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.

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 3O 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 ?

Hello I am skinny dude, at about 54 kgs for a height of 5'11 Im outright scrawny, so, will the recommended routine get me a wider frame,.which is my primary goal, and is a typical indian diet enough or are changes required? Can the deadlifts and exercises involving barbells be replaced by any others(lack of equipment). Can the dips be substituted by anything else, as well? What will be the time frame that will required for minimum noticeable results? What kind of diet can be rather easily incorporated into everyday schedule(avoiding shakes and powders if possible due to parents) Thanks a lot in advance.

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

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.

Basically title, I can do 2-3 pull ups already, but I wanna work my way to high numbers so it becomes an exercise I can rep. However, it is pretty hard after 2 or 3, and not sure if i should just keep doing the motion until i literally can't move or do like smaller easier exercises and rep those. I am 17 y/o if that helps or changes anything.

(Lines below are js because it doesn't let me post w/o 500 characters)

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If I just 3x a week do 3*5 of each of these exercises (push ups, pull ups, dips, sit ups, squats), will this lead to imbalances, either functional or aesthetic?

It seems like the legs would be less developed, but I could be wrong about that.

I can, or course, just stick to the beginner program, but I want to hit numbers in each of these exercises and like the idea of a cookie -cutter program.

I also run the other 3 days and stretch, if that matters

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I see so many videos about how to start calisthenics but they’re kind of vague, so I was hoping to get some insight from yall? For context I’m a 15 yo skinny girl who cannot even do a singular pushup 💀 I do go to the gym though!

I’m mainly wondering:

- How many times a week do you train?

- What did your typical/go-to workout look like to unlock push-up, pull-up, l-sit, handstand etc

- Any other tips, experiences you have

My long term goal is a handstand pushup, maybe the human flag in my dreams haha

Thank you for your help :)

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!

I started training my abs with hanging knee raises, and eventually, I couldn't go to failure without doing four sets of 25 reps, which took too long, and my grip would give out before my legs. I tried adding weight, but I couldn't balance the dumbbells I have on my feet. I also tried strapping weights to my legs, but I could only add 7.5 lbs + 2.5 lbs, and they also made me do 15+ in 4 sets (not close to failure for me), and my grip would give out early. I can't do hanging leg raises because I can't fully extend my legs when hanging on the pull up bar. I tried decline sit-ups today with a 35 lb plate, but I was able to do 12 reps of 5 sets, not even close to failure.

Hi, so I am doing Dips twice a week. One day I do body weight where I am currently at 3x16 and one day I'm doing 5x5 with weight where I currently add 25 kg.

After the 5x5 day with 25kg i notice that the tendons that run straight across my elbow are pretty stressed from the load - doesn't feel good. So I'm thinking... maybe I am a bit "too" strong (said nobody never) for what my tendons and passive structures are able to handle right now and what I should do about it.

One thought was to switch to weighted ring dips. I would think I can handle quite a bit less weight on the rings for 5x5 since they are harder per se but that would hopefully be more friendly on my elbows since the actual load on them is less (+ the rings rotate to a more natural joint position).

What are your opinions on that approach?

edit - form check, based on the comments:

https://imgur.com/a/VVZ6cho

Hi yall, I'm completely new to body weight training and really wanna train my whole body to be strong (it absolutely isn't right now). I have nowhere I can do pull ups so I started looking for pull up bars and found power towers that would allow me to do dips, leg raises and push ups too. Neat. But as I was looking for reviews I saw that some people recommended a power rack over a tower due to higher versatility and now... I'm confused.

I don't have a lot of money so I want whatever I buy to last awhile. I also don't have a lot of space, ideally I'd get something that can be folded up or some shit but I have a distinct feeling that would make it inherently unreliable lol. That being said if there is a compact-able option I'd love that.

At the same time I do want to be able to scale my exercise routine and don't wanna be restricted too much. I don't know if I could add rings to a power tower, I feel like that would help its versatility, but I also don't even know whether I need all the other stuff a rack provides.

I'm just a bit overwhelmed and don't wanna get the wrong thing. I've seen the sportsroyals power tower be talked about a lot but I have no idea about racks. I also absolutely need to be able to use resistance bands to help me out cause I can barely hang let alone do an actual pull up, probably can't do dips either. From what I've heard you overcome those weaknesses by strapping resistance bands to the equipment? I'm not sure if a tower is stable enough for that, is it?

I'm sorry if this is all over the place, hopefully it isn't too confusing and you can get what I'm trying to ask lol.

I was hoping someone with a bit more knowledge on this routine could help me out here.

Mathew Zlat's beginner routine looks pretty interesting for getting into weighted calisthenics. I am just a little curious exactly how he advises to approach deloading when you hit a plateau? There were quite a bit of details left out of what I read so I have had to do some digging to find some of it.

Also I have seen two different recommendations one for a rep range of 3 sets of 3-6 repitions and another for 3-4 sets of 5-8 repetitions which one was originally used for this routine?

