I ate a few too much heavenly chocolate (my Grandmother’s secret recipe) and pumpkin pie over the holidays - I’ll admit it -

So I figured…

Why wait until 2009 to work off a few of the fat pounds I put on?

Here’s a glimpse into my 30 minute fat loss session that I just returned from (My heart is STILL beating fast). It doesn’t seem like much, but I kept the rest periods short and believe me, the intensity was high - I refuse to be fat - haha -

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The Workout - Quad Dominant, Vertical Push, Vertical Pull

A1. Neutral Grip Dumbell Push Press, 35’s - 12, 12

A2. Close Grip Chinups, BW - 10, 7

A3. Bulgarian Split Squats, 35’s - 10, 10 / leg

B1. Walking Lunges holding a 35 lb plate overhead - 10, 10 / leg

B2. 1 Arm Dumbell Swing, 30 lb dumbell - 15, 15 / arm

B3. Triceps Duck Unders (I needed this rest station, the swings killed me), 12, 10

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I tried to keep the rest to under 1 minute between sets, and I think I was in and out of the gym before some of the other people switched exercises!!

Happy New Year, and I’ll talk to you in 2009!

Technorati Tags: fat loss, Program Design, quick workouts

Question:

I have finally decided to start working out. For me to succeed in this endeavor I need to have a plan to follow to ensure my continued progress. What are your recommendations to beginners on a workout plan? For equipment, my apartment complex has a lat pull down, a bench, and two sets of dumbells, 15 and 30 lbs.

Answer:

Way to go in making the decision to start working out and seeking a plan. These two steps are absolutely crucial.

If you’re looking for a quick starter routine, do this:

A1. Pushups, 3X10-12

A2. DB Squat to Bench, 3X10-12

B1. One Arm DB Row, 3X10-12

B2. Stationary Lunge, 3X10-12

C1. Lat Pulldown (medium underhand grip), 3X10-12

C2. DB Bench Press - See how many reps you can get with your 30 lb db’s. If it’s in the 12-15+range, do 2X12-15. If it’s in the 6-12 range, you can do 3-4 sets.

D1. Bent over DB row, 3X10-12 (reps will depend on weight of DB’s)

D2. Plank - 3X30 sec.

With movements under the same letter, alternate between the exercises with a 30-45 second rest period. For example, for A, perform a set of 10-12 push-ups, rest 30 seconds, and do a set of squats. Alternate between these two movements three times and then move on to B.

Make sure you’re progressing and keep the weight as heavy as possible for the designated number of reps. With the dumbbell movements, you’ll likely have to use higher reps due to your lack of heavier weights. The key is to constantly try to set new records for yourself - whether in the amount of weight (preferable) or the number of reps.

With this method of grouping your exercises, you’re optimizing your rest of each body part and making the best use of your time. (Notice you’re not wasting any time standing around).

You should be able to get through this workout in under 20-30 minutes. This doesn’t mean it will be easy. Do this 3 days a week and you’ll get stronger, and your conditioning should improve as well due to the short rest periods.

If you need demos of the various movements, you can browse this site or check out you tube. Good luck!

Have a specific question related to strength training or program design? Ask Doug!

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise for beginners, exercise selection, Program Design

Question:

What are the 3 major groups to be worked out for upper body? ex. Back+Biceps, i forgot

Answer:

Instead of answering the question directly, I’m going to challenge you to rethink your approach to designing your program. Rather than focusing on body parts (which is actually an outdated method), try focusing on your movements.

The basic movements are:

Upperbody

• Horizontal push (like bench, pushups)
• Horizontal Pull (rows)
• Vertical Push (shoulder press,military)
• Vertical Pull (Pullups, lat pullovers)

• also, elbow flexion, and elbow extension movements

Lower Body

• Bilateral Hip dominant (deadlifts, RDL’s)
• Bilateral Quad Dominant (front squats, back squats, explosive squats)
• Unilateral Hip Dominant (stepups, 1 leg hip extension)
• Unilateral Quad Dominant (Lunges, 1 leg squats, split squats)

and CORE

Any program should include each of these types of movements to be complete. If you include these, the body parts will take care of themselves.

Another good idea is to superset opposing movements- Like a horizontal pull with a horizontal push, etc..

