SWEAT! Special Workouts, Exercises and Advanced Techniques By Geoffrey Verity Schofield 1 SWEAT!................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Special Workouts, Exercises and Advanced Techniques........................................................................................1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................. 4 About the Author & Book........................................................................................................................................ 5 Compendium One: Body Parts.................................................................................................................................7 Compendium Two: Exercises................................................................................................................................. 14 Hinge...................................................................................................................................................................17 Squat...................................................................................................................................................................32 Row.....................................................................................................................................................................44 Push.................................................................................................................................................................... 54 Pull...................................................................................................................................................................... 64 Press................................................................................................................................................................... 70 Shoulders............................................................................................................................................................77 Curl..................................................................................................................................................................... 86 Extend.................................................................................................................................................................94 Abs...................................................................................................................................................................... 98 Calves................................................................................................................................................................105 Compendium Three: Programming..................................................................................................................... 108 Sets and Reps................................................................................................................................................... 108 Volume............................................................................................................................................................. 109 Intensity............................................................................................................................................................113 Frequency.........................................................................................................................................................115 Balancing Volume, Intensity and Frequency....................................................................................................115 Example Volume and Intensity Combinations................................................................................................. 117 Choosing a Split................................................................................................................................................ 119 Putting It All Together...................................................................................................................................... 123 Example of Creating a Training Plan.................................................................................................................123 Risk vs Reward..................................................................................................................................................125 Keeping a Training Log..................................................................................................................................... 127 Compendium Four: Equipment........................................................................................................................... 129 Essential Equipment......................................................................................................................................... 129 Optional Equipment......................................................................................................................................... 131 Personal Equipment......................................................................................................................................... 134 2 Compendium Five: Special Workouts and Techniques....................................................................................... 137 Manipulating Sets.............................................................................................................................................138 Manipulating Reps............................................................................................................................................147 Compendium Six: Cardio......................................................................................................................................154 High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).............................................................................................................. 154 HIIT Protocols................................................................................................................................................... 158 Low Intensity Steady State (LISS)..................................................................................................................... 159 Tracking Cardio.................................................................................................................................................159 LISS vs HIIT: How to Program Cardio................................................................................................................162 Compendium Seven: Injuries...............................................................................................................................164 General Strategies for Staying Healthy............................................................................................................ 164 Exercise Specific Technique Cues.....................................................................................................................168 My ______ Hurts.............................................................................................................................................. 172 Compendium Eight:............................................................................................................................................. 174 Sample Training Plans.......................................................................................................................................... 174 Training Plan One: The Lazy Man’s plan............................................................................................................ 175 Training Plan Two: The Busy Man’s plan..........................................................................................................181 Training Plan Three: Athlete Power Plan......................................................................................................... 185 Training Plan Four: Beast Plan..........................................................................................................................191 Training Plan Five: Deva Plan........................................................................................................................... 199 Training Plan Six: Spartan Plan......................................................................................................................... 203 Compendium Nine: Making Progress.................................................................................................................. 206 Swapping Exercises...........................................................................................................................................206 Progressing....................................................................................................................................................... 206 Minor Adjustments...........................................................................................................................................208 Major Adjustments...........................................................................................................................................213 Compendium Ten: Strength Standards............................................................................................................... 217 Frequently Asked Questions................................................................................................................................219 Appendix.............................................................................................................................................................. 221 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................................. 246 3 Introduction Exercise is the elixir of life, and the single best thing that you can do for yourself. The only people who don’t agree with that statement are those who have never exercised and thus have never experienced its benefits, or those who always have and thus take it for granted. The goal of this book is not to set you on the path of exercising. You are clearly already interested in pursuing that goal if you have opened this book. It will give you ideas, options and general guidelines to optimize your plan. This book can be read from page one straight through, or in any order that you want. Read some of it, all of it, or none of it. It’s up to you. The information is here for you to take, but you’ll need to apply it to yourself through personal experimentation. You will not be spoon-fed, but you will be better off because of it. Doing so will allow you to become a better personal trainer of yourself than I or anyone else can. It will give you the satisfaction of taking the responsibility of how you look and feel onto your own shoulders. Or, into your own hands, if you prefer deadlifting metaphors. That’s my gift to you. Compendium one is a brief introduction to your muscles, divided up by body parts. Also included are the three most effective exercises as a reference for those who want to specifically develop that area. Compendium two is the movement pattern section with a variety of exercises to choose from, divided up into beginner, intermediate and advanced. A description of how to do the exercise, a few pictures of yours truly and some tips and tricks are included. At the end it gives a suggested rep range, recovery cost and overall effectiveness. All pictures are from REAL SETS, not just posing for the camera! Compendium three will teach you about programming-how best to take the exercises from compendium two and schedule them into your week for maximum results. How many sets, how heavy of weight to use, how often you work out and more will be addressed here. The goal is to “hack” working out to get more results in less time and effort. Time and willpower are limited resources, and you want to use them intelligently. Compendium four is all about the equipment that will help you reach your goals and how to tell if a gym is garbage. Compendium five introduces some special techniques that can help intermediate and advanced lifters get more out of their training. If you’re looking for something to redefine what it means to work hard and supercharge your progress, this is the section for you! Compendium six is all about cardio and how to implement it into your schedule. Regardless of the intensity or the form of exercise you choose, all the information you’ll need is here. Compendium seven talks about injuries. How they happen, how to avoid them, and what to do if you’re already experiencing one. 4 Compendium eight shares some sample training plans that you can try if you don’t want to fully develop one for yourself. Compendium nine is about making adjustments to your training plan. Sometimes entropy gets in the way of the best laid plans, and this will show you how to make things right. Compendium ten is about strength standards, to give you an idea of how you compare to the rest of the world. About the Author & Book Ever since I popped out of the womb, I’ve always been interested in how things work. I’ve also always been pretty active. In high school I ran cross country and track and field, but was constantly injured due to poor training choices. I was either skinny, or worse, skinnyfat. Diet was less than an afterthought, as a lot of it got burnt off in the furnaces of youth and hard miles, but often my progress was transient and unpredictable. About five years ago, I started lifting weights. I started with just the bar on a lot of exercises, and some less than that. I made good progress though, and went from 68kg to 78kg in about four months. I was hooked. Over the next few years, I read hundreds, if not thousands of hours about training. Websites, articles, books, forum posts, social media groups, old Soviet training manuals, descriptions of Olympians favorite workouts, anything I could get my hands on about how to get top results. During this time I went up to about 96kg, all drug free. I made a lot of friends along the way too! I don’t have a degree in physiology or anything fitness related, but I’ve discovered what works for me, and I’m determined to help you find what works for you. Every body is different, and I would never claim that my plan should be your plan-but between these pages is something that is perfect for you. I’ve read many workout books that looked professional but were actually complete crap-the knowledge between these covers is what motivates me to write it. In some ways it’s like the training itself. If you stick to the basics and work hard, you don’t need a lot of fancy technology or automation to get the job done. You can find a plethora of posts on quora-20 million or more views there, and training videos on Instagram. My DMs are open, just mention that you are a proud owner of this book. 5 https://www.quora.com/profile/Geoffrey-Verity-Schofield https://www.instagram.com/geoffreyverityschofield/ Finally, a shout-out to my sponsors, www.baleaf.com You guys are the best. 6 Compendium One: Body Parts This section will give a brief and simple introduction on the anatomy of the area and its main functions. It won’t go into excruciating detail or use overly scientific language, but will share enough to help you train more effectively. When you know the function of a muscle, you can target it better. This section is also useful for those who are interested in developing or improving a certain area of their body. If you want bigger biceps or quads, this can give you a quick glance at the “best” three exercises for that area. There is some overlap between this section and the movement pattern sections. You’ll see the same exercises in both. Shoulders Shoulders, or “deltoids”, are one of the most important body parts. They are vital to create a “V-shape” of the body which is aesthetic for both men and women. Direct shoulder work can also help maintain shoulder health, something that is certainly important for long term progress in the gym! Shoulders can be difficult to train, because the shoulder joint has a huge range of motion and the various parts of the muscle have many different functions. The front of the shoulder raises the upper arm or brings it in front across the body, and is heavily involved with pressing and pushing exercises like bench press, dips and overhead press. The side of the shoulder raises the arm to the side and is involved in overhead work, particularly behind the neck, as well as lateral raises. The rear shoulder does the opposite of the front of the shoulder, moving the arm from in front to back behind you and is recruited with most pulling and rowing exercises. Shoulders respond well to higher reps (twelve to twenty) and recover fast as well, making how frequently you train them important. Three best front shoulder exercises: • Standing Barbell Overhead Press • Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press • Incline Bench Press Three best side shoulder exercises: • Lateral Raise • Cable Lateral Raise • Seated Lateral Raise Three best rear shoulder exercises: 7 • Seated/Prone Rear Delt Raise • Standing Rear Delt Raise • Face Pull Traps The traps are a large muscle in the back that attaches the entire length of the shoulder blades. The main function of the traps is to move your shoulder blades up, together or down. Since the first and last of those functions are complete opposites, a variety of exercises are necessary to fully develop the traps. Large traps convey an appearance of power and density, and proper development is crucial for long term shoulder health. Because they are near the head, trap development is very recognizable, if someone has development in this area it can completely change the way they look. They have the fastest growth response of any muscle group listed here. If you train them properly you should notice results almost immediately, certainly in less than a week. They respond very quickly to heavy weights with a bit of higher rep work. They’re also very durable so don’t be afraid to really go after ‘em. Three best upper trap exercises: • Shrug • Farmers Walks • Low Pull from the Hang Three best middle trap exercises: • Barbell Bent Over Row • Cable/Chest Supported/Machine row • Kroc Row Three best lower trap exercises: • Wide Grip Pullup • Behind the Neck pulldown • Face Pull Lats The lats are the largest back muscle and are among the largest in the entire body. They are mainly responsible for bringing the upper arm from above the body to down alongside it. 8 Well-developed lats are important for creating width in the upper body and are visible from both the front and back. They are also the only muscle that attaches to both the upper and lower body, making them a vital stabilizer during many lifts. The lats respond best to higher rep training, in the twelve to twenty rep range, and a higher overall volume. They’re very durable and can tolerate a lot of punishment. I’ve never even heard of someone tearing a lat. Attack those bad boys. The three best lat exercises are: • Pullups • Pulldowns • Standing Cable Pullover Chest The chest, or “pecs”, are a vital and visible part of the upper body. Even when wearing clothes, it is very clear when fully developed. The chest is mainly responsible for bringing the upper arm across the body. The chest is best hit with compound exercises like all sorts of bench pressing and dips, but isolation work like flys can be useful as well. The chest responds to a good range of motion and stretch, and a variety of rep ranges. They are a bit more fragile than some other muscles, so be slightly more conservative when training chest. Pec tears and strains are very common in those who bench press a lot. The three best chest exercises are: • Incline Bench Press • Dips • Dumbbell Bench press Triceps The triceps are a three-headed muscle that are located on the back of the upper arm. Their main function is to extend the elbow, straightening the arm. The triceps are actually a lot bigger than the biceps, particularly if the arm is resting alongside the torso. Since it is most of the time in life, if you want bigger arms, triceps are the place to put emphasis on. The triceps are hit quite hard from both pushing and pressing exercises such as bench press, incline press and overhead press. Direct exercises to isolate the muscle is not necessary but can accelerate growth. Overhead triceps work is the best way to hit the “long head” of the 9 triceps, which has the most potential for growth. Triceps respond best to low to moderate reps. The six to eight rep range for compound exercises (dips and close grip bench press) and the eight to twelve for isolation is perfect. No need to go crazy with the volume. The three best exercises to hit the triceps are: • Overhead Cable Extension • Dips • Overhead Dumbbell Extension Biceps The biceps are a small yet potentially visually stunning muscle. When someone asks you to flex a muscle, they invariably expect you not to show your leg, chest or back but to raise your arm and show your bicep. The main function of the bicep is to flex or curl the elbow, which happens during pulling and rowing exercises, but isolation work is perhaps useful for maximal growth. The best way to train the biceps are through pullups and rows, but also through curling variations such as basic barbell curls, reverse curls, preacher curls, dumbbell curls and hammer curls. Biceps respond best to the eight to fifteen rep range, and can handle quite a bit of volume. Try to keep your form strict when curling, not swinging the weight. It’s very easy on some of these exercises to be working hips, shoulders and lower back rather than the actual bicep! The three best bicep exercises are: • Pullups • Standing Barbell Curl • Preacher Curl Forearms Forearms are a crucial, yet often overlooked body part. When wearing clothing that humans typically prefer, they are one of the few body parts that are visible, and thus their development or lack thereof is almost always on display. They are also critical for elbow and wrist health, and holding onto heavy rows and deadlifts. The forearms will naturally get trained when holding onto such heavy barbell work, but for maximal growth some specific work should be done. The three most effective forearm exercises are: • Bent over row 10 • • Reverse Grip Curls Farmers Walks Quads Aesthetically, quadriceps are the most impressive muscle in the lower body. Furthermore, well developed quads are important for keeping the knee joint healthy. Their main function is to extend the knee, like in a kicking motion. They also greatly contribute to squatting and deadlifting strength, sprinting and overall sports performance. Quads respond well to high volume, but to make sure that your knees feel fine, it’s best to add sets gradually over time. Additionally, when squatting, make sure that you are actually using the quads rather than the hamstrings, glutes and lower back-see the squat movement pattern section for more details. The three best quadriceps exercises are: • High Bar Back Squat • Front Squat • Bulgarian Split Squat (short step) Glutes Glute development is the most widely sought out muscle group for female trainees but they are important for men as well. They mainly extend the hips which happens naturally when walking, running or getting up from a chair. Strong glutes greatly contribute to athletic performance. The squat, deadlift, Olympic lifting as well as sprinting and jumping all rely heavily on “dat ass”. If you want to be more athletic, the glutes are a good place to add muscle. They respond well to low reps, but the occasional high rep set can also be very effective. The three most effective glute exercises are: • Glute Bridge • Sumo Deadlift • Lunge (long step) Hamstrings The hamstrings are located on the back of the 11 upper leg and are responsible for extending the hip joint, just as the glutes, but also flexing the knee joint. While not a particularly visible or aesthetic muscle, the hamstrings are vital for sports performance. Sprinting, jumping, deadlifting and Olympic lifting are all very reliant on the massive explosive power that the hamstrings provide. If you want to run faster and jump higher, focus on the hammies. They respond best to low reps and low volume. They definitely aren’t the most resilient muscle group in the body, so it’s best not to go crazy with how many sets you do. The three most effective hamstring exercises are: • Romanian Deadlift (RDL) • Nordic Hamstring Curl • Hamstring Ball Curl Calves When calves are not very well developed it is very obvious, contributing to the “chicken leg” appearance. They mainly extend the ankle, like when a ballerina is dancing. The calves are somewhat stimulated by lower body movements such as squats and Olympic lifting, as well as running and sprinting, but for maximal development isolation work is definitely needed. You can do damn near anything to the calves and they won’t have problems. We walk around on them all day so they are build to last. Higher reps, or slower reps including pauses to really feel the calf muscle rather than the Achilles tendon work, are ideal due to the range of motion naturally being pretty short. The three best calf exercises: • Standing calf raise • Seated calf raises • Leg press calf raise Abs The abdominal region is comprised of several distinct muscle groups and fully developed abs are very visually impressive, especially at a low body fat percentage. That last point is mainly a factor of diet, not training, which is slightly beyond the scope of this book. Many of the abdominal muscles will be hit during overhead presses, squats and deadlifts, but targeted work can really make the abdominal muscles appear clearly. They can also help you 12 maintain correct posture and prevent injury. Abs respond better to higher reps and high variety of movements. The three best ab exercises: • Side bend (obliques-side of abs) • Ab wheel (upper abs) • Foot to bar (lower abs) Section Recap: Each muscle group has a unique group of functions, and requires specific exercises to maximize its potential. 13 Compendium Two: Exercises The exercises listed below are grouped by movement pattern. This means that each group of exercises works similar muscles, listed below: Hinge-Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower Back, Abs Squat-Quads, Glutes, Lower Back, Abs Row-Lats, Traps, Rear Shoulders, Biceps, Forearms Push-Chest, Front Shoulders, Triceps Pull-Lats, Rear Shoulders, Biceps, Forearms Press-Front+Side Shoulders, Triceps, Abs Shoulders-Front+Side+Rear Shoulders Curl-Biceps, Forearms Extend-Triceps Abs-Abs (duh) Calves-Calves (also duh) Having a good variety of movements to choose from allows you to really tailor your program to yourself. Don’t like a movement? Then don’t do it. Switch it out for something similar but different. That isn’t to say you should completely avoid squatting variations just because you don’t like them, but if you really like back squatting and detest front squatting, there is absolutely no harm in choosing what you like to do. You need to enjoy your training for it to be sustainable. I don’t give you hundreds of exercises so that you can do hundreds of exercises. I give you hundreds of exercises so that you can find the best twenty to forty that are ideal for you. Find two to four exercises per movement pattern that target the muscles that you want to develop, you enjoy doing on some level, and can do pain free. How to read this section This section is broken down into the eleven movement patterns, with roughly ten to fifteen exercises for each. In each movement pattern section, it will note which muscles it targets, give some tips and tricks on how to get optimal results, share some considerations for volume, frequency and intensity as well as how to keep you safe and injury free. For each exercise, there will be a picture or two showing the movement and a short description of how to perform the exercise. There will also be a few notes for every exercise: difficulty, effectiveness, recovery cost, rep range and priority. Difficulty is simply when it is suggested to try this movement. 