“Sometimes you have to stand alone to prove that you can still stand.” “Either suffer the pain of discipline, or suffer the pain of regret.” “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” “Strive for progress, not perfection.” PUSH WORKOUT A FLAT BARBELL BENCH PRESS 5X5 The flat barbell bench press is the “king” of pressing movements. I want you to be sure to mitigate shoulder involvement by selecting a grip slightly outside of shoulder width. On the bench press, if your hands are inside shoulder width, you will be working primarily triceps. If you are slightly outside of shoulder width, you will primarily be targeting your chest. If you go too wide, you will be putting unnecessary strain on the shoulder and could lead to injury. I want you to warm yourself up to your working weight by doing about 4 sets of 3-5 reps (increasing weight each set). I do not want you to expend much energy on your warm up because I want you to save your strength for your 5 sets of 5 reps. When getting in position, be sure to have a slight arch in your back, stick your chest out, and pinch your shoulder blades together. Once you are under the bar, touch your chest and lock out the elbows at the top of each rep. Control the weight down and explode up. I have you on a 5x5, which in my opinion is by far the best way to build raw strength. Complete 5 sets of 5 reps. Once you can perform the same weight for all sets of 5 without hitting muscular failure; increase the poundage by 5-10 pounds. INCLINE DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS 4X8-10 The incline dumbbell bench press is a great way to build the overall chest, especially the upper chest. I have you doing dumbbells simply because we have a little bit of a different range of motion using dumbbells as opposed to a barbell. Just like the flat bench, keep your shoulders pinched, arch in your lower back, and focus on pushing through your elbows. I want you to fully contract at the top of the rep and lock out. Here, I want you to go ahead and use a weight that you can hit at least 8 reps and no more than 10 reps. You will get tired as the sets go on, so adjust your weight accordingly. OVERHEAD BARBELL MILITARY PRESS 4X6-8 This is going to be your last compound movement for today. Select a barbell and grip and foot placement about shoulder width. Be sure your back is tight and your abs are flexed. Push straight up and lock out. As you push up, I want you to slightly move your head forward through your arms. This will contract all three heads of the shoulder. When you come down on each rep, you do not have to touch the top of your chest, but I would like you to at least try and clear your chin, then press back up. OVERHEAD ROPE EXTENSION 5X10-12 There are two ways to do this movement. You can select a rope or straight bar and you can set up the apparatus at either shoulder level or on the ground. From here, I want you to perform an overhead rope extension. Be sure to lock out and if you use the rope, be sure to twist your wrist out to get that last squeeze out of the movement. The benefit to doing this on a cable is having the tension from the cable pull your muscle back, giving a unique range of motion. This primarily targets the long head of the tricep, which is the largest head. TRICEP CABLE PUSHDOWN 5X12-15 On this pushdown, you can essentially use any grip you prefer. I recommend switching grips every few workouts. You can use the rope, straight bar, v-bar, or the ez bar. Be sure to completely lock your elbows on the way down and slowly raise the weight, allowing the cables to pull your tricep. CABLE CROSSOVER 4X10-12 Set the cables up either at the top, bottom, or shoulder width. You can always change up the angle! Be sure to keep a very slight bend in your arms when performing this movement. Go slow and stretch as far back as you can. If you set the cables at the bottom, you will target mainly upper chest. If you set the cables mid, obviously mid chest, and if you set up the cables at the top position, you will target mainly the lower pecs. PULL WORKOUT A BENT OVER BARBELL ROW 5X5 On this exercise, I want you to select your preference of an overhand or underhand grip. Keep feet about shoulder width and focus on getting your back as close to parallel to the ground as you can while keeping it straight. Focus on pulling with your elbows and lats instead of your grip and biceps. Bring the bar up your thighs all the way until your belly button. Once you are there, squeeze your lats for a second and release slowly. FORM IS IMPERATIVE on this exercise. Since you’re going heavy, it is imperative to have solid form. VERTICAL LAT PULLDOWN 4X8-10 Here you have a few options. You can either use a basic pull down bar, or a close grip bar. I always suggest rotating every few workouts or so. Grab a grip that is comfortable to you. There