What is the Recommended Routine?
The Recommend Routine (RR) is the bodyweight training program made by the community at r/bodyweightfitness (over 2 million members). The RR is perfect for those who want to learn bodyweight fitness through a simple self-guided program. Ideally you are not totally new to exercising.
If you are an absolute beginner to exercise and want a guided instruction to the basics, we recommend Morit Summer’s Fit at Every Size bodyweight program on Boostcamp.
Overview of the RR
This routine will cover the following goals:
Strength
Muscle Gain (provided your diet is in check)
Fat Loss (provided your diet is in check)
Overall Structure of this Routine:
Warm Up
Dynamic stretches
Joint prep
Movement practice
Strength Work
6 exercises, put in pairs (explained below) to target all the major muscle groups in your upper and lower body
3 exercises in a triplet to target improving your core strength
You will need access to:
A place to do Rows (Low Bar, or Gymnastics Rings, a Sturdy Table; This is non negotiable regardless of physical skill level. Rows are absolutely integral to the quality of the routine and cannot be substituted.)
A place to do pull ups, if you are at the point in the program where you add pull-ups (monkey bars, Pull-up bar, rings, etc)
Parallel Bars (There are progressions such as the HSPU progression that can be done in place of these once you have reached the appropriate level which do not require these, so if you absolutely cannot find the corner of a kitchen counter, two sturdy chairs, or anything like that, do not let this bar you from starting.)
Weekly Schedule
Do this 3x a week, with at least one rest day (or skill day) in between workout days.
So you could do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Or Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. Whatever fits your schedule.
Don't purposely split the workout into separate days. It's meant to be a full body workout. Here's why.
How Progressions Work
You cannot adjust the difficulty of bodyweight exercises like with weight training by simply adding or removing plates of weight. Therefore, in order to effectively increase or decrease the difficulty, you need to use different variations of a type of exercise. For an example in the push-up progression, some people may find a push-up on its own too difficult, and some may find it too easy. Therefore, variations of the pushup exist to make it easer (e.g. incline push-ups) or harder (decline, diamond, ring, pseudo planche etc. push-ups) so that you can pick a variation that is appropriate to your strength level, rather than simply doing an exercise that may be far too easy to make you get stronger, or far too hard to do properly.
When you get to the strength training, you will be greeted with progression exercises listed in order of increasing difficulty. Pick an appropriately difficult progression for your current level of strength, and perform 3 sets of 5 reps of that progresssion on your first session. In subsequent sessions you should try to add one rep per set until you are performing 3 sets of 8 reps with good form. From here you should move on to the next progression, but again at 3 sets of 5 reps. Note that this means that you only perform one of the exercises from each of the listed progressions in each session. Once you move up in the progression, there's no need to keep the easier exercises in your routine (except for using it as a warm-up if you feel like it).
Some of the exercises are static holds, such as the support holds or the "tuck front lever" in the rowing progression. Instead of dynamic reps, one set here consists of simply holding the position statically for 10-30 seconds. Move on to the next harder progression once you hit 30 seconds for all 3 sets.
You'll see there are multiple "progression paths" for the exercises. However, don't overthink this - if you're not sure pick the main progression and do it. If for some reason you can't follow the main progression (lack of specific equipment, for example) then pick one of the alternatives and do it.
The above is pasted from the RR FAQ on r/bodyweightfitness. We highly recommend that you read the entire guide here.
Other helpful resources
https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Boostcamp/