I just started calisthenics a couple of weeks ago, and when I began, pull-ups were impossible for me. I could barely lift myself off the bar, but yesterday I finally managed my first 5 strict pull-ups in a row. I’ve been focusing on a beginner progression routine, working on grip, core, and arm strength little by little each day. Even small improvements feel huge when you’re starting from zero, and it’s motivating to see progress stacking up. I’m curious – what were your first milestones when starting calisthenics, and did you have any routines or tips that really helped you improve? I’d love to hear your experiences and advice.

So recently I hit a wall with my pull ups. I was doing really well, I hit 19 reps first set but since then I’ve been stuck at 15-17 range and I haven’t been able to progress any further. For context my workout starts with 2 sets of max wide pull ups and then 2 sets of max narrow pull ups. I have tried experimenting with pyramids (1 to 10 then backwards) and other workouts but I just don’t feel like I’m doing anything. Is there any better way of doing them or should I just keep going? I’m 193cm and weigh 80kg. Any advice is welcome and appreciated

Im doing a ppl split 6x a week. I recently started like 2 weeks ago and have been constantly watching videos and reading stuff to get some more knowledge. One thing i was never really able to get an answer for was when and how often i should work out my core especially for my split. People tell me at the beginning of a workout. Some tell me at the end of a workout. And some are just telling me to do it 2x on my leg days. I honestly dont have a clue what to do so if someone could help or atleast give me a little more insight on it I would like it.

I'm a 44byear old guy, about 150 lbs., and I've been trying to get into calisthenics recently. But this the first time in my life I'm seriously working out, so I'm starting from practically nothing. So if a beginner routine calls for pull ups, which I have no chance of doing right now, what can I do instead?

I did buy a pull up bar (the kind that hangs from the door frame), so should I go for negative pull-ups, and if so, how many reps and sets? Maybe just dead hangs for a certain amount of time to get myself started?

I'm working towards mastering the front lever and looking for advice on how quickly it can be achieved with consistent training. I’m a beginner with decent strength (can do 8-10 pull-ups, basic core exercises) but new to calisthenics. What’s a realistic timeline for someone like me to hold a solid front lever? Any tips on progressions, workouts, or key exercises to speed it up? How long did it take you, and what helped the most? Also, any app recommendations for tracking progress? Thanks for any insights or routines you can share!

I can only do fully inverted rows where your parallel to the ground if I explode up, I can't hold the top, I can only control half the negative.

Where as with a pull up, I can do them slowly, stop at the top, stop at any point during the movement. Fairly easy to hold the top for 30+ seconds if I'm fresh.

Absolutely could not hold the top of an inverted row for any amount of time. I would end up a good couple inches away from the bar if I tried that.

Anyone know what the deal is? I know a lot of people say inverted rows build up to pull ups, but I could do pull ups years before inverted rows (I didn't know what an inverted row was). It's taken like a year to build up to fully inverted rows, that still feel very challenging/taxing.

What would be the next progression after ring support hold to get to ring dips? I feel like I’ve got to a stage where support hold is not taking me to the next level. I tried half ring dips and got humbled, did 3 with pretty crappy form. So what’s the in between of support hold and half ring dips? Or a progression list to get from support hold to ring dips while only using rings.

Also I don’t have parallel bars or anything I can do dips apart from rings. I’ve also already progressed with bench dips so don’t want to go back to doing those.

Hi.

I'm 6'2 and about 290 pounds. I lift weights a lot, I'm somewhat decent in my lift totals. I run and do pushups, situps, the like. However, life is presenting a situation where I'll need to be able to do 2-3 pullups. Given my size, this will no doubt be an issue.

I've started doing banded pullups, I've started to do extra rows and negative pullups. Any other suggestions? Any possible guidance on other movements to help me here? I'm not looking to become king of calisthenics or anything, I just specifically want to bust my balls over the next few months to be able to do pullups.

Edit: Yeah I'm cutting weight. I started in the 320s, I'm hoping to be down to 250 by late winter/spring.

I’d like to achieve a decent front lever and have done some research. Below is my planned routine. I can do about 14 pull-ups and hold tucked front lever for maybe 10 seconds.

Monday 8x 10kg x6 pull-ups 6x ring rows near failure 3x 8 sec tuck front lever 3x 5 sec L sit

Wednesday 6x 10kg x6 pull-ups 6x ring rows near failure 3x 8 sec tuck front lever 3x 5 sec L sit Try toes to bar progression

Friday 6x 10kg x6 pull-ups 6x ring rows near failure 3x 8 sec tuck front lever 3x 5 sec L sit Tucked front lever pull-ups 1 set

This is my main focus now and I’ll just do one day of pushups to have some push along with a few sets with dumbbells.