14 Beginner means that this exercise is appropriate for anyone, even someone on their first day starting in the gym. Intermediate exercises are ones that should be tried only after a few months of mastering beginner level exercises. A beginner COULD start off with these, but there is no real reason to, they are better off left for later in most cases. Advanced exercises are ones that complete beginners have no business attempting under any circumstances. These exercises are often extremely effective, but are more difficult to learn and are potentially risky if you haven’t already mastered the lower levels. Try them after you have a few months of beginner and intermediate exercises under your belt. Keep in mind that some exercises in the beginner section are extremely effective. Just because they are easy to learn does not mean that they are not great exercises. Even Olympic level athletes have a lot to gain from “simple” exercises like back extensions (see left) and pulldowns (see right). When you “graduate” to another level of exercises, that doesn’t mean you can’t go back to or keep doing the lower level ones. Effectiveness is simply how effective the exercise is at changing your body. This number is compared to the other exercises in the same movement pattern, but also as a whole. For example, the average hinge exercise, many of which work half a dozen or more major muscle groups, has an effectiveness higher than that of a curling exercise, which is mainly targeting just part of the arms and not much else. A deadlift will be far more effective at changing your body than a bicep curl will be, just because it is affecting more of your body. It’s science. Pulling and rowing exercises can work the biceps just as well as curling exercises, pushing and pressing exercises can stimulate the triceps about as well as extending exercises, and other upper body movements can replace some direct shoulder work. The curl, extend and shoulder movement patterns are thus best thought of as supplements to the main lifts. You could cut them out and not see much of a difference. They’re replaceable. No exercise, however, can truly replace hinging, squatting, pressing, pushing, rowing and pulling exercises, especially the heavy barbell and dumbbell movements. They are fundamental. You’ll notice that there is no exercise listed that is a ten-that’s because no exercise is fully effective. I just couldn’t bring myself 15 to put any exercise on that pedestal. You’ll also notice that no exercise listed is below a three. That’s because I’m not going to write a book and bother including shitty exercises. You only get the good ones. Three=Niche movement, perhaps useful in some situations Four=Fully replaceable, but useful in some circumstances Five=Decent exercise, worth cycling in occasionally Six=Good movement, use it sometimes Seven=Great exercise, consider scheduling it in often Eight=A staple. Definitely worth regularly using. Nine=Truly amazing exercise, keep in your program much of the time. Recovery Cost is how much of a physical and mental toll the exercise takes on your body. This often closely correlates with effectiveness. The more effective an exercise is, generally the longer it takes to recover from. That’s just the nature of the game. Greater risk sometimes equals greater reward. The exercises that can “mess you up” also trigger the most possible gains, for that very reason. Rep Range is how many reps you should do per set for the exercise. Just because a certain number is listed, doesn’t mean you have to use any or all of them, it just means that generally speaking, that range is a good place to be. For example, pulldowns are listed at eight to twenty, so that means that you could do sets of ten reps, sets of twelve reps, sets of sixteen reps. You could do eight reps per set sometimes and twenty sometimes, even in the same workout. Now…you could do sets of six reps, or sets of twenty-five reps. I’m not your mom. It just means that it is either inefficient, less effective, or dangerous. Priority is how you can program the movement, which I’ll admit is somewhat subjective. This is mostly just to give you a general idea of which exercises you should be focusing on. Main movements are those that can be focused on and progressed for years and years. These are mainly barbell and dumbbell movements and are your “bread and butter”. If you are gluten intolerant, pick another phrase-I guess they are your “rice and oil”. Assistance movements are slightly lower priority-they are mainly used to correct weaknesses, get in extra volume and add some variety to your program. They’re usually slightly easier to recover from. Tertiary movements are those that are the lowest priority, easiest to recover 16 from and are mostly used to balance your physique, bring up your weak pointsor target a specific area. Equipment is what you need to do the movement. Make sure you have access to these items before charging into battle. There’s no point in planning to do back extensions when you don’t have access to a forty-five degree back extension machine or benching when your gym doesn’t have a bench press! Section Recap: Each exercise has a difficulty, effectiveness, recovery cost, suggested rep range, programming priority and required equipment listed in it’s description, as well as instructions on how to do the exercise itself in bold. Hinge Hinge exercises generally work the hamstrings, glutes and lower back. If you want an attractive back of the body, incorporating some of these exercises is a must. These are some of the most physically and mentally difficult of physical things you can do, but the payoff is worth it, because no movement pattern can so completely transform your physique. I would encourage everyone to deadlift in some manner, and there are many types in this section to choose from that vary in difficulty. It’s the best lower back muscle strengthener out there, and when those muscles are strong, they will actually protect you from back pain. They’re also a great trap, lat and forearm developer. However, I would not recommend doing deadlift variations with high frequency or volume-because they are so taxing, it’s better to be conservative. A good rule of thumb would be deadlifting once a week in most circumstances, and if you want to add more hinge type work, substitute in exercises that are easier to recover from such as back extensions, hamstring curls, pullthroughs and glute bridges. For almost all of these exercises, it is vital that you are hinging at the HIPS, not the lower back. You want your spine to move minimally, if at all. Before lifting, make sure that you take a deep breath into your belly to stabilize your core. Breathing through the nose will help make sure you are breathing into your belly. Pretend like you are about to get punched in the stomach. A lifting belt can help, see the section on equipment for details. 17 Back Extension One of the best hamstring and glute exercises, the back extension is beginner friendly, very safe, and the best way to learn how to properly hinge at the hips. The pad locks you into the correct position and you can focus on using the glutes and hamstrings. It’s important to place the pad in the correct place-it should be at the top of your thigh as shown in the pictures. If it is too high, it will prevent you from hinging at the hip and it will turn into a lower back exercise. If it is too low, it’ll bother your knees. Find the correct placement for you and remember to use the same one every time. A bar on the back (above) or on the ground (right), dumbbell, plates or even bands can be used to provide resistance. If you place the bar on your back, slowly lower yourself till your face is almost at the ground and you feel a stretch on your hamstrings, then push your hips into the pad to return to the upright position, squeezing your glutes at the top. If the bar or plate is on the ground, grab it and then squeeze your hamstrings and glutes to lift it off the ground, pushing your hips into the pad-don’t arch your lower back excessively. Gently lower it back down. Because the bottom position of the movement decompresses the spine, this is a great complement to exercises that compress the spine like squatting and deadlifting, especially the bar on back version. Russian weightlifters have even said “If I am talking to someone who does not do their back extensions, I know I am talking to a walking corpse”. That might be a slight exaggeration, but they are definitely worth including in any weight training program. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 3-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Forty-five degree back extension machine; barbell, plates or dumbbell 18 Glute Bridge The glute bridge is a very safe exercise that can be performed with just body weight, or using a barbell, bands or plates to provide resistance. A barbell is ideal because most people can get quite strong on this exercise, so other forms of resistance will quickly be outgrown. It can also be performed on one leg. Similar to the back extension, it works the hamstrings and glutes while keeping the lower back in a very safe position. This is one of the best glute exercises you can do. Set up by putting the bar on the ground with a 20kg plate on each side. Sit down with your legs straight out in front of you. Slide the bar over your legs and lie down on your back. Position the bar over your pubic bone. You’ll want to put a pad on the bar, otherwise this can be painful. Keeping your feet and upper back on the ground, push your hips into the bar, lifting it up. Be sure to use a full range of motion, squeezing your buns at the end range of motion for maximal benefits. Return to the starting position and repeat. The main drawback for this exercise is that you can get VERY strong on it and it can take some time to set up. Lugging a dozen or more twenty kilo plates, loading them up, getting under the bar, setting up and getting out from under the bar, putting the plates away can take more time than actually doing the exercise itself! The one legged variation might be a good fit for those people. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates; bar pad Hamstring Curl Machine Full disclosure-this isn’t really a hinge movement, as the hip joint doesn’t 19 really move at all. It is, however, a great hamstring isolation exercise, making it worth including in any program. The hamstring extends the hip during most hinging movements, but also is responsible for bending the knee. Part of the hamstring muscle is ONLY responsible for the latter movement, meaning that if you want full development, you’ll want to have a knee flexing movement in your program such as this one. To perform the exercise, just curl the pad towards your butt, squeezing your hamstrings at the top, then lower it back to the bottom position. Make sure to use a full range of motion, and keep your hips pushed into the pad. Don’t let your lower back arch. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Hamstring Curl Machine (duh) Pullthrough This exercise works primarily the glutes and is a fantastic way to build up your backside. To perform the exercise, first set up rope attachment to the cable station, on the lowest setting. Stand facing away from the station and reach down between your legs, grabbing the rope with both hands. Thrust your hips forward using your glutes, pulling the rope through your legs as you do so. Squeeze your glutes at the finish, and pause for a second or two, really get a good contraction of those honey buns. Slowly lean forward and push the hips back, lowering the rope down and back towards the cable station. Get a slight stretch on the hamstrings, then thrust the hips forwards again and repeat for reps. You aren’t really pulling with your arms, most of the force comes from your hips. This is best done for light weight and higher reps, and makes a good warmup before deadlifting or squatting to get the hips warmed up. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Tertiary 20 Equipment: Cable station Trap Bar Deadlift This exercise uses a special bar called a trap bar, named as such because it has a trapezoidal shape. This means that you can stand inside the weight, instead of it being in front of you. This reduces stress on the spine, making it safer. It is also easier to hold onto because the bar cannot roll as easily in your grip. If you have access to this bar, it is a great total body building exercise, and one of the best ways to teach a beginner how to deadlift. Stand inside the bar, and push your hips back while keeping your chest up to grab the handles. Keeping your chest up, and back flat, drive your feet into the ground, pushing it away to lift up the weight. To move the weight up, you need to apply an equal yet opposite force into the floor. Visualizing this will help you stay in the correct position and can be applied to any deadlifting movement. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Trap bar; plates Sumo Deadlift The sumo deadlift is a great option for beginners and is one of the safer options. Compared to the conventional deadlift with the feet together described below, it works the quads and hips a bit more, and the lower back and hamstrings slightly less. It’s not uncommon for people to be able to use slightly more weight as well. Set up quite close to the bar, with your toes pointing about forty-five degrees out. When looking straight down, you should see half of your foot in front of the bar, and half behind. Sit your hips back and reach down to grab the bar. Keeping your chest up and back flat, take as big of breath into your belly as possible. Drive your feet into the ground and lift the weight, pushing your hips through to lock out the weight. 21 Try different stance widths to see which is most comfortable for you, just mind your toes when lowering the weight if you take a very wide stance. They are breakable. You can also elevate the weights on plates or mats if you are having trouble getting in the correct position. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates Romanian Deadlift Fondly referred to as the “RDL” by weight trainers around the world, this is a deadlift that does not touch the floor at the bottom of the rep it is performed floating during the set. The set can either be started by deadlifting the weight off of the floor, or taking it out of a rack. This is one of the best hamstring exercises in existence. the heels and coming back up. Take a deep breath and deadlift the weight up normally (see the conventional deadlift description below). From the top position, focus on pushing the hips back and keeping the lower back tight, going down until you feel a stretch in the hamstrings, then pushing through This also works the glutes, forearms, traps, lats and spinal erectors heavily, but you should focus on the back of your thighs to target the hamstrings. Generally, sets of eight to fifteen are best, although “burnout” sets of up to thirty can also be very effective. Going below sets of eight can make it hard to focus on just the hamstrings, as the other muscles will often take over, usually the lower or mid back. You can stand with your toes on 5kg plates to get an even better stretch. Another tip is to perform this exercise with your back to a wall or other hip height object that’s about a foot or two away. Try to tap your caboose against it gently every rep. This will ensure that you are hinging at the hips (good) rather your back (bad). Both are demonstrated in the right picture. 22 Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 8-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates Conventional Deadlift This is a typical deadlift, with the feet in a narrow stance with the grip just outside of them. It works almost every muscle in the body, but is very stressful and can take a significant amount of time to recover from. Walk up to the bar and set up with your feet under the bar and about shoulder width apart, pointing straight ahead or toeing out just slightly. Push the hips back and reach down to grab the bar just outside your legs. Keeping your chest up and lower back flat as much as possible, drive your feet into the ground and lift up the weight, finish the lift by driving your hips to the bar. Try to keep the lower back from rounding and use the legs as much as possible. If the sumo deadlift feels better, there really isn’t any harm in doing that most of the time. As always, assess how you respond to the exercise. The conventional deadlift is, in general, a better test of strength then a builder of strength. Most guys or gals that built up a very strong deadlift did so primarily with other exercises: back extensions, RDLs, squats, lunges, rows, pullups and Olympic lifting are the usual list that strong people give. That isn’t to say that you can’t or shouldn’t deadlift, just keep in mind that you can improve the lift without doing it often, or at all. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates 23 Hamstring Ball Curl Grab one of those big balls then lie down on your back. Wow that sounds dirty. Anyway, put your feet up on the ball, lift your hips up using your hamstring muscles, then curl the ball towards you, keeping your hips high throughout the range of motion. You should feel your hamstrings working, both to extend your hips and flex your knees. Repeat for reps, the higher the better. You can also do this exercise with one leg at a time, but this is much more difficult and requires a lot of balance and athleticism. This exercise is great for runners because it works the hamstrings with both hip extension and knee flexion, which is exactly what running entails. It’s also a bit easier to recover from than a lot of other hamstring exercises, so it’s a good fit for those who are looking to take part in a sport outside of the gym and don’t want to get really sore from a bunch of deadlifts. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 20-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Swiss ball Broad Jump This former Olympic event is a great test of total body power. It works the entire lower body as well as a bit of upper. Crouch down into a quarter squat, while at the same time throwing your arms behind your body (keep them attached) as in the first part of the picture. This will activate the stretch reflex and allow you to jump further. Reverse direction, extending at the hips, knees and ankles while simultaneously flinging your arms up and forward, similarly to picture two. As you soar majestically through the air, bring your legs forward towards your landing point and your arms down lower to give you extra air time (picture three). When landing, 24 try to reduce the impact as much as possible by squatting down as you land. It’s best to do this exercise for lower reps, usually doubles or triples are a good choice. It’s a good pairing for heavy hinge exercises like back extensions, deadlifts and hip thrusts. The combination of the heavier, slower reps of the barbell movements, and the lighter, more explosive jumping complement each other nicely. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-5 Priority: Assistance Equipment: None! Rack/Block Pull By pulling from slightly higher than off of the ground, generally more weight can be used. The technique is similar to a conventional deadlift, pushing the hips back, reach down and grab the bar. Keeping your back flat, drive your feet into the ground and lift up the weight, pushing your hips towards the bar. This can be a great way to “feel” heavier weights as well as develop grip strength and the entire back, particularly the traps and erectors. The hamstrings and glutes are used as well, but the main stimulus is going to be on your back. Even though more weight can be used, because the range of motion is shorter and the torso can be kept more upright, recovery is slightly faster. You can experiment with different heights. Keep in mind that if it starts above knee height, you can lift a LOT of weight, but it is more of a grip and trap exercise, not typical hinge muscles. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 5-20 Priority: Assistance 25 Equipment: Barbell; plates; rack or blocks Low Pull from the Hang Olympic-style lifting works similar muscles to a deadlift-nearly every muscle in the bodybut the focus is on moving lighter loads explosively. This movement is one of the best ways to develop total body explosiveness and power, but is also a lot easier to learn and easier on the body than traditional Olympic lifting. Technique is vital for the clean and jerk, which is performed in the Olympics, as it requires a lot of coordination and total body control, but the low pull is much easier because you never actually have to catch the weight. You can always “graduate” to the traditional clean later, but this is a good way to develop your explosiveness in the meantime. It’ll also put slabs of meat on your forearms, upper and lower back, hamstrings and glutes. Perform the exercise by first deadlifting the weight up, starting with the weight around knee height can be a good idea, but isn’t necessary. Then, keeping the chest up and lower back arched, lean forward slightly(1) till the bar reaches about midway down your thigh(2). From that point, reverse direction, explosively extending at the hips (3) and pulling the bar as high as possible (4). On the way down, catch the weigh-when the weights get heavier, you may want to arrest the bar’s momentum by partially catching it in the crease of your hips. Despite the exercise being called a “low pull” you should try to launch it as high as you can with each rep. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 9 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 3-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates 26 Deficit Deadlift Pulling from a deficit-usually by standing on a plate or mat-generally works every muscle involved in the deadlift but simply to a greater degree. Usually one to four inch (2.5cm to 10cm) deficits are used-any higher and it can become unsafe for the lower back, not to mention that your feet can also get in the way. This is one of the best ways to improve your deadlift but is definitely more stressful on the body. If you have short arms, you might not want to attempt this variation at all, as just the conventional or sumo deadlifts are sufficient stimulus. Set up the same as a normal deadlift despite standing on the mats or plates. Keep careful attention on your back position, driving with the legs and lifting the weight, finishing with the hips. Again, try to keep the lower back from rounding. You can pull sumo style from a deficit, as on the left, but keep in mind that you’ll need to stand on two sets of mats, as shown. I wouldn’t recommend standing on two plates as they can slide around a bit, you want to be standing on a very stable surface. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; mats Snatch Grip Deadlift The snatch grip is a wide grip deadlift. Reach down and grab the bar in a wide grip, most people grab around the rings about double shoulder width apart along the barbell. Keeping the chest up, drive the feet into the ground, lifting the weight and pushing the hips through at 27 the end. Because the hands are wider, it is quite similar to a deficit deadlift, but is also higher at the top, so the range of motion is greater at both sides. It also hits the back and rear delts in a slightly different way, as well as the quads slightly more. It can be combined with a deficit for an even greater range of motion, as in the pictures. Grip can quickly become a limiting factor due to the hand placement, so don’t be afraid to use straps if needed. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates Good morning The good morning is a difficult and unusual exercise that uses the glutes and hamstrings but also requires a lot of core stability and strength. Perform the exercise by unracking the bar like a squat. Instead of squatting down, keep your legs almost fully straight throughout the movement. Push the hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, then come back up. Keep your chest up and your lower back flat. Lighter loads for higher reps is better, and be very careful of your hip and spinal position when performing this exercise. Be sure to keep your chest up and lower back in a flat position. Yes, I said that twice, because it’s that important. If you’ve ever had back problems, this is one that is best to avoid. The RDL provides similar benefits but is safer because you can drop the bar at any time, but with the good morning you don’t have that luxury. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 6-12 Priority: Assistance 28 Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack Nordic Hamstring Curl Also known as the “Russian Hamstring Curl”, the “Natural Hamstring Curl” or two days later as the “Oh-man-my-hamstrings-are-sore-as-hell Curl”, this is one of the most insanely difficult hamstring exercises out there, and what’s even crazier is that it doesn’t require any equipment at all! No barbell, plates or dumbbells needed, you can do this one at home-if you’re strong enough, that is. Begin by hooking your heels under an object that won’t move. A bed, cabinet or a bench with a few plates on it are the most common culprits available. You might want to place a towel or pad beneath your knees. Keeping your hips in a fixed position and lower back from arching, slowly lower yourself as far towards the ground as you can control. When you can’t, fall the rest of the way into a push up and push yourself back up to the starting position, contracting your hamstrings as you do to help out. Most people cannot do even one full rep, so don’t worry if you cannot lower yourself the full way and have to help out a lot with the upper body. While the lower back and glutes are used a bit in this exercise, for the most part it’s just pure hamstring destruction. You can add weight with a plate at the chest but for most people that’s just not needed. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 1-6 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: None! (just somewhere to hook your feet under) Hip thrust This advanced variation of the glute bridge involves placing your upper back on a bench in order to increase the range of motion. Place your back on the bench with the barbell in your lap. Extending your 29 hips, push your heels into the ground and lift the barbell. Pause at the top and then lower the bar back to the ground and repeat for reps. This gives a slightly different feel to the exercise, you probably won’t be able to use as much weight as the hip thrust, but it might give you better results. As in the glute bridge, you’ll want to use a pad on the bar. You may want to place plates on the bench so that it doesn’t tip over or move as easily. Try both exercises and see which you prefer. