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If you want to learn everything about high volume calisthenics, you are in the right place.
High repetition calisthenics is a way of training that involves doing the basic exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, dips, etc. for a high number of sets and reps, with the goal of increasing your muscle mass and strength.
In this article, we will be covering:
Keep reading to find out if high volume bodyweight training is ideal for you.
Let's get started.
High volume calisthenics workout
If you are looking for a calisthenics workout with high volume, you can choose one of the three routines below. Adapt the difficulty based on your level.
These workouts will be split into three categories:
Straight sets high volume calisthenics routine
Straight sets simply means that you are doing a set of an exercise, rest, then repeat. For instance, 3 sets of 10 means that you do a set of 10 repetitions, rest, then repeat two more times for a total of three sets.
Upper body workout
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Wide grip pull-up | 4 - 5 | 8 - 10 | 1:30 |
Pike push-up | 4 - 5 | 8 - 10 | 1:30 |
Pull-up | 4 - 5 | 8 - 10 | 1:30 |
Dip | 4 - 5 | 10 - 15 | 1:30 |
Close grip chin-up | 4 - 5 | 10 - 12 | 1 |
Diamond push-up | 4 - 5 | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Inverted row | 4 - 5 | 15 - 20 | 1 |
Incline push-up | 4 - 5 | 15 - 20 | 1 |
If you feel like the workout is taking too much time to complete, you can superset every pair of two exercises. It was made in such a way that the pushing and pulling exercises are alternating, giving you the chance to do supersets without compromising your next set.
A superset means that you do a set of an exercise, then without rest you do a set of the next one, then rest.
Example:
You do a set of 10 wide grip pull-ups. Then without rest you do a set of 10 pike push-ups.
Then you rest for 1:30.
This is a superset.
Repeat for 3-4 more supersets.
Leg workout
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Squat jump | 4 - 5 | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Walking lunges | 4 - 5 | 20 - 25 per leg | 1 |
Squat | 4 - 5 | 20 - 25 | 1 |
Vertical jump | 4 - 5 | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Calf raises | 5 | 15 - 20 | 1 |
Leg raise | 4 - 5 | 8 - 15 | 1 |
Sprint | 4 - 5 | 15 - 20s | 1 |
We recommend you to split the workouts as follows:
Check our article regarding calisthenics everyday to understand why.
Circuit workout
Training circuits means that you will be doing one exercise after the other with little to no rest in between. Instead of doing a set of an exercise, resting, then jumping to another set of the same exercise, you will now jump to an entirely different exercise.
After going through all the exercises, you have completed 1 cycle.
Exercise | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
Pull-up | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Dip | 20 - 25 per leg | 1 |
Inverted row | 20 - 25 | 1 |
Push-up | 10 - 15 | 1 |
Knee raise | 15 - 20 | 1 |
This may not sound like much. However this is just 1 cycle.
Take a 1-minute rest after completing it, then start another cycle.
Do this circuit for 7 - 10 cycles.
Self regulated workout
To do a self regulated workout, choose your exercise and the number of repetitions you want to do. After that, complete those repetitions in as many sets as it takes you.
Exercise | Reps | Sets | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
Pull-up | 100 total | Self regulated | Self regulated |
Dip | 150 total | Self regulated | Self regulated |
Inverted row | 200 total | Self regulated | Self regulated |
Push-up | 200 total | Self regulated | Self regulated |
Toes to bar | 50 total | Self regulated | Self regulated |
The idea behind this type of workout is to complete it gradually faster.
However, at some point, you would be better off just increasing the number of repetitions performed.
How to make your own high repetition calisthenics workout
Even though you can use one of the workouts provided above, you may want to pursue other goals or exercises and create your own workout. In this part of the article, we will teach you how.
There are 3 things you have to take into account when creating your own high rep workout:
Another very important thing to keep in mind, which is a prerequisite, is the adherence to the workout. In the end, the best workout is the one you can stick to.
Now let's discuss the 3 elements above.
Exercise selection
When creating a high volume calisthenics workout, the first thing to consider is the exercises you are going to include. Usually, high volume calisthenics is done with the basic exercises.
To keep your body balanced, you have to do all the exercises above.
That should have you sorted for some time.
However, if you want to develop your musculature all around, you should also use different grips and progressions. Don't just stick to pull-ups, do some wide pull-ups or chin-ups. Don't do only pike push-ups, try some back to wall handstand push-ups.