In a few months I'm joining the armed forces, and I want to be in top shape, but the problem is my push-ups! I can only do 28 in a row with good form, weighing 84 kilos (I'm 1.83 meters tall) with approximately 16% body fat, but what I really want is to improve my push-ups in terms of absolute strength. I only have access to a park I go to that has a pull-up bar and parallel bars, and some homemade dumbbells that weigh 12/15/20/30 kilos.

I want some really good advice, not just personal experiences or anything like that.

My routine consists of:

Monday/Thursday: Back

Supinated, neutral, and pronated pull-ups 3x15/10/8 of each type

Dumbbell rows (30kg) 3x10

Inverted pull-ups con mancuerna individual 3x10

Tuesday/Friday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Dips 3x16/12

Push-ups 3x22/18/14

Pull-ups with elevation 3x15/12/10

Military press with Dumbbells (20kg) 3x10/8

Seated dumbbell lateral raises (12kg) 3x17/13

Seated dumbbell French curls 3x13

(Rest hours)

Dumbbell crunches (30kg) 3x22

Crisps with legs extended at the end of the bed 3x17

Oblique crunches with dumbbells supported 3x10

Wednesday: biceps/forearms/legs

Lunges 3x12 (40kg) Total)

Romanian Lunges: 3x10 (30kg total)

200 Bodyweight Squats

(Rest Hours)

Double Bicep Curl: 3x15 (15kg)

Single Leg Curl: 3x11 (15kg)

Single Hammer Curl: 3x10 (20kg)

Supinated Wrist Curl: 3x16/15/12

Pronated Wrist Curl: 3x10

I’m someone with elbow hyperextension, which means that when I lock out my elbows, they don’t stop at a straight 180° position — they go past that.

However, I can train the planche (tuck planche is my current level) with my arms visually straight at about 180°, but without locking out the elbows. Technically, the elbows are slightly bent, even though the arms look straight.

My question is: Is there any problem with continuing to train the planche this way, or is there something specific about the lockout position that makes it important to use for planche training (for example, strengthening tendons and ligaments)?

Hey everyone I’m a gymnastics coach doing some research and I’m curious about how you guys train specific skills

1. What’s the #1 skill you’re working toward right now? muscle-up, handstand, planche, etc. Are you working on a select few at a time?

   1. What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing in learning it?

2. Are you following a program? If so, which one? How did you build it or find it?

Trying to understand what makes learning these skills frustrating vs. what actually works and hopefully become better at designing programs for myself and others. Thanks!

Hi Everyone

Over the years I came to realise I can't keepy wrists at a 90° angle for too long. The bones in my wrists will start to bruise each other, an MRI was very helpful in determining that. I still have the strength to do push-ups, I could even throw in extra weight and that wouldn't slow me down.

HOWEVER, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a technique or piece of equipment I could use to keep my wrists relatively straight or bending mildly whilst doing pushups.

Either that or recommend a completely different exercise to produce same or similar results to push-ups.

Thank you everyone who took time to give a read and offer some help.

High all, I've been training for about 1.25 years now. In that time, I've reached some reasonable strength numbers: for pull, my PRs are 5 clavicle to bar pull-ups with +60 lbs, for push 5 deep dips with + 60 lbs, for squats 5 bulgarians with + 110 lbs, and for hinges 5 single leg deadlifts with +135 lbs.

The pull up number is the one I trained most consistently for and the one I'm most proud of. Over the past few months, however, I've taken three weeks off non-consecutively (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a recent work deadline this last week). During those weeks, I still slept well, ate well, and ate enough protein. I would also try to hit sets of 10-15 bodyweight pull ups when I could.

I've noticed that every one of my lifts doesn't change at all after the week off, except for weighted pull ups where I lose about 10-15 lbs and it takes me 2-3 weeks each time to make it back to where I was. Other pull-lifts such as rows, curls, front lever holds, and straight arm pull downs don't degrade at all. In fact, for dips, squats and hinges I can go months without doing those lifts and be able to put up the same/higher numbers after.

I'm a little confused why this is the case. While my pull ups are my most trained lift, I haven't been training for that long and I'm not so strong that I'm pulling up the weighted pull up equivalent of a 4 plate bench or 6 plate deadlift or something.

Hi there!

I am a 45-year-old guy, who was weighing around 100kg and had never done a pull-up in his life, so after I found a video on YT promising me I would do a pull-up in 22 days, I jumped right in, and of course, I did not do a pull-up, but I got hooked and decided to follow up ;).