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates; bench Power Snatch from the Hang The power snatch involves using your legs and hips to rocket launch the bar high, and then catching it above you and standing up. The hang means that you do it from a standing position for each rep. Perform the exercise by grabbing the bar resting on the ground with a wide grip, your hands should be somewhere around the rings on the bar, about double shoulder width apart. Stand up with the bar similarly to a deadlift, keeping the chest up. After you get to the top, lower the bar back down towards your knees (left side of the picture), then change directions back up, ending with an explosive thrust of the hips that sends the bar shooting overhead. Duck under it and catch it overhead in roughly a quarter or half squat position as shown in the right side of the picture, then stand up. This is one of the most challenging movements you can do, inside or outside of the gym. Much less weight than a deadlift can be used, but that also means that it is better for developing explosive power. Low reps are better. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-6 Priority: Main Movement 30 Equipment: Barbell; plates If I had to choose three exercises to do from this section, I would probably choose back extensions, sumo deadlifts and low pull from the hang. These are all extremely effective exercises that are slightly less taxing on the body compared to some of the other variations. That means that you’ll be able to do them for higher volumes, higher frequency and heavier while still recovering faster, which in the long term will lead to much better progress. Movement Pattern Recap: Hinging exercises work the hamstrings, glutes and lower back, and are some of the most challenging yet beneficial movements that you can do. 31 Squat If the deadlift is the king of all exercises, the squat is certainly the queen. This royal pair has made a decree to get your ass in shape. Madame Squat is by far the best overall lower body building movement pattern, hitting the quads and glutes wonderfully, and to a lesser extent the calves and hamstrings. She’s a hard taskmaster, but that’s exactly the reason the squat produces such fantastic results. Bodyweight Squat The simple bodyweight squat is a good way for the beginner to learn the squat movement pattern. To perform the exercise, from a standing position, bend your knees and hips at the same time, sinking down between your legs. Return to the starting position and repeat. How deep you go is dependent on your individual body structure and mobility, but a good goal is to go down to where the top of your leg is at least parallel with the floor-you may wish to video yourself to check. This ensures that you’ll get the most out of the exercise. You can go lower if you can, but it’s not necessary, and if you lack the proper mobility it can potentially be dangerous, especially when loading with weights. Two things to watch out for are your back rounding and your knees caving inwards. Your back position should not move at all. If your lower back is tucking under at the bottom, also known as “butt wink”, then you either need to work on your hip mobility or squat higher. Knees going out OVER the toes is fine, but if they are caving inward at any point, that’s no bueno for most people. Strengthen your hips with lunges and Bulgarian split squats and focus on pushing the knees out to keep them over the toes as you squat. Although not a fantastic muscle or strength builder due to the lack of resistance, someone new to weight training might see some results from body weight squats because at that early stage, almost anything will work! It’s also very safe and can be done anywhere, without any equipment or gym membership at all. At the very least, it’s a good warmup for the exercises listed further below. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 3 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20+ Priority: Tertiary Equipment: None! Goblet Squat This squat involves taking a dumbbell and holding it clutched vertically with both hands in front of the chest. This 32 ensures proper posture as well as providing a bit of loading. It’s an almost foolproof way to teach beginners how to squat. Higher reps are better, sets of twenty to thirty work very well but if you have the guts to do it, sets of fifty or sixty are also brutally effective. Low reps really should be avoided because most gyms don’t have dumbbells that heavy, and it can be a challenge to even get the damn thing in place. Using more than about 40kg is very difficult. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 20-60 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbell Leg Extension Machine This isn’t really a squatting exercise, but is an isolation exercise for the quads, so it gets thrown in this section. Get in the machine and adjust the pads, the knees should be right around the edge of the seat, and the leg pad should be just above the foot on the shin. Flexing your legs, raise the pad until your legs are straight, squeezing your quads at the top and holding for a second. Lower under control and repeat. Don’t bounce the weight. It’s a somewhat decent alternative to squatting and makes a great superset-see compendium five for more details. Be sure to squeeze the quads at the end of the range of motion, the difference between focusing on the muscle you are using and playing on your phone during the set is HUGE with this exercise, so don’t shortchange yourself. Concentrate! Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 15-30 33 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Leg extension machine Box Squat Place a bar in the squat rack. If you can adjust the height, place it low enough that you can unrack it without going up on your toes. This should be around chest height or slightly higher. Place the box (or bench) behind you, a few feet from where you’ll unrack the bar. Make sure the box or bench is sturdy! Walk up to the bar, and duck under it, placing it on the back of your shoulders, behind your neck. There should be a natural shelf there to support the weight. Feel around for it, and make sure that you are in the middle of the bar. Lift the weight out of the rack, and take two or three steps back. Take a big breath of air into your belly, then squat down to the bench, pausing slightly when on it, but staying “tight”, keep your chest up and the tension on your legs. You aren’t sitting in a hammock, so don’t get lazy. Focus! Stand back up, and repeat for reps. Normally when squatting, you have nothing between your rear end and the ground to support you, but placing a bench or “box” of varying heights can have several benefits. One, it can make it very easy for beginners to control how deep they squat, often when they start with a completely free movement they are “all over the place”, to put it nicely. Second, it can allow you to “sit back” into the movement, as in the second picture, which will lead to greater hamstring, glute and hip activation. Third, it can conversely focus the movement on the quads if you sit straight down, as in the last picture. Note the difference in knee angle between the second and third parts of the picture. Finally, in both cases it separates the downward and upward halves of the movement with a pause, which can increase explosive power. All of the above make it a viable movement for many athletes. 34 Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack; box or bench Leg Press This machine exercise is a staple in most gyms, and is an effective and versatile way to train the quads, hamstrings and glutes. It takes the lower back and core mostly out of the equation, meaning that you can just focus on the muscles that you want to develop, mainly for this reason, most people can leg press two to four times as much weight as they can squat. Use a full range of motion, doing quarter reps will allow you to move a ton of weight but give you very little effect other than potentially tearing up your knees. Throw your ego out on this one, or it’ll throw out your patellar tendons. The movement is quite simple, just unrack the weight, and slide it down towards you, keeping the tension on your legs. Go down till the angle of your thighs and shins are roughly ninety degrees, then push the pad back to the starting position. Don’t let your back round at any point, keep it flat against the pad. Putting your feet higher on the pad will work more hamstrings and glutes, whilst putting them lower will work more quads. Medium and higher reps are better, usually anywhere from ten and up is fine. The main drawback from this exercise is transporting all the plates back and forth…consider it cardio I guess. Some people also find that this machine gives them lower back pain, due to the lower back being in a fixed range of motion during the set, unlike a squat where the back can move freely. If that’s the case with you, just avoid it. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 10-30 35 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Leg press machine; plates Bulgarian Split Squat This single leg movement involves placing one leg behind you on a bench and using the forward leg to squat up and down. Set up a bench behind you, and place one foot on it, you can either put your toes on the bench as shown in the picture, or rest the top of your foot on it. Try both and see which you prefer. Putting most of your weight on your front leg, squat down until your feel a stretch in your glutes. Return to the starting position under control. Experiment with how far out in front of you your forward leg is-further away is more glutes and hamstrings, nearer is more quads. This requires a LOT of stability and control, and uses the muscles of the leg and hip in a very different way compared to traditional, two legged variations. Additionally, you’ll need enough flexibility of the back leg to get full range of motion. If you are very flexible and want even more range of motion, you can elevate the front leg as well. Loading can be provided by dumbbells, a weighted vest, or a barbell on the back, but starting out just doing bodyweight is plenty. This is one of the most miserable exercises in existence. High rep sets will have your quad muscle on fire and your lungs gasping for air. Then you get to do the other leg. Your glutes will be sore for days afterwards. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 9 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Bench or other place to put back leg; dumbbells or barbell and plates High Bar Back Squat This exercise is one of the most popular forms of squat, at least 95% of professional weightlifters and powerlifters 36 have done this exercise. It primarily works the quads and glutes, although there is hamstring and lower back activation as well. Sets of all kinds work well, from single reps up to twenty, perhaps even more if you really enjoy pain. Set up similarly to the box squat, but without the box, place the bar high on your shoulders on the natural shelf that is created by your traps. Unrack the weight in a controlled manner and take a few steps back, taking about a shoulder width stance. Take a deep breath, then bend the knees and hips at the same time to descend. Go down until roughly parallel or slightly below, then squat back up and return to the starting position. You can place thin 2.5kg plates under your heels, which helps keep you more upright and place more stress onto the quad muscles. Experiment with stance width, anywhere from just inside to just outside shoulder width is most comfortable for the majority of people. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack Walking Lunge This simple yet brutal movement hammers the quads, hamstrings and glutes as well as the forearms, shoulders, traps, heart and lungs. The movement is quite natural for most people, simply take deep steps, alternating each leg as you go. You should go deep enough that your back knee lightly touches the ground; don’t slam it for obvious reasons. Sets of ten to forty steps are ideal, but higher are viable as well. Shorter steps will hit the quads slightly more, while longer ones focus on the hamstrings and glutes. Try to keep the foot, knee and hip in line as you stride valiantly forth, fighting the urge to allow your knees to buckle or twist. Dumbbells can be used for additional loading, they’re better than a barbell on the back because they’re easier to balance and you need less space. That being said, doing high reps with bodyweight only is a pretty good workout! Difficulty: Intermediate 37 Effectiveness: 9 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 10-100 steps Priority: Main Movement Equipment: None, or dumbbells Vertical Jump Jumping ability is incredibly useful in a variety of sports, from basketball and volleyball to football and rugby. It’s also a great test of lower body “power”, the ability to produce force quickly. They test the verts of American Football players every year at the NFL combine because it provides a very good insight into the athleticism of an individual. If someone can jump high, they can almost always run fast as well. This exercise shows up in the squat section because a vertical jump is essentially a quarter squat followed by the legs and hips “throwing” the upper body as high as possible. It utilizes the same muscles as squatting, quads and glutes with a bit of calves and core. A strict vertical jump as tested from a standing start, no run up allowed! To perform the exercise, begin by lower your arms down and behind you and quickly dipping down into a quarter squat position. Quickly reverse direction, exploding with the ankles, knees and hips together in unison, while at the same time throwing your arms towards the ceiling to aid with the ascent. Try to land as gently as possible. If you are over 90kg, you might want to limit the volume of vertical jumping because of the impact when landing. If you are more than 110kg, this one might be best avoided. Power snatch from the hang, low pulls, broad jumps and box jumps are all good replacements for developing power that are easier on the joints. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 1-5 Priority: Assistance Equipment: None! 38 Low Bar Back Squat Set up is identical to a high bar squat, with one exception-the bar is placed lower down. Placing the bar slightly lower on the back, on the rear of the shoulder rather than the top of the shoulder blades, means that the movement changes in several ways. One, because the bar is closer to the hips, the lever arm is shortened, and thus more weight can usually be used. Second, the torso will be in a more bent over position, which means that the glutes and hamstrings will be used more and the quads less. Most people can squat about ten percent more using low bar compared to the high bar position described above. However, there are some drawbacks. The bar position itself places more stress on the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints, and the leaned forward torso can potentially place more stress on the lower back. For these reasons, even many powerlifters who are interested in maximizing their squat only use this variation when preparing for a competition or even just in competition itself. They use other squat variations such as high bar for the majority of their training. Ultimately it is up to each individual to decide whether using more weight is worth the potential drawbacks. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack Front Squat This variation, as the name suggests, involves placing the bar not on the back but on the front of the body, right on the top of the front shoulder/clavicle area. Walk up to the weight in the rack, and place it on the front on the shoulder, putting your hands on the bar and raising your elbows high. Lift the bar out of the rack, and take a few steps back. Squat down, staying upright. At the bottom position, squat back up, and repeat for reps. 39 It can be quite uncomfortable or even painful as the body adapts, as you might get red marks where the bar is placed. Due to this bar position, the torso can be kept quite upright during the movement, keeping a good amount of stress on the quadriceps. It also increases the lever arm between the bar and the back of the body, meaning that the back and core must work harder to keep the torso from folding forward. Most people can use roughly 80-85% of their high bar back squat. If your front squat is much lower than that, you likely have weak quads or abdominal muscles. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack Step Up I first saw the step up in one of those magazines undoubtedly targeting middle aged women that overly mentioned “toning” and “shaping”. While I dismissed the exercise just based off of seeing it in that context, I later stumbled across it while reading an old Russian exercise manual that had been linked on a message board. They used the step up as a way to target the quads and glutes, and used it with a variety of athletes from powerlifters to high jumpers. I’ve since implemented into my own training and really enjoy it. It requires a lot of balance and stability in the hips and really is good for any athlete that does lateral movement or runs a lot. To perform the exercise, find a high bench. In the pictures there are some mats and a plate stacked up on a bench as a replacement, but this is slightly unsafe and less than ideal. If you can find a stable surface that’s around thigh level, maybe a wall or something-that’s perfect. Place one foot on the bench and push through its heel, stepping up to the top. Don’t use the bottom leg at all. Your instinct will be to help by springing off of the toe of the bottom leg to help get up. To minimize this, think about curling the toes up of the bottom leg as you stand up. Do all sets of one leg then switch to the other. This allows you 40 to find a rhythm and fully tire the working leg, and thus is much better than switching legs. Higher reps are better. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Bench; dumbbells Anderson Squat Named after one of the strongest men in history, Paul Anderson, this is a squat starting from the bottom instead of the top position. Paul used to squat in his back yard, using a bar attached to some big concrete-filled drums. He would start by standing in a hole in a quarter squat position using a short range of motion (right picture), and every few weeks fill in the ground underneath the drums, thus slowly increasing the range of motion and the difficulty of the movement (left picture). You probably won’t have the option to squat outside and use dirt, but you can use a power rack to also use this progression. Set up a bar in the power rack-slightly lower than chest height at the highest (right pictures), progressing to slightly lower than hip height for the lowest (left pictures). Duck under the bar and place it on your shoulders. Keeping an even pressure through your feet, stand up under control. Lower the bar slowly back to the starting position, placing it gently back on the supports. Repeat for reps, starting each one from a dead stop. You won’t be able to use as much weight as you can squat in a traditional manner, as you cannot use the bounce to slingshot the weight up, making this is a great way to train the bottom part of the movement that many people are the weakest at. If you are strong “out of the hole”, you can improve your squatting weights immensely. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 1-10 41 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; Plates; Power Rack Overhead Squat Holding a bar above you while squatting severely limits how much load can be used, but is a fine test of full body mobility. If you cannot do this movement correctly, almost anything from the ankles to shoulders could be a limiting factor. Unrack the weight and press or push press (see the press movement pattern section) it above you, then slowly sink down into a squatting position. Return to the top. This isn’t really used as an overloading movement for the legs. You are better off just placing the bar on your back or front and squatting normally, but it’s worth mentioning as a novelty. A narrower grip is more difficult, while a wider grip makes it slightly easier. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 3 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 1-5 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat rack Squat Jump This explosive variation, as you might imagine, involves squatting down and then…jumping up. Extra resistance can be provided by two dumbbells held in your hands, or a barbell on the back. The former is better as it is easier to balance and puts less stress on the lower back, so I’d strongly recommend that option. Pick up both dumbbells, then brace your core and be prepared to get explosive (picture one). Squat down into a full squat, making sure to control the decent (picture two), and then explosively reverse direction, jumping as high as you can (picture three). Lighter weights will allow you to jump higher, as in picture four. A good amount of loading should be anywhere from ten percent to forty percent of your maximum barbell back squat, but the most important thing is that you feel explosive when you are doing the reps. If they feel slow, lower the weight a bit. 42 Lower reps are better to develop explosive power. Higher reps are a decent form of cardio but can put a lot of stress on the knee joint, especially if you get tired and your form breaks down, so I’d recommend just using it as an explosive, low rep exercise. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 1-6 Priority: Assistance Equipment: None, or dumbbells Box Jump This is similar to a squat jump but involves jumping up onto a box. Stand a few feet away from the box. Squat down into a quarter squat and then reverse direction, jumping up and towards the box. Pull your legs up and land on the box like a graceful leopard. Stand up, then carefully return to the floor. It’s mostly used as a test of jumping ability, or for high reps onto a low box as a form of cardio. Be careful of overdoing this movement. If you fail, it’s easy to end up on a YouTube fail reel. This isn’t a great muscle or strength builder but worth mentioning as a fun option to try out your explosiveness occasionally. Just be careful. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 3 Recovery Cost: Low...but maybe High if you fail Rep range: 1-5 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Box Gun to my head, if I had to pick just three variations to choose from, I would pick high bar back squat, Bulgarian split squat, and front squat. Lunges would come in a very close fourth place. Movement Pattern Recap: Squatting is tough but builds the quads, glutes and lower back, some of the largest muscles in the body. 43 Row Rowing exercises involve the entire back fairly evenly, working the lats, traps and in many cases the spinal erectors in a balanced way. They add a density and thickness to the middle and upper back that no other type of exercise can replicate. As an added bonus they also will stimulate the forearms and biceps. They are also known as “horizontal pulling” exercises, because they generally involve pulling something towards your torso at a perpendicular angle. For most rowing movements, the last few inches of the range of motion as the bar or dumbbell approaches the body are the most difficult. In some rowing type movements it is possible to use leg and hip drive to get the weight moving, meaning that cheating will let you use a lot more weight than keeping strict form. I suggest keeping your form strict, at least at first. It’s not only safer, but you’ll ensure that any progress you make is the muscles you want to target getting stronger, and not just the result of cheating more. Because of this, most rowing exercises are better performed for higher reps and lighter weights, because at lower reps and heavier weights, most people tend to cheat more. Maxing out on rows is just not particularly productive. Pulling towards the belly button will work the lats and enhance the overall width of your back, whilst pulling higher will work on thickness more, building a granite-like density to the upper back. Flaring the elbows a bit will work the back of the shoulder (rear delts) slightly more, while tucking them will put more emphasis on the lats and area under the armpits. An underhand grip will work more biceps and lats, while an overhand grip will work the traps slightly more. Keep in mind that this is fairly individual, and you should experiment with which style feels the most natural and comfortable for each exercise. That’s paramount. Now go and row to grow. Cable Row This beginner-friendly variation involves sitting at a machine or cable station and pulling the weight towards you. A variety of handles can be used, which will target the back in a slightly different way. A hands-facing each other, narrow grip attachment is ideal, but all are good. Grab the handle and pull it towards you with your arms and back. At the end of every rep, focus on driving your elbows back and squeezing your shoulder blades back and together, like you are cracking an egg between them. Don’t use a real egg, because it gets messy and you’ll get kicked out of your gym. Trust me on this one. 44 Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable row machine Chest Supported Row Another useful and safe way to work your back, the chest supported row requires a machine that, as you may have guessed, supports the chest as you row the weight towards yourself. Hard to mess this movement up. Just grab the handles and pull them back, making sure to use a full range of motion. Again, crack that (metaphorical) egg between your shoulder blades. Slowly lower the weight and repeat for reps. You can also set up your own on an incline bench, and use dumbbells. In either variation, because the chest is supported, it is very easy on the lower back. You can even potentially let the shoulders sloop forwards a bit at the bottom of the range of motion to get a bit of extra stimulus, which is hard to do in more difficult variations. Additionally, it allows you to focus directly on the back without having to worry about stability or balance. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Machine or incline bench+dumbbells Machine Row A machine row is similar to a chest supported row, and also very simple-just sit there and pull the handles towards you. Every machine is slightly different, if your gym has a machine that you feel the back working well and is comfortable, it can be a 45 great addition to your program. Try it out. Keep in mind if you change gyms, the leverages might be different in the new machine, so any weights might seem lighter or heavier. Go by feel. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Machine row Bar Row Set up a bar in the rack about three feet off the ground. Lie on the ground with your chest up, then pull yourself to the bar. Try to get full range of motion, getting your chest close to the bar with each rep. Keep your body in a straight line if possible, keep your glutes firing throughout the set! This is a very safe rowing movement as there is no stress or compression on the lower back and can be surprisingly difficult, even for advanced athletes. Experiment with narrow or wide grips-narrower is a bit more biceps and forearms, while wider puts more emphasis on the back. