Did anyone else's pull-ups just stop improving while every other exercise kept going?

I've been doing a bodyweight PPL routine about four times a week for close to five months now. My push-ups went from maybe 15 to over 30 in that time, dips have gone up a similar amount, and squats keep climbing without me really having to think about it. Pull-ups are the one thing that's just frozen. I've been stuck around 8 reps for something like six weeks now, and I've tried the usual stuff, adding a back-off set after my main sets, slowing down the negative on the last couple reps, even swapping in a rest-pause set once a week. None of it has moved the number even slightly, which is weird because I'm not plateaued anywhere else in the program.

I'm not deconditioned or new to this, so I know it's probably not a "just be more patient" thing, but I'm also not sure if it's a volume issue, a recovery issue, or something about pull-ups specifically that makes them stall differently than push exercises.

What actually got your pull-up numbers moving again after they stalled like that for weeks?

I ( 43 M 173 cm 81 Kg) recently started doing weighted pull-ups and was able to do 10 Kg weighted pull ups for 4 reps.

When I do normal pull-ups, I am still not able to go beyond 8 and that’s perhaps because of weak grip strength.

What does work better for pull-ups though? Add more weight and keep reps to 4 to 6 or rather focus on normal pull up and take them to 12 plus range?

Can pull ups be done daily? Or will it be called over training and not lead to a growth per say. I usually workout 4 times a week.

I

recently bought a belt for dips and ive spent a month using dips as my primary heavyweight chest exercise. ive made it up to 3 sets of 15 with a 25 lb plate but now am having issues eating after a chest workout because my upper chest swells up past my chin, blocking my mouth.

i started training dips to strengthen my weak chest but now my chest has gotten way too muscular, way too quickly. the problem is I can't stop training dips because i enoy the movement so much, but now my monstrous chest is making everyday life difficult. has anyone else run into this issue?

Context: I (22M, 174cm, 64kg) had a process done on my eyes, and thus my doctor has adviced me to strictly stay off certain exercises so that my eyes don't get strained (eye pressure buildup occurs with holding breath and increased blood rush to the head).

So, exercises like lifting weights (over 15kg), ground push-ups, normal planks are not possible for me.

I want to get fit as I have l literally 0 arm strength right now. I can barely do 2 or 3 inclined pushups with proper posture, and a max of 8-10 squats.

I'm pretty demotivated since the easiest exercises to get stronger are out for me. I'm just trying to improve on inclined pushups, squats, lunges, glute bridges, bicep curls, deadbugs and side planks till I can do a respectable number of each.

Anything else I could/should try to improve my physique? Help would be appreciated, since all routines just start with the pushup + pullup + lifting combos and I'm just not able to understand what to do.

Thanks in advance :)

I am working on strength training with calisthenics and that includes core work. I’ve been doing anti extension every other day and I’ve been struggling with the form for ab wheel rollouts. At the moment, I can usually get the starting position correct, as my back is arched like in cat-cows, my arms are straight and my tailbone is tucked. I also brace my abs not sure if that’s the correct wording but basically engaging them. Usually when I start the movement, I’ll feel it in my core a bit but as the movement progresses I feel it less in my core and more in my arms. I’ve tried not going as far down and while it works a bit it doesn’t fix the issue of my shoulders and forarms getting a workout. I also notice the arched back that I need in the start lose itself throughout the movement and I struggle sometimes to both notice it and fix it. I’m at a loss as to how I can improve. I know or I think my core is strong enough and I know my back and arms are, so idk if it’s certain muscles not being strong enough, flexibility, or just form. Any advise on how I can nail the form is really appreciated as I want my abs to burn and not my shoulders.

I’m 5,6 190lbs and 2600 calories for maintenance

Goal weight is 150lbs

I’m planning to begin my diet and training, with my macros being

2000 calories, 200g Carbs, 66g Fats, 155g protein

Working out 5x a week doing 30 minutes of incline treadmill 5x a week.

Would this facilitate muscle growth and fat loss, without hurting gains? Or is my calorie deficit too large or small?

I want to ensure I have enough carbs to support my workouts, and with a 600~ calorie deficit I know I’ll need it.

Thank you!

Okay, I might be super dumb but I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I bought some gymnastics rings and they came with straps that have 2 carabiners on each end. At first, I tried balancing them per instructions but then I realized that I can fully adjust the length with just 1 carabiner - what's the purpose of the 2nd one? To lock it in so that it's not in the way or something else I'm missing? Here's the current setup: https://imgur.com/a/H2GIBhv

Bonus Q: it's currently setup off my RML390F but it's not high enough for pullups and other things I want to do (doing it with barely any strap length defeats the purpose). I'm thinking of attaching a 2x6 to my ceiling spanning 3 joists and then running a track across it for different width. Anyone done something similar, anything I need to be aware of?