is no “perfect” place, because everyone is different and feels contractions differently. Mess around with your grip until you find that sweet spot. Have a SLIGHT lean backwards and again, pull through with your elbows and squeeze at the bottom of the movement. I want you to do a full range of motion and breathe out as you pull down. HAMMER STRENGTH ROW 4X8-10 The previous two movements have been bilateral movement, meaning, we have done both right and left sides at the same time. Now we are going to focus on single arm movements. I want you to grab a grip that is most comfortable to you. Complete your reps on one arm at a time. If needed, rest about 20-30 seconds between arms to ensure you can perform with the same intensity with both arms. STRAIGHT BARBELL CURL 5X8-10 The straight barbell curl is going to be one of your top mass-builders for the bicep. I want you to grab a neutral (shoulder width) grip and curl up until your bicep is completely flexed. DO NOT curl all the way up to your front deltoid. Doing this will take all tension off of the bicep. Stop about 5-6 inches before getting to your front deltoid. On the way down, control the weight and complete full extension. Full extension is performed by flexing your TRICEP at the bottom of each repetition. This will ensure that we are getting a full range of motion. HAMMER CURL 5X10-12 As opposed to the barbell curl, which is a supinated exercise, we are now going to perform a neutral grip exercise. You have the option to do alternating curls or both arms at the same time. Again, flex your tricep at the bottom of each rep and be sure to keep tension on the bicep by not going all the way up when curling. This is going to give the bicep a “wider” and “thicker” look. This will also target the brachialis, brachiradialis, and forearm. DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE 4x12-15 This exercise is an isolation exercise to help target the medial deltoid and trapezius. I want you to either do these seated or standing. Again, you can do one arm at a time or both at the same time. DO NOT let your ego get in the way of this exercise. You most likely will not need more than 15-20 pounds to effectively hit the deltoid. I want you to keep an extremely slight bend in your elbows and bring the dumbbells up to about ear level. When descending, I want you to go about 6 inches from your leg. By not going down all the way, you are going to keep tension on the deltoid. LEGS WORKOUT A SQUATS 5X5 Again, we will be using the 5x5 method that I described earlier. The squats will hit the glutes, hamstrings, quads, core, and lower back. In order to receive optimal benefits from squat, we must perfect form. Keep the bar on your traps, keep your feet slightly outside of shoulder width, point your toes out slightly, keep your CHEST up (this will help keep your back as straight as possible. Once you are in position, sink your butt down and while keeping your straight back and high chest, push through the heels of your foot on the way up from the squat. If you push through your toes, you will have off balance and possibly fall forward. I like to take a deep breath on the way down and exhale on the way up from the squat. As far as depth, I want you to work your way down to break parallel. If you stop above parallel, you will be putting a lot of unnecessary stress on the knee, which we do not want. By going past parallel, we really activate the glutes and hamstrings. LEG PRESS 4X8-10 The leg press is another great compound movement for the legs. I want you to select a neutral foot position and come down as low as you can. Like the squats, I want you to push through your heels, not toes. You will feel an extremely painful burn on this exercise, but fight through it. Another tip, I like to avoid lockout with my knees. This allows constant stress on the legs. ROMANIAN DEADLIFT 4X10-12 The Romanian deadlift can be performed with a barbell or dumbbells. Simply keep a shoulder width foot position and grip, keep your back straight and eyes up, and mimic a toe touch. You will feel a stretch on the hamstring. Once you are at your full range of motion (which may vary from individual to individual), come back up using your butt and hamstring. A bit of lower back will be activated, but we want to isolate the hamstrings. STANDING CALF RAISE 5X6-8 This exercise can be done on a standing calf machine or smith machine. Calves are a tricky muscle group because of their unique composition. The gastrocnemius, which is the “ball-like” muscle on the calf, is made up of primarily slow twitch muscle fibers, which respond best to heavy weight and low reps. Think of this analogy: we walk on our calves everyday, so they are used to high reps and low stress. In order to grow them, we must put a heavy demand on them that they are not used to. I want you to avoid any