Build Muscle
Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength
Four days, ten weeks, one bar and one loadable pack. Weighted chin-ups, pull-ups and dips wave from fives to threes while you add 2.5 kg a week to one lift at a time. For lifters who can already do eight strict chin-ups and want load, not skill work.
- Category
- Build Muscle
- Length
- 10 weeks
- Frequency
- 4 days/week
- Est. session
- 50–70 min
Last updated: June 2026
About this program
A load-progressed bodyweight program. The entire kit is a pull-up bar, a set of parallel bars or dip handles, and one object you can hang from your waist or wear on your back — a dip belt, a weight vest, or a rucksack you can fill. Three lifts carry the program: the weighted chin-up, the weighted pull-up and the weighted dip. They wave from fives to threes across ten weeks, and the variable that moves is added weight, never a harder variant. Assistance work progresses by leverage rung instead, so only one thing is ever changing at a time. Lower body climbs a stated leverage ladder rather than a load — bodyweight lunge, then the loaded pack, then the rear foot elevated, then a deficit under the front foot — advancing only when three clean sets of eight per leg are in the log.
Two of the four days lead with a loaded vertical pull, at opposite grips and opposite ends of the week — that dominance is deliberate, because the bar is the only apparatus here that takes external load cleanly on the pull side. If the front of the shoulder objects to the bottom of a parallel-bar dip, the weighted bench dip carries the same added load and the program continues unchanged.
Built for the calisthenics-adjacent lifter who has plateaued on unloaded reps and does not want to chase levers, plus travellers and small-apartment trainees who own a bar and a pack and nothing else. There is a hard entry standard: eight strict chin-ups and ten clean parallel-bar dips before week one. Not for beginners, and not for you if the goal is a muscle-up or a handstand push-up — Calisthenics Mastery in this library is the variant-progressed program for that. This one is load-progressed. If you want a heavier chin-up, take this; if you want a new skill, take that. You must be able to add external weight — without ballast this program has no progression variable at all.
Progression is step-loading, per our Progressive Overload framework: 2.5 kg to exactly one of the three lifts each week on a fixed rotation, never two in the same week, which keeps every stall attributable. Volume sits in the productive band of our Volume Management framework, and the RPE ceiling climbs by phase rather than by feel, per our Autoregulation framework. You will add 5 kg of programmed ballast to each of the three lifts across the block; because the wave drops to threes, the week-ten weighted triple typically lands 5-10 kg above that working load. Both triples are tested as a weighted 3RM in week ten.
Build Muscle · 10 weeks · 4 days/week
Start to finish
- Frequency
- 4 days/week
- Per session
- 50–70 min
Who it's for
Four ways to tell at a glance whether this block belongs in your week.
- 01The goal
- Four days, ten weeks, one bar and one loadable pack.
- 02The commitment
- A steady four-plus days a week
- 03The arc
- 10 weeks, 5 phases that build and reset
- 04The coaching
- Your coach drives the plan forward — it reads each session and moves you up the moment the work gets easier, so you keep progressing
How it progresses
10 weeks across 5 phases — your coach watches the effort in your logged sets and moves the weight up the moment a load starts getting easier, so you keep climbing instead of waiting on the calendar.
- Weeks 1–260Intensity
Phase 1 · Standard
Tendon On-Ramp
Two weeks at bodyweight to let elbows, biceps tendons and the anterior shoulder meet the volume before any ballast is hung. Nothing is added until week three.
- Weeks 3–562Intensity
Phase 2 · Accumulation
Accumulation
Five sets of five on each lead lift, with 2.5 kg going onto exactly one of the three per week — chin-up, then dip, then pull-up — and nothing else changing.
- Weeks 6–630Intensity
Phase 3 · Deload
Deload
Added load cut to sixty percent, working sets cut to three, RPE capped at 6.5. One week, no exceptions, no attempts.
- Weeks 7–982Intensity
Phase 4 · Intensification
Intensification
The wave shifts to five sets of three at heavier ballast. The same rotation repeats — chin-up, dip, pull-up — and assistance volume is held flat throughout.
- Weeks 10–1088Intensity
Phase 5 · Testing
Test
A weighted three-rep max on the chin-up and on the dip, then the block ends. No pull-up test, no assistance, nothing to failure.
Sessions in this program
The individual workouts this program schedules through the week — open any session for its full exercise list, sets, and coaching notes.
Why your coach builds it this way
A load-progressed bodyweight program. The entire kit is a pull-up bar, a set of parallel bars or dip handles, and one object you can hang from your waist or wear on your back — a dip belt, a weight vest, or a rucksack you can fill. Three lifts carry the program: the weighted chin-up, the weighted pull-up and the weighted dip. They wave from fives to threes across ten weeks, and the variable that moves is added weight, never a harder variant. Assistance work progresses by leverage rung instead, so only one thing is ever changing at a time. Lower body climbs a stated leverage ladder rather than a load — bodyweight lunge, then the loaded pack, then the rear foot elevated, then a deficit under the front foot — advancing only when three clean sets of eight per leg are in the log.
Two of the four days lead with a loaded vertical pull, at opposite grips and opposite ends of the week — that dominance is deliberate, because the bar is the only apparatus here that takes external load cleanly on the pull side. If the front of the shoulder objects to the bottom of a parallel-bar dip, the weighted bench dip carries the same added load and the program continues unchanged.
Built for the calisthenics-adjacent lifter who has plateaued on unloaded reps and does not want to chase levers, plus travellers and small-apartment trainees who own a bar and a pack and nothing else. There is a hard entry standard: eight strict chin-ups and ten clean parallel-bar dips before week one. Not for beginners, and not for you if the goal is a muscle-up or a handstand push-up — Calisthenics Mastery in this library is the variant-progressed program for that. This one is load-progressed. If you want a heavier chin-up, take this; if you want a new skill, take that. You must be able to add external weight — without ballast this program has no progression variable at all.
Progression is step-loading, per our Progressive Overload framework: 2.5 kg to exactly one of the three lifts each week on a fixed rotation, never two in the same week, which keeps every stall attributable. Volume sits in the productive band of our Volume Management framework, and the RPE ceiling climbs by phase rather than by feel, per our Autoregulation framework. You will add 5 kg of programmed ballast to each of the three lifts across the block; because the wave drops to threes, the week-ten weighted triple typically lands 5-10 kg above that working load. Both triples are tested as a weighted 3RM in week ten.
Common questions
The facts most people check before they commit a block to it.
01How long is the Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength program?
Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength runs 10 weeks at 4 days a week, structured into 5 phases so the load builds and resets on schedule. In Squatly, the coach tunes it to you, so the plan keeps moving with your training.
02Who is Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength for?
Four days, ten weeks, one bar and one loadable pack. It sits in the Build Muscle category, and the coach reads your training to tell you whether it's the right fit before you commit a block to it.
03How does Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength progress over the weeks?
It opens with tendon On-Ramp and finishes with test. Each phase has a job — accumulate work, push intensity, or back off to absorb it — and the coach moves your load when your logged sets earn it, not on a fixed schedule.
04Does the coach adjust Bar & Ballast — Weighted Bodyweight Strength to me?
Yes. The program is the starting structure; the coach reads your e1RM trend, your weekly volume, and your effort on each lift, then tells you when to push — when a load is getting easier, it's time to add weight. It shows you the trend lines behind every call, and you accept, edit, or reject it. With every workout, the plan gets more yours.
Keep moving forward.
The program sets the structure. Your coach drives it forward — reading your numbers and pushing the weight up as you get stronger, so the plan stays yours and you keep progressing.
iOS · Works offline
Aleks · Coach
Proposal — add weight