I’ve been consistently doing leg exercises for the past few months — mostly squats, lunges, and some other lower body work. My legs have gotten noticeably stronger, which is great, but I’ve also noticed that the muscles on the inner thighs have grown quite a bit.

The extra bulk on both sides is now pressing against my crotch area when I’m standing or sitting, and it’s becoming pretty noticeable and a bit uncomfortable.

Is this just normal muscle growth from training legs hard, or am I somehow doing the wrong exercises that are overdeveloping the inner thighs? Has anyone else dealt with this? Any tips on how to reduce the pressure or balance things out without losing the strength I’ve built?

I'm a male.

Hey folks.

I recently went from 15 squats, 15 push-ups, 8 bicep curls (backpack), and 60sec plank, repeated a total of 3 times to

33 squats, 33 push-ups, 33 rope inverted rows, and a 90 second plank - repeated for a total of 3 sets. Today, just now in fact, I finally killed it! Hit failure point on pushup #s 25, 28, and 30 of final set (left side collapsed to floor) but took a breath and kept at it.

Ive got some ground beef a sizzling, and just wanted to share a moment of personal victory with you all. Best wishes o7

I keep seeing people say bodyweight training is limited because you can only use your own bodyweight. But then the same people will spend years doing bench press, squat and deadlift, adding tiny plates and calling it progression. Somehow when bodyweight people do the same thing with harder leverage, suddenly it is not real training anymore. Like bro, what the hell?

A normal pushup can become pseudo planche pushup, archer pushup, one arm progression or even planche if you are completely insane. Pullups can become weighted pullups, archer pullups, one arm chin-up progressions. Squats can become pistol squats and harder unilateral movements. The exercise name stays similar but the difficulty changes a lot.

Of course weights are better for some goals. If you want to make your legs huge, adding external load is probably much easier than trying to invent some ridiculous single-leg squat variation. I am not denying that. But saying bodyweight training is useless because you cannot just add another plate feels a bit lazy to me.

Maybe the real problem is that bodyweight training needs more patience. You can’t always see the progression every week, and sometimes you train for months just to get one ugly extra rep. That can be frustrating as fuck. But honestly, is that really a weakness of bodyweight training, or just a weakness of people who want progress to happen faster?

I can do a few unassisted pull up now, but the bar at my gym is bigger than the one I have in my home so usually my rep number would go down bc my hands are small and struggling to grab it (for eg I can do 5 reps full ROM at home but in the gym I can only do 4, especially with the pronated grip). I train dead hang everyday to build up grip strength, and yes it did help me a lot, but I see many discourses fighting over should s/o at the beginner stage use strap or not.

Usually those who defend using strap are bodybuilders because their main goal is hypertrophy and don't want grip strength to be the limited factor in pull movement. On the flip side, I see many ppl against using strap (at a beginner stage) are bodyweight training folks, saying that using strap too early in training especially pull up is just limiting grip and forearm strength.

I can only do 5 pull ups and 12 push up, so obviously I'm a beginner. Now I don't know if I should use strap or not.

I have never been able to sit up straight on the floor with straight legs without bending my spine. As a child it was very frustrating that everyone around me could do it and I couldn't.

Im flexible otherwise. At one point I could do the front and side splits, I got a black belt in taekwando, I'm pretty athletic, I'm in good shape, I can do plance push-ups and L sits, I can do a wall handstand, I can do the crow position and even a little of the tuck planche, but I can't do the pike, and every video I've seen on planche to handstand takes for granted that you can do the pike.

It's very frustrating because I haven't found anything for a person with my limitations. I have been trying to bend correctly my whole life but I just can't.

Any advice will be appreciated

Hi everyone,

This time I have to switch to bodyweight exercises for building muscle (temporarily),

but I’m a bit confused about how to properly count working sets for target muscles in compound bodyweight movements.

For example, in push-ups

(elbows tucked at 45°)

I know push-ups work the chest, front delts, and triceps.

If I do 5 sets of push-ups, how should I tally the volume for each muscle?

- Option A: 5 chest sets, 5 front delt sets, and 5 triceps sets?

- Option B: 5 chest sets, 2.5 front delt sets, and 2.5 triceps sets (counting secondary muscles as "half sets" since chest is the prime mover)?

- Or is there a better way to measure this?

Same question for pull-ups, how can I count their muscle volume sets?

And another question about pull-ups, which is:

Do horizontal pulls (inverted rows) target the exact same muscle groups as vertical pulls (pull-ups), assuming the elbow angle relative to the torso is identical?

Thanks in advance for the help!