bend in the knees, pause at the top for 2 seconds, and pause at the very bottom of the rep for 2 seconds. The key to this exercise is heavy and slow. WALKING LUNGES 4X20 This is going to finish off your leg workout. You can either use dumbbells in each hand or a barbell. Find a place where you have room to complete about 20 reps. You want to take a large step forward and lower yourself slowly until your back knee is about 1 inch from the ground. OFF PUSH WORKOUT B INCLINE BARBELL BENCH PRESS 5X5 The incline barbell bench press is another great compound movement. I like this for your heavy sets simply because the change of injury is much less than dumbbells. This exercise is easy to set up as opposed to getting heavy dumbbells in position. Plant your feet firmly on the ground and allow a slight arch in your lower back. Pinch your shoulder blades together and bring the bar down to your chest (or about one inch above your chest if your flexibility is not at that level). Be sure to tuck your elbows in and do not let them flare out. Lockout at the top of the movement. FLAT DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS 4X8-10 Now that we have gotten the very heavy pressing out of the way, we are going to move to dumbbells. Follow the same procedures to set up this exercise. Be sure to capitalize on your range of motion since dumbbells do allow a bit of a longer range of motion as opposed to barbells. SEATED DUMBBELL MILITARY PRESS 4X6-8 This is another great compound movement. I like to keep a small arch in my lower back and bring the dumbbells SLIGHTLY below 90 degrees. This will simply give you a more full range of motion. Since on PUSH A workout, we used standing and a barbell, I want you to do these seated to take any sort of momentum out of the equation. EZ CURL BAR FRENCH PRESS 5X10-12 Like PUSH A, this is going to target the long head of the tricep, which is going to cause the most stress on your overall arms. The key to any overhead movement is getting as deep of a stretch as possible. Lockout and focus on lowering the weight slowly. You can do this exercise seated or standing. If you stand, I want you to allow yourself a slight sway on the last 2 reps and then focus on lowering the weight slowly. CABLE PUSHDOWN 4X12-15 Choose a different bar from PUSH A and be sure you are locking out. SKULLCRUSHER 3X10-12 You can do this with an EZ curl bar, dumbbells, or even a straight bar. Be sure to keep tension on your triceps by not keeping your arms perpendicular to the ground. I suggest watching my “TRIECEP TERMINATION” video to see this exercise performed correctly. You will bring the weight past your forehead and lockout at the top of the rep. PEC-DEC MACHINE 4X10-12 I want you to choose the pec dec for your fly. Be sure to keep the arm bend to a minimal and use your mind muscle connection to contract your chest to the best of your ability. If you do not have a pec dec at your gym, I want you to do flat dumbbell flies. PULL WORKOUT B WEIGHTED PULL UP 5X5 The weighted pull-up is a great compound movement for overall back development. I want you to either put a dumbbell between your legs, or use a chain belt (if your gym has one). You can either do wide grip, neutral grip, or a chin up. I want you to complete full reps, meaning, pause at the bottom and clear your chin on the way up. Be sure to pull through your lats, not biceps. You may need to simply start with your bodyweight to ensure that you gradually build up your strength. If you are unable to complete the pull-ups, I want you to perform lat pull downs in replacement. Complete 5 sets of 6 reps as heavy as you can with perfect form so we can build up your strength. T-BAR ROW 4X8-10 If your gym has a T-BAR row, then you will use the set up. If your gym does not, then we will have to make one. Simply grab a straight barbell and load the weight on one side. Be sure to stack dumbbells or plates on the opposite end (which should be set up in a corner), to ensure that the bar is set on a foundation. Grab a V-BAR and you’re ready to go. Keep your back straight, head up, and get in a powerful stance. Pull the bar up with your lats and focus on squeezing your lats and upper back to the best of your ability. Hold the rep at the top for a second and lower the weight slowly. SINGLE ARM DUMBBELL ROW 4X8-10 Get set up on a flat bench and you will be doing one arm at a time. This exercise is one of the best builders for the lats. Set up with your right arm and leg on the bench (when doing the left arm) and the left leg and arm on the bench (when doing the right arm). Keep your back straight and pull the dumbbell UP AND BACK. Many times people simply pull up, but forget to pull back, which activates the lats. Act as if you were starting up a lawnmower. The dumbbell should start in front of you and you want to simultaneously bring