Reddit Recommended Bodyweight Fitness Routine Review

I ran Reddit's recommended bodyweight routine after running Jeff Nippards PowerPhase 2. I did this program for about 6 months

Here's my thoughts on it, the pros, the cons, and everything inbetween

Pros - Easy to remember

Probably the biggest highlight of this routine is I didn't have to think very hard about it. Every workout consists of a total of 18 total sets, and they each target a different part of the body

  • Rows
  • Pullups
  • Legs
  • Glutes
  • Chest
  • Shoulders

I usually waited on average 1.5 minutes between sets, so rows would get supersetted by shoulders, etc.

It saved alot of time and I could go on with my day quicker

Pros - A lot of skill work

Another big plus of this routine is how much skill work I got to practice. I still haven't yet gotten a handstand down, but this routine made it easy to practice it during warmup

I ended up getting a pullover progression though during this workout phase

My favorite part of every workout was definitely the skillwork phase, I still incorporate these into future workouts

Cons - It got boring really quickly and mentally fatiguing

Doing the same thing 3xs a week got boring, really quickly. Working out became a chore at a certain point. I started not really enjoying my workouts anymore.

It became mentally fatiguing at some point and 2/3rd into the workout I was done. I also had a hard time having to do well on so many areas all in one day. I felt like I was spread too thin

Cons - First set impacts the motivation of the entire workout

If my first set performed poorly, say my bench or military were slipping backwards, I would get demotivated for the rest of the workout. It didn't matter if I could row, or deadlift alot that day either. I just wouldn't care after the first few sets.

It felt like putting too many eggs in one basket, so to speak.

Cons - Never really felt truly sore

Because every workout was 3 sets per body part, I never felt truly sore the next day. Being sore is a nice feeling though, and it was something I missed. Instead I just felt tired and burnt out

Cons - Bodyweight progressions is harder to see progression

It's easier to just load up heavier weights and see progression mentally this way. Sometimes when I wanted to go with a deeper pistol squat, I couldn't really tell if I made any progression from the last time I did it. It was really easy to fall under this "I'm not sure if I'm making progress" at all phase

Cons - Risk of underperforming

I didn't feel I had enough recovery time between sets. If I had done too hard of a bench press set close to failure, 48 hours wasn't enough to recover for the next workout 2 days later

Underperforming just made me slip back entirely in progress, demotivated me to go the gym entirely. I had to stop working out for a bit even though I could've pushed forward in other areas

In summary

I didn't make an ideal amount of progress with Reddit's recommended bodyweight fitness. Coming from powerphase 2, it was a nice change in pace though. I didn't have to spend as much time at the gym either, but accessory work would make these workout make these workouts way too long

Things I took away from doing this program:

  • Supersetting muscle groups is an effective time saver
  • How to workout better without any equipment
  • Do skillwork, before a workout

Moving forward this is probably what I'm going to run PHUL instead (Power Hyper Upper Lower). My workouts were basically transitioning from 3x to 2x a week, and I wanted to go towards an easier track to see progression.

I will also be subbing out different exercises for the recommendations to whatever I feel that day, so working out becomes more fun and less of a chore for me at least

Things that I have taken away on what I like regarding working out in general

  • Every workout throughout the week needs to be different
  • <1 hour working out for a workout, do faster warmups
  • 4 days a week seems optimal for me

Hi 👋

I'm Vincent Tang, a web developer specializing in modern Javascript. This website is my digital garden of notes on backend, frontend, and devops! I'm the founder of Tampa Devs and I also run a coding podcast called Code Chefs

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