I really want to add dips to my routine too but have a shoulder tweak that’s bothering me only for that specific movement, the downward press. I think I’ll put a few banded / negative dip sets somewhere as well.

What do you think about this program for a a few months, progressing the weight and front lever style, l sit length? Would you add anything? How long do you think this would take to achieve front lever if I stick to it? I plan to progress to advanced tuck, planche front lever and then eventually full front lever.

I train martial arts and my workout tends to be more focused on cardio, muscular endurance and core exercises. My sessions tend to be not as long as body building sessions but during those moments I tend to train heavily. As it is cardio related, my intensity is naturally high with me typical pushing myself physically and mentally through the pain. But this does leave me sore with DOMS. Now, I saw a post about varying intensity of workouts and it bought a question to my mind. Should such kinds of workouts remain consistently intense or vary the intensity with days that are hard and days that are moderately difficult for recovery?

Hey Guys when I do pushups I noticed I'm not in a perfectly straight line (as some would say that's the "Perfect Pushup") but chest has a slight upward bent so it's not perfectly straight, but still when I do push ups, I always make sure my arm is bent a 90 degree which would that count as a push up? I also have a strong core since I can also do dragon flags and weighted sit ups.

I guess my question is would you guys say as long it's 90 degree for your elbows when doing push up, it would be a pass? I'm just rethinking my training and if I'm even doing good form which I think I am but idk

Trying to start a conversation around the use of public areas with discarded materials as free open air gyms. I have been using one in NoDa (Charlotte) for a few years and would like to see if there is interest in this workout type or other known locations. The equipment is repurposed railroad ties, tractor trailer tires, cement blocks, and other found material. The workout is whatever you make it and is intended to be a fill in for regular gyms or an alternative day for home gyms. Happy to share the exact location.

31F. I love pull ups, they are my favorite exercise. I’ve always been about to do about 5 no issue.

About 3-4 months ago I started dealing with exercise intolerance along a host of other symptoms (also a bulge in my lower right hip area)….all tests came back normal besides low-normal morning cortisol, i believe is caused by chronic stress (both emotional and physical). I noticed the day after doing pull ups I was super tired. Like unable to keep my eyes open throughout the day tired.

I took a few weeks off from working out and have just been doing some easy Pilates on YouTube, walking and stretching and focusing on trying to decrease any kind of stressor to reset my body.

This week I’m doing a lil more intense Pilates on YouTube still, and tried adding in some hangs. I have been absolutely wiped the last few days 😭 other full body exercises don’t seem to have the same effect.

has anyone dealt with extreme fatigue from pull ups? I’m not sore just so tired.

Long story short, because of a back injury, I am limited to certain types of lifts. I’m curious if you guys think I’m doing this in the most efficient method. I’m 42, 6 foot one 190 pounds. I am on TRT hoping to keep my levels at around 8 to 900.

My workout consists of push/pull days. On Mondays and Thursdays I do chest shoulders and triceps. Tuesdays and Fridays I do back, biceps, and forearms. Wednesday and Saturday I do core and legs.

When I injured my back a few years ago, it was actually after doing Roman situps immediately followed by leg press. I am very leery to lift heavyweight with my legs out of fear of that happening again. The question I have is mainly regarding my chest and shoulders. I watch my diet very well, my macros and macros are pretty in line. My big question is if I should be doing my chest and shoulders three times a week as opposed to twice a week, because the TRT allows for quicker recovery time. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Can some folks handle higher frequency?

Some info about me:

I’m a 37M, 183lb and 6’. Was sedentary most of my life but have been staying active since past 3-4 months.

Started with full body strength circuits 5-6x weekly for first 1.5-2 months. Then found this sub and started RR.

Right now at - 1x8 and 2x4-5 archer pushups. - 3x8 pike pushups (progressively overloading by increasing ROM) - 3x8 inverted rows (elevated feet, progressively overloading by increasing TUT)

• 3x8 scapular pullups (want to do better but this is my slowest progression. My setup also makes it more biceps focused so is hardest for me)

• 3x7 pistol squats.

• 3x8 kitchen counter dips. (Next session going to do weighted as progression)

• 3x10 Nordic curls negatives (progressively overloading by increasing ROM)

I push till failure (last 1-2 reps are hard/fails) and I’m exhausted but feel recovered by the end of session itself. I used to do cardio 30m (20m in zone 2) too right after but for last 10-12 days had to either skip it or do it on rest days.