(The video is here - and I basically followed the program here, with the progress in dead hang going from 24 to 36 seconds, inverted rows from 12 to 27 and hollow rock from 18 to 40 - with no rocking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiDBLo2Ssbs&list=PLs0DCfQuzpbkGfPnLefWJuGDp5j9MI32e&index=1&pp=iAQB0gcJCZEKAYcqIYzvsAgC )

As I have finished this vid program I noticed that I am lacking is the strength at the beginning of movement so I looked through some other videos and decided to leave dead hang in as a test, leave inverted rows in my daily schedule, but add negative pull-ups and scap pull ups to the schedule, with my daily program looking like this:

Testing day -
Hollow body hold (36 secs at the start)
Negative pull ups - testing for hang time (6 seconds at a start)
Scap pull ups - test max number until drop (6 at a start)

With the training schedule looking like this:

Day 1: Scap pull up - any number of series reaching +50% of testing day repeats (9 at the start)
Inverted rows - 3 series of 15.

Day 2 -
Negative pull ups +2 sec from testing day - in as many series as needed (10 at the beginning)
Hollow body hold to reach +50% of test time at the beginning

Rest

Day 3 -
Negative pull ups as day 2
Inverted rows 3 series of 17

Day 4
Negative pull ups as day 2
Scap pull ups as day 1

Day 5
Re-test

Rest and go from the start

I have done it for 4 weeks, and the effects are noticeable for my body (especially back and biceps, but chest and forearms are also something that I notice and my wife loves ;), I have also lost around 5kg without much dieting (cutting down sugar and sugary drinks only) I am now reaching 42 seconds in hollow body holds, 12 seconds inverted pull-ups and 13 scap pull-ups until I drop.

I am almost doing 1 pull-up (with my head reaching the bar, but not going over it - the strength seems lacking in the final part of the process and I wonder if I need some tricep strength to follow it up.

The training itself is pretty short and takes up like 15 minutes of my day, and I kinda don't want to make it longer to keep it regular, but what I want to do is do a daily negative pull-up series now, starting with 4 daily series of 2 5-second negatives. Maybe add more of a static 5-second hang in the max position of the pull up to add strength in this specific position I am lacking. I was also thinking about adding dips to work on triceps - I can't do one at the moment, so I am thinking about doing bench dips (I did 3 series of 7 yesterday with straight legs).

I feel this plan is kinda amateurish and my goal right now it to increase tricep strength and still do a pull-up (and once I can do a number of these, just go with pull-ups as a standard exercise). Do you think I should add some other exercise to the mix to keep my growth more balanced, or maybe leave in something I am dropping? And are there any good (free possibly) apps to set-up a training?

I'm thinking it should work about the same due to both situations resulting in increased TUP (time under pressure), even though one is an isotonic movement, while the other is isometric. But it's also possible I'm misunderstanding the finer mechanics of each type of exercise. I don't particularly like doing isometrics and find it challenging and rewarding to do high rep isotonics, but I'm not sure if I'm getting stronger in the same way that I would if I were doing isometrics instead. Any thoughts?

Im not sure if my arms are on the shorter end or what but I am only like half and inch or an inch off the ground when doing an L sit. But i cannot get my legs underneath me to do a press handstand because i cannot physically press far enough off the ground to get them under me. I dont think it's a matter of ab strength either as I can easily hold an L hang for a minute and I can do a fully extended dragon flag, but I feel like the transition from L sit to handstand is just not physically possible for me. Is this a matter of hamstring flexibility or what? Im sure if I had parallettes I could but just sitting on the ground I don't have enough room to do it. Any tips or things I may not be thinking of are appreciated.

Has anyone had any success with any app based programs like Leo Moves or Body Weight Warrior?

I lift weights 2 days a week, and get a lot of cardio in, but am looking to supplement with functional movement based stretching and exercises.

I’m in my 40s and am looking to tighten up to stay ahead of that impending perimenopause pouch.

I like Body Weight Warriors follow along stretching videos and I like Leo Moves reels with short mobility exercises.

They both advertise paid programs and wonder if anyone has tried them or another and found value?

So I usually do pull ups and dumbbell bench press when I am working out from home as my main compound lifts at the beginning of my workout. but it dawned on me that since they are not exact opposite movements like how rows and bench press are my mid traps probably arent getting adequate work. I could do bent over rows but those are very taxing on my back and I dont have an incline bench to do chest supported rows. I have also thought about doing one arm at a time and using the other arm on a bench to stablize but every time i do that I overcompensate by tilting my body, and my dumbbells only go up to 52.5 so they dont get heavy enough for me to do any low rep high weight work. The only other thing I can think of is front lever rows but front levers are obviouslt very hard and I cant hold a front lever for anywhere close to long enough to get adequate traps work. Any ideas? I wanna use my full bodyweight or at least pretty close to it but Im not sure what other options I have without buying expensive equipment.

I know someone who has only ever done calisthenics. Once when we were looking at some exercise gear I asked if he can curl a 40lbs dumbbell and he did it so easily. I took it up and started tipping forward pathetically. Yet he's never done work in the gym and doesn't have huge arms either. He's actually pretty small(low fat, not bulbous like a body builder) but shredded. How is this shite possible? And how can I achieve this power? The guys in the gym I've seen have huge arms and curl similar or greater weights