A new beginning

I've been lurking on the forums for a while now but finally took the plunge! I was hoping someone could help me with the basics.... like, really basic. A bit of background first.

I'm 38 years old, just shy of 6 feet, at about 176 pounds. I used to exercise back in university but it's been about 10 years now since I've done any real workout at all. As a result, I'm pretty weak, even though I am healthy overall.

I can do:

12 pushups

3 chinups

30 squats (bodyweight)

Getting to the point: I would love to be able to do all the fancy progressions I read about on the forums but I can barely even do the first step on all of them. I was thinking I need to build up basic strength first.

Here is what I came up with but I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/comments you folk may have:

Hindu Pushups 3 sets

Hindu Squats 3 sets

Chinups 3 sets

All of these done 3-4 times/week.

Does that seem adequate and am I hitting all the major muscle groups with that? Should I try pullups instead of chinups? Also, should I do any "core" workouts such as planks or HLRs, or will the above exercises suffice for the time being?

Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to give all the information you might need for advice. Oh, and I only have a pullup tower, bands, and a Swiss Ball. Thanks in advance!

The program looks fine as is. I will tell you not to worry about core training. Others will suggest otherwise. Do chin-ups until you are quite comfortable with them, then try pull-ups amd alternate between them. Same with push-up variations. Try to do harder push-up variations to keep your volume of pushing in line with that of pulling.

Once you've got a strong pull-up, you should be able to start work on the front lever progression. Also, keep trying to get the frogstand. I'd be very surprised if you really can't do it. As soon as you've got that, you obviously have begun the planche progression.

Hope that helps!

I'd try to hold some handstands against a wall, as it uses strength in a lot of the muscles that will be used in other exercises, as well as improving your handstand obviously.

Thanks a lot, I've been doing the above for that last 2 weeks or so and definitely starting to improve. I've decided to not do core exercises specifically as my abdomen feels sore enough sometimes after doing the above.