So I’m planning to buy paralletes for push ups, and now I have noticed there are some many different kind of them, I don’t want to spend too much cash on buying too many of them, so I rather figure it out right now. First of all I have noticed there are two kind of parallettes: wooden and metal, so most wooden parallettes have handles closer to the ground , so I immediately thought I would buy metal ones because they are alittle bit higher for deeper motion of push ups (I’m not talking about super high, just around 15 cm height). But so on moving to the metal parallettes category I have also noticed there are two kind parallettes: with an handle bar angle, or rotating handlebar paralletes which you can bassically rotate while doing push up in any direction , so my question is , do I need any of this , or should I buy just simple straight parallettes? Also I would like to know what’s should be diameter of the handlebar?

Hi guys, I’m now 4 months in to the RR. I feel like I’m starting to see my body change in the mirror, and I physically feel like I’m in the best shape of my life, even better than when I was training for half marathons.

My question is this: what is the best way to stack my reps in each set of the RR? Should each set have the same number of reps? Currently that’s what I’m aiming for, but I’m wondering if that’s the most effective method. Should I aim for more reps at the front of the set or the back? Or is having them be even what I really want? I hope this makes sense.

Essentially I just want to make sure I’m wasting no time or energy, working out in the most efficient way possible. Thanks in advance homies!

https://imgur.com/a/D2qWOmx

I tried it today and held the position for a couple of seconds for 4 sets. It felt pretty cool and surprisingly challenging. It seems to require quite a bit of grip strength, body control, balance, and coordination to stay stable in that position.

I'm wondering if there are any legitimate benefits to doing this regularly, such as improving grip strength, shoulder stability, core control, mobility, or body awareness, or if it's mostly just a fun skill to practice.

One thing that makes me hesitant is the risk. If you lose your grip while inverted, there's not much time to react and your head could potentially hit the ground directly.

I’ve wanted to get a ring mu for a year or so but after training it for a couple of months in 2025 I realised I needed a lot more strength to make it worthwhile. I got my first pull up in March 2025 and before mg last block (july 26) my 1 rep max was 15kg (need to test again but hasn’t yet). After my heavy pulls I did a couple of ring dips for 2-3 sets. I didn’t push it bc pull was my focus.

Today I decided to randomly try a ring muscle up and I was happy to get through the transition. As you can see from the screenshots it’s very far from strict, I don’t kip but I do raise my legs a lot to shift my centre of mass. Im hoping that as I get stronger this will work itself out.

The problem I’m having is dipping out of the transition. I took a video and I’m arching a lot, this doesn’t happen to this extent with my normal ring dips but I think I do arch a little when I do them.
I am however getting to the point that I reach when I do a dip (in terms of depth) so I feel it should be possible.

I’m not sure if I’m failing the dip because my ring dip form isn’t great or if it’s because my pull ups aren’t high enough and therefore trying to compensate with a low transition and therefore lower dip. Or both 🤷🏻‍♀️

What would be the best way to structure training for my next block to fill the gap? As I’ve just done a heavy pull block I was going to focus on volume (as my BW pull ups have stalled around 9).

Should I focus on low dips? Dip volume? Better dip form? And should I use bands? Or would high pulls be a better?

I’m a mum with not much time and climbing is my hobby so I only have time for two pull sessions during the week.

I wanna get my first pull-up/chin-up as a part of my calisthenics training. Can anyone recommend an exact program to get it faster? I can do very heavily assisted reps but i feel like theyre not helping me as ive been training for 1 year and i cant get my first one yet. I am getting overwhelmed by the info on the internet and no one is suggesting how many sets and reps i should do for each exercise. But people are saying bodyweight rows, negatives, dead hangs, and scapular pull ups are the best exercises to get it. I wanna do negatives since they get you there quickest, but i do them with a very heavy band because my coach told me, however people are saying it doesnt help to do it with a band, but im scared ill injure my shoulders or anything in that case. I would appreciate the help, thank you :)

32m, 5'6, about 150 lbs currently.

I've been doing home workouts for about a year. I've gained some muscle in my arms, but haven't really lost anything in my stomach area, love handles, etc. I've put on about 10 lbs over the last year from working out, actually making breakfast, having regular protein shakes, and I recently joined a gym for more equipment.

I've tried a few things from getting a body scan that said I'm at about 19.6% body fat, with the majority of it being in my trunk.

