Strategy #1: Warm - Up
Do you warm-up? You should. The warm-up may not be the most exciting part of the workout, but is a necessary component. Even if you do warm-up what do you do? Jog on the treadmill a couple minutes, do a couple lights sets of bench presses and then your ready to go right? Not exactly. The warm-up needs to be specific to what you are going to be doing, while getting your heart rate elevated and pumping blood into your muscles. The warm-up does exactly that, it warms up your body and prepares it for what is about to come. It is vital to a successful and injury free exercise program. One thing the warm-up never is is any type of static stretching. Your muscles are cold and cannot be properly or safely stretched at the beginning of your workout. Save these stretches for the end of your workout.
Use the following warm-up routine for all resistance training sessions:
1) Push Ups 1 x 10
2) BB Squat 1 x 10
3) BB Bent-Over Row 1 x 10
4) Romanian Deadlift (RDL) 1 x 10
5) BB Shoulder Press 1 x 10
6) Pull Ups or Inverted Row 1 x 10
7) Lunge Around the World 2x around
8) Curtsey Lunge 1 x 5 each leg
9) DB Swing 1 x 15
Perform each exercise one after the other with no rest in between. Now you're warmed-up and ready to begin your training session.
Strategy #2: Train Your Body as a Whole
All of the workouts programs I design focus on total body training. I do not break my clients workouts up into chest day, leg day, arm day, etc. We train everything during each session. The reasoning behind this is:
1) Your body works as a whole and all of your daily activities require you to use your entire body, not just one muscle group.
2) It prevents muscle imbalances.
When you only train a certain body part each day certain areas tend to get overused because it is impossible to only exercise your chest, shoulder, arm, back, or leg muscles. For example, if you are bench pressing you are using your pectoralis muscles as the prime mover, but also you are using your posterior deltoids and triceps muscles to assist. The same goes for legs if you are squating you are using your quadriceps and gluteal muscles as the prime movers, but also your hamstrings and abdominals assist with the exercise. So you can see how certain muscles can be used indirectly everyday by using an individual body part routine. When muscles are trained everyday they get over worked and you can develop muscle imbalances. By training your whole body together it allows all of your muscles time to recover, since they will be getting worked on the same days they will also all get to rest at the same time. And the recovery period is essential for making gains in muscle strength.
Ok I know you maybe thinking if I train everything each session my workout is going to take forever. However, this is not the case it will only take you about 45 minutes. Which I will get into in Strategy #3. In order to do this though there are some exercises you will need to leave out or replace with more efficient ones, typically avoiding any single-joint exercise. I also avoid using machines because they do not allow you to stabilize and control the weight because they are in a fixed plane of motion.
The exercises I include in all of my workouts are multi-joint exercises and include: 1 Horizontal Push, 1 Horizontal Pull, 1 Vertical Push, 1 Vertical Pull, and 2 Mutli-Joint Leg Exercises. After those six exercises move on to the abdominal/core muscles. To effectively train these muscles focus on movements that require twisting/rotation, bending, and core stabilization. Examples of these exercises are listed below. After that finish up with stretching and you are done.
Lower Body Exercises:(Pick 2) Horizontal Push Exercises:(Pick 1)
BB Squat BB Bench Press
DB Squat DB Bench Press
BB Deadlift BB Incline Press
DB Deadlift DB Incline Press
BB RDL Push Ups
DB RDL Decline Push Ups
BB Front Squat
BB Lunge Horizontal Pull Exercises:(Pick 1)
DB Lunge BB Row
DB Lateral Lunge DB Row
DB Reverse Lunge One Arm DB Row
BB Bulgarian Split Squat Seated Row
DB Bulgarian Split Squat Underhand Seated Row
Single Leg Squat Cable Rope Row
Single Leg RDL BB Underhand Row
Vertical Push Exercises:(Pick 1) Vertical Pull Exercises:(Pick 1)
DB Shoulder Press Lat. Pulldown
BB Shoulder Press Underhand Lat. Pulldown
BB Upright Row Pull Ups
DB Upright Row DB Pullover
Cable Upright Row Inverted Row
Core:(Pick 1 from each group)
Group 1 Group 2
Plank or Side Plank High Cable Wood Chop
Sit Ups Low Cable Wood Chop
Turkish Sit Ups Middle Cable Wood Chop
Ball Sit Ups Core Bar Rotations
Group 3 Group 4
Roman Chair Leg Lifts Hyperextension
Hanging Leg Lifts Bow
Incline Leg Lifts Superman
Floor Leg Lifts Good Morning
Strategy #3: Finish Your Workout in 45 Minutes
Spending too much time working out can also rob you of great results by over working your body. We live a society with a mindset that more is better and whether not this is true for other things in life it certainly is not for exercise. When you exercise you are stressing your body and breaking it down. After you finish working out it begins to repair the damage it has received. If too much damage is done it will not be able to repair all the damage and you will not be fully recovered for your next workout. If you continue to do this over and over while never allowing your body to fully recover, it is eventually going to wear out and result in minimal gains in muscle strength and size. This could possibly even result in strength decreases or injury. It would be like driving a car and only putting in a gallon of gas for every 100 miles. It will keep you going for a while but eventually it is going to run out, leaving you stranded. Also when your workout last longer than 45 minutes you run the chance of using muscle tissue as fuel for energy. This is not what you want to happen when you are trying to build muscle. Even if you are not trying to build muscle a loss in muscle tissue will decrease your metabolism and slow your progress towards your weight loss goals.