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Assistance 46 Equipment: Power rack; bar One-Arm Dumbbell Row Grab a dumbbell and set up with one arm braced against a bench or a rack. With your back and biceps, pull the weight up and beside you under full control, not twisting the torso or using too much momentum. Using a dumbbell rather than a barbell or machine row has several benefits. One, you can address any left to right imbalances that you might have. If you are stronger on one side compared to the other, this can give you a useful tool to assess and solve that problem. Second, you can use greater range of motion when using a dumbbell, at both the top and bottom of the movement. Thirdly, you can freely rotate your arm, getting a better “squeeze” and “contraction” and potentially more muscle growth. Try not to cheat by using the legs or hips much, as that is a different exercise. One drawback is that your gym might not have heavy enough dumbbells once you get decently strong. You can use a bench or the dumbbell rack to brace against. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 12-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Dumbbell Seal Row This exercise requires a special, tall horizontal bench. Put the barbell below it, and reach down and pick it up, pulling it towards your mid-torso using your arms and back. Squeeze and return to the starting position. If the bench is too low, you won’t be able to get a full range of motion because the bar will start too high. It’s called a seal row not because of the navy seals but because with heavy weights people start flailing like a seal. Don’t do that, keep the form as strict as possible, using only the muscles you are trying to develop. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium 47 Rep range: 5-15 Priority: Assistance Equipment: High bench; barbell; plates Trap Bar Bent Over Row This exercise is a bit easier on the lower back than the standard barbell bent over row (see below) due to you standing inside of the center of mass. Deadlift the weight up, then bend forward at the hips. Start rowing, using the back and arms to pull the weight up and back towards you. The neutral grip is also easier on the wrists and shoulders for most people. Definitely worth including if you have access to this type of bar. If the bar hits you in the rear end, you may have to adjust your positioning, try staying more upright as you row. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Trap bar; plates Pendlay Row This row is a great upper back developer. It starts with the bar on the ground. Bend over, pushing the hips back and reaching down to the bar. Keep the lower back arched (stick your butt out) and chest up. The torso should be roughly parallel to the ground, with the arms hanging straight down, perpendicular to the bar. Row the bar up under control, pause with the weight touching your body (anywhere between belly button and sternum fine), then slowly return it to the ground. Your hips or back angle should 48 move minimally during the movement, it’s a back movement not a legs movement! You won’t be able to use as much weight because you are only pulling with the back and arms, not the legs or hips, but this in some ways is a good thing, because it ensures that you are using the correct muscles. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 5-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates Shrug This row-like exercise can be performed with dumbbells or a barbell, and is the best way to isolate the upper traps. To perform the exercise, simply pick up the weight and then shrug your shoulders up towards your ears as high as possible. Pause for a second, then lower the weight again, making sure to get a full stretch on the muscle in the bottom position. While cheating the weight with some leg and hip drive can allow more weight to be used, it’s best to keep the form strict on this one, there’s no point in overloading the lower back more than necessary. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 5-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Barbell+plates or dumbbells Barbell Bent Over Row This is the “basic” rowing exercise but is actually one of the more difficult variations. Deadlift the bar up. Starting from around the knees is advised as it will allow you to stay 49 tight. Lean over about forty-five degrees, making sure to push the hips back to reduce stress on the lower back. Use your arms and back to pull the weight towards you, making sure to touch the barbell to yourself with each rep. You can use some slight leg drive or keep them strict, but make sure to be consistent. It requires a lot of stability and strength in the hamstrings, glutes and lower back that many of the above variations don’t. It can become somewhat dangerous if you let your form break down-keep your lower back arched and chest proudly up! That being said, as often is the case with lifting weights, with greater risk comes greater reward. The barbell row is a great full body strength exercise and is a fantastic way to improve your deadlift as well. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 9 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 6-30 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates T-bar Row range of motion. This classic exercise builds the middle of the back extremely well and is a bit safer than a standard bent over row. It’s also awesome for biceps. You can either use a special machine, or do it old school: place one end of the barbell in the corner, and a dumbbell on top to hold it in place. Then place plates on the other end, grab the barbell and row it to the upper abdomen area. Pro Tip One: Use 10/15kg plates instead of 20/25kg to get a bigger 50 Pro Tip Two: Use a V-shape or rope handle attachment for even more range of motion. Pro Tip Three: Don’t hit yourself in the crotch. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates; V-handle Kroc Row This exercise can best be described as a massively cheated, super heavy one arm row, usually done for high reps. Unlike the strict one arm row, you can use leg and hip drive to get the weight going, just be sure to not twist with the lower back. Only do this exercise after you have mastered the standard one-arm row and have built a base of strength using that. Make sure to get a full range of motion, and if your grip strength is not sufficient, feel free to use straps. This exercise will murder the back of the shoulder (in a good way) and the middle traps. It’s also surprisingly good cardio. Even more so than the traditional one-arm row, it can be hard finding heavy enough dumbbells. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 20-50 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbell Rubish Row Named after the ancient Gregorian knight Sir Peter of the house Rubish, this is 51 similar to the Pendlay row but uses leg drive to get the bar moving off of the ground. Place the barbell on the ground, and set up like a conventional deadlift. Pulling with your arms and back, explosively extend your hips , pulling the weight up towards your belly button at the end of the motion. This means that much more weight can be used, but also means that it places a bit more stress on the lower back, so be somewhat conservative in weight selection and keep your core tight. It’s also good for explosive power and is a great deadlift accessory movement. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 3-12 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates One-Arm Barbell Row This unusual exercise is very different from both a standard two-handed barbell row and a one-arm dumbbell row. It’s somewhat similar to a Tbar row but only uses one arm. This allows a greater range of motion, as it lets you get a great stretch at the bottom of the motion and a fantastic contraction at the top. There are two main ways to perform this exercise. The first, shown on the left, involves standing to the side of the barbell facing the same way as it’s resting lengthwise. Grab the barbell inside the plate and pull it back alongside you, pausing at the finish. Lower it under control, getting a good stretch at the bottom. Allow your shoulder blade to come forward slightly for full range of motion, but don’t twist your torso. Repeat for reps. You can experiment with where you are standing in relation to the barbell to find 52 where is most comfortable for you. The second version is shown on the right, above, when you are facing perpendicular to the barbell. You’ll be holding the fat end of the barbell, so that you don’t hit yourself. Again, row and lower under control. This allows a slightly different feel to the movement. With your non-rowing hand you can let it hang, rest it on your thigh or make gang signs at other gym members for bonus points. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates If I had to choose just three movements from this section, I would pick the barbell bent over row, Kroc row and cable row/chest supported/machine row (whichever the gym has, some only have one of them). Movement Pattern Recap: Rowing exercises stimulate the traps, lats, biceps and forearms, making them one of the most potent developers of the upper body. 53 Push Pushing exercises work the triceps, front of the shoulder and chest. For all of the exercises below, elbow and especially shoulder health is crucial. Generally speaking, “tucking” the elbows in closer to your sides rather than letting them flare out is much more forgiving on your shoulders, as is taking a narrower grip on the bar when doing barbell exercises. If you are wide bench pressing with your upper arms perpendicular to your torso, shoulder problems are generally not a question of if-they are a question of when. Another factor to keep in mind is to keep your shoulder blades as retracted as possible to give yourself a strong and safe position to push from. This requires a strong upper back. Make sure you balance your pushing exercises with rowing ones, particularly cable rows and chest supported rows with a squeeze at the end range of motion and your shoulders pulled back. You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe! Stability of this region is crucial. Pushup The pushup (or press up for those from ye old England) has likely been around since fish flopped out of the ocean and started evolving arms. Get down on the floor in a plank position, with just your feet and hands touching the floor. Lower yourself by bending your elbows and shoulders, going down until your chest almost touches the floor, then push yourself back up. Your body should be in a straight line the entire time, not sagging or arched up. Your elbows should be TUCKED not flared out, they should be roughly 45 degrees when looked at from a birds eye view. Let’s both hope that bird doesn’t relieve itself on you! There are a lot of upsides to the pushup. It’s extremely convenient, very safe and is very easy to recover from. The only real downside is that eventually you’ll get to the point where pushups aren’t really heavy enough to stimulate growth-you can add weight but it’s a bit hard to do without a partner. Useful variations include clapping pushups, feet elevated pushups, one-arm pushups and diamond pushups with the hands together. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: as many as you can Priority: Assistance Equipment: None! 54 Machine Press Most machines aren’t worth the metal they’re made out of, but often machine chest presses are pretty good. They’re one of the few that work for most people, and if you have one at your disposal it could be worth trying out to see if it’s right for you. The motion is pretty simple, just push the handles away from you using your chest and arms, until your arms are almost straight. Return to the starting position. A machine can be great for beginners for a variety of reasons. First, they are completely safe and there is no intimidation factor. Second, they require less work from your stabilizer muscles, you just sit down and push the handles back and forth. Finally, they are easy and require less coordination and practice. For more advanced athletes, they might not provide enough stimulus for those same reasons that they are ideal for beginners. However, they might still be worth including in your programming if they feel good for you, even at intermediate and advanced levels. Higher reps are generally better. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Press machine Dumbbell Bench Press Grab two dumbbells and sit down on the bench, putting them on your thighs. Lie back, at the same time moving the dumbbells into position over your shoulders. Press them up above you using your chest and arms, moving both dumbbells together. Pause at the top, then lower them 55 back down again till your upper arms are roughly parallel with the floor. Repeat. Using dumbbells to press has several advantages. One is that you can rotate your shoulders however you want at any point in the motion, whereas when using a barbell, you are somewhat locked in. Another plus is that you can use a greater range of motion than a barbell at both the top and bottom of the exercise. Finally, dumbbells are innately safer than a barbell. If you fail with dumbbells you can just drop them to the sides, but with a barbell you now have a heavy weight on your chest (or on your face or neck if you’re less lucky). They can also highlight any muscle imbalances that you might have-if one dumbbell is reaching the top first and the other is lagging behind, you’ll need to address that. A worthwhile exercise to include in any program. Make sure you use full range of motion, bringing the ‘bells down to almost your armpits at the bottom, and squeezing your chest at the top. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Dumbbells; bench Assisted Dips The dip is a fantastic upper body movement, but many beginners cannot do a single bodyweight dip, let alone several in a row. Using a machine to effectively reduce your own body weight is a good way to learn the proper technique of the dip. Adjust the weight-unlike most exercises, the more weight you use, the easier it gets, as the weight is assisting you. Hold onto the handles and get on the pad, in that order. If you just hop on the pad, you’ll drop like a rock. Bending at your elbows and shoulders, lower yourself till your upper arms are roughly parallel with the floor, then push yourself back up. Repeat. 56 You can also use a band to support your own bodyweight, just make sure that you always use the same band so that you can accurately measure progress. Different types of bands have different amounts of tension, so they provide different amounts of assistance. Some gyms also have a machine that you can mimic the dip movement with various amounts of weight. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Assisted dip/pullup machine Close Grip Bench Press This variant of the bench press lets you use about ninety percent of your standard bench press weight while being much easier on the shoulders, which is why I always advocate starting with this exercise over a wider grip. Set up the bar in the bench press, it should ideally be just under the height of your outstretched arms. Grab the bar with your hands about shoulder width apart, then lift it carefully out of the rack. Lower it down to around your sternum area, then push it back up and repeat for reps. A grip around shoulder width is ideal. A bit narrower hits the triceps harder but limits the amount of weight you can use. At the bottom position your hands should be just outside your ribs. An extremely narrow grip width really hammers the triceps but also puts excessive stress on the wrists, so should be avoided. It ain’t worth it. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium 57 Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Bench press; barbell; plates Incline Press This movement uses a special bench that places you at an angle. This makes it somewhere between a flat bench press and an overhead press, which is in the pressing movement pattern. To carry out the exercise, take the bar out of the rack, then lower it under control to your sternum, keeping your chest as high as possible. Press it back up to the starting position. As you might suspect, this means it works the shoulders, chest and triceps, with an emphasis on the upper chest. Many people find that this exercise is easier on the shoulder joint compared to the flat bench press. Dumbbells or a barbell can (and should) both be used. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Incline bench; barbell+plates or dumbbells Dips Along with pullups (see the pull movement pattern section), it’s possible to develop a great upper body without using a barbell or dumbbells at all! Dips are a great chest, shoulder and triceps builder, and you only need a set of parallel bars. You can find these in many parks-doing a few sets of pullups and dips is a very convenient workout. 58 Grab the handles and jump up, holding yourself with almost straight arms. Bend at the shoulders and the elbows, lowering yourself under control until your upper arms are roughly parallel with the floor, then push down through the handles to return to the starting position. You can add weight by stringing plates through a chain hanging from a special “dip belt”, stringing chains around your shoulders or by shoving a dumbbell in between your legs, but for most people there is no need to add weight for a long time. There are lots of ways to progress without adding weight: slowing down the movement, focusing on the muscles involved, pausing at the bottom position, doing high reps sets, resting less…if you can work up to sets of fifteen to twenty with a slow lowering and pause at the bottom, that shows incredible strength and endurance, and is probably accompanied with a huge upper body. Some people find that dips bother their shoulders, clavicles and/or sternum. If that is consistently the case for you, then the answer is simple: don’t do dips. They’re an awesome exercise, but no movement is worth getting injured over. That’s also why there’s no point in doing very low reps for dips, the risk is just not worth it. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 8-as many as you can Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Dip station (and maybe a dumbbell, chains or dip belt+plates) Fly The dumbbell fly is not really a compound “pushing” exercise, but it is a fantastic chest builder and thus is included in this section. Set up is similar to the dumbbell bench press, but you’ll be using lighter weights, likely half or less. Press them up to the top position, then with relatively straight arms, lower them down till you feel a stretch in your chest. Squeezing your chest, lift them back up to the top. Be sure to get a full range of motion. If you cannot, lower the weight. 59 The main benefit of this exercise is the stretch at the bottom, so make sure you are feeling that. You can do them on flat, incline or decline benches, and can lower the dumbbells tucked to your sides or more flared out. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Bench; dumbbells Wide Dips This exercise is done identically to dips, but with a wider grip. Doing dips with a wide grip puts more stress on the chest, but also the shoulder joint. If your shoulders can tolerate it, it’s a good variation to try, but start with the narrower grip width first. Dips (both wide and narrow) generally place a lot of stress on the sternum (breastbone) and clavicles (collarbones), so monitor your body to see how you respond to the exercise. Pursed lips are optional. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 8-as many as you can Priority: Assistance Equipment: Wide dip station (and maybe a dumbbell, chains or dip belt+plates) Cable Crossover This isn’t really a compound pushing 60 exercise, but it is a great chest movement. Set up both sides of the cable station at the same height, using the basic single hand attachment. Grab both handles and walk out a few feet from the station. Bring the handles in front of you in a sweeping motion, briefly touching them together and squeezing your chest at the end. Return to the starting position under control, and repeat for reps. You can use any height-lower heights will work the upper chest (see left picture), higher heights will work the lower chest (see right picture), while the middle will work (you guessed it) the middle. You won’t be able to go super heavy on this movement, but it allows for a great range of motion and is relatively easy on the shoulders. Make sure to get both a stretch and squeeze. This isn’t really a movement suitable for explosiveness, just try to control the weight and feel the muscles working. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Cable station Wide Grip Bench Press This exercise is set up like a close grip bench press, but the hands are about twice as wide on the barbell. It’s lowered to the same area, but the range of motion is much shorter. Be sure to keep your upper back tight. Similar to the wide dip, a wide grip bench press will work more chest than tricep. This is much harder on the shoulder joint compared to the close grip variation and should be done sparingly. You CAN max out on this variation, but usually higher reps are better. It is wise to warm up well before this exercise. Try placing it later during the workout and using lighter weights under control. Another good idea is to combine it with a rowing movement to make sure that the positioning of your upper back is perfect, as this will help avoid injury. Difficulty: Advanced 61 Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: High Rep range: 1-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Bench press; barbell; plates Decline Bench Press While less common than an incline bench, some gyms do have a decline bench. The movement is similar to a close grip bench press, except the bar usually touches slightly lower on the chest, and the range of motion is shorter. This movement is a great overall chest builder. Many people find that they can use more weight than the flat bench press and it’s easier on the shoulder joints. It helps to have a partner to assist you in unracking the weight; it’s significantly more difficult than in a flat bench press. Dumbbells can also be used. Another tip is to use a normal flat or adjustable bench and put a plate under one end. Depending on which end, this will turn it from a flat bench into a slight decline or slight incline. Everyone has a unique shoulder joint anatomy, and a small five to ten percent change in angle could turn a painful movement into a completely pain-free one. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Decline bench press; barbell+plates or dumbbells 62 Reverse Grip Bench Press This odd-looking exercise is a standard bench press but using a grip that is…well, reversed…so your palms are facing you. Grab the bar in the reverse grip with your thumbs wrapped around the bar, and lift it out of the rack. Lower it under control to your chest, then return it to the starting position and repeat for reps. It tends to place less stress on the shoulders and more emphasis on the upper chest, which are both good things. However, for some it causes wrist pain, and unracking the bar without a partner is potentially dangerous, so only use this variation after you have a lot of experience under the bar, and definitely use a spotter when going heavy, or do it in a power rack with safety bars. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Bench press; barbell; plates If I had to choose three exercises from here, it would be close grip bench press, incline press, and dips. Movement Pattern Recap: Pushing movements put slabs of muscle on your chest, shoulders and triceps, making them an irreplaceable part of any program. 63 Pull Pulling exercises generally involve using the back and arms to pull something towards the body, generally in a downward, vertical direction. They differ from rowing exercises in that generally the plane of movement is parallel to the body rather than perpendicular-hence they are often referred to as “vertical pulling exercises” or “vertical pulls”. Whilst they are not as good of a trap developer as rows, they are fantastic at building the overall width of the back by developing the lats. Pulldown This machine exercise is one of the staples of any gym, and for good reason: it is a great upper body exercise. The amount of weight can be adjusted, making this ideal for beginners who might not yet be comfortable with using their own bodyweight when doing a pullup. Higher reps are generally better, the twelve to twenty rep range being ideal. Sit down. Reach up and grab the attachment, then pull it down towards your chest using your arms and back. Squeeze your back at the end, keeping your chest up. Return it to the starting position, making sure to get a good stretch, a full range of motion is imperative! A bit of a backwards lean is acceptable, and actually increases lat activation, but avoid swinging too much and using momentum to pull the weight down. A variety of attachments can be used. My personal favorite is a hands facing each other (neutral grip) narrow attachment, although wider neutral grip and straight bars are good as well. Both over and underhand grips are fine, experiment with which feels best for YOU. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Pulldown machine Standing Cable Pullover Using a cable pulley machine is a great way to hone in on the lats whilst taking the biceps out of the equation. The tricep is also heavily involved in this exercise, as it helps to extend 64 the shoulder joint. Set the cable attachment to the highest possible setting for best results. I like to use a rope attachment, but a straight bar is also fine. Under control and with nearly straight arms, pull the attachment down and towards you in an arc, keeping your chest up. Pause with your hands down near your hips and your back in the contracted position, then slowly re-extend your arms straight out in front of you, getting a good stretch on the lats. Don’t jerk the weight or use momentum, this movement is best done under control. Reduce the weight if you need to. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Dual Handle Cable Pulldown This cable exercise is easy to learn and a great way to stimulate the lats, lower traps and biceps. To perform the exercise, set up both cables with a single grip attachment each in the cable station around chest height. Grab the handles and sink down into a seated position with your legs out in front of you. Under control, pull the cable down and towards you, squeezing your elbows down into your sides and holding for a second. Slowly return to the starting position, making sure to get a full range of motion. A wide or narrow cable station will result in a different angle of pull, so if you are in a new gym be aware that the movement will feel slightly different. