As people have different baseline levels of strength, there’s no set program everyone should start with.

If you can’t yet do 10 chin-ups and 10 dips, it’s recommended you start with the appropriate Bodyweight Basics program. This is a series of six programs of increasing difficulty to help you achieve a solid calisthenics foundation. Upon completing the final level, you can progress to the intermediate programs and start pursuing specific skills.

While the programs are designed around BaseBlocks products, there are many substitutes that can be used. For example, rather than doing dips on the BBars, you can do them between two chairs at home.

To see some substitute options, check out this video.

It’s normal for performance to deteriorate with each set as you fatigue. To help uphold performance, you can stop earlier sets a bit further from failure. Alternatively, you can rest longer between them or reduce the difficulty with later sets.

Finally, the prescribed repetitions and hold times are not strict but should act as a guide. Do your best to adhere to them, but if you’re off by one or two reps or seconds, you’ll still make great gains.

Select a difficulty for each exercise that allows you to complete the prescribed sets and reps with good technique. Unless otherwise stated, you should take each set to or within a couple of reps of failure. That means you should stop each with no more than 2-3 reps (or seconds) left in reserve.

To achieve this, it’s normal to have to increase the difficulty with some options (e.g. add weight) and reduce the difficulty with others (e.g. add band-assistance).

There’s no gold standard for the level of strength you should have before working on skills like the planche and lever. However, at BaseBlocks we believe a good foundation to have is at least eight bodyweight chin-ups for the front lever and 10 dips for the planche.

It’s normal to experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) when starting a new program. This will subside as you become more accustomed to the exercises. 

While it’s okay to train with DOMS, you’ll like to perform better if this has resolved (or is minimal) when you start the session. If you’re very sore and feel this will hinder performance, you can wait a day or two before doing the next workout.

Training is a balancing act of stimulus and recovery. As long as you can recover adequately, more training will be fine.

Additional sport-specific and cardio training can be done alongside your BaseBlocks Digital programs. Generally, these won’t hinder recovery. The same applies to doing multiple programs working different areas. Pairing a strength and mobility or an upper body with a lower body program is generally fine. In this case, sessions can be done on the same day. However, trying to do multiple programs working same muscle groups can exceed your ability to recover. For this reason, we recommend to sticking to one program per area.

Supersets involve pairing exercises and alternating with each set. For example, with a superset involving push-ups and rows, you would do a set of push-ups and then a set of rows to complete the superset.

More details about what supersets are, why they’re used, and when to rest can be learned in this video.

Missing a workout or even a training week is very common. If this happens, you can just pick up where you left off and continue with your program. It’s unlikely that missing a session or even an isolated training week will hinder progress.

If you can’t commit the prescribed frequency, it’s okay to just do the weekly sessions you have time for.

With strength training, progress isn’t linear. It’s normal to see peaks and troughs in performance despite getting stronger in the long term. Progress also slows down as we get more advanced. Most people will reach a stage where they no longer see clear improvements each week or even month. These points should be considered when monitoring progress. 

True plateaus can be related to training or other factors. For example, poor sleep and nutrition can hinder recovery and therefore progress. If you’re confident in your recovery, starting a new program can often stimulate improvement. 

“If I finish a planche program and then do a handstand push-up program, will I lose all my planche gains?”

This is a common concern when finishing a training block. Generally, you will maintain skills quite well when switching programs. As long as you’re working the same muscles, you should be able to maintain most of your gains. 

For more details about this topic, check out this video (Transferability).