This is why I keep all workout session around 45 minutes in length. If you are working hard enough and not wasting time in the gym this is more than enough time to receive a great workout. The following is a sample layout of a 45 minute session:
Dynamic Warm-Up 5 min.
Exercises:
1 Leg
1 Horizontal Push
1 Horizontal Pull
1 Leg
1 Vertical Push
1 Vertical Pull
20 min.
Core (105 total reps) 6 min.
Plyometric Cardio 10 min.
Stretching 4 min.
Strategy #4: Rest Periods
How much time do you spend in the gym? Now how much time do you spend working out? The gym can tend to be a social gathering place for some, which can be very annoying for those of us who come to actually workout. How many times have you waited for a piece of equipment or had to modify your workout because someone was sort of using it. You know these people they do a set then talk to there buddy or even worse on their cell phone for 5 minutes then do another set and then talk some more before completing there third of who knows how many sets. Don't get me wrong being social is a good thing but not when you are working out. Save the small talk for after you finish. And leave the cell phone in your locker there is nothing more annoying than to hear some ones goofy cell phone ring and then listen to them yelling into their phone while you are working out. Ok enough about this lets get back on track. The amount of time you spend in between sets is very important. If you rest too long you are not challenging your body enough and if you rest to short you are to not recovered enough to complete all the reps of your next set. I recommend keeping your rest period anywhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. My prefered periods are 30 seconds and 45 seconds. But there are some instances where you will need a longer period. Such as when lifting near maximum loads. By keeping your rest periods within these limits you will get more out of your workout and save time in the long run. And sorry if you are one of those people that I mentioned earlier I did not mean to offend you.
Strategy #5: Vary the Reps
By changing the number of reps you perform you keep your body guessing what is coming next and avoid plateaus in your training due to inhibiting your bodies ability to adapt to the workout. And it also eliminates the need to design new workouts each week. You now only have to design 3 days of workouts every four weeks because by changing the reps each week your body will view it as a new workout. Just make sure you use 3 different workouts every four weeks because your body will eventually adapt to the exercises, even with the rep changes. After week 4 you can repeat starting back at 12 reps or you can continue on through week 8 to build more muscle size and strength and then repeat starting back at 12 reps. It is important that as the reps decrease your weights increase. In weeks 3 and 7 try to use the same weight from the previous week. Keep the same workouts and rest period for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks change the exercises and keep repeating this pattern. The chart below will show how your reps should change.
WEEK NUMBER REPETITIONS
1 12
2 8
3 10
4 6
5 9
6 5
7 7
8 3
Strategy #6: Pre-Plan Your Workouts
Many people come in to the gym and start working out with very little fore thought about what they are going to do. They just come in and do what they feel like. Training this way is very ineffective and results are minimal. Usually this type of training will result in muscle imbalances because you will only do the exercises you like and never the ones you dislike, which are usually the ones you need the most.
The easiest way to do this is to take 15 minutes every 4 weeks and sit down and think about what you are going to do in your workouts for the next 4 weeks. And then write in down. Follow the tips in Strategy #5 and you will only need to make up 3 different workouts every 4 weeks.
By pre-planning your workout you will see better results and you will no longer walk into the gym and say to yourself, "Ok what do I feel like doing?" You will already know.