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 65 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Chinup/Neutral Grip Pullup The chinup is a classic exercise that involves the forearms, biceps, lats and core muscles working together to pull the body from a hanging and extended position up to and over the bar. It uses an attachment as shown in order to have your hands facing each other. A chinup is an underhand grip, with your palms are facing towards you. Hanging from the bar with your legs motionless, use your arms and back to pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Slowly lower yourself back down to full extension and then repeat. The difference between grips isn’t great, both are working the same muscle groups, but there is enough that it is worth changing occasionally. Similar to a dip, weight can be added in the form of a weighted vest or backpack, a dumbbell or plates attached to a chain that is hanging between your legs, or a dumbbell squeezed betwixt thy nether region. Unlike pulldowns, where you should never try a one rep max, with this movement it is a viable option to try occasionally. Just don’t get carried away with doing it. The five to fifteen rep range is better than maxing out all the time. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 1-as many as you can Priority: Main Movement Equipment: A bar (and maybe a dumbbell, dip belt+plates) Wide grip pullup The wide grip pullup, often just referred to as a pullup, is typically only used with the overhand grip. It’s a great outer back developer. It is slightly more challenging than a narrower grip, but the range of motion is slightly lower at the 66 shoulder joint. This makes it an inferior lat developer, but definitely hits the smaller assistance muscles of the lower traps and back of the shoulder much harder, making it worthwhile to include occasionally. Again, hang from the bar with your legs motionless, use your arms and back to pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Slowly lower yourself back down and then repeat. Again, you CAN max out but definitely don’t do it all the time. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-as many as you can Priority: Assistance Equipment: A bar (and maybe a dumbbell, dip belt+plates) Dumbbell Pullover This old school exercise isn’t seen much anymore, which really is a shame. Depending on your technique, it can be used to work the triceps, lats, chest or abs…talk about an exercise superstar! Mind your shoulder position when doing these, it’s definitely best to start lighter and progress very slowly, as the bottom position puts the shoulder joint in a potentially precarious situation. Lie down across the bench and get the dumbbell in position. If it’s heavy, you might want to have a training partner help you. Lower the dumbbell back and down behind you till you feel a stretch in your lats, then return it to the starting position above you. Only go down as far as is comfortable, and always keep the weight one hundred percent under control. You may want to “test” the depth as the set goes on and you loosen up. Slightly bent arms will work the triceps more, bringing the elbows in closer together will work the chest more than the lats, while crunching the pelvis up towards you during the lifting portion will activate the abs, but these are just rules of thumb. What matters most is where you feel it. With time you’ll be able to alter your individual form to attack the area that you want to develop. You can also do this on a decline bench for increased difficulty. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 10-30 67 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Bench; dumbbell Behind the neck pulldown Using a wide grip, pulling the bar down behind you instead of in front of you allows a better contraction of the lats and mid-back muscles. Grab the bar and, under control, pull it down and behind you, pausing at the finish. Raise your arms back up to the starting position and repeat. This is best done with lighter weights, and if it feels uncomfortable or painful, don’t do it at all. Some people-often those who sit at computers all day-don’t have the shoulder mobility to safely do this exercise, which is why it’s in the advanced section. If you sit at a computer all day, it might not be for you. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 15-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Pulldown machine One-arm pullup This incredibly difficult exercise (full disclosure: I still haven’t done one yet!) is less of a muscle builder and more of a crowning achievement of bicep and lat strength. As the name implies, it simply involves pulling yourself up…with one arm. Rarely does the term “easier said than done” apply more! To perform the exercise, hang from one arm, then pull yourself up to the bar. You’ll have to twist slightly as you go up to keep balance. Repeat for reps…if you’re herculean. Having a low body weight helps a lot, so if you have excess body fat or even just leg muscular development, this might be impossible for you, but give it a shot. Hanging with one arm (see middle of picture above), slow eccentrics and one-arm pulldowns in the three to ten rep range (see picture to the right) are good places to start building up. 68 Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: Even one is awesome Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Pulldown machine or bar If I had to choose three exercises from here, it would be neutral grip pullups, pulldowns and standing pullovers. They’re all great exercises that are safe, easy to recover from and you can add lots of weight over time. Movement Pattern Recap: Pulling exercises are the best lat developers, and also involve the biceps and forearms, making them critical for a balanced physique. 69 Press This variety of exercises focuses on moving something over your head, generally either a barbell or dumbbells. The prime movers are the triceps and shoulders, although there is often a lot of upper back, upper chest and core activation as well. These exercises improve your body from every angle. Machine shoulder presses do exist, but unlike chest presses, the majority are pretty shit. Feel free to try them out to see if you like them, though. The final few variations listed still involve moving something overhead, but work primarily the core and legs, rather than the triceps and shoulders. They aren’t really “pressing” movements, but they go in this section anyway, ‘cause I can write the book any way I want to. Seated Dumbbell Press This basic exercise works the entire shoulder, upper traps and triceps. Start with the dumbbells resting on your thighs and use your legs to help “kick” the weights up into position. Press the weights up over your head, keeping the dumbbells over your elbow and following a natural arc. At the top the dumbbells should almost touch each other. Lower to the bottom position with the dumbbells almost touching your shoulders, and repeat. Because the exercise is performed seated, you can focus entirely on the muscles being used. Sets of at least six reps are a good idea. Anything heavier and it becomes hard to get the dumbbells into position. Use a full range of motion and avoid the temptation to arch your back to use your chest. It’s a shoulder exercise. Arching can also put stress on the lower back. Don’t do it. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Seat; dumbbells Arnold Press The Arnold Press is named after the 70 most famous bodybuilder of all time, Schwarzenegger. It is similar to a basic dumbbell overhead press but the range of motion is increased by bringing the dumbbells together in front of you. Start with the weights just below your chin and your knuckles facing away from you. Press them up, rotating your arms outwards as you lift. Pause at the top and them lower them back to the starting position. Focus on controlling the weights and pushing both up and behind you. You won’t be able to use as much weight as the basic dumbbell press but it should still give good results in terms of muscular development. Higher reps are better, usually anywhere from eight to twenty is good. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Seat; dumbbells Standing Barbell Overhead Press The basic barbell overhead press is a staple exercise that has been around for centuries. It’s also known simply as the overhead press (OHP) or even more simply as “the press”. If someone asks how much you press, they’re asking about this exercise. You can either take the weight out of a rack or hoist it to the starting position. Take a deep breath of air and brace your core, squeezing your abs and glutes. Press the weight overhead using your shoulders and arms. Lower the bar under control and repeat for reps. Higher or lower reps are both good. Experiment with a narrow, medium or wider grip-a narrow to medium grip is generally easiest on the shoulder joint but a wider grip can get more shoulder muscle activation. Again, experiment with what works for you. Keep your abs and glutes tight, don’t arch your back. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium 71 Rep range: 1-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates (squat/power rack optional) Klokov Press The Klokov press is named after the Russian weightlifter and modern legend Dmitri Klokov. It is a wide grip, behind the neck press. Set up like a squat, with the bar on your shoulders. Place your hands with your index fingers on the rings of the barbell. Unrack the bar and step a couple steps back. Take a big breath of air, then press the barbell up till your arms are nearly straight. Lower the bar back to your shoulders and repeat. The wide grip makes it much more comfortable than a narrower grip behind the neck press. Anything over three reps is OK. Make sure you have adequate shoulder mobility before doing any behind the neck pressing. If this exercise feels awkward or uncomfortable, do not do it. It’s a great exercise but not worth getting hurt over. That being said, it IS typically easier on the lower back than pressing from the front. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 3-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates (squat/power rack optional) Z-Press This is a press performed in a seated position on the floor. You’ll need a power rack. Arrange the supports so that the bar is resting around your collarbones or slightly above. Scoop the bar up and press it overhead exactly like in an overhead press, using only the 72 muscles of your arms and shoulders. Make sure to keep your legs on the ground…try to stick your head through the gap between your arms as soon as possible, which will help you from falling over backwards. You won’t be able to use as much weight as the standing variety, but it is a great way to mix things up or if you have a lower back injury, as it puts less stress on the spine and pelvis. It works the abs and hip flexors in a very unique way as well. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 3-15 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates; squat or power rack Push Press The push press is similar to a barbell overhead press but it uses some leg drive to get the bar moving overhead. Because of this, you can use more weight, usually around fifteen to thirty percent more. Take the bar in an overhand grip, with your thumbs wrapped around the bar. Take a deep breath and brace, then take the bar out of the rack and step out a foot or two from the rack. If you have to rebrace, do so, then squat down into a quarter squat position. Change direction, using the power of your legs and hips to launch the barbell into the air above you. As the barbell slows, continue to press the bar overhead, using your arms and shoulders to lock the bar out overhead. 73 Holding the bar overhead for as long as possible can also be a fantastic way to stimulate the shoulders, traps and core. Lower reps, between one and five, are best. This is a great bridge between bodybuilding and Olympic weightlifting as it teaches you to be explosive while still using the shoulders and arms to move the weight. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 8 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 1-5 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates (squat/power rack optional) Bradford Press The Bradford press involves pressing the weight from a forward position over your head and lowering it behind your head, then pressing it back over your head and lowering it in front. Unrack the weight, then press it up and behind you, over your head. Lower it slowly part of the way down behind your head, then reverse direction, pressing it back above your head and lowering it back down in front of you, returning to the starting position. This limits the amount of weight you can use but the constant tension on the shoulders can create a nice growth stimulus if you are in a rut. You should develop a rhythm after a few reps. Your head can move slightly forwards and backwards to accommodate the path of the barbell, but not an excessive amount. Keep the reps higher, usually at least eight and even up to twenty. Again, make sure you have adequate shoulder mobility before doing any behind the neck pressing. If it gives you pain or discomfort, ditch it. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium/High 74 Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates (squat/power rack optional) Jerk The jerk is a type of Olympic lifting that involves the legs and hips more than the shoulders and arms. Instead of focusing on driving the weight up with your arms, the goal is to drive yourself under the bar. More weight than a push press can be used, and lower reps from one to three are ideal. I would suggest looking up how to do it on Youtube (or Youku), as it is quite a complex movement. It requires incredibly fast timing and precision. If you are too fast or too slow, or out of position by even a few millimeters, you’ll miss the lift. Definitely an advanced movement, I’d recommend push presses for several months before attempting this. As I mentioned before, they’re a good bridge between bodybuilding and Olympic weightlifting. There are two main ways to do this lift. They both start the same way. Unrack the bar, and step back a couple of feet (first picture). Brace your core, then dip down into a quarter squat, keeping tension on the bar. Change direction, exploding tremendously through the ankles, knees and hips as you explosively catapult the bar overhead. In the first method (middle picture), quickly dip back into a quarter squat and catch the bar overhead. This is called a power jerk. In the second method, instead of catching the bar with both legs together, you put one leg in front and the other behind you, as in the last picture. Most people find this position to be more stable and allows them to get lower, so they can lift more weight. This second method is called a split jerk, and is how most Olympic lifters compete. The Jerk is a fine way to train explosive power, but takes a lot of specific training, so before you put it into a training plan, ask yourself if you are ready to commit yourself to learning it. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 1-3 75 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell; plates (squat/power rack optional) If I had to select just three pressing exercises, they would probably be standing overhead barbell press (OHP), seated dumbbell press and push press. Movement Pattern Recap: Pressing is incredible for shoulder development and as an added bonus your triceps get some work, making them a must for any program. 76 Shoulders Many of the exercises listed above will develop various parts of the shoulder. Pushing and pressing exercises will develop the front part of the shoulder, while pulling, rowing and some hinge exercises will target the back of the shoulders, but for complete development you’ll want some more focused exercises. These should not form the basis of your workout, they are best thought of as a supplement to add on to the end of a workout to keep your shoulders healthy and ensure that you are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to your progress, so to speak. You’ll notice that they all have the same rep range of twelve to thirty reps, because the shoulders respond better to isolation work with higher reps. There’s really no point in going under twelve reps for these exercises, as most people tend to cheat the weight too much, and the risk/reward isn’t worth it. You’re already getting the heavy shoulder stimulation from pullups, pulldowns, dips, bench pressing, overhead pressing, push pressing: these are more higher rep exercises done a bit lighter. Seated Lateral Raise Sit down on a bench or seat, and grab two dumbbells. Under control, raise them up until your arms are roughly parallel with the floor. Lower them under control back to your sides, and repeat for reps. This will target the entire shoulder, but especially the side of the shoulder that many other exercises cannot effectively hit. You won’t be able to use much weight with this exercise, so don’t be underwhelmed if you are using 5kg dumbbells or less. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Seat; dumbbells 77 Reverse Pec Dec This machine exercise hits the traps and the back of the shoulder delightfully. Higher reps are best, and this exercise is ideally suited to drop sets (see compendium five), as it is very easy to adjust the weight downward with each set. Set up the machine with the handles as close to the machine as possible, most have holes that you can select to adjust the position of the handles. Sit down facing the weight stack, and grab the handles. You can push with the side of your palm as shown in the pictures, or grab the horizontal handles. Using the back of your shoulders, push the handles back as far as you can behind you, squeeze for a second, then return them to the starting position. Repeat for reps. To hit the traps harder, you can squeeze your shoulder blades together. To target the rear delts, keep them apart and focus on pushing more “out” rather than “back”. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Seat; dumbbells Prone Rear Delt Raise The back of the shoulder is a small but essential area for both aesthetics and shoulder joint health. Lie down on an incline bench, set at a fairly shallow angle. Grab two dumbbells on the floor just below you and raise them up until your upper arms are roughly parallel with the floor. Lower them back down in front of you and repeat. This exercise is very safe and targets the back of the shoulder and traps very effectively. It’s also almost impossible to mess up, making it great for beginners and drop sets. 78 Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Incline Bench; dumbbells Machine Lateral Raise This somewhat rare machine is a very safe way to grow your shoulders. Adjust the machine pads so that they are resting just above your elbows. Using your shoulders, lift your elbows up as high as possible, how high this is will depend on the machine itself. Slowly lower the pads back down to the starting position and repeat. This machine is great for those with injured elbows: when you do a typical lateral raise with dumbbells, the weight is in your hands and thus it does place torque on the elbow joint. With this exercise, the force is actually above the elbow, so the joint gets almost no tension. This exercise is also almost impossible to cheat at, which definitely is not something that can be said of typical lateral raises. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Lateral Raise Machine Face Pull Building big muscles is great and all, but health is vital as well. One of the best exercises for shoulder health, the face pull is a 79 crucial exercise to include in any program, especially if you are bench pressing. Use a rope attachment and set the cable height to around face height. Take one side of the rope attachment in each hand. You can hold the “ball” of the rope attachment between your fingers with index and middle fingers above, and pinky and ring fingers below, or you can just grab the rope itself with your whole hand. I prefer the former but the latter is simpler. Slowly and under control, pull it toward your forehead. Pause with your upper back and shoulders contracted, then slowly return to the starting position. Try not to jerk the weight. The hardest part of the motion is at the very end where the rope is near your face, so try to focus on that end contraction. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Seated Rear Delt Raise This exercise involves sitting down on a seat or bench, bending forward, and raising the dumbbells until your upper arms are roughly parallel with the ground. This is a very safe exercise and a good way to get in a lot of volume for the back of the shoulder-it is almost pure isolation of the muscle you want to develop. How much you want to bend forward is up to you, experiment with what feels comfortable. Anywhere from your torso being parallel with the floor to a forty-five degree angle is fine. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Seat; dumbbells 80 Lateral Raise This is similar to the first exercise listed in this section, but is performed standing up. Grab two dumbbells, and stand up. Using your shoulders, raise your arms to the sides till they are around parallel with the ground. Return to the starting position with the dumbbells under control, and repeat for reps. Compared to the seated version, this allows slightly more weight to be used, but make sure that the “cheating” of the weight is only slight, the weight should still be under control at all times. The elbows should be slightly bent when doing this movement. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Dumbbells Standing Rear Delt Raise Quite similar to the prone rear delt raise above, this exercise involves bending over from a standing position till the torso is roughly parallel with the ground, then using the back of the shoulder to raise your arms. This means that the hamstrings, glutes and lower back are under tension during the movement. Some people say that they can feel the back of the shoulder working more effectively with this variation, try it out and see if you prefer it to the seated version. It is also a great trap exercise. Difficulty:Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 81 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbells Cable Rear Delt Raise This is one of the best rear delt exercises out there, because it has a huge range of motion. To perform the exercise, set up both sides of the cable station around shoulder height with the single hand attachment. Reaching across your body with your right arm, grab the left side handle. Move to the right side and grab the right side handle with your left hand. Move to the middle, you should now be standing with your arms across your body as in the top picture. Using the back of your shoulders, straighten your arms and extend them fully, making a T with your body, as in the bottom picture. Return to the starting position under control and repeat. When finished, place one cable back and then the other. It can take a few sets to get used to how to actually disentangle yourself from the cables. You won’t be able to use a lot of weight for this exercise, but the range of motion and constant tension make it a big winner. Please ignore the fact that the two pictures fused together makes it look like my head is up my own ass. Difficulty:Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Cable Lateral Raise Trot on over to the cable station, and put the handle attachment on the lowest setting. You won’t be able to use much weight for this 82 exercise, so start light. Facing perpendicular to the cable station, reach down and across your body with the arm that is further away from the cable, and grab the handle. Without twisting, use your shoulder muscles to lift your arm up and across your body, pausing at the top. Repeat for reps. This movement can bother the elbows of some due to the angle of the pull, so if that is the case for you, do this movement sparingly or not at all. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Cable station Bus Driver This somewhat humorously named exercise hits the shoulders as well as the traps and a bit of biceps. Grab a plate and lift it up in front of you with both arms. Rotate the plate to the left until your left hand is on the bottom and your right hand is on top. Pause and then slowly reverse direction, until your right hand is on the bottom and your left hand is on top. Return to the center. That’s one rep. Most people will probably start out with using a 5k or 10kg plate, so don’t expect to go super heavy on this one. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 3 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: A plate 83 Front Raise The front raise, as you might imagine, targets the front of the shoulder. Usually the front of the shoulder gets plenty of work in from pushing and pressing exercises, but this can be a nice way to get in more volume by isolating it. Perform this exercise by grabbing either a pair of dumbbells or a plate. Standing in one place, raise your arm in front of you till your hand is about face level, then lower it back down to your side. If using dumbbells, alternate the left and right arms. If using a plate, hold it with both hands and lift with them together. When using a plate, you can also try raising the plate all the way over your head: this will work the upper back really hard as well. Do not drop the plate on your head. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Dumbbells or plate Smith Machine Upright Row This movement is a strange amalgamation of row and lateral raise that works the traps, biceps, shoulders and forearms. I greatly prefer the smith machine for this exercise, it puts the shoulders in a potentially precarious position so this is a rare case that it’s better to have the stability that the smith machine offers. While standing, grab the smith machine bar with a wide grip, roughly 50% wider than shoulder width is best. Keeping the bar close to you, lean forward slightly and pull it upwards, flaring your elbows and raising them at the top. This movement can be stressful on the shoulders, so if it feels uncomfortable or painful, don’t do it. There are lots of other good movements to choose from. Difficulty: Advanced 84 Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Smith Machine, plates If a mad scientist had a loved one hostage and forced me to name the three most effective exercises here to help him make the best possible shoulder gains, I’d have to go with lateral raises, face pulls, and standing rear delt raises. Movement Pattern Recap: Shoulder exercises target the specific parts of the shoulder muscle, giving you better all around development than other movements. 85 Curl While the biceps are recruited during both pulling and rowing exercises, for full development, you’ll absolutely want some more specific exercises to target them. Curling exercises of all kinds fit the bill perfectly. Seated Dumbbell Curl Grab a couple of ‘bells and plop down on a bench. Starting with one arm, curl the weight up, being sure not to twist or rock too much. Lower the weight under control, then do the same with the opposite arm. Using a pair of dumbbells to curl while seated has a few advantages that makes it worth including in your program. One, because you are seated, it is easier to focus on using the arms to lift the weight, instead of any other body part. Two, it allows you to freely rotate your shoulders and wrists, which means that it is easier on the joints. Third, you can assess strength differences between your left and right arms. Those are normal but are best corrected, just do the same number of reps on both sides and eventually the imbalance should fix itself over time. You can also curl both dumbbells at the same time rather than alternate left and right, but I prefer the latter as you can really focus on one arm at a time. