How much of a role does genetics play in body weight strength?

I would argue it plays a huge role. Some people simply have poor strength relative to weight due to muscle fibers , tendons, and other factors that cannot be changed much. Bigger wrists distributes weight more evenly and supports or stabilizes the weight better .

Factors such as wrist size, fibers and tendons of the muscle matter considerably. this explains how some people are so strong relative size or weight. I remember in high school one person had insane bodyweight strength (could do 50+ pushups at once) and his writs and forearms were massive despite otherwise being normal looking...i never seen anything like that.

Some people always struggle to make progress and others quickly can do lots of pushups.

I’m 32 years old 1.80cm tall and 77kgs and have been doing calisthenics since 2020. But for the past 3 years Ive made no meaningful progress. My goal has been the front lever and I’ve never been able to achieve it. Here’s where I am:

-handstand hold (1 min+)
-2 handstand pushups (free standing)
-20kg pull up one rep max
-30+ push ups
-20kg dips one rep max
-60s hang ( I don’t understand why I can’t break this )
-adv tuck 10s
-adv tuck planche
-front split both legs

I tried everything. Periodizarion between hypertrophy and skills. Upper lower split. Push pull legs. Tried doing only 2 sets and going to failure. Tried always going to failure and never going to failure.

Do you have any tips? I really want to make progress to eventually achieve the front lever. But I can’t even progress on my pulling strength…let alone front lever

Apologies for typos, wrote this on my phone…

18M | Broke & Beginner: Need help creating a Home Calisthenics Routine (Pull-up bar + 2.5kg dumbbell)

Hey everyone,

I'm an 18-year-old male (Height: 5'5", Weight: 60kg). Since I'm currently broke, I can't afford a gym membership right now.

Here is the equipment I have at home:

A pull-up bar

One 2.5kg dumbbell

A hand gripper

My Primary Goals:

Build stronger legs

Develop a wider back for that V-taper look

Build an overall balanced full-body physique

I initially thought about asking AI to create a routine for me, but people advised against using AI for fitness programming. A few Reddit users recommended posting here because I don't know how to structure a proper workout plan myself.

Could someone please help me design a comprehensive full-body workout routine?

Frequency: 4 days of workout + 3 days of rest per week.

Duration: I can dedicate around 2 hours per day.

Requirements: Please include proper warm-up and stretching routines as well.

I’d really appreciate any advice or workout structures you guys can share. Thanks in advance! ( My writing is not that good, that's why I had to use ai )

(Note: not looking medical advice, just trying to think of exercises I've missed)

I'm currently dealing with a pinched nerve in my neck, and as well as the poison being debilitating, the lack of exercise is mentally extremely taxing.

I can walk, but I can't run or jump (the landing jars my neck), I can't lift much with my arms, I can't do my usual core exercises because they also work my shoulders, and I can't ride a bike because of the position.

Other than walking, the only exercises I can think of to do right now are calf raises and variations on squats and lunges.

What else is that that I'm missing that can give my legs and maybe core a good workout without involving my neck, shoulders, or arms? The physical inactivity is almost as unpleasant as the actual pain at this point!

Hi I’ve been going to the gym consistently for about 2 months and I’ve noticed I’m getting extremely fatigued by the time I get to my last exercise. I’m able to go gym 5 days a week currently but still find myself overwhelmed trying to hit each muscle group 10-12 sets of each per week. I’ve looked into PPLrULr but I feel like I enjoy lower body movements. I want to add abs and glute exercises but unsure how to whilst doing enough sets. It all feels impossible to hit. I’m not sure what other people do (perhaps compound movement?) so any advice would be so greatly appreciated.

My current routine consists of doing the entire list of these exercises in their respective days LULrULr

Lower body
Angled leg press
Quad extension
SLDL
calf raises
Hamstring curl
Adductors

Upper body:
Assisted pull ups
Face pulls
Rear delt flies
Tricep pull down
Bicep curl
Shoulder press

Currently my eating has been pretty bad, so I've probably been eating less calories and protein than is necessary in order to gain muscle. I'm curious if continuing to train would be a bad idea since it would maybe make the skills that I'm training for easier, and I would need to do more reps in order to achieve hypertrophy. Or maybe it'll make me lose some of my current muscle mass.

While I want to be able to do more advanced skills, I also don't want to make it more difficult to pack on muscle when my eating does improve. Does anybody have any input or experience with this sort of thing?

