Every year, I create a simplistic program that is designed to give you the greatest return on your investment.
Well, this is the 2026 edition, maybe a little late.
The principles are:
- The exercises are “affordable”.
- The goals are better looks, feels, and overall well-being
- Minimize the time and the energy needed to perform the workout (reduces the chances of skipping sessions)
- The routine must take into consideration the limitations of natural bodybuilding.
The 2026 routine in a nutshell:
- Pull-ups + dips ladders 3x a week
- Deficit sumo deadlifts/squats -2-3 times a week + rope skipping
Explanation:
Upper Body
The upper body exercises of choice are pull-ups and dips, but they can also be scaled down to bodyweight rows or push-ups if needed.
Ladders?
I got that from Tsatsouline, as some may remember.
Here’s how that works:
Take your maximum number of pull-ups and dips, then divide them by 2. (Most people can do a lot more dips than pull-ups.)
Here’s an example ladder for someone who can do 8 pull-ups and 10 dips (4 and 5 = 50%)
1 pull-up, 1 dip
2 pull-ups, 2 dips,
3 pull-ups, 3 dips
4 pull-ups, 4 dips
1 pull-up (restart), 5 dips
2 pull-ups, 1 dip (restart)…etc.
Repeat 3 times.
Rest? 10-20 seconds between a set for the first 2 ladders. Then extend to 60-90 seconds for the final sets of the third ladder.
Never miss a rep. Never train to failure.
The whole workout will take like 15-25 minutes.
Progression?
At first, just try to reduce the rest periods. Do it for a few weeks, then add one more set that mimics the last ladder set.
Example: You used to finish with 4 pull-ups. Instead of going to 1, do another set of 4.
Tip: You can vary the pull-up grip for different ladders. For instance, you can start with wide grip pull-ups for the first sets and then go to close grip chin-ups for the final ones.
This adds variety, reduces fatigue, and spreads the joint stress a bit.
Pros of this workout – super fast, low CNS stress, affordable, can be done in your lunch brake or during Teams meetings if you have the equipment at home.
Cons: gets really boring after a while. Dips could irritate your shoulders. Strictly speaking, push-ups are healthier for the shoulder girdle and more natural.
Legs
Here are some facts
Bodyweight exercises suck for leg training when it comes to basic strength and efficiency.
Most options are some single-leg bullshido that is technically fine, but often annoying, as 1 set = 2 sets of stress for the CNS. I am lazy and don’t like that.
For instance, Bulgarian SSs are obviously hard and effective, but I’d rather do something in 1 set. I couldn’t care less if 1 leg is stronger than the other. It’s 100% normal. We are not robots.
Meanwhile, pistol squats are awkward and overstress the hip flexors. They are more of a sports conditioning drill than anything else.
My solution?
Sumo deadlift/squat from a deficit.
Allow me to explain.
You take a dumbbell (a kettlebell or a T-handle…etc). Then you place two stable chairs (or some platforms) around it.
Stand on the chairs and squat down. The weight should be below you rather than in front of you.
Lift it. The movement feels like a mix between a squat and a deadlift. If you don’t have the flexibility to reach it, use a rope or a to well.
Go as low as you can, ideally ATG. Stand as vertically as you can (to keep the stress on the quads).
You will find yourself leaning forward as the reps get harder to use more of your hips. That’s fine if you realize why you’re doing it.
3 sets of 10-15 reps.
This move will hit your quads, adductors, glutes, and to some extent your hamstrings. Also, your spinal erectors will do some work too.
If you want some more posterior chain work, finish with 1-2 sets of Romanian deadlifts. Use the same weight and do it from a deficit. Keep the reps high – at least 6.
Done.
Later that day, do a jump rope session for time to hit the calves and the muscles supporting the ankles.
That’s the whole routine. It’s quick. Easy on the CNS, and the chances of an injury are close to zero. The main issue to watch for is shoulder pain from dips.
If that happens, use push-ups for 2 of the 3 weekly workouts (obviously, the reps per ladder will be a lot higher in this case)
Combine that with a cutting diet (if you are on the fat side), and in 4-6 months, you will look FAR more aesthetic for close to no money than someone doing “bulking” on a basic 5×5 routine.
Of course, your absolute strength will be lower than someone who adds 40lbs of bodyweight (fat) and lifts barbells. But who cares anyway? Squatting 3 plates and weighing about as much is not that fun.
Technically, this routine can be done forever. Just add weight to the exercises. Realistically, however, it will get super boring after 4-6 months.
At this point, you may consider doing some arm specialization (or developing a skill like the muscle-up – if you care at all).
