Question:

I don’t seem to be getting results with my current routine and i have noticed articles online and real life friends only work 1 muscle group a day. Like theyll do biceps monday, chest tuesday, triceps wednesday, back thursday and legs friday and abs everyday at the end of the workout. It just seems fishy to me because your only doing one group per 6 days. Im used to doing every muscle group 2 times a week. So instead of doing 1 muscle a day i did like biceps and back one day then chest and shoulders the next etc etc. what do you guys think? iv been going up in weight and eating more and i still havent seen results.

Answer:

You’re definitely on the right track in noticing that doing only one muscle group every 6 days is “fishy”.

It really only takes about 48-72 hours for your body to recovery from a typical strength session, so why wait 6 days? It makes no sense.

Also, your friend has to lift 5 days a week. It sounds like you might not have that kind of time..

With a 2 day a week program, you’re on the right track in that you’re training your entire body on both training days.

But instead of taking the mentality of hitting each “muscle group”, you need to think more about what MOVEMENTS will get you the most results.

If you’ve ever heard of the 80/20 rule, often applied to business, it means that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

Well, this principle can be applied to strength training as well..

You’ll see many people in the gym doing “bodypart” exercises like bicep curls, triceps extensions, hamstring curls, and leg extensions.

These are what I would call the 20% exercises. They have their place at times, but if you want results, you need to focus on the 80% that will get you results.

Key Exercises -Deadlift variations (total body) -Squats (hamstrings, quads, glutes, core) -Bench Press (Chest, arms, even some legs) -Pull-ups (Lats, traps) -Rows (Traps, rhomboids, biceps) -Single leg movements (lunges, stepups, pistols)

If you’re going to train total body, stick to these lifts. The other thing that is important for you to actually see results is lift HEAVIER weights.

I’m not sure what kind of intensity you’re lifting at, but make sure that once you get the form figured out and are confident in these movements, that you progress with more weight.

As in 3-5 sets of 1-6 rep max.

If you’re more novice or if hypertrophy (building mass) is more important, using 5-10 rep max weights with only 2-4 sets may be a better option.

I’d also consider bumping it up to three days a week.

A three day per week split would look something like this:

Monday: Total Body–Hit a little bit of everything

Wednesday: Primarily Upper body with a few leg exercises

Friday: Primarily Lower body with a few upper body exercises.

Since the lower body tends to take longer to recover than the upper body, it is placed on Friday, give you two recover days.

I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, hit me up!

Technorati Tags: exercise selection, Program Design, strength training, total-body-training

I try not to write too much about myself on this blog. But, I’d thought I’d share my workout today at the playground. (yes, you heard that right).

The local gym where I regularly lift has been shut down for maintenance for the ENTIRE WEEK. I was so worried about how my clients were going to stay on track this week, I almost forgot about myself!

So here is my Saturday playground routine. The volume was pretty low, but I think the heat came into play, which didn’t help.

Warmup

-High Knees

-Butt Kickers

-A Skips

-B Skips

-Right and left side shuffles

-Backward running

-Single leg hops

-45 Degree walking lunges

-Side to side toe touches

-60 Yard Accelerations to a full sprint

The Workout

1A- Pullups (neutral grip on monkey bars)–> 12, 7

1B- Pushups–> 25, 20

1C-set 1, Stepups–> 15 each leg ; set 2, Split Jumps, 20 (10 each leg)

That’s it, short and sweet. I didn’t exactly have my A game today, but I was breathing hard the whole time and hopefully Monday I’ll be ready to pick up where I left off last week in the weight room.

Stay tuned, as I’m working on a post about general program design for the intermediate weight lifter.

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, maintenance, Program Design, workout-report

Here’s a recent quote from a client in response to me adding an extra 2 1/2 lb plate on the first set of chest supported rows:

“Does the weight keep going up and up and up forever for the rest of my life?”

And I don’t know if it was what this person said or the way this person said it, but I thought it was the funniest thing a client has ever said to me during a training session.

My smartass answer: “Yes.”

Actually, weight won’t always go up necessarily, but when training with me, you will always be progressing in what you do!!!

Technorati Tags: progression, quotes, training-philosophy

Let’s say that you’ve been inactive and you’ve decided to ease in to some sort of exercise only two days a week..

Now..

Would you choose to spend these two sessions performing cardio like running on the treadmill??

Or would you do some sort or strength training with higher reps??

Alwyn Cosgrove has a good article titled Strength or Cardio? where he insists that if you had to choose one, do the strength FIRST–meaning if you only have two days do strength, and then add cardio later if you choose to work out more frequently.

His point is that if you want to lose weight, you have to burn Calories and elevate your metabolism. And the easiest way to do that is through strength training.

He says that the best way to initially burn Calories is to make your muscles active–and the best way to elevate your metabolism is to gain MORE muscle, which will require you to burn even more Calories.

A simple concept, but it won’t do any good unless you apply it. So go do some lifting!!!

Technorati Tags: cardio, fat loss, metabolism, strength training