Have fun with your training and do harder exercises at the same time.
Volume and intensity
As much as we would like to give volume recommendations, with high repetition calisthenics this is pretty difficult to do. Much of the volume is self regulated by each individual athlete and there is no "golden standard" in terms of volume.
There is very little science in it.
Anyway.
You will get athletes who do 50 - 100 reps per exercise in a session, and you will get (advanced) athletes who do 1000 reps per exercise in a session.
As far as intensity is concerned, it's just as tricky.
Since we are talking about a high volume calisthenics workout, it doesn't really make sense to choose exercises that you can only do for 3-5 repetitions. Those should be reserved for when you do calisthenics for strength.
The best way to regulate intensity in the context of high rep calisthenics is by working close or to failure every single set.
With that in mind, here are some rough guidelines to follow:
Rest and recovery
Even though with high volume calisthenics you are not doing very intense workouts in terms of the load that you are lifting, they can still have a toll on your connective tissue. Since you are doing so many repetitions you may get what is called overuse injury.
For this reason, we recommend you to prioritize the following:
Furthermore, keep in mind the concept of listening to your body.
If you start suffering from joint pain or some of your joints start popping or cracking, and this didn't happen before, we suggest you take a week of rest and also eliminate any exercises that can hurt.
Is high volume calisthenics effective?
There are lots of high volume calisthenics athletes who are shredded.
Therefore, no one can deny its effectiveness.
However, is it optimal? Before we can answer this question properly, we have to do the groundwork and explain three terms:
Volume refers to the total amount of work performed in a workout.
We, along with many others in the fitness industry, like to measure volume by counting the number of sets performed per week for a particular muscle group.
Intensity refers to the difficulty of the exercises you are performing.
We like to measure intensity as intensity of effort. Therefore, the intensity is measured based on how close to your maximal effort that exercise is.
Frequency organizes the volume and intensity throughout the week.
In simple terms, it refers to how often you are performing an exercise or training a muscle group over the course of a week, as well as how your recovery is managed.
With these in mind, let's discuss the following:
High repetition calisthenics and muscle mass
Here are the general recommendations in terms of volume, intensity, and frequency if you want to optimize hypertrophy - or muscle building. These are the exact suggestions we used to create our calisthenics bodybuilding workout.
And here is how we came up with these numbers.
Volume for hypertrophy
Numerous studies have been conducted with the goal of understanding the effects of volume as far as hypertrophy (increases in muscle mass) is concerned.
Let's consider a study from 2018. In this study, three groups of trained males performed 9, 18, and 27 weekly sets consisting of rows, pulldowns, and biceps curls. The goal was establishing a dose-response relationship between volume and biceps growth. Even though all groups experienced hypertrophy responses, the group performing 18 sets saw the most meaningful increases out of the three groups. (1)
Therefore, our volume recommendations for hypertrophy are:
Does that mean that you can't build muscle mass by doing more than 20 sets?
No.
Remember that all three groups experienced a muscle building response. However, the 18 weekly sets was more of a "sweet spot" than a hard rule to follow.
Intensity for hypertrophy
As far as muscle mass is concerned, the actual load you are lifting is not that important.
What is important, however, is intensity of effort.
You can gauge that by asking yourself: how close to failure am I really training? You should be leaving no more than 2-3 repetitions in reserve per set if you want to elicit a muscle building response. Ideally, you will stop at around 2 repetitions in the tank.
That being said, there is a point where exercise is considered "too light".
A meta-analysis in 2017 proved that both high and low loads (weight lifted) can cause comparable muscle building results if volume is similar, and the effort high. However, it has been proven that very high repetition sets - 40+ repetitions per set - produce too much global fatigue before the local muscle you are trying to target can be stimulated. (2)(3)
Therefore, if you want to build muscle with calisthenics we recommend you:
Frequency for hypertrophy
For optimal results, you will want a frequency that is higher than 1 and lower than 3.
The reason why we recommend less than 3 workouts of high volume calisthenics is because they are very taxing on the soft tissue.
But why do we recommend greater than 1?
A 2019 study made by Stronger by Science showed that increased frequency, independent of volume, proved to result in better hypertrophy results. Therefore, if you train a particular muscle group more than once a week, with proper rest, you will elicit a better muscle building result in your body.(4)
Our recommendation for frequency is:
Conclusion over high volume calisthenics for hypertrophy
Having all these in mind, we can conclude that high volume calisthenics can help build muscle.
However, it is not optimal.