That’s right - no more worrying about which body part to hit when - just include each one of these movements, and you’ll have a complete, balanced program. Depending on your training frequency, you may want to split these movements up throughout the week - but this approach should be a good start for you and to get you thinking differently.

Do you still use body part splits?

Have you had success with movement based splits?

I’d love to hear them so please let your voice be heard. And be sure to click play below and listen to my amateur podcast.

Technorati Tags: body part splits, exercise selection, movement selection, Program Design, strength training

Question:

Doug, I am 23 years old and 5 feet tall and getting married 11/7/2009. I used to play hard core softball which kept me in great shape of weighing 135-145 depending on what i was doing for weight lifting. Now, I work fulltime and seem to not be motivated like i should be. Please let me know what would be the best way nutritonally and physically to lose the 25+ lbs by next September (dress fitting begins) and KEEP IT OFF. Hope to hear from you soon, thank you!

Answer:

Congrats on the wedding. With well over a year until your important date, you have plenty of time to lose this weight. As I’ve said before on here, there are two important components to fat loss–nutrition and exercise.

You already know you have to make a change in order to see results. So what do you change?

Nutrition

Well, you didn’t give me much information on what you’re doing with nutrition, but for starters, sit down and pinpoint certain aspects of your nutrition that you could correct IMMEDIATELY and improve your diet.

Do you drink soda, pop, or juice? If so, simply stop it.

Do you eat sweets? If so, stop it-eat fruit instead. Peaches and strawberries are sweet!

Do you go long periods of time without eating and then gorge? If so, pack healthy snacks (nuts, fruit, meat) so you don’t get too hungry. Plan ahead.

Is there anything else that you know you do wrong that you can fix? Eat chips? Replace with veggies. Can’t help snacking on junk at home? Don’t buy junk.

Simple, but very important.

You’d be surprised at how making one crucial change can add up over a long period of time. Just eliminating the really bad habits can easy drop you a few pounds without you having to do any real work. The hard part is making yourself stick to it. For this, you just have to get tough on yourself–find a way to not eat the crap that doesn’t contribute to your health.

Once you’ve gotten rid of all the blatantly terrible habits you may have, check out Precision Nutrition and sign up for the free E-mail course. You’ll learn a lot in the 7 days and it will change the way you view your own nutrition.

Exercise

You mentioned that since your softball days ended and your working days began, you’ve come to struggle with your weight. What this shows is how important it is to exercise with the right frequency. Remember going to softball practice 5 days a week? You probably didn’t think much of it then, but that’s one thing that kept you from gaining fat.

So I’m going to recommend you get back to your old ways and commit to 5 days of exercise per week. Depending on how busy you are in your pre/post work responsibilities, you may have to budget your time. Sit down with your schedule and look for 30 minute-60 minute slots where you are free and can commit to exercise. And if there’s no time, you should consider making time–investing in yourself an hour a day shouldn’t be too much to ask–your health is worth it, right?!

Enough lecturing..

With your 5 days, I recommend three of the days be spent doing total body strength training-spaced out evenly throughout the week–like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Make sure your program includes total body movements, circuits, and incomplete rest periods– preferably with reps in the 12-20 range. Seeking out a good personal trainer with experience in designing programs geared toward fat loss may be a worthwhile investment.

Along with your strength training, commit to doing energy work or cardio two days a week–preferably some form of interval training–like Tuesday, Thursday.

These are some ideas to get you started. Remember that it’s not a question of whether you can lose the weight and keep it off. It’s more a matter of taking the attitude:

“I am going to lose the weight and get to my goal in time for my wedding no matter what.”

I find the no matter what part to be extremely powerful in going after any goals in life.

Technorati Tags: exercise-frequency, fat loss, how to eat healthy, Nutrition, Program Design

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

Question:

I am professional dancer and I have recently change my eating and exercising habits and dropped 20 lbs. I do 40 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning 5 days a week and I do the ab wheel every night and some push ups pull ups and dips 3x a week. I still have a little bit of fat around my lower abdominal area. I know diet is 80% of the battle and I eat fruits and vegetables everyday along with lean protein and a little bit of carbs. Are there any little tricks I can do to lose the last little bit of fat? Otherwise I am quite happy with my body… Thanks Doug!