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 4-12 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Seat; dumbbells Cable Hammer Curl The cable hammer curl is one of the best exercises for the brachialis, a small muscle that is in the middle of the arm, between the bicep and tricep. Usually it is not apparent, but at low body fat percentages, it is visible as a ball between the bicep and tricep. Using a rope attachment, set the cable 86 to the lowest setting. Grab the end of the rope and stand up. Keeping your thumbs up and knuckles facing each other, use your arms to curl the weight up towards your chest. Pause at the top, then lower the weight under control and repeat for reps. Don’t arch your back, lean backwards or heave the weight up: if anything, lean slightly forward and keep the weight under control. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Machine Preacher Curl This is one of the few machines that I like, and it’s a great variation to try if your gym has this machine. It usually provides a very even resistance curve: the bottom, middle and upper range of motion are all equally challenging. Adjust the machine so that the handles feel comfortable. Grab the handles with both hands, and smoothly lift them up, squeezing your biceps at the top of the motion. Lower to nearly straight arms and repeat. You can also do one arm at a time. Lower and higher reps are both fine. This works well as a finisher for the end of a workout. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Preacher curl machine Strict Curl The strict curl is a variation of the barbell curl where you stand with 87 your hips, back and shoulders against an immovable object. This prevents cheating and thus focuses all of the tension of the movement on the biceps muscle. Stand up with the weight, and put your shoulders, back and butt against a wall or post. Curl the weight up, using only your arms. Curl it all the way to where your forearms are vertical, then return under control to the starting position. You can’t really use legs and back to help if only the arms are moving, which can be a useful reality check. If there is a big difference between your barbell curl and strict curl, you may wish to either focus more on the strict curl for a while, or clean up your form a bit on the barbell curl as you are possibly cheating too much. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 1-12 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; Plates; place to lean against Preacher Curl This classic exercise is a great isolation movement that really allows you to get a good stretch on the muscle. Place your upper arm(s) on the pad of the machine or bench as shown, then slowly lower the weight. When your arm is almost fully straight, curl the weight back up and repeat for reps. Make sure to go all the way down to the bottom, the most difficult part is at the very bottom, and that is where most of the benefit is as well. Don’t cheat yourself out of some gains! This can be done using both arms together on a barbell or one arm at a time using a single dumbbell. The barbell is more time efficient so I’d suggest that. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Assistance 88 Equipment: Preacher curl station or incline bench; EZ-curl bar or dumbbell Spider Curl This exercise is a great way to isolate the biceps. Because the arms are hanging down, it takes the shoulders out of the motion completely, making it almost impossible to cheat. Set up an incline bench, probably on the lowest setting, but maybe the second lowest. You should have enough room to use full range of motion, so if the barbell is hitting the bottom of the bench, raise it up a notch. Lie down on the bench and grab the barbell. Using your biceps, curl it up as high as you can. Squeeze at the top, then lower it back to the starting position and repeat for reps. Don’t swing the weight at all, it’s better to start each rep from a dead hang. Visualize curling with your pinky fingers, putting the tension on the inside of your hands will increase bicep activation. Also picture keeping your shoulders as low as possible-just let your arms hang down. If your shoulders begin to shrug up, the exercise will be a lot less effective. You can do this exercise with dumbbells, but I’d recommend a barbell, if only to save time. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 6-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Incline Bench, barbell or dumbbells 1-arm Cable Curl Set up the cable machine with a single arm attachment. Stand just beside but facing away from the machine, then reach down and grab the cable. Step away a few feet, then curl the cable in front of you, pausing at full flexion. Slowly return to the starting position, making sure to use a full 89 range of motion-get a good stretch on that bicep! This exercise puts constant tension on the bicep, making it a good choice for your last arm exercise of the day, you’ll leave the gym with your bicep so full of blood you won’t be able to itch your nose. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Cable station Incline Dumbbell Curl Similar to the seated dumbbell curl, this exercise involves using two dumbbells as resistance. Sit yo’ fine ass down. Keeping your back against the bench, curl the weight up, finishing with the dumbbells right around face level. You can do one dumbbell at a time, or both together as shown. Due to the angle of your torso, this puts the biceps in a stretched position during the beginning of the motion, which can be a great stimulus for growth. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbells; Incline Bench 90 Barbell Curl This exercise can be performed either using a straight bar or a specially made curved bar called an EZ-curl bar. Try both and see which you prefer. Many find that the EZ curl bar is more comfortable and easier on the elbow and wrist joints. You can also use narrow, medium or wide grips; all will hit the muscle in a slightly different way. Again, experiment and find what is best for YOU. The biceps has two heads. A narrower grip will hit the outer head, while a wider grip will attack the inner head. To perform the exercise, take the bar in an underhand, palms up grip. With minimal movement of the torso or hips, use the bicep muscle to curl the weight up towards your face. Don’t hit yourself in the face, which would constitute bad form. Pause at the top, and slowly lower the weight under control. Repeat until really tired. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 6-15 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Barbell; plates Reverse Grip Curl Similar to the above but with an overhand grip, this exercise targets the arm in a slightly different way. Wrap your fingers and thumbs around the barbell and stand up. Under control and without any assistance from the lower body, curl the weight up to just in front of your chest, then lower it back to the starting position. It is a great forearm developer, as well as a potent stimulator of upper arm thickness. It’s also a good grip developer. If it bothers your wrists, play around with your grip width and/or use an EZ curl bar, or simply reduce the weight. This exercise is best used for higher reps, about fifteen to twenty is ideal. Difficulty: Intermediate 91 Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 10-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell or EZ-curl bar; plates Concentration Curl This exercise offers pure isolation for the bicep. Sit down on a bench, grab a light dumbbell, and place your elbow on the inside of your thigh. Curl the weight up, squeezing your bicep at the top. Lower it under control and repeat. You can also use the edge of a preacher curl bench and let your arm hang straight down, as in the left picture. You won’t be able to use a ton of weight, but this offers a great way to really focus on the peak contraction of the bicep. It’s best done for slightly higher reps. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Seat; dumbbell Hercules Curl This exercise is sure to transform your biceps into godlike proportions, or at least demigodlike ones. Set up the cable station with the single grip attachment at the highest level on each side. If your cable station is one of those narrow ones, this won’t work, as it needs to be wide enough for your wingspan. Reach over and grab each handle, then curl them towards your ears, flexing your biceps at the end of the range of motion. Pause, then slowly lengthen your arms. Repeat for reps. 92 This is a great constant tension isolation movement for the biceps but is best used at times when the gym isn’t very crowded, as it takes up both sides of the cable station. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Cable Station For the top three exercises here, I’d have to go with the barbell curl, incline dumbbell curl and reverse grip curl. Movement Pattern Recap: Curling exercises target the biceps and forearms in a way that rowing and pulling exercises can’t quite replicate, making them essential for anyone looking to fully develop their arms. 93 Extend This group of exercises all involve extending the elbow by using the triceps muscle, located on the back of the upper arm. The triceps are also stimulated by compound movements, primarily pushing and pressing exercises, but you can also use these isolation exercises to get maximum development. Cable Pushdown You can use either a curved bar, straight bar or rope attachment for this exercise. Again, try all of ‘em and see which you prefer. Grab whichever attachment you choose and simply push the weight down till your arms are straight. Return to the starting position and repeat. Try not to use momentum, focus on only using your arms. You can also try experimenting with flaring your elbows out slightly or keeping them tucked in by your sides. Always keep the weight under control, and keep the “cheating” to a minimum. Higher reps of twelve to thirty work well. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Overhead Dumbbell Extension This dumbbell exercise is one of the best upper arm exercises out there. This will put meat on the back of your arm like no other. Take a dumbbell and lift it overhead, then slowly lower it behind your head. The elbow should move very little, just the forearm should move as you keep the elbow more or less fixed in place. Extend your elbow to lift the weight above you. Use as much of a range of motion as you can, getting a good stretch on the tricep, even if it means using a lighter weight than you could for partial range of 94 motion. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Dumbbell Kickback Grab two light dumbbells, one in each hand, and lean forward at the waist slightly. Starting with your arms bent, straighten them, extending the dumbbells back behind you. Pause and squeeze the triceps at the end of the range of motion. Repeat till your upper arms are afire. This is a great exercise to finish your workout with and is quite easy on the elbows compared to most other extending exercises. Higher reps are better. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 15-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Dumbbells Overhead Cable Extension This is the cable version of the dumbbell overhead extension above. To perform the exercise, set the cable to the highest attachment point, then hook on a rope attachment. You’ll have to muscle the weight down and to the side as you twist around. Once you are in position with your arms straight out in front of you, 95 move your arms behind your head, getting a stretch in your triceps. Extend your elbows and straighten your arms. Repeat for reps. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Lying Dumbbell Extension This is also a dumbbell exercise, but involves lying down on a bench. Press the weights up like a dumbbell bench press, then lower them by slowly pushing your elbows out as the weights come down and in towards your chest. Gently touch them to your chest very briefly. Under control, return the bells to the starting position. Repeat for reps. You should feel a stretch in your triceps at the bottom of each rep. If you don’t, you’ll need to keep your elbows higher. This works the entire tricep fairly evenly. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Bench; dumbbells Skullcrusher This somewhat morbidly named exercise 96 is done with a straight or EZ curl bar. Taking a narrow grip and pressing the bar up like a bench press, slowly lower it to around forehead level. Pro tip: Don't actually crush your skull. Then extend your elbows until your arms are straight. Repeat for reps. For some people, this exercise causes elbow pain. If that’s the case, pushing the elbows forwards slightly and lowering to the chin similar to the JM press below can alleviate some of the stress on that area. You can also experiment with letting the elbows drift back and lowering behind your head slightly. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Medium/High Rep range: 8-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Barbell or EZ-curl bar; plates; bench JM Press This exercise is similar to a skullcrusher but is easier on the elbows and allows more weight to be used. Lift the bar out of the rack like a bench press, then push the elbows forward and lower the bar to around the neck/chin area, then press it back up. If it still bothers your elbows, just avoid these particular exercises and use dumbbells or cable work. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: 5-12 Priority: Main Movement Equipment: Bench press; barbell; plates If I could only choose three, I’d go with cable overhead extension, dumbbell overhead extension and cable pushdown.. 97 Movement Pattern Recap: Extend exercises stimulate the triceps better than pressing or pushing exercises can, and therefore they are also critical for full upper arm development. Abs Many of the exercises in different movement patterns work the abdominal muscles. Any type of overhead pressing, front, back and goblet squatting as well as deadlifting will all have significant activation of the core musculature. That being said, the exercises in this section are all target the core to a greater degree and doing some of them are essential to fully developing the area. It’s also worth mentioning that while these exercises will develop the muscles, you won’t be able to see them if you are carrying around excessive body fat, so if you really want abs the dinner plate is just as important than the plates in the gym. Plank The plank is a commonly performed isometric exercise that is usually done for time. Make sure that your feet, knees, hips, shoulders and head are all in a straight line: take a video if you aren’t sure. Keep your butt squeezed tight and your core completely immobile. While you probably won’t get much out of this exercise once you’ve mastered it, it does have a few benefits that more advanced athletes might be interested in. First, it can be done anywhere, with no equipment, making it ideal when traveling. Second, it is a good activation exercise for the core before squatting and deadlifting. Do sets for time, holds of thirty seconds to two minutes. You can add weight by getting a friend to place plates on your lower back, but be conservative with the loading. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 3 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: Holds for time Priority: Tertiary Equipment: None! 98 Cable Crunch This cable exercise hits the “six pack” part of the abdomen well. Put a pad or mat on the floor to rest your knees on, and set the cable machine so that the rope attachment is around head height when you’re on your knees. Kneel down on the pad and grasp the ropes as shown in the picture. Crunch down, breathing out as you do so and contracting the abs as hard as you can in the bottom position. Try to round your back as much as possible. This is the exact opposite of what you should do when squatting or deadlifting. With those you want a big breath of air, the hips to provide all of the movement and the lower back not to round at all. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 15-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Cable station Pallov press This exercise is seldom seen, which is a shame because it is one of the best ab exercises out there! It’ll hit the obliques and improve your pressurizing power for the squat and deadlift as well. Set up the cable thingy around chest height, pull it towards you, and face away from it at about a ninety degree angle. Take a big breath of air and then press the attachment away, keeping your abs tight. Hold it at full extension for a second, then return it to your chest. Breathe out, then take another big breath and repeat for reps. The only body parts that move during the set are the 99 arms, the torso is kept completely still. Resist the cable pulling you towards it. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Cable station Farmer’s Walk This isn’t just an ab exercise, it’ll also work your grip and forearms, shoulders, traps and legs a bit. It’s also very simple, just pick something up and go for a walk. Dumbbells, a trap bar or a special farmer’s walk implement can be used to provide loading. Keep your chest up and shoulders back and stride forth gallantly. You might get a burning sensation in your traps and forearms. That’s muscle growing. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Medium Rep range: Done for time, see description Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbells or trap bar or farmer’s walk implement Weighted Crunches A great ab and hip flexor exercise, weighted crunches are a classic ab exercise that have been used by bodybuilders for decades. Hook your feet into the grooves in the bench, and under control lean back till your back touches the bench. Using your abs and hips, sit back up till you are in the top position. Repeat for reps. You can load the movement with a dumbbell or plate, and to make it more challenging you can hold the weight behind your head rather than 100 at your chest. As with almost all ab exercises, you don’t want to go too heavy, keep the reps on the higher range of things. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Incline situp bench; dumbbell or plate Hanging Leg Raises This ab exercise works the hip flexors as well, making them great for athletes that depend on hip flexor strength like sprinters and combat athletes. Place your elbows on the pads, and your hands on the handles. Don’t let your shoulders “shrug up” towards your head. Let your legs hang straight down. Using your abdominals, lift your knees as high as you can. Pause slightly, then lower them down again. Repeat. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 4 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 15-30 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Captain’s chair (I’m not joking, that’s the real name!); dumbbell Dumbbell Side Bend One of the best oblique (side abs) exercises, this will work the entire side of your torso from hip to shoulder. The first time you do it, use a light dumbbell. Put the other hand on the side of your head, which will make the exercise slightly more challenging. Take a deep belly breath, then lower the dumbbell to around knee height, moving only side to side, not back to front. 101 Return to the starting position, squeezing the side of your abs for a second. Repeat for reps. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 15-30 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Dumbbell Stir the Pot This surprisingly difficult exercise works the entire abdominal region. To do it, place your elbows and forearms on an exercise ball with your body in a plank position. Only your feet on the ground and your arms on the ball should be supporting your weight. Begin by rolling the ball in a circle, keeping your abs tight and avoiding excessive movement. Switch up the direction of rotation every few circles, doing equal amounts of clockwise and counterclockwise. Every full circle is one rep. Keep the movement completely under control: each rep should take two to three seconds. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 10-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Swiss ball Ab Wheel This is one of the best exercises for the six pack out there. Kneel down with the wheel in your hands, and slowly roll it forward till your arms are fully outstretched in front of you. Roll it back towards you and repeat for reps. 102 It’ll work the lats a bit as well. You can also move the wheel a bit to the left or right with each rep to work the side of the abs. If you are really advanced, try doing it while standing instea d of on your knees. Anoth er way of loading is to put plates on your back, but you’ll probably need a training partner for that, as well as an iron core. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low/Medium Rep range: 5-20 Priority: Assistance Equipment: Ab wheel Feet to Bar This challenging exercise is a great lower ab developer. Hang from a bar. Using your abs and hips, lift your feet towards your hands. Pause at the top, then lower your legs under control. Repeat for reps. This is a great way to start getting into gymnastic type movements. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 7 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 5-20 Priority: Tertiary Equipment: Bar If I had to choose just three exercises for the abs, I’d probably choose side bends, ab wheel and Pallov press. 103 Movement Pattern Recap: Abdominal exercises utilize the core in a way that compound movements cannot, making them a great addition to your plan. 104 Calves The calves aren’t the most essential body part for aesthetics, but you may wish to target them anyway in order to fully develop your physique. They can be important for balance, stability and force production for a variety of sports as well. Seated Calf Raise The calf actually has two main muscles-the Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. The former is the ball-like muscle that is more prominent and visible, while the latter rests underneath. This exercise will target the Soleus due to your knees being in a bent position. Scoot into the machine and place your toes on the platform with your upper thighs on the pad. Flexing your calves, lift the pad by going up onto your toes. Pause for a second at the top, then slowly lower the weight, getting a full stretch at the bottom position and pausing again. Repeat. It’s very easy to bounce the weight in this exercise, but that is just using the Achilles tendon to store and release energy, not the muscle. If you want to build the muscle, you have to use the muscle, so do this exercise in a more slow and controlled manner. Because the range of motion is short, higher reps are better. Difficulty: Beginner Effectiveness: 5 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Accessory Equipment: Seated Calf Machine, Plates Standing Calf Raise This exercise will work the Gastrocnemius muscle more than the Soleus, which is essential for a well developed and full looking calf area. You can use a barbell or dumbbells, but I actually prefer using the smith machine for this one. You can focus on just moving the load up and down with your calves rather than balancing. 