Rather than wasting your time and energy on unnecessary exercises and training fads, I’ll teach you how to structure your own workouts for maximum effectiveness. Now, if (when?) another lockdown hits, you’ll be a self-sufficient training machine.
Think about movement patterns, not body parts
When I learned to lift weights, strength training was all the rage. This style of training focuses on individual parts of the body; biceps, quads, deltoids, calves – each gets their own exercise, leading to workouts that last forever. Times have changed since 1996.
These days it’s common practice to structure workouts around movement patterns rather than body parts (that is, unless you’re looking for a bodybuilding title, in which you can skip the whole thing what I say here). The human body was designed to move in all sorts of ways. We can squat, hinge at the hips, push and pull, turn, carry and crawl. Choose exercises that express these patterns and you’ll get a more productive and complete workout in much less time.
Selection of exercises for your training
Exercises are generally divided into two categories: isolation or compound movements. Isolation exercises are so-called because they work on one joint (like bicep curls, calf raises, leg extensions), while compound exercises work on multiple joints. Squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, dumbbell presses — these compound exercises deliver more bangs for your metabolic buck.
The best programs will lean more towards compound exercises. They will also emphasize the back of the body and the legs on the front of the body and the arms. Choose a dozen exercises that meet the above criteria and spread them out over your training week. I usually stick with three to six exercises per session; This keeps workouts short but intense. The exact exercises you select will vary depending on your goals, abilities, and experience. Some great books to help you narrow down your choices included Marty Gallagher’s Helpful Primitive, Mike Boyle’s New Functional Sports Training, and Mike Bodyle’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Mike Schwarzenegger.
Start with the hard stuff
Knowing when to perform an exercise is one of those tiny details that may not seem important at first, but the value becomes apparent as your experience grows. Think about it: when is the perfect time to hit maximum effort Dumbbell Press? Is it at the end of your workout, when your energy is spent and your core strength has been depleted, or at the start when you are fresh and fully focused? The answer should be obvious.
Generally speaking, your workouts should start with heavy and/or explosive movements (such as barbell squats and deadlifts, chin-ups and pull-ups, Olympic lifts) as these require the most strength. ‘energy. From there we move on to secondary/accessory exercises that address any weak points. This is where I like to train qualities like grip (loaded lifts, rowing variations), balance (lunges, split squats), and core strength (planks, leg raises). Finally, I like to wrap things up with bodyweight mobility work, core conditioning exercises, or high volume sets for arms, abs, and shoulders.
Training: Reps, sets and RPE
You’ve selected your exercises and ordered them in a logical series, now it’s time to get to work. But how much work should we do? How many reps, how many sets? The answer is, unfortunately, “it depends”. The same factors that determine your exercise selection (goals, abilities, experience) help determine your overall workload. Aiming for 20-50 reps per movement pattern, spread over two to four sets, is a good way to structure your sessions.
What does this look like in practice? Here’s what one of my training sessions looked like last week. After warming up with some bodyweight and kettlebell exercises, I performed the following:
– Deadlift: 3 sets of 5 reps, 2 sets of 3 reps
– Bulgarian split squat: 2 sets of 8 repetitions per leg
– Military press: 2 sets of 8 reps, 2 sets of 5 reps
– Banded face pull: 2 sets of 25 reps
The final piece of the puzzle is selecting the appropriate weights for each exercise. It may take some trial and error at first (I’ve written about this exact topic before). My recommendation is to use the Perceived Exertion (RPE) rating method – on a scale of one to five, five being the maximum exertion, pick a weight that doesn’t put you above 4/5 , not less than 2/5.
A word on cardio…
Yes, cardio matters. No, cardio will not undermine your muscle gains. Get 20 to 60 minutes of moderate cardiovascular exercise daily, preferably outdoors.
