A Primer, Bodyweight Basics

TRAINING PRINCIPLES
I feel it worth talking about my approach to training, how many repetitions and sets I do
and the theory behind it.
A study by Schoenfeld et al. (2017) found that volume was the deciding factor on muscle
growth, not a specific repetition range. In the study, 10 sets per week per bodypart was all
that was needed. Not 2 long workouts the same day on the same body part (if you’re anything
like I used to be).
More is not always better, especially if your body needs to recover.
If our muscles are under an adequate load throughout a full range of motion (or as close to
full as your physiology allows) then we will get stronger at said movement.
If you cannot maintain good form throughout the full ROM, then make adjustments so you
can. If you were lifting weight, you would lower the weight. If you were doing bodyweight
rows, you’d step backwards, letting the floor take your weight rather than lifting more yourself.
If you were doing a full front lever but started to fail, straddle or tuck your legs in to
shorten the lever and make it easier. We can always adjust difficulty.
After adequately warming up, I usually go for the hardest exercise progression I can. This
would be likened to training compound movements first when training for strength or hypertrophy
in a standard weightlifting/bodybuilding routine (we do use squats and deadlifts
however, they follow the same principle).
I have included necessary milestones and ideal reps/set ranges for the exercises explained
throughout but it’s worth going over again.
For exercises like pull ups and dips that use your bodyweight only, rep ranges do not really
apply unless we are using weights a long with it, the more pull ups and dips you can do the
better (At the time of writing, my best is 22 in a single set, but 30 is the goal). However if
you plan on doing multiple sets, I would advise stopping just short of failure. This is becuase
your overall volume (total lifted throughout the workout) is likely to be much higher if
you go just short of failure. You will recover much quicker between sets if you pace yourself,
meaning you should be lifting more overall througout the session rather than going all
out and having to rest for 5 minutes because you’re so exhausted. Just be consistent.
Anyway, that’s just my opinion on what has worked for me. I cannot stress this enough,
FULL RANGE OF MOTION with a reasonable weight will 99.9% of the time be more beneficial
than using high weight or intensity with BAD form.
Take care of yourself and you will be able to train all the time. If you’re injured, you can’t
really do much.
BODYWEIGHT 45