105 Set up the smith machine with the bar around shoulder height. Place a plate on the ground under the bar, maybe two to get a good stretch, but make sure that they are stable. You can also use mats or an aerobic step, the important thing is that it won’t be going anywhere during the set! Duck under the bar and place it on your shoulders like a squat. Step onto the object with your toes, so your heels are hanging off the end. Unrack the bar, and use your calves to get up on your toes, flexing at the top. Lower the bar under control till you feel a stretch in your calves, pause for a second or two, and then do another rep. This exercise is best for higher reps. You can experiment with pointing your toes in, straight ahead, or out. Each will work the calf in a slightly different way. Difficulty: Intermediate Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 Priority: Accessory Equipment: Smith Machine or Barbell, plates Leg Press Calf Raise This exercise utilizes the leg press to perform a similar movement to the standing calf raise. It does, however, have quite a different feel, so I’d definitely recommend trying it out at some point. Begin by pressing the pad up out of the supports, just like in a standard leg press, then place your feet as low on the pad as possible, so that only the balls of your feet are supporting the weight. Let it come down towards you until you feel a stretch in your calves, pause, and then press it up till full extension, feeling your entire calf fully contract. Pause at the top, then repeat the process. Be careful when reracking the weight, you may want to place your entire foot again on the pad like in a typical leg press before putting it back. That way if you mess up, you can just leg press it back up, which would be a fairly awkward movement if your feet are so low on the pad. Like the standing calf raise, you can try different toe angles to stimulate the calves in a slightly different manner. Difficulty: Advanced Effectiveness: 6 Recovery Cost: Low Rep range: 12-30 106 Priority: Accessory Equipment: Leg press, plates Movement Pattern Recap: Calf exercises are an often overlooked aspect of building your lower body. 107 Compendium Three: Programming How you set up your training structure is vital for your overall success, enjoyment and safety of your time spent in the gym. This includes the exercises you choose, how heavy of weights you are lifting, how many times per week you hit the gym and how long you are there for, and more. This section will teach you how to get the most out of your training with as little time and effort as possible. If the exercises in compendium two are the ingredients, programming is everything from what order to put them together and how to combine them to the temperature of the oven and how long you keep it in there. In other words, it’s vital. The goal of this section, and the book in general, is to make your training as simple and enjoyable as possible and giving YOU the power to train yourself. Spending a little time now learning these basic concepts will save you potentially hundreds of hours later. Now let’s learn how to bake that cake. Sets and Reps Apart from exercise selection, one of the things that I most regret from my first few months or so of training was that I had no idea what I was doing in terms of sets and reps. Absolutely none. I didn’t even know what a set or rep was for a while. I just went in and lifted, counting nothing. How many reps and sets you do have a huge impact on whether or not you make progress, and how much progress you make. First of all, some definitions (no, there won’t be a test): A rep is one repetition of an exercise. For example, in a squat that means all the way down, then all the way back up. A set is a series of repetitions with little to no rest in between. So if you squat down five times in a row, that is one set of five reps. Do that whole thing two more times and you’ve done three sets of five reps. They are usually written shorthand like 1x5 or 3x5. That would read as “one set of five reps” and “three sets of five reps”, respectively. You can also say “one by five” or “three times five”. Just make sure when you read “3x5” are doing three sets of five reps, and NOT five sets of three reps! Generally, shorter and heavier sets of one to five reps are better for increasing strength, 108 longer and lighter sets of sixteen or more reps are better for increasing endurance, while naturally the middle six to fifteen rep range is a mixture of both, and is also generally best for size gains. But, it’s not as black and white as you might think. You CAN build strength with sets of sixteen and size with sets of three, it just won’t be as efficient as the ideal “rep range”. If you’ve been doing higher reps for a few weeks, try out lower reps with heavier weight occasionally, or vice versa. Your muscles constantly trying to adapt to a new stimulus by varying the exercises and rep ranges are what will produce the best results. Section Recap: Measure your exercises in SETS times REPS. Volume This is how much you are doing. This is somewhat important for strength and even more so for size. One set will get you some growth, but several sets will get you more. Doing more will get you more results, up to a point. Volume can be measured in several ways, but the simplest way is just by using how many hard sets that you do of a type of exercise. response as ten sets. Why is that? The triangle line marked “MPS” (muscle protein synthesis) is what we are interested in. This line represents how many sets per workout of squatting will impact their results. One set will get you sixty percent of potential results. Three sets will get you about seventy-five percent, five sets will get you around eighty-five percent and ten sets will get you a hundred percent. Increasing that to twenty sets will get you the SAME At a certain point, everyone runs into recovery problems. When you work out, you are damaging muscle tissue, stressing bones and ligaments, sending out waste products into your bloodstream, disrupting your hormone levels in some ways. This all takes time, sleep and food to repair, meaning that it’s entirely possible to do too much. Think about how long it takes for a cut or scrape to go away. It’s a somewhat similar process that happens inside your body during recovery from lifting. It’s even possible to train so much that you lose muscle! Just look at the skinny legs of most marathoners to see what happens to those who do a lot of volume. So, a beginner has chicken leg syndrome and wants to increase the mass on dat ass, so they buy a gym membership, this book (obviously!) and begin squatting. How many sets should our chicken-legged hero do? The trick is to find the sweet spot where you are not spending 109 forever in the gym, are making good progress and recovering well. According to this chart, you could argue that anywhere from just one set to ten sets are viable choices, depending on dedication, lifestyle, schedule and dozens of other factors. If you don’t like working out and are very busy, just doing a couple of sets of an exercise will cause changes, at least for a few months. Doing nothing gets you zero percent, doing one set gets you sixty percent. Talk about a good deal! Above ten sets just doesn’t make any sense. You’ll also feel like shit and/or break in half if you’re a beginner doing twenty sets of hard squats a week. Section Recap: Choose an appropriate training volume, measured in sets per week of a certain type of exercise. Variety Be sure to change your training up occasionally. If all you do is squat, eventually you’ll need to squat more and more to get the same results, you’ll be desensitized to the stimulus of squatting. But, if you swap out squatting for a new exercise such as Bulgarian split squats, all of a sudden, the stimulus is new and you’ll keep making progress, because you are essentially a “beginner” to Bulgarian split squats. They work the same muscles, but in a slightly different way. This swapping exercises in and out over time is a big part of getting maximum results! Luckily you have this book, so you have many exercises per movement pattern at your disposal for rotating through. That being said, it’s definitely possible to use TOO many exercises. If you swap out exercises too often, you’ll never master any of them. Another factor is the exercise itself. A bicep concentration curl is naturally easier to recover from than a deadlift, and thus the body can tolerate many more sets of it. You can’t swap bicep curls for deadlifts and expect everything to go smoothly, you can only swap exercises that are of a similar overall stress level! Section Recap: Choose a variety of exercises for each movement pattern, and occasionally change them. 110 Assessing your level A good way to tell whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced athlete is by the following table. Has your training been hard? Hard training is done with passion, pushing most sets with high effort. Has your training been focused? That means that you have goals, and are working towards them actively. Have you been consistent? That would be defined as making it to the gym at least a few times per week, most weeks of the year. Sometimes life gets in the way, but showing up is half the battle and as long as you lace up your shoes a few times a week ninety percent of the time, that’s consistency. This combination of hard, focused and consistent training is what gets you results, and is what turns you from a beginner to intermediate and finally to advanced. Keep in mind this table is just an estimate, and everybody is individual. All Three Two of the Three One of the Three None of the Three Beginner Less than six months Less than one year Less than two years Always Intermediate Six months-Three years One to five years More than two years Never Advanced More than three years More than five years Never Never So if you have been training hard and focused but not consistently for three years, that would place you in the intermediate category. If you’ve been training consistently but not hard or focused, for one year, that would mean you are likely a beginner. If you have been training hard, focused and consistently for four years, you’d probably be advanced. You can also check Compendium Ten: Strength Standards for another rough guide to where you are. If you cannot match most of the “Strong” standards, you probably are a beginner. 111 If you are in the “Strong” to “Beast” range, you probably are intermediate. If you can match most of the “Hulk” standards, there is a very good chance you are advanced. If you can match any of the WR standards, I’m really surprised that you are reading this book. Astute readers will note that there is overlap between the text on beginner/intermediate and intermediate/advanced. This is because these concepts are how mature you are as an individual athlete and how close you are to your genetic potential, and thus set in stone numbers on these lifts have a good deal of wiggle room. A freak with very little formal weight training experience might deadlift 180kg their first day in the gym, while it takes a less gifted trainee years of hard and focused training to hit a similar number. The former is a beginner and the latter might be an advanced athlete despite both lifting the same weight. The concept of beginner/intermediate/advanced is more to measure your training experience than your absolute performance, although in general the two will correlate. The charts below are good general starting points on how many hard sets per week you should aim for when writing your workout schedule. Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS CALVES Balanced Sets Beginner Intermediate 3-6 4-10 3-8 4-10 3-6 4-8 4-8 6-12 2-8 6-12 2-6 4-8 4-8 6-12 0-4 2-8 0-4 2-8 2-4 4-6 0-4 2-8 Advanced 6-14 6-14 8-10 8-16 8-16 8-12 10-18 6-12 6-12 6-14 6-12 The chart above is a “balanced” number of sets. This is a good number of hard sets per week for each movement pattern to start with for those who want to develop a balanced, even physique, not overspecializing in any one area. If you aren’t sure what to do, go with 112 this. Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS CALVES Specialization Sets Beginner Intermediate 6-10 10-14 8-12 12-18 6-10 10-14 8-14 12-18 8-12 12-16 6-10 10-14 10-12 12-18 6-8 12-16 6-8 10-14 6-8 12-18 10-12 12-18 Advanced 12-22 12-22 12-22 16-30 16-24 12-22 16-30 16-22 16-22 16-30 16-30 Specialization is the maximum number of sets you should use if you are specializing in that movement pattern. I’d recommend specializing in no more than two movement patterns at a time, and probably just one if they are larger ones like hinge, squat, push or row. You can get away with a double specialization program on shoulders and abs, but trying to hammer your entire body at same time will not end well. Trust me. Also, keep in mind that hinge/squat, press/push or pull/row work such similar muscle groups that if you specialize in one, the other will need to be low volume. Section Recap: Use your training history and strength to check whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced lifter. Then, use that information to help select your training volume. Intensity Intensity is an important factor for making progress for both strength and size. This refers not to how difficult or intense a set feels, but rather how heavy you are lifting. So if your maximum deadlift is 150kg, a set that uses 120kg is 80% intensity, regardless of how it feels or how many reps you do. In general, for most people, on most exercises: % of maximum 40% Max # of reps 40+ Set Length 75s+ Feeling A Joke Effect Endurance 113 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 25-40 20-25 12-16 7-10 3-5 1 45-75s 30-45s 25-35s 15-30s 8-15s 2-6s Light/Easy Moderate Bit Heavy/Hard Very Hard Extremely Hard Maximal Endurance+Size Size+Endurance Size+Strength Strength+Size Strength Strength+Fatigue Glancing down the table, a few notes on each section: 40 to 50% or under is really too light for long term progress. You’ll make slight improvements when starting out but stall very quickly using such light weights. 50 to 60% is when you’ll notice better results compared to lighter weights 60 to 70% is a good rep range for muscle building. 70 to 80% is a nice mixture of both strength and muscle building. 80 to 90% is the sweet spot for strength. Above 90% should be reserved for when you are preparing for a competition or want to test your strength. If I had to choose one % range to lift in for the rest of my life, it would be at 70-80%. 60% is a bit too light, 90% is too heavy, but the 70-80% range is a good balance of being challenging while not too hard on the joints. Spending too much time with weights above 90% is difficult to recover from and is unnecessarily stressful for most people considering their goals. If you aren’t a serious or professional athlete, there’s no reason to go super heavy. You can use this formula to check weights and reps. (Number of reps*.033*Weight lifted)+Weight lifted=Maximum For example, if you can do 60kg for twelve reps, you’d just plug in the numbers: (12*.033*60)+60=Maximum 23.76+60=Maximum 83.76=Maximum you can do for one rep Section Recap: Intensity is how heavy you are lifting, and is the most important factor for gaining strength and muscle. Most of the time, 70 to 80% of the most weight you can lift just once is a good weight to use for training. 114 Frequency This is how often you do a movement pattern per week. Frequency is important because after a workout, muscle protein synthesis (aka sweet, sweet gains) is only elevated for about 24-48 hours after a workout. So after a bench press workout, your shoulders, triceps and chest are really only growing for a day or two at most. Working out a muscle group just once per week is definitely leaving gains on the table. If you’re not satisfied with your progress, but only lifting once per week, higher frequency is the first thing to implement into your program. However, keep in mind that the law of diminishing returns definitely applies. Twice a week is about twice as good as once per week, but four times per week isn’t twice as good as twice per week. In fact, it is probably *worse* because you cannot recover in between workouts. More isn’t always better! Times/Week (per movement pattern) Less than once per week Once per week Twice per week Three per week Four per week Five per week or more Frequency Very Low Low Moderate High Very High Psycho Efficiency Very low Low Ideal for most Ideal for some Usually Overkill Train-wreck Approx % results 0-40% 30-70% 75-100% 75-100% 50-90% 0-80% Section Recap: Frequency is how often you work out a movement pattern, and is another vital factor for your progress. For most movements, two to three times per week is ideal. Balancing Volume, Intensity and Frequency Volume, intensity and frequency are all vital parts of any effective workout program, but they must be balanced. Achieving an ideal balance between the three for YOU will require experimentation and self-assessment. Everyone responds slightly differently. Some prefer heavy weights, others enjoy doing more sets for higher reps. Some like just three days a week in the gym, others enjoy going more often. My advice would be to experiment with different training styles and see which one is suitable for you, given your lifestyle, personality and current schedule. As long as you are training each movement pattern two to three times per week and feel you are recovering 115 well, that is almost certainly very close to ideal. You can train any way you want; it is YOUR training. As long as you stay within a fairly wide range of parameters and work hard, you WILL get fantastic results. Not Training: None high, all low Low volume, low intensity, and low frequency is not training. You’ll never get any kind of results with this type of “workout”. This might be something like doing some gentle yoga occasionally, a few bodyweight squats once a week, or a few supersets of chip-todip-to-mouth while watching Game of Thrones reruns. Casual Training: One high, two low Having one of the three variables high is generally referred to casual training. This might get you some results, but they won’t be nearly as good as the two high, one low options described below. This can be a somewhat viable way to maintain your strength or size for short periods of time, but in the long term it is not good for progress. High volume, low intensity and low frequency would be something like distance running once a week, or doing many sets of twenty to thirty reps with very light weights sometimes. You might see some gains from it if you are a complete beginner, but it isn’t intense or frequent enough to be optimal. You’ll might get “toned” but you probably won’t get very big. Low volume, high intensity and low frequency would be working up to the heaviest weight you can do once per week. The low frequency and volume are not ideal for size or endurance gains but you can get somewhat strong using this method as you have plenty of time to recover. Low volume, low intensity and high frequency might be best represented by one or two bodyweight sets of pushups, pullups and sit ups done every day. You’ll get in decent shape this way but there is definitely a ceiling to this method. Eventually you’ll have to add either more volume or more intensity. The benefit to this is convenience, put a pullup bar in your house and you can make decent gains in just a few minutes a day. Real Training: Two high, one low This is real training that will get you the best results. You just need to figure out which two variables to keep up, and which to keep low. This will require personal experimentation and assessment. Try all three 116 and see which you like the most. High volume, high intensity and low frequency would be where a body part is absolutely blasted once a week and then given a long time to recover. You can definitely make gains off of this method but is not ideal, especially for natural trainees. You might blast your chest Monday and feel like it’s growing all week, but it is actually probably only growing for about one to two days. You’d be better off moving some of those sets from Monday to Thursday and getting two “spikes” of growth. Also, combining heavy weight with high volumes is hard on the joints, so training this way can be difficult in the long term. High volume, low intensity and high frequency is using light weights for many sets several times per week. It’s a great way to bring up a particular body part in a short period of time, but be careful to only use this approach for a couple weeks at most before going back to something more reasonable. The biggest benefit of this method is that it is quite easy on the joints due to the light weights but it does take a lot of energy to recover from. Be prepared to eat a lot. Low volume, high intensity and high frequency. This would be working up to as heavy of weight as you can manage many times per week. This is one of the best ways to increase strength quickly but is difficult to recover from, particularly for the joints. Also, don’t expect ideal muscle growth because the volume is low. Crazy Training: Three high, none low High volume, high intensity and high frequency is using heavy weights several times per week for many sets. It’s crazy and unsustainable. You might make good progress for a few weeks doing some kind of crash training like this, but injury or burnout are inevitable if you are truly pushing yourself for a lot of sets using heavy weights many times per week. You might even feel great for a short period of time doing this, but eventually such idiotic programming will catch up to you and your patellar and bicep tendons will explode in a defiant yet fruitless show of rebellion. Section Recap: Emphasizing two out of the three of volume, intensity and frequency is what produces the best results. Example Volume and Intensity Combinations These set, rep and intensity templates are tried and true methods for building muscle and strength that you can use for just about any exercise. They show how to best balance volume and intensity. 117 5×5 (5 sets of 5 reps each) using ~ (75%-85%) This tried and true method uses a moderately heavy weight for a moderate number of sets and a moderate number of reps. Sound boring? It is. But just because a program isn’t flashy doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Lots of personal trainers will try to write super-complexundulating-periodization-standing-on-a-ball-one-legged-squatting-while-firing-a-bow-andarrow programs when basic exercises using heavier and heavier weights over time will produce the best results. You can progress week by week using greater weight each time for many months or even years just using this rep scheme. 3-6 sets of 8-15 reps using ~ (60%-75%) These include 6×8, 5×10, 4×12, 3x15, and are all classic set and rep schemes that will produce solid results in size. Getting forty to fifty reps total using a moderate weight, it’s enough to provide a stimulus but not extremely difficult to recover from. It’s quick, simple and efficient. It’ll get you out of the gym fairly fast with the effect you want. 12,8,4,2,20 using ~ (60%/70%/80%/90%/60%) This method uses the concept of using “post-activation potentiation”. In plain English, after lifting a heavy weight, a lighter weight seems lighter. With each set you use a heavier and heavier weight for a lower and lower number of reps, followed by dropping the weight back down and doing one all-out set. This is a quick and efficient way to get both stronger and bigger. You combine both heavy weight as well as at least one higher rep effort, and reap the benefits of both. 10×3 (using ~85-90%) Doing ten sets of three reps is much more strength focused. You can use a heavier weight and get used to how that feels. It’ll still give you good results in size as well, but the real sacrifice is time and effort. Doing ten sets of three definitely takes longer than three sets of ten, and is more mentally and physically draining as well. You can either do all sets with the same weight or you can do three reps each set but slowly adding weight each time till you get to a heavy weight. 5/4/3/2/1 (using 75%/80%/85%/90%/95%) This rep scheme is really good for strength and is a lot of fun. Increasing the weights and reducing the reps each time builds momentum through the workout. 25 reps (as many sets) (using ~80-85%) Use a weight you can lift about six to eight times in a row and do as many sets as it takes to reach twenty-five total reps. So it might look something like: 6,5,4,4,3,3=done. Rest as long as you want (one to two minutes is typical) between sets. This is a nice way to train hard, yet give yourself a bit of flexibility on how you get the reps. 118 50 reps (as many sets) (using ~70-75%) Use a weight you can lift about ten to twelve times in a row and do as many sets as it takes to reach fifty total reps. So it might look something like: 10,8,8,7,6,6,5=done. Again, rest as long as you want (two to three minutes is typical) between sets. 6×6 with thirty seconds rest (using ~60-70%) This method uses a fairly light weight with minimal recovery time in between sets. This triggers muscle growth by flooding the muscle with lactic acid and other waste products that are produced from the muscle contracting without fully recovering (yes, this will burn). Not for the faint of heart but a nice option to try every once in a while, especially when you are in a rush and can’t take long in the gym. 10×10 (using ~60%) [German Volume Training] German Volume Training (or GVT) is an advanced training protocol that uses the same weight and doing ten sets and ten reps with just one minute rest between each set. This is very taxing on the body and should only be performed occasionally. It’s difficult to recover from but produces fantastic results in size very quickly. This can be done with many exercises but back squats, overhead presses, pullups and bench presses are the most common. Be careful on exercises where it is easy for your form to break down like push presses, bent over rows, front squats and conventional or deficit deadlifts. These are but a few options when it comes to sets and reps, the possibilities of combinations are quite literally endless.. Using a variety of sets and reps is a surefire way to keep your training interesting while maximizing your results. Writing your own training can be difficult at times, but the good news is that you have the potential to do it better than ninety to ninety-five percent of personal trainers you meet, with just a small investment of time. Section Recap: There are an endless number of set and rep combinations, but generally doing twenty-five to fifty total reps in the sixty to eighty percent intensity range will get you great results. Choosing a Split A split is basically just how you fit all of your exercises into your training week. In other words, which muscles you work when. There are a few options for you to choose from, all 119 of which can be very effective. If you are busy and can’t make it to the gym, don’t worry about pushing a workout back a day. For your long term progress it will make very little difference. You don’t necessarily need to start your week on a Monday, and your training cycle doesn’t need to be seven days, either. A week is a social construct. Your body is an evolutionary construct. Full Body Behind door number one…is doing full body workouts three times per week. This is good for those who can’t make it to the gym that often, and you can really make fantastic gains off of this type of schedule. The drawback is that full body workouts are very physically and mentally demanding, and they take longer. Still, being able to work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday and have the entire weekend off is a huge boon to those with busy work or social lives. You could also do Tuesday, Thursday and Sundayany three days as long as none are back to back days. Monday Full Body Tuesday Wednesday Full Body Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Full Body Upper/Lower The second is doing four workouts per week, two focused on the upper body, and 120 two focused on the lower body. Lower is hinge/squat, upper is…basically everything else. This has the advantage of being able to devote slightly more focus to each half, and perhaps slightly shorter workouts. You’ll also have three or four days between workouts for each half to recover more fully. As mentioned above, on upper days it’s a good strategy to alternate between rowing/pulling movements and pushing/pressing ones. It’ll save you a lot of time and can improve your workouts, since doing rows is the opposite movement to bench pressing, and pulling is the opposite of pressing, they complement each other very well. Also keep in mind that some “upper body” movements like push pressing, bent over rows and Rubish rows involve the lower body, and some “lower body” movements use the upper body. Any deadlift, dumbbell lunge or split squat will use the traps, forearms and lats to a certain extent. Monday Tuesday Upper Lower Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Upper Lower Sunday Pull/Push/Legs Another great option is doing a split called “pull/push/legs”, or PPL for short. This works well because the upper body has more movements and thus requires more attention, and the lower body requires a bit more recovery time anyway. This means that you put your rowing, pulling and curl exercises on “pull” day, your pushing, pressing and extend exercises on “push” day, followed by your hinge and squat exercises on the “leg” day. You then start again with the fourth, fifth and sixth days being pull/push/legs again, with the 7th day off. Alternatively, you can take a day off after each cycle, making it an “eight day week”. The advantage to PPL is that your workouts are shorter and you can focus on each body part more, but it also means that you need to commit to being in the gym more often. If you are busy and realistically can’t make it to the gym that often, this isn’t a great choice. “Seven day week” Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Pull Push Legs Pull Push Legs OFF 121 OR “eight day week” Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Pull Push Legs Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Pull Push Legs Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Pull Push Legs Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Pull Push Legs Etc, Etc… Monday Legs Week 4 Monday Tuesday Push Legs Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Pull Push Legs Friday Saturday Sunday Pull Push Saturday Sunday Pull Modified Body Part Split A typical body part split (aka a bro-split) means only hitting a certain muscle group once a week, usually with the weekend off to chug Jägerbombs and hit up tanning salons. