My Weekly Bodyweight Fitness Training Program (September 2020 Update)

Hello,

(You can skip the text and go straight to the program below.)

Goal

My goal is to do 1 strict pull-up.

I am currently doing pull-ups by starting almost with my arms straight, but it is not strict form, since the arms are almost (but not fully) straight. So that's the goal. At least, I am not doing the swing pull-ups that CrossFit people do (kipping pullups or butterfly pull-ups).

I started my training with this goal in mind on 2020-07-16 with the target date 2020-09-17. I got this idea of the pull-ups goal when I saw the older Jujimufu on YouTube. I was watching Jujimufu on trickstutorials.com in the early 2000s when he was less of a bodybuilder. He is a legend.

I think that I will reach the 1 reps of a perfect strict-form pull-up around 2020-10-15. My program is pure bodyweight fitness training. I like it that way. It's fun and simple.

Push Pull Legs (PPL)

During July and August 2020, I was basically training every 2 days with pull and push exercises and no legs exercises. Eventually, I decided to replace that by a PPL (Push Pull Legs) program. The PPL approach has 48 hours or 72 hours for recovery of PUSH, PULL, LEGS muscle groups, respectively, as they are trained on separate days. I find that this helps me progress faster by recovering more effectively.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

I watch YouTube. I watch mainly THENX and Chris Heria. He's cool and his videos are easy to follow for a beginner. Did you know that Chris Heria also compose the music in his videos ? He has many talents! I also watch other channels too.

A close second is the FitnessFAQs YouTube channel by Daniel Vadnal. Daniel Vadnal is Australian so he does the best Australian pull-ups 😂. FitnessFAQs really puts the emphasis on the correctness of the movement (strict form). 

Also, special shout-out to Quebecer Simon Hamptaux who has a YouTube channel on pull-ups.

Finally, I bought the book Overcoming gravity by author Steven Low.

Gym and home gym

I go the Maxiforme Québec gym. This gym is very nice and affordable.

I also have a small home gym with some equipments: push-ups bars, door pull-ups bar, resistance bands, dips bars. I very much dislike the door pull-ups bar compared to the gym pull-ups bar.

I will soon have gymnastic rings and ceiling X Mount Anchors to install the rings.

Stats

Mass: 70.1 kg
Height: 1.8166 m

Weekly Bodyweight Fitness Training Program

My two guiding principles are:
* SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) and
* gradualism (also called incrementalism).

My PPL days are organized such that Saturday and Sunday are PULL and PUSH days, since they tend to take more time than LEGS DAY and I have more time during the weekend days. It is only a logical decision.

Thursday is my recovery day because a lot of shops are open late on Thursday.

Monday     LEGS DAY   (recovery since last LEGS DAY: 48 h)
Tuesday    PULL DAY   (recovery since last PULL DAY: 48 h)   
Wednesday  PUSH DAY   (recovery since last PUSH DAY: 48 h)
Thursday   RECOVERY DAY
Friday     LEGS DAY   (recovery since last LEGS DAY: 72 h)
Saturday   PULL DA    (recovery since last PULL DAY: 72 h)   
Sunday     PUSH DAY   (recovery since last PUSH DAY: 72 h)

 

PUSH DAY (0.75 h to 1.0 h)

* Warm-up
* Dips
* Push-ups
* Scapular push-ups
* Bar dips

My abs get worked out during the push-ups and during scapular push-ups.
I don't currently train them specifically.

Otherwise, it is triceps and pecs.

Note that I must do my push-ups using push-ups bars since my right wrist
has issues which prevent it from doing push-ups on the floor directly.
My right wrist has a geode, which lowers the mobility of the joint.
The pull-ups seems to basically heal the wrist. The pain is no more.
 

PULL DAY (1.5 h to 2.0 h)

* Warm-up
* Pull-ups
* Australian pull-ups
* Scapular pull-ups
* Chin-ups
* Neutral chin-ups
* Jumping pull-ups

It is mostly lats, biceps, back that are being worked out.

My favorite exercise is the Australian pull-up. I really feel the muscles properly working.

LEGS DAY (0.5 h to 1.0 h)

* Warm-up
* Squats
* Lunges

As the saying goes: don't skip LEGS DAY. 😏

 

Max reps for PUSH

* Dips:              12
* Push-ups:          20
* Scapular push-ups: 30

Max reps for PULL

* Strict Pull-ups:         0   😑
* Almost-strict pull-ups:  3
* Australian pull-ups:    20   😄
* Chin-ups:                3

Max reps for LEGS

* Squats: 120
* Lunges: 15

Typical reps for PUSH DAY series

For PUSH DAY, my numbers (from 2020-09-13) look like this:

1) Dips              1: 11 12  8 10
2) Push-ups          1: 13 15 13 10
3) Scapular push-ups 1: 20 25 20 15
4) Dips              2: 11 10  6  5
5) Push-ups          2:  8 11 10  7
6) Scapular push-ups 2: 30 20 20 19
7) Bar dips          1:  2  4  5  5

Typical reps for PULL DAY series

For PULL DAY, it looks like this (2020-09-12):

 1) Pull-ups            1:   2   3   4   3
 2) Australian pull-ups 1:  18  15  10  13
 3) Chin-ups            1:   2   3   2   1
 4) Scapular pull-ups   1:   9  10  13  15
 5) Pull-ups            2:   3   2   1   4
 6) Scapular pull-ups   2:   9  10  12  15
 7) Australian pull-ups 2:  13   7  10   5
 8) Chin-ups            2:   2   2   3   2
 9) Australian pull-ups 3:   8   7   9  10
10) Neutral chin-ups    1:   2   2   2   3
11) Australian pull-ups 4:   6   5   6   4
12) Jumping pull-ups    1:   2   3   4   4

Clearly, at the end, I am exhausted !
All those Australian pull-ups are so much fun.

Typical reps for LEGS DAY series

These are the numbers for 2020-09-11. This was my first official LEGS DAY. I will do more series the next time.

1) Squats:   105     60      30      46
2) Lunges:   10,10   10,10   12,12   15,15

Thanks for reading.

You can reach my at sebhtml on protonmail.