Any recommendations on how to get started?
After like 6 weeks of doing that and improving a lot, I bought some dumbbells and started throwing some lifting in to mix it up, target weak spots, and work on muscles that the bodyweight stuff doesn't hit as well. I've found that the combination of the two really accelerates progress and improves recovery too by changing up the movements.
This has been working well for me, but of course there are many ways to approach it. Personally, I really don't like the gym vibe, so working out outside in the sun (with bodyweight) made it easier to get started and stick with. You also don't need to buy anything, and you can build up a base level of strength that makes lifting weights feel more approachable.
From there, you have a wealth of options like his Practical Programming, Wendler's 5/3/1 books, and the Tactical Barbell books for combining strength and endurance training. The Barbell Medicine podcast and strongerbyscience.com are also great.
If you find yourself wanting to compete, Juggernaut Training and the Renaissance Training groups are great sources.
If you want something portable you can do at home, Pavel's Simple and Sinister is your best bet for kettlebell work, and Overcoming Gravity will teach you bodyweight work that only requires a pull-up bar.
For clearer writing and simpler programming, I would go for Tactical Barbell and Simple and Sinister over Wendler.
Doug Hepburn's programs (which can be found online with a minute of Googling) are also great for people looking at Wendler, but want something simple that can be run nearly indefinitely.
A beginning book I always recommend is starting strength. But, depending on where your current fitness is at you may need to check with your doctor first and/or find a good body weight program to get started. Burpees, pushups, pull-ups, thrusters for 20 minutes will destroy even the most in shape athletes. It's really not something you need to over complicate.
It's a very stupid name and the accompanying article is kind of meh but the program overall is a solid start. I'm using as a way to reshape my body - I'm fairly overweight with a gut - and it's worked well so far. Pick any beginner plan like this and you'll probably be OK. As a beginner you'll make huge gains in your first year and that makes the day to day a lot easier to deal with while you build the habit.
I modified the plan on a few exercises that I don't like and used bodybuilding.com's alternate exercise lists to pick ones I prefer. At month 6 I plan to switch focus slightly to keep things mixed up and will probably switch to a 5x5 for a month or so then back to a more traditional regiment based on the 6+ month recommendations in the article.
The biggest thing is to choose any of the recommended programs in these responses and then start going. Promise yourself a month, a month of trying really hard each day and see how it goes. After that you can re-evaluate if it is really for you but that month will help build a habit and you'll start seeing some strength gains.
I feel so much better and I'm seeing significant body modifications that I'm really happy with. Getting healthy any which way you choose is worth the effort!
It's straighforward, manageable, and (importantly) it introduces the idea of autoregulation early on. Autoregulation is an important tool for helping to prevent injury due to innappropriate fatigue management. It also contains good information related to nutrition and how to perform the basic barbell movements.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKNDlcnpUCAhjur_EEmlJp1PNsD...
I've been doing a bodyweight routine I got from Reddit for almost a year and I've seen very little progress. I want to try something different.
What bodyweight routine are you doing? The main thing to look at if you're working out consistently and aren't improving is your diet. Are you getting enough protein and calories? The general advice is to eat ~1 gram of protein per 0.7 lbs or so of bodyweight, and to have at least a 300 calorie surplus if you want to gain muscle.
Not getting enough sleep or being overly stressed out will also kill progress.
As far as my sleep goes, it's very good. I'm also not stressed at all.
I have made some progress, it's just been very disappointing. When I started I couldn't do a single pull up and now, 10 months later, I can do two. I'm almost to the point where I can do a reasonable dip as well.
With pull ups, for example, you won't see much improvement from just doing sets of one or two since it's not enough volume, so it's better to do something easier like negatives (where you just do the lowering down part slowly) or just hangs if negatives are too hard. You can also target some of the supporting muscles that may be "blockers" with dumbbells--for me it was the brachialis and brachioradialis especially (the forearm muscles on both sides of the elbow), and also grip strength. I started out with 2 lousy form pull ups, and it took me over 2 months to get up to 5 fairly clean ones this way, but in just the last couple weeks I've gone from 5 to 8, so it seems like progress accelerates once you pass that threshold, at least in my case.
For dips, I found that first focusing on normal push ups and then on diamond push ups, which heavily target the triceps, was very effective.