Bodyweight Fitness

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Bodyweight fitness, also known as calisthenics, offers the unique benefit of utilizing one's own body weight as resistance, making it a highly accessible and cost-effective form of exercise.

This type of training emphasizes natural movements and can be scaled to suit individuals at various levels of fitness, enhancing strength, flexibility, and coordination without the need for gym equipment.

Historically, calisthenics has its roots in ancient Greece, where it was a method for training soldiers to improve their physical condition and agility. Today, it has evolved into a popular fitness discipline worldwide, celebrated for its ability to build a strong, lean physique and promote overall health through dynamic, compound movements.

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Good Beginner Routine (self.bodyweightfitness)
submitted 18 hours ago by UniversalMonk to c/bodyweightfitness
 
 

Strength work (40-60 minutes)

First Pair

3x5-8 Pull-up progression

3x5-8 Squat Progression

Note: If you have access to barbells (and a squat rack), we recommend you learn how to use them instead of the squat progression. after you have perfected the basic squat.

Second Pair

3x5-8 Dip progression

3x5-8 Hinge Progression

Note: If you have access to barbells, we recommend you learn how to use them instead of the hinge progression. after you have perfected the basic hinge progression.

Third Pair

3x5-8 Row Progression

3x5-8 Push-up progression

Core Triplet

3x8-12 Anti-Extension progression

3x8-12 Anti-Rotation progression

3x8-12 Extension progression

There are nine exercises. These exercises are performed in pairs and triplets to save time. Pairing two exercises means doing a set of the first exercise, resting 90 seconds, then doing a set of the second exercise, resting 90 seconds, and repeating until you've done 3 sets of that pair.

For the triplet, you do a set of the first exercise, rest 60 seconds, do a set of the second exercise, rest 60 seconds, do a set of the third exercise, rest 60 seconds, and repeating until you've done 3 sets of that triplet.

Rest time: If 90 seconds is not enough and you are starting to drop drops (e.g. you did 8 reps the first set, but the next set of the same exercise you can only do 5-6 reps), you can rest up to 3 minutes. Quality is more important than reducing time.

Tempo: Ideally, all exercises are to be performed in "10X0" (1,0,X,O) tempo. The numbers explain how long each phase should last, and go in the order of: (1 second eccentric) On the way Down / (0 second) Pause at the Bottom / (X - accelerating fast concentric) On the way up / (0 second) Pause at the top. So 10X0 means 1 'mississippi' second duration on the way down, no pause at the bottom, explode up and no pause at the top. When "exploding up", if the actual movement is slow, that's okay, it's the intent that matters.

Overall, if your pull-up max is say 8 reps, then go for one rep short of failure such as 7-7-7 instead of 8-6-5. The key is to not work at failure for the first set or two because it significantly detracts from performance in later sets which reduces your ability to perform good reps and maximize volume to get stronger and bigger muscles.

The 90 second pairing is so that there is minimum 3 minutes rest between each set, which is 3 minutes total. This rest time is where there is 99% replenishment of ATP in the muscles, so you are not limited by fatigue in the muscles.

Sticking with failure-1 repetitions and 3 total minutes between sets of the same exercise allows you to maximize volume and effort level which is essential for strength and hypertrophy.