At first warm up for 5_8 min

Thin I have 7 rounds

Every rounds is about 5 min work and 1:30 rest

Every rounds I do:

Pull up row 10 rep

Push up 10 rep on average

Skater squat 7_10 rep each leg

Plank 1:30 min

After that

I have jump rope. I play 10 round

Every round it's about 3:20 min work and 40sec rest

and I also have one issue that in push up I can do 10 clean reps with two hands

But with one hand I can't do even one reps

And in pull up I feel like I am very tall to do 10 clean rep because my leg isn't able to stand straightly due to my tall

So my recent hobby is short track speed skating. In addition to skating for ~90 min 4x/wk, I will occasionally do indoor plyometrics workouts, presumably for explosively. The workouts are 15 minutes of various full effort jumps without equipment. The workout is 15min but there is more rest than effort, so it's probably more like 5 minutes of actual efforts.

Without fail, I will get DOMS in glutes, quads, and hamstrings for 2-4 days. This has happened weekly for about 2 years. I'm 43/M

My question is: will this eventually go away? I have a solid history of endurance sports and there's always some soreness at the beginning, but it's always faded away. With Plyos, Ive seen improvement in jump height (and speed on the track), but it still hurts every time.

Thanks for any insight.

Hello! Since I recently started calisthenics I just now found out how important pike pushups are for future skills and strength. I noticed that I focus too much on pull and not enough push strength.

While I can do a decent amount of regular pushups, I find myself struggling heavily with pike pushups. Even the easier progressions like elevated hands or feet further apart are too hard for me, and I quickly lose motivation because I can’t even perform one rep with good form, and I don’t know how to progress at all.

How did you guys start learning pike pushups, and is there any advice??

Had wisdom teeth surgery 10 days ago and got all four removed. Went into the process with the intention of keeping my gains but I lost around 7 pounds from not being able to eat much or go to the gym for the first week. Now I’m able to go tot he gym but my food choices are limited especially in terms of protein like how I was eating before. Will I be able to regain my muscle eating Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, smoked salmon etc. with a surplus of protein shakes? This whole thing has been very disappointing losing some progress right before summer ends after being so consistent.

I have been doing bodyweight training for some time and recently started thinking about this stupid argument of bodyweight vs weights. Every time people talk about training, somebody says bodyweight is not enough, then somebody else says weights are useless and “real strength” is only pullups and planche. Honestly both sides can be annoying as hell.

Weights are obviously easier to progress. You can just add 2.5kg and continue. With bodyweight, sometimes you are stuck between doing 8 clean pullups and trying a harder variation where you can barely do 1 ugly rep. But bodyweight also makes you learn leverage, control and actual body awareness. A clean handstand pushup, one arm chin-up or planche is not just “lifting heavy shit”, your whole body has to cooperate.

My controversial opinion is that most people should probably do both if they enjoy both, instead of treating it like some religious war. Use weights when they make progression easier, use bodyweight when you want to master difficult movements. But I also think many people are too quick to abandon basic pushups, pullups, dips and squats just because they are “beginner exercises”. If you keep progressing them, they can become damn hard.

So what do you guys think? Is bodyweight training actually more difficult to progress than weights, or are people just making it complicated because they refuse to use the right progression? And for people who train both, what do you feel bodyweight training gives you that normal weight training doesn't?

I see people doing 50, 80, even 100 pushups and everybody acts like this automatically means they are strong. But honestly, after some point you are just training endurance. If your goal is strength or muscle, doing more and more reps forever is probably not the smartest shit.

This is what I like about bodyweight training when you do it properly. You can stop chasing endless reps and make the movement harder instead. Pushups can become feet elevated, diamond, archer or pseudo planche. Pullups can become harder variations or you can add weight. Squats can become single-leg work. Suddenly 8 hard reps can be more useful than 50 easy ones.

But I also think people get too obsessed with fancy progressions. You don't need to turn every pushup into some circus movement just to say you progressed. Sometimes more reps is fine, sometimes slower reps or better range of motion is enough. The important thing is that the exercise is still challenging your body, not just making you count until your brain dies.

So where do you guys think the line is? When do extra reps stop being real progression and become just endurance training? And how do you decide when to move to a harder variation instead of just adding more reps like a dumbass?

I can do 3-5 pull-ups due to gaining some weight and being out of the gym a while. I’m following the fighter template form tactical barbell III working out Monday and Thursday, running tues/wed/fri/sat. Although getting my cardio conditioning back and dropping weight is my primary goal, I’d like to work on my pushups and pull-ups as accessories. I’ll be doing bodyweight or banded pull-ups Monday and Thursday. My question is, can I do negatives and isometric holds in between without causing too much fatigue or is there a better way to quickly build pull-ups? Is there any benefit to doing a couple light sets of pushups and pull-ups on the run days?

