Upper-body Workout | Bodyweight
| Parts | Exercises | Sets | Reps/Duration | Rest Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-Up | Light Mobility - Joint # | 1 - 2 | 5 - 30 | none - 2 min |
| Warm-Up Set/s | 1 - 2 | 1 - 8 | 2 - 5 min | |
| Primary | Push/Pull Exercise (2) | 2 - 3 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Secondary | Push/Pull Exercise (0-3) | 1 - 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Parts | Exercises | Sets | Reps/Duration | Rest Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-Up | Light Mobility Drill | 1 | 10 - 20 | none - 2 min |
| Warm-Up Set | 1 | 1 - 8 | 2 - 5 mins | |
| Primary | Australian Pull-Ups (Lats/Trap-biased) | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Standard Push Ups | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Parts | Exercises | Sets | Reps/Duration | Rest Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-Up | Light Mobility Drill | 1 | 10 - 20 | none - 2 min |
| Warm-Up Set | 1 | 1 - 8 | 2 - 5 mins | |
| Primary | Australian Pull-Ups (Lats-biased) | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Pike Push Ups | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins | |
| Secondary | Australian Pull-Ups (Traps-biased) | 1 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Wide Push Ups | 1 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Parts | Exercises | Sets | Reps/Duration | Rest Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-Up | Light Mobility Drill | 1 | 10 - 20 | none - 2 min |
| Warm-Up Set | 1 | 1 - 8 | 2 - 5 mins | |
| Primary | Chin Ups | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Standard Dips | 2 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins | |
| Secondary | Australian Pull-Ups (Trap-biased) | 1 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
| Pike Push-Ups | 1 | 4 - 8 / near failure | 3 - 5 mins |
Workout Information:
Description:
This is a bodyweight upper-body workout routine that involves bodyweight exercises that primarily work the upper-body muscle groups. It includes muscle groups such as the pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, trapezius, and deltoids. The core and arm muscles are not trained directly since most of these bodyweight exercises already work them to a good degree. However, if you want to prioritize them, feel free to use exercises that incorporate them to a greater degree or exercises that directly isolate/bias them, and do these exercises early in the workout for better performance.
Most importantly, this routine prioritizes stimulus and fatigue management, ensuring you can recover for the next training session while removing unnecessary work and further limiting fatigue.
Workout Sample 1: For lats/traps and chest. Basic horizontal pulling and pushing movements. Choose between lat-biased and trap-biased Assie pull-ups, depending on what you can do currently. If you can do lat-biased Assie pull-ups, focus on that.
Workout Sample 2: For lats, shoulders, traps, and chest.
Workout Sample 3: For lats, chest, traps, and shoulders.
Warm-Up:
To properly warm up for this routine, you simply need to warm up the muscles around the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints by moving them around with intent or doing some named mobility movements. Then, do some warm-up sets for your primary/earlier exercise. Later exercises generally do not need warm-up sets as you're most likely warmed up enough from prior exercises. For example:
Light Mobility Drill: Shoulder Circles -> Shoulder Corkscrews -> Elbow Circles -> Wrist Circles for a round or two with enough reps for you to feel them working.
Warm-Up Set/s: You can either do an easier variation or modified version of your first exercise or do your exercise with some reps far from failure.
Just make sure that whatever you do is just enough to work and warm up your muscles, not tire them, so you can perform your best in your working sets.
Exercise Selection:
Above all, make sure that the exercise is primarily working the target muscle group. Then, determine if you can perform the exercise and go near or until failure within the recommended rep range while also considering the stability aspect of the exercise. While it is okay to use an exercise where you can perform higher rep ranges, it's not advisable nor efficient if your goal is hypertrophy—a major limitation of purely bodyweight training.
If you're strong enough to go far beyond the recommended rep range, you can do a harder variation or do many of them weighted, such as with an ankle weight or dip belt with weights. However, if you don't have the option to change the exercise at the moment or prefer not to, you can continue using it and go near or until failure, just like when performing it within the specified rep range. Just know that there will be some unwanted differences in terms of growth stimulus and fatigue.
Proximity to Failure:
While it is okay to go until failure, especially at the start when you don't yet know what that feels like and want to avoid undertraining, it's generally recommended to use it sparingly and instead leave 1-2 repetitions in reserve (RIR).
Training Frequency:
Depending on your recovery rate, you can perform this routine 2-3 times a week or every other day. If possible, opt for a higher training frequency.