the dumbbell closer to you while pulling back. Rest a few seconds between arms to ensure you keep a high intensity. DUMBBELL CURL 5X8-10 You can perform these seated or standing. You can also select to do them alternating arms or both arms at the same time. Start in a neutral position (just like a hammer curl), and be sure you supinate your wrist on the way up. This means to rotate your wrist so your pinky comes out. This supination is a function of the bicep, so will give you nice overall development. If you feel your front deltoid is doing much of the work, decrease the weight. Flex the tricep at the bottom of each rep and be sure to emphasize the rotation. REVERSE EZ CURL 4X10-12 So far this week, we have done supinated and neutral curls. Now we are going to do a pronated curl (means that your palms are facing down). I like the wide grip EZ curl bar, but you can use a straight bar if you wish. Flex the tricep and come up about ¾ of the way (we do not want you resting at the top of the movement). This is going to be great for thickness as well as the brachialis. You can also use a straight bar or EZ curl CABLE if you wish! CABLE CURL 3x12-15 I want you to select a cable grip that you like. My personal favorites are the EZ bar and the straight bar. With exercises like the dumbbell curls and barbell curls, I allow my clients to have a bit of a sway (as long as they don’t break perpendicular with their back) in order to get their last few reps. When performing this exercise, I want you to focus on higher reps and squeezing your biceps. Focus on hitting the full range of motion and controlling the weight up and down. Again, flex your tricep slightly at the bottom of each movement and use your mind-muscle connection to squeeze the bicep as hard as you can at the top of the movement. FACEPULLS 4x10-12 Facepulls are crucial in overall shoulder development and health. Many times, we focus on pressing movements, so our front deltoid overpowers our rear deltoid, which can have a negative effect on our posture. I want you to do these seated or standing with a rope. Grab an overhand grip and pull the rope towards your forehead. I want you to focus on having your ELBOWS higher than your WRIST during this movement. This is also going to work your traps!! You will not need crazy weight on this exercise. LEGS WORKOUT B SUMO DEADLIFT 5X5 The sumo deadlift is great because it is going to strengthen your spinal erectors as well as overall legs. Set your feet pointed out slightly wider than shoulder width. You will have to mess around with foot placement to find your “sweet spot” because each individual is different. Place your hands overhand or a hook grip (one underhand and one overhand). Your hands should be right at shoulder width. Keep your back straight and butt down. Pull up with your legs while keeping your back as erect as possible. The bottom half of the deadlift will be primarily glutes and hamstrings while the lockout will be glutes and lower back. Be sure to keep your back rounding to a minimum. If you feel like you are rounding, drop the weight and focus on perfecting form first. HACK SQUAT 4X6-10 This is another great mass builder to increase the size of your legs. I like selecting a neutral foot placement. Bring your butt down as low as you can to engage the hamstrings and glutes. Like the leg press, I like to avoid lockout. FRONT SQUAT 4X10-12 You can do this with a barbell or dumbbell. Typically a dumbbell is called a “goblet squat”, but both exercises will essentially do the same thing. Rest the barbell on your front deltoid and cross your arms so that your fingers are touching the opposing shoulder (locking the bar in place). Just like a squat, use the same principles to set up, drop your butt down, and push through your heels. This is going to target direct quad. I do not want to say “don’t go as low as you can”, but if you want to keep tension on the quads, there is not a need to go “ass to grass”. However, be sure to go as deep as possible on your squats, leg press, and hack squats. SEATED CALF MACHINE 5X10-12 Unlike the gastrocnemius, the soleus is primarily a fast twitch muscle, meaning that it responds just like the majority of our other muscles, to the rep range 8-15. Keep the form slow and controlled and pause at the bottom and top of the rep. I find if I lean back a bit, the seated calf raise allows me to contract a little bit better. If you do not have a seated calf raise in your gym, you can do leg press calf raises with a slight bend in your knee. When you bend your knees, you allow your soleus to take over from targeting the gastrocnemius (when your legs are completely straight). HAMSTRING CURL 4X12-15 To finish off your last workout of the week, we are going to perform seated OR lying leg curls. I want you to emphasize and focus on your contractions since we