BaseBar Workout: Full Body Strength Routine With Only A Bar!

I know a lot of you bought a BaseBar after seeing my BaseBar review. So, now, I’m going to illustrate how to do a strength-focused full-body workout routine on the BaseBar.

I just wanted you to know before we dive into the routine that is a strength workout meaning we’re going to focus more on intensity instead of volume. And the way we’re got to focus on intensity is by first using the five to eight rep range. This means we’re going to choose exercises and execute those exercises aiming for muscular failure somewhere around five to eight reps.

That’s going to keep it nice and intense and allow you to take longer rests. I recommend resting two minutes between sets (I tend to rest about three minutes; others rest upwards of five). This full-body workout routine can be done at home - or anywhere, for that matter - and all you need is a pull-up bar like the BaseBar.

But before you get into the routine, I’ve decided to partner with BaseBlocks for an amazing deal. If you like the BaseBar and the following full-body routine, you can head over to https://baseblocks.fit and use my promo code MINUS10 to get 10% OFF any purchase at checkout!

Now, with that said, let’s dive in!

Before you get into this full-body routine, here are some key points to remember:

• Do this workout 3x per week with days off between (ex: Mon/Wed/Fri)
• Target 5-8 rep range for higher intensity
• Rest 2 -3 minutes between sets (or longer, if needed)

Warming Up

Another thing to remember is to make sure you do a thorough warm-up before starting! I know everybody wants to skip the warm-up (even I do sometimes). But you need to do this!

To start things off, do a minutes-worth of high knees. They’re pretty fast and help to get your blood flowing. High knees are followed by some shoulder circles. Usually, you do these for maybe just thirty seconds. After finishing your shoulder circles, just hop right into a set of bodyweight squats. And that’s it! A simple, basic warm-up before the real work starts. You get to warm up the muscles around your shoulder complex, hip complex and get your blood flowing. Now, you’re ready to move on! 

Pull Movement: Front Lever Progressions

First, what you want to do is focus on your pull movement using a front lever progression. That’s whatever front lever progression you’re currently on. Everyone works out at their own pace.

For your front lever progression, you want to get beneath your BaseBar and pull up into a tuck front lever or whatever progression you’re currently on. You want to hold this for 20 seconds or to complete muscle failure. You can keep one foot on the floor if you need any assistance. This can turn into a good lead up to the tuck front lever. Remember, this is an isometric exercise meaning you’re not performing it for reps. Your goal is just to hold a static position.

You’ll do four working sets of these with a two-minute rest between each set. By the fourth set, you’re going to do something completely different. So, when you reach failure on that fourth set, instead of resting, you’ll immediately get into a burnout set. As you’re focusing on pull movement, you’ll do one set of bodyweight rows to failure. You’ll rest for two minutes before getting into the next set.

Push Up Movement: Straight Bar Dips

Once your two-minute rest is up, you’ll move into a push movement by focusing on straight bar dips.

So, to get things started, you want to get over the BaseBar and place both hands on top. Then, you want your feet in front of the pull-up bar by lowering them down until the bottom of your ribcage is just above the bar. Then, you can press back up. From the start, you should feel some tension in your lower chest, shoulders and triceps. You’re aiming to land in the 5 to 8 rep range until you hit muscle failure. You can modify the exercise as needed if you don’t land in that range. You’ll do four working sets of these with two-minute rests between each set.

Just like the front lever progression, you’ll switch into a burnout set after the fourth set. Since you’re focusing on push movement, you’ll do some push-ups for your burnout. All you need to do is get on the floor and do whatever push-up variation suits you. Again, you want to squeeze out as many reps as you can to muscle failure.

Lift Movement: Assisted Pistol Squats

After that, take a two-minute rest. Then, you’re ready to move on to the next movement. You’ll get into lift movements by doing assisted pistol squats.

First, you will use the BaseBar by placing one hand on top of the bar and then performing an assisted pistol. In doing the move, you’ll use your free hand to reach out over your outstretched leg. This allows you to lean forward as much as possible. As a word of caution, this move can be very challenging with the BaseBar. So, if you find it too hard, I suggest trying to hold a heavy object in your free hand (like a jug of water or laundry detergent). You can aim to complete five to eight reps before switching legs. Then, replicate on the opposite side as this is a unilateral exercise. One set is complete after doing both legs as you do four sets.

For this move, you can rest for two minutes to maximize strength between sets. Once you reach your fourth set, you should immediately go to your burnout set. The lift movement for this set will be jump squats. The beautiful thing about a plyometric exercise (like jump squats) is that the momentum of your body comes down during the landing. This move adds resistance while being much more challenging compared to basic squats. As this is a burnout set, just do as many as you can to burn out your legs and fully exhaust the muscles. Again, you want to do the set until failure.

Hinge Movement: Lying Leg Raises and Side Planks

Now for the last part of your workout, you will do a hinge movement as you do a full core circuit set. To start things off, you’ll go into some lying leg raises. You start by lying beneath the BaseBar. Make sure your hands are right around so you can reach the bar. Then, you place your legs on the floor and lie perfectly flat on the floor. This allows you to engage posterior pelvic tilts so your back is flat. Then, you raise your legs to touch your ankles to the bar. Complete the move by lowering the heels back down to the floor. Again, your target is five to eight reps, but if you feel like you can do more than eight reps, go for it. That way you can really feel the burn on these.

Once you’re done with leg raises, you go immediately into doing side planks. You start by getting up on the right elbow and forearm and raising your hips. Try to hold your right-side plank for 20 seconds. After doing the right side, then, you switch sides to your left elbow and forearm. Again, try holding your left side plank for at least 20 seconds.

Unlike previous sets, you’ll take a rest after each circuit for only 30-60 seconds. You will repeat the above circuit for at least 3 rounds (not four like previous sets).

Summary

Just to sum things up, you’re working on four movements – a push, a pull, a lift and a hinge. On the push, pull and lift, you’re doing four working sets. That’s meaning four sets you take long rests between, and you’re aiming for the five to eight rep range to keep them intense. But at the end of that last set, you’ll immediately go to a burnout, which is a set of any different exercise that’s in the same movement category.

So, you do that for push, pull and lift, but it’s different for hinge (or the core really). For hinge, you do a quick add circuit. You do leg lifts immediately followed by side planks on both sides, and you do that circuit three times around. Trust me at the end of that workout you should be feeling it.

I know some of you are wondering “what if the exercises aren’t hard enough?” or “what if I can do more than eight reps?” or even, “what if I can’t land in the five to eight rep range?” Well, one of the easiest ways to make an exercise harder is to slow down the tempo by increasing the negative tension.

On the same note, I recommend making these exercises easier if they are too hard. This is especially true if you can’t reach five reps. You can use assistance or an easier progression for a different variation on that exercise that has less resistance.

For those not focused on strength at this time, you may want to focus on building and toning your physique. You’ll want to focus on volume rather than intensity. So, in that case, you can shorten your resting time to 30 to 60 seconds between sets. That way you’ll be able to cram more sets into the same amount of time. You’re doing less intense sets but adding more overall volume to your full body routine.

Just as a note, I’ll be making more routines using the BaseBar. I mean I love designing routines as it’s just something I love to do. I will gladly share them with you.

Remember, you can buy any BaseBlocks equipment by using my code MINUS10 at the time of purchase.