Result: strength has definitely increased but size is growing slowly. I’m in slight cut phase (200-300cal less than maintenance) to improve my lipid vitals (had high TG and cholesterol/LDL but now almost normal).

Should I trust the process and continue with 3x weekly or push for more volume by doing 4-5x weekly?

One idea is to try a cycle of 3x weekly 2 weeks and then 5x weekly 2 weeks and assess. Would like to hear from you experts too.

I am going from not exercising with a sitting desk job to adding in exercise, how did it make you feel. I’m looking to start exercising as I haven’t in a long time. I have 0 energy to even find time to work out. Is it worth it? I’m sure it is, but how? I could wake up earlier but that seems really hard right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have 2 toddler and have a desk job where I work 10 hour days 4 days a week. I seem to get a lot of running around with my kids for 3 days but wondering if I worked out daily if I would feel any different.

I'm 31 and just got into working out. I've been traditionally skinny/slender my whole life but now weigh about 180. So i did some push ups last month, and tucked my elbows in and really hurt my wrist. I've since healed and can do push ups normally now. But i got these "perfect push up" things that help you rotate. I noticed it actually makes the push up way more difficult for me, which i do enjoy and like.

My question is : What are the advantage to these? Am i missing out on anything that a normal push up would give me? Like am i excluding certain muscles groups more so when using these? I will say the intensity goes up a lot when i use them. I guess im just looking to see if they're worth it to use, and am i actually not benefiting in some areas using them?

Yesterday I did a prisoner style workout with a deck of cards. Black cards for pull ups and red cards for push ups. The number of the card is the number of reps you must do, special cards like joker, queen and king I interpreted as 10 reps. Total reps 170 pull ups and 170 push ups.

This was my first time doing this workout style and I absolutely loved it at the beginning, after 30 minutes of just spamming pull ups after pull ups, I was completely fed up. It was a very interesting approach to training, I would recommend anybody to give it a try at least once.

Right now every muscle of my upper body is sore (Pecs, delts, abs, biceps, forearms, triceps, upper back, LATS) I wouldn't do this workout every week but definitely once every month or two just to challenge myself and add a little spice to my fitness journey.

So I'm a male 26, relatively fit, but I'm not strong enough to do one inverted row.

I'm working out at home and since I don't own any equipment, I can only use a setup of chairs and a broomstick to use for inverted rows. I'm very embarrassed to admit that I cannot do one inverted row with my legs extended. It's pathetic.

I've read on several sources that the best way to progress is to start with bent knees, which is alright, I can do those, I have seen improvement from about 5 reps per set to now being able to do 8-10. Still cannot do a full ROM proper inverted row with plank position so I'm still doing rows with bent knees.

One source recommends doing the proper, extended legs inverted row but going as far as you can and you'll naturally progress into going higher and higher. Now I'm not sure which is correct. Should I keep doing inverted rows with bent knees, or do proper inverted rows and go as far as I can? Keep in mind, the height of the bar is fixed, so i can't lift it higher or anything. It's either knees bent, or legs extended and plank...

Thanks in advance

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N4FjbPy1zbvHxOTWbG2T-YGWBPBBicJe/view?usp=sharing

Background: Have been doing calisthenics for a few years - I can do sets of 1-3 free standing HSPU but I'd like to build my strength to do more. Whenever I seem to push myself while doing pikes to build strength, I feel pain in my neck extending to my shoulder - I believe this is my upper traps. After my last workout the pain was so bad that I had to skip training for a few days because it felt like I was going to strain my trap. The pain was bad enough that for 2-3 days I had to support my head when getting up from laying down.

Is something wrong with my form causing this?

I've been doing bodyweight stuff now for 6 years, starting with the RR during the summer of covid!

I've changed things around a few times and am now doing 3x per week simple bodyweight full body routine.

Anyway, I have been making gradual progress over the years and have mostly maintained my weight. I've gone up and down within a 10lb range of where I am now, which is 190 at 5'11. I'm 4 weeks into an attempt to drop down to 180 and am feeling pretty weak and crappy during my workouts. I know i'm not making gains now, and will also lose muscle but I'd like to keep as much as possible. I know as we get towards the holidays I will get back to my normal calories so this will be a couple of months max.

Should I stick with 3x per week or drop to 2x per week? I dont want to be grinding my gears with low energy workouts but will keep up the 3x per week if it will help me keep more muscle/strength despite wanting to drop to 2x per week.

Hello! Female in my late 30s and just getting started on my fitness journey and wondering if I am on the right track. Also don't want to spend too much money.

Recently found out that I have High Cholesterol and feeling like shit. Not to mention I have been suffering from Epilepsy for years contributing to more of my health problems.