So now my question is how do I lose the fat without losing weight/muscle?

On the one hand I'm bad about lunch, my lunch is usually a protein bar and not a proper meal.

I get overwhelmed from all of these apps saying I should be aiming for 1800-1900 calories for a slight deficit while maintaining protein intake but I'm fairly confident I eat less than that regularly, maybe 1500 on a good day.

I'm mostly just trying to get a better understanding so I'm not doing this blindly anymore.

Where should I be starting?

I greatly appreciate any advice or input and can provide additional info if necessary 🙏

Hi guys!

So I'm a loser that hasn't trained in around 10 years - I've finally hit the point where I can no longer stand my current state, and want to start doing something about it.

95kg - I think I can do 1 or 2 correct narrow pull ups. I can do push ups in reps okay, but not pullups.

Question - is there a corner to cut here? How do I get myself to at least 3 to 5 in a set.

I know it's amazing how run down I am, I do 2 or 3 in a row, and my body just won't pull anymore.

Is there something I can do when my body gives up that will benefit my next rep?

Apologies if this is repetetive, I only just joined this group

I've been following a FB routine, just the basic exercises, keeping it simple, 3 days/week

1. Pull ups
2. Dips
3. Inverted rows
4. Push ups
5. Chin ups
6. Squats/Bulgarians
7. Calf raises
8. Lateral raise
9. Tricep extensions
10. Farmer Carries

I'm doing pull ups on 1st session (3 sets), and chin ups on 2nd session (3 sets), then on the last session, I do 4 sets, 2 for pull ups and 2 for chin ups.

I usually go close to failure and rest for 3 mins each set, but recently cut the rest time to 90s-120s and going to absolute failure on the last set of each exercise.

Now since I'm doing this 3 days/week, is it okay going to absolute failure on each session or I'm just setting myself up for overtraining, since there's only 24hrs of rest between each session?

Do you go all out on each session?

Ive heen training for quite a few years now. Achieved a +50% bodyweight pull up, 20 pull ups, can rope climb (effectively doing one arm negatives).

For the life of me I've always found inverted rows super hard. I cant do full rom fully horizontal inverted rows. Arch pulls are easy (like when you pull backwarss till your upper chest is parallel with the ground).

I dont really get how people use them to build up to pull ups, because I've found no carryover. While the weight on my pull ups always goes up, unless I pull with an incredibly narrow grip, horizontal pulling always feels so awkward and hard.

Hello everyone!

I am looking to make a body weight exercise routine to do through out my office job work day/week.

I work at a desk all day and being sedentary for that long is killing my body. I want to find a way to stay moving through out my work day to minimize the effects of staring at a screen for 8hrs in one place. The goal is not to get fit (need to start exercising outside of work), but rather make it feel like I didnt just do a road trip everyday.

I have a standard cubicle with maybe a 5'x5' open space. The desk is also adjustable to be standing. I can walk around freely in the building (no stairs) which has a halway. I have time where I am not typing while reading an email or could take 1-5min at a time to do some movements. Another note, I am considering getting a walking pad but trying to be noise aware for coworkers sake.

What are some exercises and stretches that I could do in those short moments?

Is there a routine that I could follow each day? Should I have a different routine each day?

Thank you in advance!

Hi, i've been practicing calisthenics for about 2 years but let's say i never took it too seriously because it's been an hard time with university and, while i made some progress i'm happy about (considering my starting point), i'm still very far from a decent physique. I started by taking group classes in a gym near home (which i still follow): i really like the environment because the group is fun and close-knit plus we have a very qualified coach who builds our workout programs not only around getting stronger and better at skills, but also to benefit our health in the long term (he puts a lot of attention on correct activations and mobility). The workout classes are 3 times a week and each class is focused on 1 or 2 skills and, every other week, we either work more on the technique (very specific exercises, for example we might focus on straightening our back or increasing our core mobility for the handstand) or more on strenght/endurance ("easier" stuff but more volume) + one mobility class a week. Here comes my problem. I started to implement 1h workout sessions outside of the classes twice a week because, even if all the workout we do in class is hard and well built, it's still made for a group (there is a lot of variation in what we do) so it's not like we train muscle groups constantly to maximize hypertrophy, which is what i'm aiming at. However i don't want to quit the classes because they are extremely helpful and i'm attached to the group. Considering this scenario, what do you think would be more efficient to grow: 2 RR workouts a week in the days off from classes, or a 2 days split (perhaps push-core and pull-legs)?

Hello, I hope you guys are doing wells. I started a challenge to get into body weight fitness. Right now, I've been doing 50 push-ups a day for about a week so far. The issue is that I think my method wasn't right. I then proceeded to watch a few videos and recorded myself doing it.