Congrats on your weight loss and getting a body you’re happy with. And props for addressing the major issues like exercise and nutrition and for realizing their importance before worrying yourself with the smaller details.

Here is what I noticed you’re doing right:

• Nutrition–eating lean protein, fruits, and vegetables every day-keeping carbs to a minimum.
• Exercise
  • Frequency- This is how many times per week you exercise. I haven’t stressed this very much on this blog, but frequency is crucial. You’ve built a lifestyle that incorporates exercise so you can get your work in 5+ days a week–way to go!
  • Strength Training- You’re doing 3 days/week of some sort of strength work with your dips, pushups, and pull-ups.
  • Cardio- You’re also incorporating cardio 5 days per week (though I recommend interval training).
  • Core-Training-Keep it up with the pushups and ab wheel exercises.
• Mindset–You realize the importance of nutrition and consistent exercise, are not looking for shortcuts, and you’re obviously willing to put in the necessary work.

That being said, there is one thing I noticed from what you told me about your program that jumped out at me.

Where’s the lower body strength training?!!!!!

Ya know, for your ass and legs—You missed a few BIG muscles here.

Remember, you want to build muscle so that your body burns fat more efficiently. And believe me-if you’re not yet incorporating resistance training with your lower body, you still have a lot of room to grow.

I know you’re doing cardio (and a lot of it), but you’d be better off replacing 20 minutes of cardio with some squat, deadlift, and lunge variations on your three strength training days. This will allow you to keep the ball rolling with your results.

This will ensure that every part of your body will be constantly in a state of building new muscle and burning Calories, (which is what you want in order to lose that last bit of fat.)

So go do some squats and let me know how it goes!!!

Technorati Tags: ab roller, abs, calories, cardio, Core Training, fat loss, lower-body-training, meal frequency, Nutrition, Program Design, strength training, weight loss

What are the best ways to get them [my abs and thighs] in shape pretty quickly but without taking over 15 minutes a day? And I’m 5′4; 125lbs and was considering getting my belly button pierced, opinions?

It is definitely possible for you to do something 15 minutes a day and see results– as long as your session is of a high intensity (meaning hard)!

You should stick to two basic types of training:

1. Total Body weight training.

These exercises consist of compound movements-these are movements that involve multiple muscle groups:

Think squats, lunges, deadlifts (picking stuff up off the floor), bench presses, rows, chin ups (assisted), and you can’t go wrong. If you lack fancy equipment or the time to head to the gym, you can perform movements that simply use your bodyweight–squats, lunges, pushups, and planks can be done anywhere-put all these exercises back to back in a circuit and should be breathing hard..

2. Interval Training (high intensity)

Rather than doing long, slow, boring cardio for 60 minutes (who has the time?? not you!), you should use high intensity interval training.

For example, on a treadmill, you could go for a minute and a half at a moderate pace like a slow jog or walk (say 3.5 mph–this is your “rest pace”). Followed by 20 seconds of an all out or close to all out sprinting (Say 10 mph–this is your work pace). After the 20 seconds, go back to your rest pace. Doing this for 7 intervals (an interval includes the work and rest period) would take about 15 minutes.

Note: I picked the speeds above as an example, but feel free to adjust your intervals to your fitness level. Your work interval should be strenuous enough so that you couldn’t go much longer than the designated time.

You can apply this principle to other things like the Elliptical, Stair Climber, Rowing machine, running outside, etc. As long as you have a rest phase and a work phase.

Just make sure that during your 20 second phase, you’re busting your butt! I’m talking, when you get to the end of the interval, you should be absolutely spent–use the rest phase to recover so you can do it again.

Feel free to play with the times if you want to change it up-a 20 second (more advanced) work phase is going to be more intense than a 40 second work phase.

Time to get to work!!

These above two types of training are meant to be hard, as they squeeze a lot of work into a short time period–the other goods news is that every new study that comes out has shown this type of training to be MORE effective than traditional cardio in that it breaks down muscle and stimulates EPOC, which speeds up your metabolism even after your workout!

Simply put, your body will keep burning more Calories throughout the day, and your metabolism will increase–meaning more fat burning–meaning abs that show.

Technorati Tags: abs, EPOC, exercise selection, fat loss, Get A Flatter Stomach, interval training, Program Design, strength training, time-management, total-body-training