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Bodyweight High volume bodyweight training

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Hi mate. remember Herschel Walker doesn’t just train like this, he’s a vegetarian and also eats only once a day and sleeps 5 hours a night. Tough doesn’t even begin to cover it, but Yes you can train with thousands of reps and build muscle but you must train every single day.

I already had a solid base of physical and mental strength before I attempted this and started with bodyweight training when I joined the British Army so my body adapted very quickly since I’ve been training since I was about 18.

The most important part of this kind of training is you can’t just use a few hundred reps, you need a minimum of 1,000 reps per exercise but I built myself up to 1,000 sit ups, 3,000 Push Ups, Pull Ups, Chin Ups and Pike Push Ups(since parallel bar dips became to easy) and all other exercises are done until 1,000 reps are completed.

I use 1 minute rest times between sets and train twice a day, when the summer rolls around I’ll have time to do 2,000 sit ups a day and see my results but I have currently have as much strength as I did when I was following a powerlifting program and only eat once a day in the evening after my second session because your body doesn’t need hardly any calories to maintain this kind of muscle, it’s when you life weights that’s when your body requires calories to maintain the weight and strength because the body doesn’t naturally build muscle that way.

I hope this helped and believe that can push yourself and be willing to, sit a stop watch timer nearby and just do push ups until you hit that point you when you can’t lift yourself off the floor and you’ll know how far you can go and then next time try and go past it, Good Luck Mate.

ArmyChris Out
 
Hello,

@ArmyChris
Welcome !

How did you plan your routine ?

Recently I set myself a challenge. In France, WW1 ended the 11st of November 1918. So this day, I decided to do 2000 push ups (I rounded to the superior).

I do not train high rep push up anymore. I only do a few HSPU and OAPU a day (rarely more than 15 of each), as it takes way less time. 2000 push ups were almost 'easy': no soreness, etc... However when I trained high rep only, there was not that much transfer to HSPU / heavy press move.

This is roughly the same for core training (HLR vs dit ups, Dragon Flags vs planche).

This is less obvious as far as transfer from weighted pull ups to bdw pull ups is concerned. For them, I tend to train both.

Do not misunderstand me. High rep training has value, for [local] endurance, tendon and ligament strength, to name a few.

However, they take a lot of time to do, and transfer less to limit strength.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
It's been a while since I read the ebook, but I believe Pavel addresses this in Naked Warrior: to develop strength, reps must be kept relatively low. So if you can do dozens of normal push ups without stopping, elevate your legs or add weight(vest, backpack etc)to increase the difficulty. Pavel even applies this to advanced bodyweight exercises like One Arm Push Ups; if you can consistently do, say, six reps both sides with good form, elevate your feet to make the exercise even harder.
 
Some of the best results I ever got with calisthenics was mixing heavy, low rep work (OAP, Planche, One Arm chin-up, Front Lever, pistols) with high rep calisthenics work, yoga and sprinting/jumping. I was able to train Very frequently, sometimes 3 x a day seven days a week. This was during a complete confinement period in Paris in March. Sometimes I even trained all day. When I went back to the barbell, I was pleased to find my pressing strength and deadlifting strength improved dramatically after nearly two months sans barbell.

Nowadays, I don’t have the time or energy to do all this but it made me a believer in high volume calisthenics. To people working at home during these times, it’s definitely worth it.

I’d usually have lectures during school, all done on the computer. So I’d practice planches, squats, pushups, etc during these times. I’d write an essay, and every thirty minutes when I needed a break, OAP or front levers, bridges, whatever my body needed. It was one of the most dramatic strength and physique changes I’d gone through and I became very lean, but I’ve always been on the skinnier side, but my body always looked “active” because it generally was.

I also believe adding high rep calisthenics work a few times a day as almost harmless volume ie Max Shanks protocol and could supplement most non high volume routines. Calisthenics don’t get a lot of love in the strength training world, except gymnastics, but I’ve come to believe they can be a game changer.
 
Hello,

I strongly agree with @Philippe Geoffrion

The YouTube channel 'Red Delta Project' also advocates for something called 'micro workout'. This is something very close to GTG. The main difference is that you perform several exercises and a few sets at a time, here and there during the day.

I like the Max Shank's approach, which is very athleticism oriented, with fairly low volume, as mentioned. Below are a few protocols, as examples:
www.t-nation.com

Total Athleticism: The Workout

Strong. Fast. Agile. Crank up your awesomeness with this simple, challenging workout strategy.
www.t-nation.com www.t-nation.com
www.t-nation.com

Building Hardcore Athleticism

Bigger and stronger is great but it doesn't make you more athletic. Here's how to build that elusive quality.
www.t-nation.com www.t-nation.com
www.t-nation.com

20 Minute Strength & Power Workouts

Here's how to use demanding 20-minute workouts to build a strong, powerful body... or die trying.
www.t-nation.com www.t-nation.com
Again, I think @Philippe Geoffrion is right: this can clearly be paired with some high rep calisthenics.

In this article, even Danny Kavadlo advocates for some high rep training, including 2 or 3 sets to failure throughout the day - alongside other things of course - to build size and strength:

Small Space, Little Time—Big Gains, Big Time | Dragon Door

There are many methods of progressing your push and making incredible strength gains. This is just the tip of the iceberg. True strength is acquired over time, with patience, intensity, consistency and hard work.
www.dragondoor.com
To do it on a daily basis and on the long run, I would not go beyond two sets to failure though. If this works for push ups, it will work for pull ups.

Lower body is harder to really overload that way.

Usually, using different rep ranges in a training is the best way to progress. @Philippe Geoffrion is the living proof of this. Pandemics, working from home, etc... are excellent way to get those reps in. For example, I currently do my morning routine as usual, but I also do a few things at midday and in the evening.

If we consider bodyweight training only and mixing rep range, even during a "normal" time, it could be easy to do at the end of the training a set of push ups and a set of pull ups [close to failure], and the same when one gets back home.

If one is lucky enough to have hill very close to home, or stairs, this is a given for the legs. I really enjoy stair climbing on good pace with heavy weight (at least 32kg). Plenty of options: backpack, suitecase, etc...

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
High volume exercise has its place in strength training. Think about Westside's high rep band work.
I believe the discussion should be about what is the role of it in training; and how to mix with other type of training.
This thread reminds me of Great Gama's thread.
 
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