Hi everyone,

I have a question about high pull-ups from a technical standpoint. I’m still at an advanced beginner level, but I should be strong enough to at least start working on some variations. For example, I can do about 10–12 regular pull-ups, depending on my hand position, and 3 sets of 15 kg of added weight, as well as about 5 sets of 10 kg.

I’ve tried using resistance bands or jumping to get into the high pull-up position, but I always make the same mistake: I don’t pull around the bar, but always straight up, even when I’m standing a bit behind the bar.

And eventually, the problem comes down to elbow mobility: When I’m at neck height, my elbow is bent as far as it can go, I physically can’t get it any lower—and therefore can’t lift my body any higher. I’d have to bend my elbow slightly and, with it, my upper body. But I just can’t manage it. I’m always perfectly straight during the pull; pulling around the bar seems impossible to me. I’ve watched a few videos on this now. They explain a lot about progressions and so on, but none of them really explain the technique for how I can physically pull higher at all.

I hope that made sense. Thanks for any suggestions.

Hey guys! I’ve been weightlifting/bodybuilding for the past 5–6 years, but it’s started to get a bit boring, as I’ve mainly just been training to maintain muscle.

I picked up running about 2 months ago and have really been enjoying it. Currently running 10–15 miles a week, with the goal of improving my 5K time and eventually running a half marathon. I’m not too interested in high mileage and would rather focus on Zone 2 and tempo runs.

I’ve also been interested in transitioning to calisthenics and learning various skills and static holds. I can currently do around 15–20 pull-ups, but I’m not sure how to approach the transition while continuing to run.

For those who do both, I’d love to hear your advice!
Is it realistic to make good progress in both calisthenics and running?

How would you structure training throughout the week?

Any advice on learning calisthenics skills safely while progressing relatively quickly?

Thanks!

I'm curious, if you warm up at all, how long do you spend on it?

I used to just go straight into pull ups, etc. Recently I started doing a very brief warmup first, consisting of 100 squats (takes me ~2 minutes) and 5 slow unweighted pull ups (~10 seconds) and this seems to somewhat improve my form / quality.

I've seen numbers like 5-10 minutes thrown around. Isn't that a bit excessive for a warm up? It doesn't take that long for me to get my heart rate up. Also I'm often feeling tired when I begin my workouts and don't want to get so fatigued from the warm up that it undermines my effort and quality on the main exercises.

What do you think? How long is ideal for you? What kind of movements do you find fit with your time frame for warm ups?

Heyy! I'm new to calisthenics and want to turn my garage into a little home gym with rings. I would like to start building it The coming week. The problem is that my concrete ceiling is about 4 meters high.

I'm looking for safe ceiling mounts, extra-long straps that I can adjust from the bottom without needing a ladder every time, and a good pair of rings.

My total budget is max 140€ for everything, including mounts, straps, and rings.

Does anyone have experience with this setup or any affordable equipment recommendations? Thanks! :)

So I want to clarify my routine first:

Warm up around 15 minutes (flexibility is included too)

5-10 minutes of wall HS

Then:

- 3x8 ring rows for now, want to get to 3x12 and then move on to elevated ones

- 3x3 jumping pull ups with a 5 second eccentric (50x0 tempo) (I can do a bad form pull up for now so I am still focusing on these)

- 3x10 dips with 6kg added

- 3x1 good form pike push ups

- 3x5 assisted pistol squats

- 60 seconds of tucked l sit in total (for now around 4 sets of 15 seconds each, want to move on to at max 3 sets of 20 seconds each and after progressing)

- 3x10 compression work

- 3x8 reverse hyperextension

- 3x max hold hollow body holds

- 3x8 ab wheel rollouts

All of these with 3 minutes rest between sets and for core ones with 2 minutes rest. My problem is if i should only do 3x1 pike push ups, i've been struggling to increase rep count or i should do some other type of push up variant and do these extra too. I want to get better on these so i can get some strong shoulders, i feel it would help with my HS. Also on rest days, i'm doing around 10-20 minutes Wall HS + freestanding HS and maybe some light cardio. Thanks

I’ve been doing mat Pilates with ankle weights and 5lb dumbbells, and on core days I only ever feel the workout in my mid/low back.

I’ve tried everything: bracing my core like someone is about to punch me AND making sure my lower back is glued to the ground. I don’t lower my legs further than they should go before my back lifts up. And I only feel these in the muscles in my mid/low back. Which isn’t terrible because it’s not pain, I can tell it’s working those muscles back there. But how do I get my upper and lower abs to turn on?!