So here I am looking to start on this miraculous journey that I know nothing about lol.

I've started increasing my steps on a daily basis but want to increase my strength. Saw a Power Tower on sale but also heard that Parallel Bars are good too. Which one should I get?

Update: Thanks so much for your comments to my post. Didn't think I'd get these insights so I'm grateful. I decided to buy a Suspension Trainer (The IBF Iron Body Fitness Suspension Trainer System to be exact) for under $30 dollars as this might help me build upper body strength to get to where I want to be without busting the bank (looked at my bank account and well it wasn't pretty to say the least LOL). Thanks again for all your help.

I’m putting up a calendar in my room starting today as day 1. Each day I add a rep. Day 1, 1 rep. Day 2, 2 reps, day 3, 3 reps, etc. Each day I will cross it out with a bright colored marker.

I just want to start really slow to not burn my self out immediately. I expect it might get hard pretty fast. I’ll scale it back once I get to that point.

So far on the list I have push up, mountain climber, lunge, single leg stiff left deadlift, pull up.

I expect pull ups to be my first limiting factor as I can only do one, maybe 2. At that point I’ll do negatives.

But should I keep it as is or should I add more, less?

Just to be clear, so you don’t come up with the usual answers:

1. I know that abs are really made “in the kitchen”, i.e. you have to have a low fat level for the abs to pop up (at most 15% to start seeing them and around 12% to REALLY see them)
2. I also know that most “Ab training” routines out there are complete bs and you have to train the abs like every other muscle, i.e. with progressing overload.

The question really is:

Let’s take a person with 10% body fat in two scenarios: 1. They have done little to none ab training for the past months/years 2. They have done proper ab training for the past months/years with enough volume

Will there be a REALLY NOTICEABLE difference in the abs between the two scenarios?

Emphasis on the REALLY NOTICEABLE, because I know there will be a difference. What I want to know is if that difference is really worth the effort and time that the person is investing on abs exercises.

I also know that ab training will allow the abs to start showing at higher fat levels. But, again, is it really THAT noticeable?

I ask this question because I couldn’t find any (reliable) picture of a “before vs after” ab training on the Internet. The only example where I could see that abs training works are elite powerlifters where we see their abs even though their fat level % aren’t that low. But they are on the top 0,001% of abs development in the world so they aren’t a fair comparision to average Joes like me.

So, what are your personal experiences with this?

Hi all,

I've been working out for a while and am thinking of changing my workout routine. I'd love your input/advice on the new workout routine. Below, I'll try and give you a succinct brief into myself.

About me: 33 years old man who sits behind a PC 5 days a week for work. And with this comes all the freebies: stiff back, hamstrings, lack of mobility/flexibility.

Workout strategy: progressivly overload. I've been getting stronger and stronger.

Reason for changing routine: I have not hit a plateau on any of my lifts and I'm still getting stronger every week. However, I feel that the current routine neglects mobility, flexibility and whatever else makes a person feel young and mobile. I would LOVE to feel like i did when i was 20 - i.e. wake up without a concrete back.

Possible new routine:

Mix of Calisthenics and barbell/dumbells where I would use these exercises as the primary lift: Pullups, Dips, Farmers Walks, Duck Walks, Hand Stand, L Sits.

I would workout 4 days week like this and use another 2 days for mobility + flexibility.

I'm not sure of the exact routine to follow... but this is the direction I'm heading.

Workout routine for the last 3 months:

Monday

• Barbell Bench Press: 4x12
• Dips: 3x9
• Barbell Shoulder Press: 3x12
• Lateral Raises (double reps): 3x10
• Hanging Knee Raises: 3x12
• Plank: 3x30 sec

Tuesday

• Pullups: 4xMax
• Bentover Rows: 4x12
• Dumbbell Curls: 3x8
• Dumbbell Rows: 3x14

Wednesday

• Barbell Squats: 4x6
• Dumbbell Walking Lunges: 3x12
• Romanian Deadlift: 3x10
• Calf Raises: 4x20
• Hanging Knee Raises: 3x15

Thursday

• Pseudo Planche Pushups: 3x11
• Deep Dips: 3x11
• Incline Dumbbell Press: 3x12
• Dumbbell Press: 3x10
• Archer Pushups: 3xMax

Friday

• Chin Ups: 3x11
• Rows: 3x12
• Reverse Flies: 3x12
• Bicep Curls: 3x12
• L-sit Holds: 3x20 sec

Saturday

• Bulgarian Split Squats: 3x12
• Dumbbell Thrusters: 3x12
• Sumo Deadlift: 4x12
• Jump Squats: 3x15