I’m going to try to make this post as concise as possible. The chances are pretty high that you’ve been doing the same thing for your workout for a long time now, and you still haven’t seen results. So why are you still doing it then? As Alwyn Cosgrove says, “Psychology trumps physiology every time”. The psychology here is: people don’t like change.
As of right now, you will never do the same thing again. If you start (right now) doing even one of the things that I’m about to suggest, you will be better off than you were 10 minutes ago.
A proper workout does NOT look like this:
Chest
Flat BB Bench 4x
Incline Dumbell Bench 4x
Fly’s 3x
Shoulders
Military Press 4x
Upright Rows 4x
Stratum Fly’s 3x (Front/Side/Rear)
Triceps
Close Grip Bench Press 4x
Weighted Dips 4x
Tricep Isolation 2-3x
Why does this suck? Too much volume, no pre-workout, and body parts are trained as opposed to MOVEMENTS.
That’s why you refer to your body motion as “movement” and not as “flexing”. That would be stupid.
What an awesome workout looks like:
Foam Roll (5 min)
Mobility (10-20 min)
Strength Work (20-45 min)
Conditioning (4 – 10 min)
Notice that I didn’t include stretching. I think stretching is great, but most people like to take their time with stretching and often end up slacking off. Stretch before you go to bed every night instead.
Normally, I would include muscle activation, but chances are, if you’ve never heard of it before, you wouldn’t do it if I told you to. We’ll let you cover the basics first.
99% of people have never foam rolled or done any mobility work in their life. This is the reason why old people walk slow, have bad posture, and are in pain. Sure, you lift to get strong, but you will not stay strong…I guarantee it.
Here’s a cheat sheet to your workout:
Foam Rolling
Foam roll the front, back and sides of your thighs, you butt, your calves, the fronts of your hips (hip flexors), your upper back, and your armpits (lats).
Mobility (this is a bastardized way of doing your mobility; I will post videos in a new article in the future)
Get on your hands and knees (knees wider apart than shoulder width) and rock your butt back towards your toes until your hips feel a sort of stretching pain.
Stand up and swing your legs.
Lunge side to side.
Wall ankle mobs.
Inchworm.
Get your joints moving (ankle, hips aka groin, shoulders). Forget about the neck and lower back.
Strength Work
Pair an upper body push with a hip-dominant movement. Circuit back and forth between this exercises until you’ve complete 2-4 sets.
Rest 60 seconds then:
Pair an upper body pull with a knee-dominant movement. Circuit back and forth between this exercises until you’ve complete 2-4 sets.
Rest 60 seconds then:
Pair a core bridge with a core anti rotation. Circuit back and forth between this exercises until you’ve complete 2-4 sets.
For example:
Bench Press 8 reps, then:
Single Leg Deadlift 8 reps each leg, then:
Bench Press 8 reps, then:
Single Leg Deadlift 8 reps each leg.
(If you want you repeat through this 1-2 more times)
Rest 60 sec.
Chin-up 8 reps, then:
Lunge 8 reps each leg, then:
Chin-up 8 reps, then:
Lunge 8 reps each leg.
Rest 60 sec.
Hold a plank for 20-30 seconds, then:
Core chop 8 reps each side, then:
Hold a plank for 20-30 seconds, then:
Core chop 8 reps each side.
END OF STRENGTH WORK.
Conditioning
Do some HARD intervals. For example:
Tabata for 4 minutes. (https://thirtythursdays.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/a-tabata-workout-progressions/)
END OF WORKOUT.
Make it your goal to finish your workout as fast as possible with proper form and lifting tempo throughout. Translation: don’t waste your time checking yourself out in the mirror or talking to your buddies. If someone approaches you, talk to them, but let them know that you’re there to work. Your goal is to get in, and get out. That way, you won’t have an excuse not to workout.
Confused?
I said I was going to make this post as brief as possible (kind of like the way you want to workout). In the future, I will expand on Foam Rolling, Mobility, and Strength Work in separate articles. This way you will get a better idea of what you should be doing.
Closing Thoughts
We will take baby steps together. I will write articles, and you will incorporate them into your program. Set yourself a goal to add in one of the things I talked about above every 2 weeks. This means that in 8 weeks you’ll be doing a kickass workout. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Thirty Thursdays 