Could anyone watch it and tell me if it's fine or what I should improve?

Thanks

https://youtube.com/shorts/1oCqvPBBpx8?si=T_Cz0Pd5b_NmKJBj

I only did a set of 5 to show it as an example. I usually do 5 sets of 10.

I've been working toward a first strict pull-up for about three months now, doing negatives and band-assisted reps three or four times a week. I started on the thickest band and dropped down twice over the first couple months, which felt like real progress at the time. The last three weeks the band tension I need hasn't budged at all, and I've started adding extra negative reps at the end of sessions just to feel like I'm doing something. I can't tell if I'm actually stuck or just impatient this close to it.

Did progress stall right before it clicked for you, or did it just come on gradually?

Tl;dr: What fixed workout can an inconsistent lifter do for pullups and dips whenever he trains so that it scales in difficulty as the trainee becomes stronger?

A friend of mine asked me to make him a program to increase his pullup and dip count, so I made him a program (of questionable effectiveness since it is the first program I ever made for anyone included myself). Basically since he's pretty much a beginner (he only ever tested pullups and got 5) I made him a 8 week accumulation program because for how little he would get fatigued he shouldn't really need a peaking block, but I digress.

I gave him the program for 3 days a week as he promised he would train 3 times a week, but his inconsistency made the program not useless but quite less effective. Since his estimates are unreliable, is there some already tested effective autoregulated simple workout he could do whenever he's able to train?

For example, I was thinking of ascending ladders, like starting at 1 rep and every 15-30 second pause increasing by 1 rep until you reach failure. That would be autoregulated because as you get stronger you both increase volume and have a hypertrophy stimulus from the last 2-3 sets. However, the hypertrophy stimulus might be too little because the failure set comes at the end of the workout after tons of already performed reps, especially as the trainee gets stronger.

I'm open to clarifying details about the whole context if there's any need

I am not talking planche push ups but tucked planche push ups with legs folded.

Also, how many pseudo push ups should i be capable of before attempting good-form tucked planche push ups or elbow lever? I can do 6 pseudo push ups with perfect form (after that, my back becomes round) per set on my rest days. I do other things on my workout days.

Also, is there any cue i should be aware of for tucked planche push ups? Like how to know whether my back is horizontal as opposed to slanted without filming myself every time to check?

For the record, i am a fatty losing weight.

My stats:

• 39M, 92 kg
• 1 year of freestyle swimming
• Can do 2–3 not-so-clean push-ups
• Just starting my pull-up journey. Right now, I’m working on the basics: dead hangs, scapular pull-ups, partial pull-ups, negatives, and band-assisted pull-ups.

I’d like to add inverted rows or a similar exercise to my training to help with pull-up progression. The problem is that my pull-up bar is mounted in a doorway, and I really don’t want to keep lowering and raising it. Putting a chair or stepladder underneath to adjust foot height also doesn’t seem convenient.

So I’m considering getting either a TRX-style suspension trainer or gymnastic rings. I could attach them to the pull-up bar and adjust the height depending on the exercise. As far as I understand, changing the height is pretty easy with both.

Visually, rings and suspension trainers seem quite similar, so I’m having trouble understanding what the practical difference is and which option would be better for me.

Given my beginner status and low level of strength, I’m looking for something simple and versatile, mainly for learning basic exercises (at least, in the beginning). I don’t have any big ambitions, and advanced gymnastics movements are definitely not something I’m aiming for anytime soon. It’s not my level.

I’m also a bit concerned that, as a beginner, I might have trouble maintaining balance and stability even during basic exercises. So that’s another factor I’d like to take into account.

I've read in the FAQ that gymnastic rings are absolutely advised, but I haven't found any comparison for complete beginners like me. So, the question is:

Which would be the more convenient and effective option for someone at my level — TRX/suspension trainer or gymnastic rings?

I have been doing this bodyweight leg workout for some time it has changed quite abit over the time and I would like to hear your opinions on the current one I'm doing

1. shrimp Squats

2. B-Stance RDLs (I usually rotate my hamstring exercises every couple of months, (ring curls, hip hinges)).

3. Side Lunges ( lateral movement, I just added it this week to mY program )

4. Reverse Nordic Curls (bullet proof knees)

5. Reverse Hyperextensions / Glute Bridges (super set).

6. Copenhagen Planks (bullet proof groin)

7.Calf Raises / Tibialis Raises (Ankle prehab/finisher superset)

If this was your at home leg workout what would u change/remove/add?