are going a bit higher rep. Focus on squeezing and pushing blood into the muscle. Lower the weight slowly and make those hamstrings GROW! OFF AB TRAINING We constantly hear that “abs are made in the kitchen”. I believe that this statement has some truth behind it, but is not all entirely true. Abs are MADE in the gym by working them, and hypertrophating them (growing them). Just like any other muscle group, the abs need to be placed under stress in order to grow. Though it is true that abs will not be visible unless you have a low body-fat (which comes from diet), it is also true that abs will not be visible if the muscles are not developed. I want you to complete these three exercises 2-3 times per week. I want you to choose when you do these ab workouts. This routine can be done after one of your workouts (I suggest doing them after the workout which leaves you the most energy), or on your rest days. You are going to notice that there are no crazy, unnecessary, upside down ab exercises here. These are the bread and butter movements for the abs. You have one lower ab, one full ab, and one external/internal oblique exercise. Far too often people get carried away with trying to impress others when these exercises are the ones that will build your foundation and build up those ab muscles. Focus on getting STRONGER on these as you grow and gain experience in the gym. HANGING KNEE RAISES 3XFAILURE For this exercise, I want you to either hang from a pull-up bar, set yourself up on the machine that you perform dips, or if your gym has pads that you can hang on, you can use those. Simply bring both knees up to your chest. The range-of-motion is almost as though you want to bring your knees all the way up to your ears. You want to rotate your hip at the top and come as high as you can to ensure you are working the lower abs. I want you to try your best to mitigate any sort of SWAY. You will sway slightly, but be sure to keep it to a minimum. If you are not able to complete hanging raises, simply lay on the ground and put your hands under your butt. Bring your knees up towards your face. If you can complete 3 sets of over 20 reps, put a dumbbell between your feet to add resistance. ROPE CURLS 3X15 Grab the tricep rope and set it up on the highest position that your cable apparatus allows you to go. This is a great exercise because we can add resistance as you get stronger. Put a mat down so you do not experience pain with your knees and grab the rope. Once you have the rope, tuck your head in-between your hands and use your abs to crunch down. I want you to EXHALE all of the air out of your lungs as you come down. When you exhale the air, you will experience a better contraction. Focus on tightening your stomach as hard as you can and then breathe in as you come up. Once you can complete 3 sets of 15 reps with a certain weight, increase the poundage. PLATE TWISTS 3X30-40 On this, grab a 10 or 25 pound plate and then hold the plate straight in front of you. (Almost as if you are driving a car), I want you to allow a slight bend in your arms because if not, you will be primarily working your shoulders when this exercise is made to target your obliques. Keep your feet about a shoulder width apart and then twist your body from left to right. Breathe out every time you switch sides and aim for about 15-20 reps on each side. If the 25-pound plate is too easy, you can increase weight or simply go at a slower pace. CARDIO When your goal is to shed fat, I want you to eventually be doing cardio about 4-6 times per week. Cardio can be done anytime of day when you can fit it in, HOWEVER, I would prefer you try and do your cardio either right upon waking, after your workout, on an off day (from weights), or before bed. You do not want to do cardio too soon before your workout because it will tire you out and take away from your weight training. As far as WHAT TO DO, there are a few options I recommend: 1. Treadmill 10.0 incline and 3.5-4.0 speed for 30 minutes 2. Warm up jog for 5 minutes. Once you are done warming up, you will start the high intensity workout. Sprint for 15-20 seconds and follow the sprint with a 40-45 second power walk or jog. Repeat this sprint/power walk 12-15 times. 3. Stairmaster, Elliptical, treadmill, or any other cardio machine until you burn 400 calories. I would like you to try and finish right under 30 minutes. 4. Go for an outdoor jog for 30 minutes. Keep a pace where you can still hold a conversation and aren’t gasping for air. Again, when your primary goal is to shed fat, I want you to find the cardio workout that you like and stick with it and perform it about 4-6 times per week. Also, feel free to rotate cardio workouts when you please. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for your business, and I am looking forward to hearing about your progress!