Many thanks again for your help with ideas/suggestions. … Any thoughts on how those of us that are stuck on only 2 reps maximum for chins and dips should apply these ideas?. I used to be able to do 12 dips and 10 chins (years ago) but I am struggling to make any increase now (despite trying various things such as stretch bands negative reps etc ) !! ……If 50% of the population have below average genetics, I know what half I seem to be in !!
Scale this program down to horizontal rows and push-ups (between chairs, paralettes, books…etc for extra range).
Finish each session with scapular pull-ups (search those on YT) – a few sets – no need for failure.
After a month, check your pull-ups again. If you are on the fat side, consider losing some body fat.
Alternatively, just use a resistance band to help you and do the routine with it.
Hi, could these sumo squats be eventually replaced with trap bar deadlift? I have a trap bar at home that fits me perfectly and trap bar deadlifts are currently my only one lower body exercise that I actually like besides mountain biking. Upper body is covered by bench/pushups, rows or pullups and some direct arm training. I like to keep my home workouts minimalistic, milking them to the max before moving on with small changes or adjustments.
Of course. You could just do the trap bar deadlifts. If you want more legs, do them from a deficit.
I was just watting for your 2026 guide a lot of gratitud for your knowledge,
Just if you see this messenger, if i’d like make the 2026 arm specialization how it look ?
Great stuff as always. I agree strongly with one legged stuff being hard on CNS. Especially if you’re as stupid as I and train callisthenics and use only progressively more difficult exercises as progressions. This becomes really stupid if you want to train legs and back in the same session, because when you do 2 sets per limb you end up with 8 hard sets per session. And it sucks big time for the CNS.
Great article, looking back , when I was in the Marine Corps , mostly what we did was dips and pull ups , they were set up all over the base , and have to admit I was as muscular doing those back then as I am now after years of heavy 5 by 5 lifting.
This is a neat little program here.
I’d say that for anyone here with enough leg size, skip the squats or do just bodyweight ones, biking or sprinting or any type of cardio machine.
Men should focus on the upper body more than the lower body centaur look.
Pullups/pulldowns/lat rows are a must. Dips are ok, but i’d switch it up with incline presses and OHPs as well.
And do lateral raises and biceps!
What’s your modern equivalent of the old irongangsta deadlift dip combo?
I still find it super funny how things change. In my early youth and as a young adult I was very obsessed with my training. Everything has to be pretty perfect, solid, both the training of the nutrition. Muscles had to be trained in every angle and at a point I actually weighed everything that I ate. I used to laugh at guys who did bro splits because I felt they were idiots who didn’t really figure out the whole thing. Nowadays, my biggest motivator to train at all anymore is trying to figure out a program that gets me to do very little work and I often focus on the show of muscles only. I just had a session where my main move was shrugs, then I did triceps extensions, biceps curls and lat pulludowns. Altogether, I think I did five work sets. And it felt so good, really looking forward for my next session on Monday.
Did you train at home?
I’ve actually been training at home for like a decade and a half. But because of old sports injuries, I’ve been forced to change things a bit. So now I have been training at an outside gym, because I have to isolate things a bit to overcome the injury. The set up there is pretty simple, there are only three exercise stations, a squat, a flat bench press and a pulldown machine. The equipment is far from the best ones, for example with the pulldown machine, you cannot adjust the height of the bench. But the good thing is that they have adjustable weights that go up to like hundred kilos.
Anyways, the fun part has been to figure out ways to do multiple different exercises in these machines. For example, I can do shrugs on the bench press machine, bicep curls on the squat machine, and standing tricep push downs on the pull down machine. I can also do a whole heap of other exercises on these machines, they are not ideal, but still at least I can work out even with my injury.
The last session I did included bench press pyramiding to two heavy sets, pull downs for lats 1 heavy set, dips max set and a set of standing calf raises on the squat machine.
Because of a difficult hip injury, I am not doing legs with heavy weights currently. I have to do body weight exercises for legs as a part of the hip rehab, and I cannot stand the volume of doing those and separate gym sessions for legs, so hence the upper body focus. Also, I used to do so much unnecessary volume for my legs in my youth when I was still doing competitive sports, that no matter what I do for the upper body now, I will never catch those numbers that I did for legs.
So yeah, if this hip injury ever heals, I’ll probably switch back to training at home. But as long as I am unable to do things like hard push-up variations, pullups and body weight tricep extensions, I’m going to continue at the outside gym.
Gracias, TS, por este artículo.
Ojalá puedas algún día escribir algo sobre la manera en que escribes tus textos. Tu estilo me parece muy interesante pero no termino de captar dónde está la clave. Sería muy bien recibido que nos compartieras tu metodología.