@joneshomes Calisthenics
The basic way to build a workout is to focus on compound movements and make those movements your “primary or main" movements and then use accessory or secondary lifts to address imbalances, deficiencies, and compliment your main movements. You want 10–20 sets per week for each muscle group which typically works out to hitting each muscle group 2x a week. The lifting schedule you choose is called a split. The most common splits are 1) fully body 3x a week 2)upper-lower split 4x a week 3) PPL (push, pull, legs) 6x a week 4) bro split or Arnold Split 6x a week.
You want to select compound exercises in the primary planes of movement for pushing and pulling movements. So you've got horizontal push (examples; bench press, pushups, chest press machines) horizontal pull (examples; barbell row, bodyweight row, machine rows). Vertical push (overhead press, dips, shoulder press machine). Vertical pull (pull ups, lat pull down machine). Legs (barbell squat, leg press, lunges) and hamstrings (straight leg deadlift, bodyweight/Nordic curl, GHR machine).
For calisthenics your main movements are; Pushups, inverted rows, dips, pullups, squats, lunges. For each workout your want to do 4–6 sets of each exercise. After a light warmup do your first 2–3 sets of a difficult variation of the exercise in the 5–8 rep range. For pushups and rows that might be raised feet, for pullups and dips you might add weight like chains, a weight vest, or a simple belt and loading pin setup with regular weights. Squats and lunges are a bit more difficult to load but you can do unilateral exercises.
After your 2–3 “heavy" sets do 2–3 volume sets in the 10–15 rep range. For the volume work you can make the exercise easier to hit the desired reps. For pushups and rows you raise the upper body higher than the feet. For pullups and dips add bands. Squats and lunges should be easy enough but you can hold onto something and pull yourself up if you can't do 15 of them.
The thing with calisthenics is that they are easy to get started with but the progression is exponentially difficult. To change your appearance you need to constantly push progression. People think “I'll just do 100 pushups a day and get jacked" but that's not how it works. Especially with high rep workouts. High reps won't do much to change your appearance. They will improve athleticism and burn some calories but if you can do 40 pushups without stopping vs 100 you won't necessarily look any different. If your body fat percentage is too high you'll also fail to progress. The key to any workout is change and progression. With calisthenics you need to do your research and learn different progressions of each movement so you're pushing that progress. There's a ton available on YouTube.
Here's a basic template;
Monday upper body #1 ; Pushup and bw row are your primary and pull-up and dip are your secondary.
1) 10-15 min warmup, jumping jacks, jump rope whatever gets you ready to do pushups, it shoudn't be hard.
2) Hard pushups: 2-3 sets no more than 8 reps. If you can do 3 sets of 8 then you need to make the variation harder. Start with 2 sets of 5 reps.
3) Easy pushups: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps. If you can do 3 sets of 20 reps make the variation harder next time you do pushups.
4) Hard bodyweight rows: 2-3 sets of 8 reps. Follow the same structure as with the pushups.
5) Easy bodyweight rows: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
6) Pullups: 2-3 easy sets or do a "ladder progression." (That's another copypasta I'll add)
7) Dips: 2-3 easy sets or do a ladder progression.
Tuesday: lower body #1
1) Warmup
2) Hard squats: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
3) Easy squats: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
4) Hard lunges: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
5) Easy lunges: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
6) Nordic curls: easy 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
7) Box jumps/stationary jumps: ladder progression.
8) ab circuit any 3 exercises or ab wheel 3 sets 10-15 reps.
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: upper body #2
1) warmup
2) Hard dips: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
3) Easy dips: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
4) Hard pullups: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
5) Easy pullups: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
6) Easy Pushups: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps or ladder progression
7) Easy rows: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps or ladder progression.
Friday: lower body #2
1) Warmup
2) Hard squats: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
3) Easy squats: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
4) Hard lunges: 2-3 sets 5-8 reps.
5) Easy lunges: 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
6) Nordic curls: easy 2-3 sets 15-20 reps.
7) Box jumps/stationary jumps: ladder progression.
8) ab circuit any 3 exercises or ab wheel 3 sets 10-15 reps.
The challenge of this and any bodyweight program is finding the variations to hit the right rep ranges. If you're a beginner "girl pushups" might be your hard variation and wall pushups might be your easy variation. Or maybe regular push-ups your hard and girl Pushups your easy. To make pushups easier raise your hands higher so wall pushups would be the easiest variation. To make them harder raise your feet so hands stand pushups would be the hardest variation. You also have options like diamond pushups, tight elbows in, wide hands, one arm etc. Bodyweight rows work the same way; raise the hand grip to make them easier and raise the feet to make them harder. For squats and lunges your have single leg versions like Bulgarian split squats, you can do wide stance squats or long step lunges, and of course weighted and single leg versions. Do your research!
I also typically do back to back sets for the upper body workout. So I'll do my hard pushup variation and then my hard row variation. Then easy pushups paired with easy rows. I'm pair my pullups and dips too.
If you have Zero equipment you can still start without the pull-ups and dips. You'll have to get creative with the rows but you can use a sturdy table or anything around the house you can hang from. A cheap doorway pull-up bar can go a long way. They have versions with dip attachments as well. They also have relatively cheap pull-up and dip stations you can fit in the corner of most rooms. If you don't want to mark up your door frame tape the contact points with gorilla tape. You can also get a cheap pair of gymnastic rings and straps to hang from a door pull-up attachment, just be careful. The rings are a bonus bc you can use them for hard variation pushups too.
This is getting long but lastly you can turn this into a 3x a week program by hitting the full body every day. If time is a concern you can just do two upper body exercises hard and easy sets and the to lower body hard and easy sets. Alternate your upper body exercises with each workout.
thank you again Turla!
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(not lol). Thanks again for all the info- have a great day!!