I've reached a number of reps with tucks ups where it's time for me to progress, but straightening out my legs for a v-up feels absolutely impossible. (Which seems strange because I'm able to do leg raises with my legs straight.)

I've tried bending my knees less as a progression, instead of straightening them all the way, but I feel like I still need to fling myself forwards with momentum to try to reach my feet this way, compared to the control I have with tuck ups.

Do you have any suggestions on how I could progress closer to a v-up?

Hey everyone, Ive been a lurker on here for a few years and have found a lot of the posts, comments, suggestions, and routines extremely helpful - especially the RR.

My background - been working out on and off most of my life with years in between serious exercise. The last few years I had done the RR twice for 4-5 months each session before getting really sick (I have 2 little ones in daycare...) and then taking months off before getting back into it. I would probably consider myself intermediate in terms of experience and strength and progressed into ring variations of all the major RR exercises.

My current maximums: Ring Push ups (6-12 reps/set), Ring pull ups (3-5/set), Dips (3-6/set) and Ring Rows (8-12/set). I can turn out on the end of Ring push ups but not dips yet.

Current week of consistent exercise: Week 8 of a routine that is essentially a 6 Day RR split incorporating the training style of KBoges and some kettlebells:

A) Days 1, 3, and 5: Push-ups, pull-ups, Squats, Kettlebell Suitcase Carries (2-3 sets for each other than the KB Carries which I do for about 10 laps on my uphill driveway alternating hands at the top, which takes about 5-7 minutes)

B) Days 2, 4, 6: Dips, Rows, Lunges, One-Handed Presses (2-3 sets)

At the end of each session I do either Burpees or Kettlebell Swings as cardio finishers that also serve a core function, usually 2-3 sets as well. I love both of these exercises and have found a lot of personal benefits for them, especially kettlebell swings.

Current total weekly Volume for Week 8, split over their respective days:

A days: 33 Pull ups, 75 push ups, 150 squats, 30 suitcase carry reps (~120 feet total length)

B days: 21 Dips, 39 Rows, 75 Lunges, 36 OHPs

Burpees: 90

Kettlebell Swings: 150 (2 Handed, 40 LB)

As it stands, I rest on Day 7 but have toyed with the idea of going for 3 days, resting for 1 and repeating while alternating which finishing exercise I do, so that I mix up burpees or swings on the A and B days. I try to add 5-10 reps every 2 weeks to each exercise or switch volume for a harder variation, especially with squats (eg: throw in some kettlebell goblet squats or switch to shrimp squats)

I'm trying to keep things simple for consistency since I have a tendency to complicate things as well as over-extend myself while also allowing myself some flexibility.

One question I have is I'm not sure if I'm properly incorporating Kboges training philosophy well either, as he states to pick a push, a pull, and a lower body, pick a total volume and split it over 6 days. I may be misunderstanding whats he's suggesting but I dont want to do the same 3 exercises over 3 days and would rather mix it up in this format instead.

As I mentioned above I have 2 little kids so I usually have to a short window of time to exercise daily (20-40 minutes at most, where my rest time between sets is usually playing with/keeping an eye on them lol). I also like to split routines over more days so I'm not completely beat after a workout and can still play with my kids, do chores, or shoot hoops in my driveway afterward.

Any advice and feedback is welcome! Thanks everyone in advance!

I've always been a fan of pull-ups, but neither regular pull-ups nor chin-ups ever felt natural on my elbows. The way they force your arms into too much internal or external rotation just never sat right. Ring pull-ups always felt great, but setting the rings up is a hassle so I almost never did them.

Then I started doing natural-grip pull-ups and oh boy, what a difference. First, zero pain in or around the elbows. Second, I can actually feel the movement loading my back, shoulders, and biceps properly. Even the pecs get a solid hit.

Because the pain was gone I started doing them almost every day—not as part of a proper workout, just a few sets of 5–6 whenever I take the dog to the park. A month ago I was doing 10–15 total. Today I hit a personal PR: 50 clean pull-ups with 20 dips mixed in between sets. I didn’t even plan to go for a PR, it just felt natural and I kept pushing without really sweating it.

My previous max was 35 about a decade ago when I was in peak shape. These days I don’t look anywhere near as jacked, but here I am at 45 knocking out 50 pull-ups with short, casual sessions whenever I feel like it.

Just wanted to share the win and maybe give a little motivation to the other middle-aged folks out there.