All in all, high volume calisthenics muscle building is possible, yet could be optimized.
High repetition calisthenics and strength
When you are training, regardless of your approach, you will get stronger.
That's a fact.
However, when we say strength gains, we refer to maximum strength. That is your ability to exert as much force as any of your muscles are capable of producing in one single contraction.
An example of maximal strength would be squatting 330 lbs (150kg) for one repetition.
Doing 1000s of squats with 90 lbs (40kg) will get you stronger and more muscular but it will certainly not take you to the 330lbs (150kg) squat unless you specifically train for it.
Anyway.
Here are the general recommendations for volume, strength, and frequency, if your plan is to build strength.
These recommendations are similar to the ones for muscle mass.
But let's have a better look at each factor in part.
Volume for strength
The volume necessary for strength is similar to the one necessary for hypertrophy.
In a study conducted in 2017, it was found that, similar to hypertrophy, if you want to build strength you need a volume of 5 - 12+ sets per movement per week. The plus sign means that there is not enough data to know how many sets are too many, but some suggest that going over 20 may lead to the opposite effect of what you'd want to happen. (5)(6)
In this case, our volume recommendation for strength training is:
Intensity for strength
When it comes to strength, specific training is one of the most important factors.
Going back to our example of the 330 lbs (150kg) squat, if you want to achieve that for one repetition you need to train specifically for it. Furthermore, you need to train close to failure with weights that are around 90%+ of the weight you are trying to achieve. (7)
Let's put that into easier concepts.
You should be training using an intensity that will get you close to failure with only 1 to 6 repetitions per set. These are very high loads which can't be achieved with high volume calisthenics.
If you want to gain strength, our intensity recommendations are:
When it comes to strength, specific training is one of the most important factors.
Frequency for strength
This is, again, similar to the frequency for hypertrophy.
A meta-analysis and a study found that a frequency of at least 2x per week per movement increased the amount of strength gained over time. (7)(4)
For this reason, our frequency recommendations for strength are:
Conclusion over high volume calisthenics for strength
If your only goal is to build maximum strength, high rep calisthenics is not the choice for you.
Don't get us wrong.
You will get stronger because your muscles get bigger and stronger themselves.
However, you will never be able to get maximum strength, lifting as much load as your body is capable of by doing high volume training only.
As a conclusion to this section, you can't build maximal strength with high volume calisthenics.
How does high volume training work for calisthenics skills?
One of the appeals of high volume calisthenics is its simplicity.
Most people who start calisthenics would like to attain skills like the muscle-up, front lever, planche, the human flag, and more. However, some of these require you to apply advanced training techniques like:
And others.
In contrast, with high volume training the idea goes that you start doing 100s and 1000s of reps that will build the strength to get you the skill.
The truth is that some people achieved just that.
However, those are arguably genetically gifted individuals.
Here are some of the calisthenics skills that can be achieved with high volume training:
However, you are not guaranteed to get them.
Personally, I was able to get all of the above, aside from the front lever.
As far as I am concerned, to get the front lever I had to ditch high volume calisthenics and focus on exercises that would help me build maximal strength, as well as specific front lever exercises.
Here is a conclusion based on my and others' experiences:
Do high volume calisthenics only if you like it or want to simplify your training. If you want to get better at calisthenics skills, then you should certainly train them specifically.
Complex calisthenics exercises are strength based.
In the section above we explained how high rep calisthenics is far from ideal in terms of strength gains.
The pros and cons of high volume calisthenics
Just like everything in this world, high repetition calisthenics has its own pros and cons.
High volume calisthenics pros
These are the main benefits of high volume training in general.
Most people go in for the benefit of simplicity. A lot of people lead busy lives or simply don't want to be bothered with learning about training techniques.
High volume training will get them results without much hassle.
High volume calisthenics cons
Out of these cons, the worst is the one concerning overuse injuries.
With high volume calisthenics it's not a matter of whether it will happen, but when. Therefore, from time to time, you may want to take it easy on the amount of reps you are doing, so that you can let your joints recover.
Conclusion
High volume calisthenics has its own advantages and disadvantages.
It gained popularity as a hassle free way to build muscle, without having to worry much about equipment or difficult training concepts.
We believe that if you want to maximize muscle mass and/or strength, be able to do cool skills, and also have fun while training, you are better off with a different approach.
However, if your sole purpose is to look good and not worry much about training technicalities, then this approach is right for you.
Over to you.