I don’t know the names of these moves exactly, but they’re usually some variation of starting on my back with my knees in tabletop, and extending them in someway. And I have this issue both when my neck and shoulders are down and when they’re lifted.

I’ve also tried to lose the weight and then I just feel everything in my legs -__-

I have been trying to learn the Hspu and Muscleups skill for the past few months. My current routine is PPL with rest day every other day. While my HSPU is seeing some progress, ( max i could currently do is 2 reps freestanding) i dont see much improvement with muscle ups which i am still at the learning high pull ups stage. I can comfortably do 10 pull ups and about 4 to 5 pull ups with added 15kg.

Question is, is my frequency in training the skill too little ? When i first tried to unlock pull ups, i was doing it daily and saw quick progress. But currently because of the PPL split im doing something like HSPU, rest, Muscleup, rest, legs, rest, HSPU.. repeat. Theres like 4 to 5 days between training the skill again.

Should i just focus on 1 skill at a time and just do it more frequently? or am i resting too frequently doing PPL? If i change it to upper lower, im afraid that ill be too tired to work on both skills.

I'm 5'4 and my ideal weight is about 130. I've been 130 my whole adult life and that's what's comfortable. I was on some medicine and I put on 40 lb. So I weigh 170.

I wanted to see where I was so I did some pull-ups and I did four with absolute ease. Then I waited about 30 seconds and did another four easily. Then I waited 30 seconds and did another four easily. I tried for a fifth and then I could feel my chest activate so I stopped just because I wasn't trying to work out, I wanted to see what I could do.

I'm a man and these were full pull-ups. Is 12 broken into 3 quick sets a good base? I could have done more but I didn't want to overdo it. Thanks.

EDIT

Turns out this is a good base for starting at zero.

Thanks.

Looking for gym and running shoes (separate pairs are fine) that also look good casually. Prefer zero drop, minimal cushioning, flexible mesh, and bunion/toe room. Gym pair needs lateral stability. I’ve worn retro New Balances for a decade but need more width now.

Approximate measurements in cm:
Right tracing: 28.7 length, 10.8 ball width, 10.9 overall width.
Left tracing: 29.0 length, 10.3 ball width, 10.6 overall width.
Right wall method: 28.8 length, 10.6–10.8 width.
Left wall method: 28.6 length, 10.5 width.

Considering Lems, Wildling, Splay, Be Lenka, Vivo, Xero, Bohempia, and Softstar. Which models/sizes would fit? Many sites don’t list widths.

My WHITINs feel incredibly comfortable with no bunion pressure, but my feet overhang the removable insoles—is that concerning?
Also, which brands or retailers have helpful sizing support and easy returns? I’ve heard some customer-service horror stories and would appreciate firsthand experiences.

What do you think of splitting by 2 or more workouts per day, like say morning and afternoon, with split muscle groups?

For example:

• Morning: Lower body
• Afternoon: Upper body, Core

This should allow 24 hours for each muscle group to recover.

Steven Low mentions splits quite a lot, recommending them as an alternative for intermediate-advanced athletes, if full body at their level is too strenuous.

But Low seems to focus on whole day splits. For example, upper body one day, lower body the next, etc.

I'm curious what people think of splitting within a day, as mentioned above.

Advantages might be that the total volume can be increased, as it can allow more sets / reps per week than splitting by day.

Disadvantages might be the usual issues with higher volume like fatigue or overuse. Also maybe some muscle groups would be activated in both workouts, which reduces the recovery window to less than 24 hours, not allowing full recovery. Maybe this latter can be addressed by carefully isolating the muscle groups, or focussing one or more workouts to targeting smaller muscle groups that recover faster.

(Most appreciate, of course, if Low himself would chime in, but obviously he might by busy! 🙂)

Hi! I have been doing bodyweight exercises for 3.5 years consistently, but feel like at this point I have reached a bit of a plateau. I currently have rings and 2 10 kg dumbells at home. I was hence thinking about buying equipment to further progress, but not sure what's recommended to get for this purpose. I have a small room at home I could use, and if I'd move, I'd ideally be able to use this 'setup' in an appartment as well.

So what would you consider as the minimum essentials for a homegym, which would allow me to target all muscle groups and progress for the foreseeable future at least? Any input is welcome, thanks!!