Strategy #7: Learn The Ready Position
The ready position is the primary lifting posture for almost all exercises that are done either standing or bent-over. I teach this to all of my clients on the first day I ever train them and we continue to work on it every day after. By learning this position you will protect your lower back from injury, your knees when squatting, and be able to lift more weight resulting in greater strength.
To achieve this position you need to first stand upright with feet slightly wider than shoulder width, toes pointed straight ahead, and arms down in front holding a bar with a pronated (palms down) grip. Then hinge your hips back (push your butt back) without bending your knees. However, your knees will slightly bend naturally. This is normal. Keeping your back flat and shoulders back continue to push your hips back until the bar reaches the top of your knees. You will notice that as you are pushing your hips back that your upper body will lean forward. As you achieve the position your back will be at a 45 degree angle and flat, shoulder blades pinched, hips back, knees slightly bent, shins perpendicular to the ground, and bar resting slightly on the tops of your knees. Keep the bar against your body throughout the entire movement. You are now in the Ready Position. The reason for learning this position is because it is achieved at some point of many of the main exercises I include in my clients programs (e.g. bent-over rows, RDLs, deadlifts, squats and cleans). And by being in the proper body position you lessen your risk of injury and increase your ability to lift heavier loads.
Strategy #8: Interval Training
Instead of spending 30 minutes to 1 hour or more running on the treadmill or pedaling on the elliptical. Try interval training and finish your workout in 20 minutes. With interval training you will burn tons of calories, but save your muscle tissue from being used as fuel. You see whenever you perform steady-state cardio for a long duration of time you burn fat but also muscle. When you perform this type of training it is very unlikely you are going to see the results you were expecting. A lot of times this only results in creating a slightly smaller version of what you already were. This is because the weight you have lost came from both fat and muscle tissue and your body fat percentage is still close to the same as when you started. This is not the ideal way to acheive fat loss. To achieve optimal fat loss you need to burn fat, but spare muscle. The more muscle you have on your body the higher your metabolism will run and the more calories you will burn with everything you do, resulting in greater fat loss. And the way to achieve this is through interval training.
To perform an interval training session all you have to do is go hard for a period of time and then go easier for a period of time. A very simple interval training session on the treadmill would be to start out easy for 1 minute (3.0 mph) then go hard for 1 minute (10.0 mph) and continue repeating for 20 minutes. The idea is to work at a level of intensity that is challenging for you, this will differ greatly between individuals, and then to recovery at a lesser intensity. Most treadmills are able to be programmed to do this, but if not doing it manually is fine too. Now I prefer the treadmill over all other cardio training equipment, but if it is too hard on your body you can do the same on any other piece of cardio equipment. You also do not have to set your interval up into 1 minute intervals you could use 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, or any other amount of time. I would just not recommend making it longer than a 2 minute period of time at the same speed/pace. And if you prefer to run outside this can be done too with the use of a stopwatch.
Another effective way to perform interval training is by jumping rope. Jumping rope burns calories and provides a change to your cardio routine. You may not be able to do a whole 20 minutes at first, but gradually build up the length of time until you can. Then spend the remaining time on the treadmill. I recommend starting with 30 seconds of jumping followed by 30 seconds of rest and repeat for as many times possible up to 20 minutes.
Strategy #9: Body Weight Exercises
By incorporating body weight exercises into your routine you will develop great strength that you will be able to use outside of the gym. I have noticed many people are strong in the gym, but outside of it they are weak. These individuals may be able to lift heavy amounts of weight but yet lack the strength to move and control their own body weight. This is because body weight exercises require balance, stability, and muscle coordination. And barbells, dumbbells, and especially machines do not require as much. By exercising with only your body weight you will develop stronger muscles, improved balance and muscle coordination. Imagine being able to do 25 pull-ups without stopping. People will notice and want to know how you are able to do it. Even if you can only do 10 in row they will notice. This is because the pull-up is one of the hardest if not the hardest exercise to do. Most people can't even do one. And the only way to get better at them is to do them. You can do all the lat. pulldowns with as much weight as you desire and still not be able to complete one pull-up. Some of my other favorite body weight exercises are: push-ups, single leg squats, single leg RDLs, dips, inverted rows, sit ups, and lunges. Incorporating any of these exercises adds a nice change to any workout routine.
By learning to train with only your bodyweight you can train whenever and wherever giving yourself no excuse for not getting in a great workout when there is no access to a gym. You are the gym.
Copyright ©2007