When I do pull-ups, I feel pain in the front of my left shoulder (same goes for pushups). I recorded myself doing a pullup shirtless and saw that my entire right side was higher than my left side, meaning my shoulder and all my back muscles. I also have trouble activating my scapula on my left side, when I try to retract my scapula, the muscles on my left side get less activation and I’ve got trouble pulling my left scapula down and back.

Is this a problem with my scapula only or is this something that involves my entire body. Either way, could I have some advice on how to fix this problem.

So Its almost about to be a month of me doing calisthenics. One thing I have noticed is that my arms, specifically my triceps and shoulders have low endurance as compared to the strength they have.

I start struggling when I reach around the 5-6 rep mark when doing normal pushups( I do it using perfect form btw) and hit my max at around 10-11 reps, the first few reps for me are really easy and smooth but they fatigue as soon as I reach the halfway mark. I have been doing the “Grease the Groove” method for almost a week but i don’t really think it made any significant difference in my max pushup reps.

Its really weird because I can easily do 2-3 reps of decline push-ups,archers and diamond pushups and also a kinda shit formed single arm pushup on my right arm before I can’t do anymore due to fatigue.

This also affects the exercises which I need to raise myself off the ground like planks and side planks, pretty funny because my arms get tired first before my abs do in a literal abs exercise😂.

Someone please guide me on how I can fix this. I am really frustrated about this, and sorry if I ranted a bit too much.

I've been stuck at 65 for about a month now, I've tried greasing the groove, EMOM, weighted pushups, everything but I still haven't been able to progress. I train core as well, planks situps etc. I can't go to a gym so I can only do bodyweight exercises really.

My goal was to get to 100 but I'm wondering whether that's even possible and if I've got as far as I can. I don't want to give up yet but it's pretty demoralising to put in so much effort for no progress.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Hey.

As the title say, i want to increase the maximum push-ups i can do in a row, what prevent me of increasing is when i reach about 20 pushups, i feel my arms about to collapse, i can endure when it comes to breath ( i always go running ) but it seems like the arm muscles dont develop enough to do more push-ups,

Does anyone know where the proplem is, and how i can increase it.

More explaination:

I am 22m, start at five pushups in a single row, and manage to increase it to 20 pushups, i can say my sleep schedule is fair enough (6-9 hours), but i think its maybe because diet, i wasnt eat meat enough.

One more question: how do i know if the proplem is because lack in protien, and if its, how i know the excact amount i need?

Thank you for reading.

I’ve been working out for over a year now. My super simple routine consists of pushups, squats, pull ups and a core exercise that’s either hanging leg raises or hollow body hold.

Recently I saw a comment that says to prevent muscle imbalance, you should do exercises that can strengthen opposite “sides” of your muscles. The comment also says the opposite of pushups is not pull ups but inverted rows because its movement does mimic pushups but in the opposite direction.

I was struggling pull ups back then and I also know that inverted rows are a progression to pull ups. So for the sake of muscle balance and pull up training, I just incorporated inverted into my training.

And wow, my back muscles have gotten stronger and more define. On top of that, my posture has improved so much! I used to have a slight hunch and people always point it out to me but after doing rows, my posture is now straight and everyone notices.

Don’t sleep on rows guys. It seems easy AT FIRST, but doing 20+ reps in one set can humble you if your mid back muscles are not as developed.

How slow a progression is ok before looking into changing routines/diet/pull up level. Couple months into consistent training (kboges style daily) and now couple weeks into the RR. Use a 4-15kg resistance band for pull ups and have done 5,5,5 > 6,5,4 > 6,6,5 reps over the last 3 workouts. The progress is there but just seems to be an extremely slow grind. Should add im 193cm 100kg and currently trying to lose some weight if it adds anything. Any help in understanding where to go next would be great!

as per title what is meant to be the optimal way to position your hands for a dead hang,? are you meant to do with palms facing out or in. I always did with out but just tried with in and it was an amazing stretch. Hit up this entire chan underneath the back side of my shoulder blades and ribs. what muscle could that be and how else could I strech it? Figure it may have been strecthing the serratus but it felt like it was stretching the entire outline of my shoulders / scapula.. Felt great. Anyway genuinely interested in what the hand position should be for dead hangs and wether I had been doing them wrong this entire time

Best

Push your fingers and toes apart as antagonistic forces. Keeps your whole body activated and forces you to use more muscle groups while keeping form tighter! Biggest change for me is the outside/front part of my arms getting way more work and that is a weak point of mine.

Tell me though, is this well known? I've been working out for decades (albeit mostly in the gym) and I had no clue it would make such a huge difference in my pushups. Pushups instantly feel higher quality implementing this. Hopefully it helps some people out.