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The Recommended Routine
Three full-body sessions a week: a warm-up, three pairs of exercises, and a core triplet. It is the most-run bodyweight program there is, and the whole thing is on this page, including all nine progression ladders.
Who wrote it
The Recommended Routine is r/bodyweightfitness's own beginner program, maintained by the subreddit's moderators rather than credited to a single author. It is their work, not ours. Everything down to the last section is theirs, and where we have added something the app says so.
The thing to understand first
The Recommended Routine does not prescribe exercises. It prescribes slots, and each slot is a named progression you pick your own rung on. The pull-up line is not "do pull-ups", it is "do the hardest rung of the pull-up ladder you can manage for 3 sets of 5". That is why the same routine works for somebody who cannot hold a hang and somebody adding weight to their chin-ups.
The session
Three times a week, on non-consecutive days. A pair is done by alternating the two exercises, not by finishing one and starting the other: pull-ups, rest 90 seconds, squats, rest 90 seconds, and again, three times through.
| Block | Exercises | Sets and rest |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Shoulder dislocates, squat sky reaches, wrist prep, dead bugs, arch hangs, support hold | One round, after 5 to 10 minutes of light cardio |
| Pair 1 | Pull-up progression + Squat progression | 3 × 5-8 each, 90s rest after every set |
| Pair 2 | Dip progression + Hinge progression | 3 × 5-8 each, 90s rest after every set |
| Pair 3 | Row progression + Push-up progression | 3 × 5-8 each, 90s rest after every set |
| Triplet | Anti-extension + Anti-rotation + Extension | 3 × 8-12 each, 60s rest, rotating through all three |
It takes about an hour if you do not mess around. The routine's own FAQ is blunt that this is the intended length and that you should find the time.
The nine ladders
Easiest first. These are transcribed from the community's own workout log, which is the authoritative list: several widely-copied versions of the routine disagree with it.
| Slot | Progression, easiest to hardest |
|---|---|
| Pull-up | Scapular Pulls → Arch Hangs → Pull-up Negatives → Pull-ups → Weighted Pull-ups |
| Squat | Assisted Squat → Squat → Split Squat → Bulgarian Split Squat → Beginner, then Intermediate, then Advanced, then Weighted Shrimp Squat |
| Dip | Parallel Bar Support Hold → Negative Dips → Parallel Bar Dips → Weighted Dips |
| Hinge | Romanian Deadlift → Single Legged Deadlift → Banded Nordic Curl Negatives → Banded Nordic Curl → Nordic Curls |
| Row | Vertical Rows → Incline Rows → Horizontal Rows → Wide Rows → Weighted Inverted Rows |
| Push-up | Vertical Pushup → Incline Pushup → Full Pushup → Diamond Pushup → Pseudo Planche Pushups |
| Anti-extension | Plank → Ring Ab Rollouts |
| Anti-rotation | Banded Pallof Press |
| Extension | Reverse Hyperextension |
What you need
A pull-up bar, something to dip on, and something to get under and row. That is more than the Minimalist Routine asks for and it is what buys you the vertical pulling. If you have none of it, the no-equipment plan is the honest starting point and a bar is the cheapest thing you will ever add.
If it is too much
The routine's own FAQ answers this, and its first and preferred fix is not what most people reach for. In its order:
- Cut the sets to 2 instead of 3. This is the one it recommends, and you add them back over time.
- Widen the rep range before you move up a ladder. 5 to 12, or 5 to 15, instead of 5 to 8.
- Drop to two sessions a week.
- Split it into an upper day and a lower-plus-core day.
- Last resort: cut the core triplet, or keep one exercise from each of push, pull and legs.
When to move on
The routine does not publish a length, and its FAQ answers "when do I move on" with a condition rather than a date: when you stop making progress for weeks at a time with your diet, sleep and stress in order, or when you run out of ladder. Expect the exercises to start moving after two or three sessions, to notice a physique change at four to six weeks, and for someone else to notice at twelve or more.
Doing it in Ægir Iron
It ships in the app as the Recommended Routine, so you can load it rather than copy it out. Every row is written at a sensible starting rung with its whole ladder in the row's note, so you can swap to the rung you are actually on and still see where you are going. There are two options at load: three sets or two, which is the routine's own beginner modification, and whether to include the warm-up.
The app has no way to pair two exercises, so a pair is written as the two movements in order with the pairing and the 90 seconds on each row's note. Holds are counted in seconds.
Two things are ours rather than the routine's, and the app says so too. The twelve-week length, because the routine publishes none. And the starting rungs, because a template has to write something down while the routine leaves the choice to you. Logging, the volume chart and the progress graphs are free.