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Bodyweight Tips on routine

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qwerty333

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So right now I am at, for 3 days a week,

  1. weighted pushups 3x8
  2. Australian pull ups (leg up, weighted) 3x10
  3. pelican pushups 3x10 (weighted)
  4. dragon flag eccentric (working on form still) 3x10
  5. elevated plan tricep extensions (weighted)
I'm using weighted (a giant bag with lots of university textbooks, totalling around 10kg) I am about 65kg. My goal is that level of body. My diet, I'm definitely eating less that 2k cal, but I find eating a lot to be really difficult (I'm not vegan, but I just like fruits over anything else).

Two questions:
  1. how can I improve my routine to achieve my goal? (given the lockdown, and given I don't have any room at home for a pull up bar). should I focus on arms day, core day? how do people usually do that?
  2. how can I improve my diet? Should I use protein bars?
Still a beginner so any insight helps!
 
Hey qwerty333, welcome to the forum. I’m curious as to why you don’t have any lower body work? Maybe consider adding or swapping out one of the other exercises with pike push-ups.
I’d suggest reading this article and apply the concept of light/heavy/ medium days.
Hope this help!!
 
Hello,

@qwerty333
Welcome !

Two questions:
  1. how can I improve my routine to achieve my goal? (given the lockdown, and given I don't have any room at home for a pull up bar). should I focus on arms day, core day? how do people usually do that?
  2. how can I improve my diet? Should I use protein bars?
If your goal is to gain mass, which seems to be the case, it may be interesting to work on legs as well. This is why I think @mrdave100 's post is great because it covers the legs as well.

By the way, is there any reason for not already training them ? Do you have an injury history or some sort of constraint ?

I would also use dips (may be even instead of triceps extension). They are often considered as the "upper body squat". You can do them with a weight. 3x10 is a simple way to gain mass.

For the legs, I would add some squats or a complex like this one: Leg Blaster - Mountain Tactical Institute

If calorie intake is an issue, gaining muscle will be hard. Do you already consider protein shakes ? When this is liquid, most of the time, this is easier to get some calories in.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
+1 to pike pushups, especially if you have any calisthenics goals. They will do wonders for your shoulders.
+1 to legs. if gaining muscle is your goal, having that stimulus will help.

1) "arms day" won't do as much as you'd like for sheer muscle gain. I would suggest sticking with big pushing/pulling movements like you're doing. Just make sure you're doing your pushups with elbows at 45degrees or closer to the body. Think BIG movements over isolated movements. Triceps work will help with pushing, but I would focus on the big moves.

Common splits are alternating a push/pull day with a legs/core day, each done twice a week, or a push day, pull day, then leg/core day, each twice per week. Full body 3-4 days a week is also an option, and the article suggested above is a great template for that.

2)
I'm using weighted (a giant bag with lots of university textbooks, totalling around 10kg) I am about 65kg. My goal is that level of body. My diet, I'm definitely eating less that 2k cal, but I find eating a lot to be really difficult (I'm not vegan, but I just like fruits over anything else).
Does this mean you wish be 75kg?

Can you provide us some background about yourself, such as how long you've been training, what your diet is like, any goals other than gaining muscle?

A general rule of thumb with gaining muscle is to add about 500cal per day to your baseline caloric intake. IF, after doing so for a few weeks, you see no progress, AND your training AND recovery are appropriate, THEN you add more calories. 500 is really not a huge jump, especially if you are incorporating enough protein and healthy fats into your diet. Protein typically should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.8-2g per kg of body weight. There are also many macronutrient calculators available online. By entering you info into a few of them, you should get a good idea of what you need to be eating.
 
Hello,

+1 to @bluejeff
To add these calories, this is fairly easy. A few eggs here, some cottage cheese as dessert.

Something I really like is cottage cheese with one or tbs of olive oil, garlic, herbs and salmon.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Yes, to gain weight, it’s important for us to know what you’re eating and how much.

Gaining weight with BW training is possible, indeed. If it were me, I’d probably train full body pretty often with a few select moves. I’m presuming you do not have access to weights, yes?

I’d follow @Pet's advice about adding dips. You could use two chairs if you need to, but dips are THE upper body calisthenics mass builder along with chin-ups. Nothing really comes close. One of Pavel’s articles in Beyond Bodybuilding recommends a routine of chins and dips nearly daily. Chad Waterbury has similar mass programs and the article on SF that is called dips and chins for mass would also work. Ideally, the only leg work on this routine would be a set of 20 rep squats every other day, which unfortunately is not an option. Legs grow well with high reps but unfortunately high rep calisthenics squats won’t deliver the same mass gain qualities of a loaded squat. Lunges and single leg work could help. Again, I’d train legs daily mixing in a power day (jumps, sprints), a strength day (pistols, airborne lunges, sissy squats) and a high rep day.

Gaining mass will require tension and fatigue. A muscle needs to be torn down before it can get bigger. In order for this, you must eat more.
Protein shakes are helpful. I used to mix protein with oatmeal, a banana, peanut butter and milk ever morning and at night with ice cream. PB and J’s or grilled cheeses ? are great mass gain snacks. I don’t believe you have to eat 6-7 times a day, as long as you eat enough. I was always thing (I moved competed in powerlifting at 147 lbs) and less than a year later decided to build up to 183 lbs, which only took a few months. I never lost sight of my abs, mind you. For mass with Calisthenics, a large dose of volume is necessary as the load is lighter than what can be achieved with weights. The basics rule. Fancy variations and modifications come and go but Chins, Dips, Pushups will never be obsolete.
 
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