Workout of The Week (#73)
Bodyweight Conditioning
Bodyweight training is a great way to get a good training base and build general physical prepardness. I’m not a huge fan of bodyweight only training unless that’s literally your only option. Nowadays there are multiple gyms in most American towns, equipment is cheaper than ever on Amazon or facebook marketplace, so there are few circumstances where bodyweight training exclusively is going to be the BEST option for anyone.
That being said, I do think bodyweight training has some utility. Bodyweight movements are great for kids and adults new to training to build work capacity or as a quick lower stress activity. With novice clients I find that they can tolerate a lot more bodyweight movements at first than if we simply just loaded them up with weight, which makes sense since the load will typically be less than it would with a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or machine.
I also like high rep (over 50, usually even more) bodyweight exercises as finishers eithe at the end of training as a standalone or in a superset. An example would be finishing with 25-50 bodyweight lunges per leg after a lower body day, super setting dips with dumbbell bench presses, or hitting jump squats after squats to burn out the type 2 fibers in the quads.
If you did want to exclusively train with calisthenics i’d recommend doing a lot more gymanstic based movements or adding in weighted vests and dumbbells into your routine. Manipulating velocity would also be a good idea: performing clapping pushups, various jumps, and using bands to enhance acceleration.
The Workout
This is a chipper style workout where the volume starts high and chips away to being easier as the workout goes on. Keep the reps CLEAN!
12-10-8-6-4-2
Pull-up
pushup
squat jump
lunge jump (per side)
hanging leg raise
12 reps of everything, then 10, then 8 etc.
Swap the pull-ups for inverted rows and hanging leg raises for leg raises on the floor if either of these movements are too challenging for you. To make it more challenging swap the Pushups for dips or do them with a band, do squat jumps with dumbbells or swap to box jumps, and you can do the lunge jumps weighted.
Fantastic workout! I like the term "chipper style." It's a great way to "trick" the mind and body to perform a high volume of reps, which like you mention is key to making gains with bodyweight exercises. I like to incorporate what I call "pyramid" burpees and/or push ups as a finisher. It's a great way to hammer out hundreds of push ups without really focusing on the total number of reps. Somehow that makes it more doable/less of a chore.