that weird

Idk if I broke any rules here I have no clue what I'm doing sorry if I did

Currently trying 4 sets of 25 reps, with a variation of each exercise each time, as well as a set of 10 pull/chin ups, and 2-2.5 mins of plank. The only thing I haven't started yet is the cardio, but I am planning on doing 10 KMs of rucking per day, as well as adding weights to the rest of the exercises when I can crush out 100 each day easily. These are the variations of each exercise I have chosen so far, but I wanted to ask if I missed out on anything obvious, or if there is a specific order/combination of each to do to get the most out of each set.

Currently I start with 10 pull ups (wide, narrow, L-sit, or chin ups), then 25 push ups (decline, military, diamond, or wide), 25 squats (cossack, prisoner, sumo, or standard), 25 sit ups (standard, butterfly, Russian twist, or crunches) and finish each set with minimum 2 minutes but ideally 2.5 minutes plank (high, forearm, and each side). I usually try to keep breaks between exercises 1.5-2 minutes, but I will take 5-15 minutes between sets, or even do two sets back to back at different times in the day.

For context I am 176 cm (5'9"), 70KGs (155 LBs). I will eventually add some weight lifting but for now I am just trying to get fit and strong after an injury induced long absence from regular exercise. Slim athletic build, so eating like a machine and trying to sleep 7-8 hours a night.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some feedback on my current training routine and how I could improve it.

About me:

• 175 cm / ~63 kg
• Goal: gain muscle and strength while staying athletic, rather than purely bodybuilding
• Current max is around 13 pull-ups and 20 dips
• I also enjoy sprinting and want to keep some conditioning/explosiveness in my training
• Equipment: pull-up bar + gymnastics rings

Current weekly plan:

Monday — Upper / Rings (Strength)

• Ring chin-ups: 4–8
• Ring dips: 4–8
• Hard ring rows: 4×10
• Deep ring push-ups: 4×12
• Ring curls: 3×8
• Handstand push up 3×7

Around 2 min rest on the main movements.

Tuesday — Sprint + Core

• 6×50 m sprints at around 90–95%
• 2–3 min full recovery between sprints

Then 3 rounds:

• Hollow hold: 30–40 sec
• Reverse crunches: 12–15
• Side plank: 30 sec/side

Wednesday — Rest

Thursday — Upper / Rings (Volume)

• Ring chin-ups: 4–8
• Ring dips: 4–8
• Hard ring rows: 4×10
• Deep ring push-ups: 4×12
• Ring curls: 3×8
• Handstand push up 3×7

Friday — Swim or rest

Saturday — Full Body / Conditioning
Something shorter and less intense, usually calisthenics circuits followed by a short EMOM.

Example EMOM:

• 4 pull-ups
• 8 push-ups
• Every minute for 8 minutes

Sunday — Rest

I'm not specifically trying to specialize in bodybuilding or calisthenics skills at the moment — I mostly want a well-rounded athletic base.

What do you think of the overall structure?

In particular, I'm wondering:

• Is 3 upper/full-body sessions per week too much pulling/pushing volume?
• Would you change the exercise selection or weekly split?
• Is one dedicated leg session + sprinting enough for lower body development?
• Am I missing anything important for long-term shoulder health/recovery?

On Saturday, I weighed myself and was surprised to see myself at 182 lbs being 6 ft tall. This is the most i've ever seen myself as i'm use to weighing 170-175 and have been a bit upset since seeing this. There is a couple life style changes that contribute to this weight gain. These are being in an office job everyday, increase food intake, and running slightly less.

I inputted my diet into fitness pal which are similar are for the 5 days a week. My weekend diet varies, but usually don't eat bad it's the alcohol!!! Overall, my diet during the day isn't bad it's the munchies at night. All the sour gummy worms and drum sticks really don't help especially before bed. Entering everything into fitness pal through the day holds me accountable for my calories. Also, cutting down on alcohol and munchies helps. I started doing this Monday and will continue on a daily basis now until it feels not needed.

Nothing I can do about my job role as the money rains so I don't want to change jobs. However, I can increase my fitness slightly more. I currently run a minimum of 5 miles at least 4-5 times a week. Also, I like to play baseball, go on hikes , and do house work.

Looking for any advice to help me reach a goal of 165 lbs and looking sexy. I work from home three times a week so I can incorporate some quick easy work outs.

I’m doing workouts that target the core but body weight only, used to go to the gym for a bit but not anymore.

Standing bicycles 3x 10 reps
deadbugs 3x 15 reps
Leg raises 3x 15 reps
in n outs 3x 15 reps

Can i do these workouts every day without overworking my core or halting my progress? It feels like i can since it’s not with any added weight but google says otherwise so not sure. I do them every night, last thing of the day

Would it also be better to get home weights for added progress now or can I do so later down the line?

Some background: Im a dude, I lost 120 pounds doing a caloric deficit. I was 5'9, 320 lbs. Now im 190~200 lbs. I lost a lot of muscle doing that since I focused on getting steps in and running. I did some lifting but it really wasnt my focus, I fell in love with the high you get after running lol. During this, I purchased a set of 20 lbs dumbells and a set of 25 lbs dumbells.

Now im trying to gain muscle back. I have a high bf%, idk what exact number but I know its high. Im now trying to do a body recomp. I like where Im at, around 200. I feel good, I dont intend to go below 170 really.

My main question:

Ive been doing 2 sets of 12, and then one last set to failure 3 days a week on these exercises with the dumbbells:

Overhead shoulder press

Dumbell curls

Hammer curls

Overhead tricep extension

(As well as push ups to failure after)

When I got to 24 reps on failure Id graduate myself to the 25 lbs dumbells. Ive only done that on the hammer curls and overhead triceps so far. I eat around my maintence calories, sometimes more sometimes less and I try to get 120-200 grams of protein each day. I try to get 8 hours of sleep but I usually end up with 6-7 tbh.

Is it better for muscle growth to go to failure like that, or should I go to 5 sets and stop 1-3 reps before failure?

I want to make sure Im doing this correct, eventually I want to go to a gym but ehh, I like working out at home.

I'm 27m 6ft0 64kg male and pretty new to a full body routine. There are some progressions that I'm quite behind on compared to others, pull ups for example. I would like to know how to go about progressing, how hard each exercise should feel, and any other advice. Here's where I'm at:

Every other day:

10 minute warm up

3x8 Scapular pulls:

3x8 Bulgarian split squats

3x8 Negative dips

3x8 Hamstring slide

3x8 Horizontal rows

3x8 Pushups

3x12 Hanging leg raises

3x12 banded pallof press

3x12 Arch body holds

90 sec in-between every set

10k steps

Every day in between:

5k run

Thanks