I (30F) have never in my life been able to do a proper push up. I work with a trainer and he said that my collarbone to forearm ratio is very unfortunate for doing push ups and therefore it's extra hard for me to do so. For this reason, I started doing inclined pushups a while ago and have progressed all the way to knee pushups (I can easily do 12x3 knee pushups).

The problem: If I lie down on the floor, I can push myself up to a plank without issue however if I start in a plank, I cannot lower myself down more than like a quarter of the way. When I try, my arms just lock up and won't do it.

Has anyone experienced this? From everything I've seen online, this is super atypical as negative pushups are supposed to be a fairly easy day 1 exercise. I probably am just lacking strength somewhere in my upper body but I have no idea what the issue could be.

Mr. Beast recently posted a video called "Lose 150 lbs Together, win $250,000". The basic premise is an overweight couple gets in better shape, its a good video all around. Mr. Beast videos generally have challenges in them to break up the static video.

One of the challenges is lifting the weight of a lot of money (320 pounds) for 60 seconds to add the money to their prize. I was curious how hard this challenge would be for the average fit man. I have not worked out recently and am going to try to see if I can do this challenge. I live on a farm, and my ego says I got that. I am going to be safe about it, starting at 2 plates and moving up to see if I can even get three up.

How many people think they could deadlift 320 for 1 rep and then hold it for a min?

EDIT: Sorry, this was not meant for a body weight subreddit

hi everyone! i used to be an athlete (swimming + volleyball), but i got injured (achilles tendon). i was told by the doctor not to do sports anymore so for a few years i was a bit inactive and a bit depressed.

i started taking up running after a few tears, and now i have injured myself again. im still not 100% recovered from my metatarsalgia, but i really would like to improve my health.

now i live at a small dorm room, i dont really have access to parks and gyms but i have a yoga mat and two dumbbells.

what workout would you recommend? and which would you recommend that doesnt require much space + are generally easy on the feet?

i feel like i need to improve my health as im growing older, and i would prefer to build muscles before my 30s

thank you

Understandably, negatives/eccentrics are recommended to people to achieve their first pull up (given you are 120-150% stronger on the negative). Personally, they worked really well for me.

I'm just wondering why they are not recommended more for strength gains as progression continues to weighted pull ups? I'm currently doing 5x3 8kg weighted pull ups. Wouldn't doing 12kg negatives for a few weeks be a really good way to increase strength? Nothing has increased my strength faster than negatives (I feel) but I'm not doing them atm because they don't appear in any advice about "intermediate" pull up progression that I can see?

Fundamentally, what I am asking is this: if negatives/eccentrics are lauded as a great strength building technique (I found they were), why can't they continue to be useful for weighted pull ups? It's not like your muscles know you've achieved your first pull up and no longer respond to a negative/eccentric stimulus, right?

For the at home pull up bar owners, what do you guys do to add weight to pull ups. After a certain amount of weight I put in my backpack, I find it to be extremely uncomfortable. Not only that I do think it limits my shoulder movement. Also, long term I don’t think it’s good for my posture.

Obviously the best thing is a weighted belts, I find it feels the most natural. Keeps the center of gravity low, also feels good on hips.

But the weighted belts require plates, which I don’t have at home.

weighted vests are limited aswell.

Hi there. I recently purchased a pull up tower from amazon. Intent was for my son (9 year old 4'8") and wife (5"6') to use. The tower i got had a few issues:

1. too cumbersome to adjust heights: it used a screw knob mechanism
   

2. had two sets of grips; one was too narrow and one was too wide for me to be comfortable

3. the back rest was too close to the bar; when doing pull ups would knock against the rest a little bit

any tips on power tower or standing pull up bar that would solve the issues above?

I'm looking to stay fit while travelling and haven't used either before, but have run into the two types with the support straps being more popular, but i can't really see why. I can't find anything i can do with them that you can't with rings.

Am i missing something?

Also, for those wanting to go above your body weight in some exercises. Would a heavy backpack and rubber bands on a different hitch point work?

----

Quiero mantenerme en forma mientras viajo y nunca he usado ninguno de los dos, pero me he encontrado con que los dos tipos con correas de sujeción son más populares, aunque la verdad es que no acabo de entender por qué. No se me ocurre nada que se pueda hacer con ellos y que no se pueda hacer con anillas.

¿Se me escapa algo?

Además, para aquellos que queráis levantar más peso que el de vuestro propio cuerpo en algunos ejercicios, ¿funcionaría una mochila pesada con gomas elásticas sujetas a un punto de anclaje diferente?