Iron Belt
Pull-ups and dips with a load on a belt: three workouts a week, six exercises each
For those who have finished “Yard League” or can do 12 pull-ups and 15 dips with no added weight. You need a pull-up bar, dip bars, a dipping belt and a load: a kettlebell, dumbbell or weight plate. 3 workouts a week, 6 exercises each, about 55 minutes per workout. Weighted exercises for 10 reps in Base and 8 in Build, 2 minutes of rest. Two 4-week stages.
Weighted pull-ups and weighted dips appear in all three workouts: the main lift of the day gets 4 sets, the second 3–4. The load hangs from a belt; after each set you note how it went, and the app picks the weight from those ratings. Squats, lunges, rows on a low bar, push-ups and ab exercises use body weight for 15 reps.
Method: Weighted progression.
Pull-ups and dips are done with a load on a belt: 10 reps in Base and 8 in Build. The app picks the load from how you rate your sets. The other exercises use body weight.
What studies found:
- Push-ups and a light bench press produced similar gains in muscle and strength (Kikuchi et al., 2017)
- Light weights gave the same muscle growth, more endurance and smaller gains in max strength (Schoenfeld et al., 2015)
- Changing the load from period to period adds max strength and does not affect muscle growth (Moesgaard et al., 2022)
The studies tested the principles; the program itself has not been tested in this form.
Log only the load on your belt in the weight field, without your body weight.