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday “Chest” “Back” “Shoulders” “Legs” “Arms and Core” (Push) (Row/Pull) (Press/Shoulders) (Hinge/Squat) (Curl/Extend/Abs) At first glance, this is far from ideal, as you’ll want to be targeting most muscles two to three times per week. However, it’s not that bad. The back gets brilliantly blasted on Tuesday and Thursday (from deadlifting), the triceps get tremendously trashed Monday, Wednesday and Friday, various parts of the shoulders are seriously stimulated on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in some way, and the biceps are beautifully blown up on both Tuesday and Friday. The only blind spot seems to be the legs only getting worked once a week, but some rowing variations might work the hamstrings enough to overcome that. If you find your legs lagging behind, you might want to add a small squat workout to Monday to keep the bench press company. Section Recap: Choosing a workout split will mostly be based on your personal preference and schedule. Experiment with different splits to see which suits you best. 122 Putting It All Together Recapping, a brief checklist of what you’ll need to decide when making your program: 1. Select Your Volume First, you’ll need to decide how many sets per movement pattern that you’ll be doing. This mostly depends on how advanced you are. Go to the volume section above, and check the table for a good starting point based on whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced lifter. Start with the low end of the range listed on the table. As you adapt to training, you’ll probably need to add sets over time so that you keep adapting. You can also specialize in a movement pattern if you want to bring up a certain body part or area. 2. Select Your Split This will depend on your personal preference, I suggest starting with either full body or upper/lower. If you have more days per week to devote to the gym, push/pull/legs can be a viable choice, and if you take longer to recover, a body part split can also be viable. 3. Select Your Exercises In the words of Bruce Lee “You’ve got to train every part of your body, so that when you want it, it’s there.” Any lifting program should include the main compound movement patterns, and perhaps some isolation work depending on your goals. Switch up exercises occasionally, variety is the spice of life and the gym is no different. 4. Select Your Intensity Finally, select your intensity, or how heavy you’ll be lifting. This is mostly goal based: for endurance, focus on the 50-70% of one rep max range, for size focus on the 60-80% range, for strength focus on the 70-90% range. Whatever the range, try to increase your weights over time progressively. Example of Creating a Training Plan Let’s say you’re a beginner that wants to create a training plan. You don’t really have any specific body part goals, you just want to start building up everything and getting in shape. You look at the volume section above, and see how many sets per week you’ll be doing. You have four evenings a week that you think you’ll be free to hit the gym, so you go to the training split section and select “Upper/Lower”. 123 Monday Tuesday Upper Lower Wednesday Thursday Friday Upper Lower Sat Sun You have to fit all of your sets into those four days. For the first day, since you are a beginner, you choose exercises that are labeled “beginner” from the movement pattern section. Since you should do about half the upper body volume on the first day, you allocate about half the sets from the volume chart. Look through the movement pattern section and try to find suitable exercises to try out. You settle on three sets of fifteen of pulldowns, three sets of twelve for seated dumbbell shoulder presses, two sets fifteen of cable rows, two sets of eight for close grip bench press, three sets of fifteen for seated lateral raise, two sets of twenty of pushdowns and two sets of ten for preacher curls. For the second day, you remember your gym has a back extension machine so pencil that in for two sets of twelve, then sumo deadlift for three sets of twelve, ten and eight reps, goblet squats for two sets of twenty and hanging leg raises for two sets of fifteen. For the third day, you select three more sets of pulldowns but decide to mix it up and do sets of twenty, fifteen and ten reps, adding weight with each set. You also pick three sets of seated dumbbell shoulder press of twelve, ten and eight reps, two sets fifteen of one-arm rows (each side), two sets of twelve for dumbbell bench press, and two sets of twenty of face pulls and two sets of twenty reps and thirty reps of the prone rear delt raise. On the fourth day, you choose three sets of high bar back squats for twelve, ten and eight reps, two sets of twenty reps for the Bulgarian split squat, a solitary set of thirty on the leg extension machine, followed by a single set of twenty of back extensions and two sets of twenty of cable crunches. Because your goal is size, you’re going to be working in the 60-80% of one rep max intensity range, or roughly the eight to twenty rep range. Final Plan Monday (Upper) Tuesday (Lower) Thursday (Upper) Friday (Lower) 3x15 pulldown 2x12 back extensions 20,15,10 pulldown 12,10,8 high bar back squat 3x12 seated 12,10,8 dumbbell press deadlift sumo 12,10,8 dumbbell press seated 2x20 Bulgarian 124 2x15 cable row 2x20 goblet squat 2x8 close grip bench 2x15 press raises 3x15 seated lateral raise 2x20 pushdowns 2x10 preacher curls hanging 2x15 1arm rows per split squat side leg 30 leg 2x12 dumbbell bench extension press 20 back 2x20 face pulls extension 20,30 prone rear delt 2x20 cable raise crunches And that’s it. As long as you stay within the guidelines, you use this formula to create a customized training plan that will work great. When you stop progressing, you can add sets over time, swap out exercises or change your program completely. See Compendium Nine: Making Progress for more details. Risk vs Reward This chart represents where some of the exercises in this book are in terms of risk vs reward. The lower left area represents exercises that are very safe, but don’t really provide a huge amount of benefit. These are best done by beginners who don’t need more advanced exercises, but can also be done by more advanced athletes who are looking to get in more volume, because these exercises are so safe, they can be done for many sets. Most machines are in this area, as well as many seated exercises or cable movements. You probably aren’t going to get injured doing pushups or bodyweight squats. The lower right area includes exercises that don’t provide a huge amount of benefit for muscle or strength, but are much more inherently risky or require more recovery time. Good mornings are a decent hamstring exercise, but put a lot of stress on the lower back. Split and power jerks require you moving massive weights overhead but don’t really build the body very efficiently. Wide grip benching is a good chest exercise but stresses the shoulder and rotater cuff unduly. Box jumps…leaping up to an unsteady object the height of your chest…what could go wrong? Don’t spend a ton of time in this area. 125 The upper right area is potentially high risk, but roughly equally high reward. These are exercises that you SHOULD do, but be aware of how your body is moving. A bent over row, push press or deadlift has YUUGE benefits, but also puts a lot of stress on many areas of the body. Be conservative when programming them and rarely, if ever, go to failure. These are more suitable for advanced or intermediate athletes who have more body awareness. The upper left area is the “money exercises” area. These are exercises that are both amazingly effective, but also quite safe. A low pull conveys many of the benefits of a deadlift but is much easier on the lower back. One-legged exercises like Bulgarian split squats or lunges are fantastic leg, grip and trap developers while loading the lower back less compared to two-legged exercises. Pullups, pulldowns, incline presses, back extensions, Romanian deadlifts, dips, close grip bench presses and front squats are all in this area. Spend as much time in this area as possible. In the appendix, there are charts arranged by movement pattern that make it easier to find the exercises that you are looking for. 126 Section Recap: Not all exercises are equal, and you should focus on the exercises that give you the best risk versus reward ratio. Keeping a Training Log Can you remember what you had for lunch on the 7th of last month? Didn’t think so. Training sessions tend to blend together over time…you might remember particularly hard or fun workouts but most will be lost even just after a few days. Thus, a recorded history of your training is absolutely vital. It essentially gives you a time machine that allows you to check what you did at a certain point in time, and this imparts the ability to analyze and optimize your training like nothing else. It will be more effective than a personal trainer and is free! It doesn’t take long to do, and can provide a lot of value in the future. Perhaps your distant future self will thank you. You don’t have to record your heart rate, recovery times, mood, body weight or anything else really complicated. I mean, you can if you want to. I don’t. Really the only essentials are: The date of the workout. What exercises you did, preferably written in the order you did them. How many sets you did. How many reps you did. How much weight you used. So it might look something like this: “January 6, 2019 High Bar Back Squat 3x10x80kg, 2x5x90kg Lunges 2x40 bodyweight only, 2x20x10kg dumbbells Romanian Deadlift 2x20x60kg, 2x15x70kg, 1x10x80kg Hamstring Curl Machine (Drop set) 10x40kg-->12x30kg-->20x20kg Leg Extension Machine (Drop set) 12x70kg-->14x50kg-->21x30kg” That’s all. It takes about two minutes once you get the hang of it. 127 Section Recap: Keeping some essential information in a training log is one of the best investments of time and effort that you can make. 128 Compendium Four: Equipment For a beginner looking for a new gym, it can be quite a challenge. This section is to help you know exactly what to look for when selecting a gym. This might affect your programming, because if you don’t have the equipment to do a certain exercise, you will have to swap it out for something else. If the gym doesn’t have a decline bench press or a ninety-degree back extension, that’s somewhat expected, but if it is lacking very basic equipment like barbells, dumbbells, a squat rack or a bench press…run away. Don’t waste your money. It’s a sign that they don’t know what they’re doing and you shouldn’t encourage their ignorance by financing it. Equipment that you need to look for includes the following, in rough order of importance. Essential Equipment Barbells The barbell is a crucial piece of equipment that can be used for squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, overhead pressing, bent over rowing and more. Check to see if they are straight, not bent. Give them a roll across the floor to see if they wobble. The ends should spin freely. Having at least three or four is ideal, as other people will use them as well. Plates Should have at least 5kg/10kg/20kg, but having 2.5kg is nice as well. Rubber is best, for Olympic weightlifting and deadlifting, but metal is OK. Round is better than hexagonal. Dumbbells The heavier the better, 40kg is a minimum. If they only have 25kg or 30kg you’ll outgrow those quickly, especially if you’re a dude. Don’t believe them when they say 30kg is enough. Tell them just about every proper gym has 40kg, 50kg and 60kg dumbbells. Squat rack Essential for many movements. Try it out a few times, it should have a place to catch the bar if you fail that is just BELOW the height of the bar in the bottom position of your squat. You don’t want to be hitting the supports! Also check the pegs where you rack and 129 unrack the barbell from. They should be at a suitable height for you or adjustable. If your gym doesn’t have this, a power rack is a suitable alternative (see below). Power rack An incredibly useful piece of equipment, this will allow you to do everything from benching and incline benching to squatting, rack pulls and partial reps. Forty-five Degree Back Extension Try it out a few times, it should feel sturdy, as you’ll want to add weight eventually. You should be able to adjust the pad to where it feels comfortable. Benches The incline should be adjustable, and they should be sturdy. Give them a kick or two to see if they fall over. Cable Station The weight on each side should go up to at least 20kg, 30kg is better. The pull should feel smooth, the cable should not jerk or tug against the wheels. Dip/Pullup station Try it out a few times-the dip handles should be comfortable and about shoulder width apart. The pullup should have a palms facing grip as well as a straight bar. Pulldown machine The weight should go up to 120kg+, ideally. If it is less than that, you might be able to place dumbbells on the stack to add weight. Make sure that in the upper position your arms are straight. If you have long arms, sometimes you can’t fully extend them on some machines. 130 Seat with back support For seated dumbbell pressing and Arnold pressing, can also do dumbbell curls, lateral raises and more. Bench press For bench pressing, obviously. Try it out a few times, the most important factor is that the pegs where you rack and unrack the weight are at an appropriate height. They should be slightly less than arms length away as you lie down on the bench. Cardio machines Exercise bikes, treadmills, elliptical machines, and rowing machines are all great ways to get in cardio. They are all a lot easier to recover from than running on the road, which a lot of people don’t like anyway. Optional Equipment Incline Bench Press If they don’t have one, flat bench will have to suffice. You can also set up an incline bench in the power rack and bench press that way. Preacher Curl Bench If they don’t have one, you can use an incline bench and dumbbells, doing one arm at a time. The results will be almost identical, it will just take longer. EZ curl bar This curved bar is generally used for arm movements, and provides a more natural position to grip the bar, making it easier on the joints, particularly the wrists and elbows. Any movement can still be done with a straight bar, it’s just more comfortable with this type of bar. Trap bar Used for deadlifts, rows and 131 farmers walks, this trapezoid shaped bar puts less stress on the spine as you are standing inside of it. If they don’t have one, a normal barbell is OK for deadlifts and rows, and dumbbells will suffice for farmers walks. Bands Good for warming up, and for advanced lifters to modify movements by changing the resistance curve. For example, you can hook bands around the bottom of the squat rack and the barbell when squatting to provide extra difficulty for the top part of the movement. This forces you to accelerate against the weight, making you more explosive. Clips These slide around the edge of the barbell in order to hold the plates on while you probably don’t have to use these while warming up, when doing your heavy sets it’s definitely nice to not have the plates sliding around at all. This is particularly useful for the deadlift, because when the bar returns to the ground, the impact can jossle the plates and cause them to move and become unbalanced. Chains Good for adding resistance for barbell movements and dips. As you lower the weight, the chains fall onto the floor, making the bottom position easier. As you lift the weight back up, the chains also lift, making the top position more challenging, similar to bands. Chains also make the bar less stable, forcing you to work harder to balance it. Swiss ball You can use this inflated, usually blue ball for crunches, stir the pot and hamstring ball curls. It’s a nice addition to your workout plan, as most of these exercises are easier to recover from compared to more stable options. Hamstring Curl Machine This exercise is usually performed lying down, but there are standing variations of this machine. The hamstring muscle performs both hip extension and knee flexion, and you need both for maximum development. Leg extension Machine This classic quadriceps exercise is one of the only ways to truly isolate the muscle. Doing high reps is a 132 great way to fatigue thighs and make your squatting more effective. Leg Press This machine compound exercise allows you to put a lot of growth inducing tension on the quads, hamstrings and glutes without putting a barbell on your back. Chest Press Machine Many machines are garbage, but most chest presses are pretty good. As with all of the equipment listed here, give it a whirl. Always try before you buy when possible. Cable Row The machine allows a very natural feeling rowing movement and should be done in almost any program. It works the entire back very evenly, the lats, traps and spinal erectors all getting hit. Chest Supported Row The chest supported row is a fantastic back developer that is very safe. Give it a try. Most allow you to adjust the machine to better suit your particular build. Machine Row Similar to the chest supported row, this exercise allows loading either through plates or a weight stack selector. Both are fine, do a few reps to see if you like the feel of it. Decline Bench Press This quite rare piece of equipment allows you to bench at a decline. This is usually easier on the shoulders, and is a good lower chest developer. I’d advise doing this one with a partner, as it can be tricky to unrack the weight by yourself. Seated Calf Machine While calves aren’t really a crucial body part for aesthetics in my opinion, having a calf raise machine can’t hurt. However, there is a pretty big variety in effectiveness of these machines, so definitely do at least a light set to see how it feels. 133 Ab Wheel You can’t do ab wheel roll-outs without an ab wheel, obviously. This conveniently small and portable piece of equipment is an essential part of one of the best ab exercises out there. Sit-up Bench Basically all this is good for is sit-ups, which are a fine abdominal exercise. You can load this exercise pretty heavy, and it also works the hip flexors pretty well. Smith Machine Can be used for lunges, squats, bench press, incline press, overhead press, and upright rows. Micro-plates These are plates that are less than 2.5kg. These allow you to load a barbell in very small increments, allowing you to be very exact. For a beginner, this isn’t really necessary, but for a more advanced athlete, they can be useful for making progress. Personal Equipment This section includes items that the gym may or may not provide for you. They’re usually quite small items that you can fit in a bag and bring with you to the gym. None of them are necessary, but they may make your lifting experience safer, more enjoyable or more fun. Lifting belt When you are performing exercises like heavy squats, deadlifts and standing rowing and pressing movements, you want to brace your core as much as possible. You need to transfer force from your lower body to your upper body, and that force needs to pass through your core without breaking your body in half. Normally, you would take in a deep breath of air, and contract your abs to brace. Using a belt aids in creating as much internal pressure as possible by giving you something to “push against”. Different people wear their belts in different ways, so you’ll want to experiment with different tightnesses and heights. 134 Straps These are generally 1 to 1-1/2 inches wide, twelve to eighteen inches long, and made out of leather, canvas, or nylon. You can wrap them around the bar to essentially tie yourself to the bar. If you are having trouble gripping heavy rows and deadlifts, these can be a good solution. I would, however recommend that you try to build your grip strength as much as possible before using straps. Chalk This messy white substance (out of the gutter, you!) is used to make sure you don’t release too soon (I said out!). You can rub it on your hands, the bar, your back when squatting, chest when benching and more. Many powerlifters rub it damn near anywhere they can think of. Many gyms won’t allow this at all, so be warned that it might not be an option for you. Gloves Dip belt This is different from a lifting belt, it allows you to attach plates to you and let them hang between your legs like an absurdly heavy pair of wind-chimes. It might take some getting used to, but is the best way to load up dips and pullups. Wrist wraps These, as you can likely guess, are wraps that you place around the wrists. They provide support when bench pressing and doing other lifts, typically low bar squatting, overhead pressing and the like. Knee sleeves These are made out of soft neoprene and are used to provide support, warmth and blood flow to the knee joint, sort of like what a cup of coffee does to my brain when writing. They can also provide feedback when squatting, as you can feel how the joint is working a bit better due to the compression of the sleeve. They will not add to the weight that you can lift, but they might be a worthwhile investment. Knee wraps Think of knee sleeves on…well, steroids. They completely encircle the entire joint, providing both support and warmth but also a large amount of bounce out of the bottom position of the squat. It’s not unusual for competitive powerlifters to be able to squat 1540kg more with wraps, depending on how strong they are, their leverages and skill at using the wraps themselves. Fat grips Put them on the bar. They make the bar thicker and more difficult to hold. This will help your forearms grow and grip strength improve. Class dismissed. Bar pad This also makes the bar thicker, but is used to make it more 135 comfortable to use. The usual culprits that you would use it with are glute bridge, hip thrust and front squat. Maybe the back squat too if you really feel uncomfortable. Weightlifting shoes These fashionable footwear have a raised heel, which put you in a more upright position. They’re usually used for front squats, back squats and Olympic weightlifting to improve your positioning. They’ll also put more stress on the quads when squatting, which is basically the entire reason most people squat, so that’s easy to chalk up as a win. Gloves While I don’t personally use these, gloves can be a nice option for those who don’t want to build up calluses on their hands when holding the barbell. Towel Particularly useful in the summer, these are used to mop the sweat off of your brow, and likely the bench and surrounding areas as well if you live in Shenzhen. Section Recap: Essential and optional gym equipment as well as personal equipment can have an impact on your results. Try before you buy when possible to make sure the equipment is high quality and is suitable for you. 136 Compendium Five: Special Workouts and Techniques The techniques listed below are not for complete beginners. This is not because they can’t handle them, but because they don’t need them. Beginners can just perform the exercises under control and slowly progressing in sets, reps and weight used. That alone will give you great progress. However, if you have been lifting for at least six months and want to add some spice to your workouts, are stuck in a rut, have lost motivation or are just bored with your training, these techniques can really help. They can provide noticeable changes in your physique very quickly. A few things to keep in mind: These techniques are more difficult to recover from than normal sets. The effect will be noted in the description. Not everyone will respond the same to each advanced technique. You’ll need to analyze which help you, which have no effect and which you respond to poorly. Some techniques are better for strength, while others are better for size, which will usually be noted in the description. Others are a mixture or can be either depending on how you perform them. Your form is still critical, never sacrifice how you perform the exercise to add these techniques. Performing these techniques with bad form is asking for disaster. These can have slightly more risk compared to normal sets, but with more risk often comes more reward. This section is split up into two parts. The first are advanced techniques that change the sets you do, and the second are techniques that change how you do the reps themselves. Check the appendix for two full charts detailing which techniques can be applied to which exercises. 137 Manipulating Sets One Rep Max Normally during training, it’s best to work with weights that are sub maximal. This means weights that are below how much you could lift just one time. Whether you are interested in strength or size, normally working in the 60-80% weight range is more productive and safer. However, there may be a time to do a set of just one rep as heavy as possible, in other words, to test your “one rep max”. This is neither necessary nor useful as a complete beginner, but since you’re probably going to attempt it at some point anyway, there might as well be a section about it. On some exercises, you should never max out. Check the table above or the rep ranges in the movement pattern section. A one rep max attempt still counts as just one set for programming purposes, but make sure that you count all of the hard sets that it took to warmup-see ramping below for more information. Ramping Ramping is a special way of warming up that is one of the best ways to improve raw strength and explosive power. You may think that your muscles are what lifts weights. You’re right. But, it’s the nervous system that controls those muscles and how much weight they can lift. The central nervous system is almost always the limiting factor when trying to lift heavy weights, so when you are aiming to lift the heaviest weight possible, you want to make sure that you get as much CNS activation while limiting fatigue. When you do a set of an exercise, two things happen: You activate the central nervous system (CNS) [improving performance] You create fatigue [reducing performance] Ramping keeps your body healthy, and allows for better muscle and strength gains. During each successive set during the ramp, try to move the bar as quickly and explosively as possible. This will further activate the central nervous system. Moving a light weight explosively uses just as many of the fast twitch muscle fibers as moving a heavy weight more slowly. Pro tip: try to make the plates “rattle” against each other at the end of each rep. This will ensure you are moving explosively. Dumbbells generally aren’t good for ramping, because a three rep max of dumbbells is heavy and awkward to do compared to barbell movements. Machines and isolation exercises are also better with high reps, meaning that they aren’t great choices for ramping. 138 Stick to the basic, heavy compound barbell movements, like bench press, overhead press, push press, bent over rows, deadlifts and squats. Ramping is also how almost all Olympic weightlifters train. There are a variety of ways to ramp but here are some examples. If your three rep max is ~80-100kg: 20kgx10 Just the bar to warm up and get some blood in the joints. Such light weight won’t cause much fatigue even for higher reps, and helps warm up, preventing injury. 40kgx3 (starting the ramp, be as explosive as possible each set) 50kgx3 60kgx3 Keep adding 5kg plates each side and doing triples till you hit a three rep max If your three rep max is ~100-180kg: 20kgx10 40kgx10 60kgx3 70kgx3 80kgx3 Keep adding 5kg plates each side and doing triples till you hit a three rep max If you’re strong and your three rep max is ~180-260kg, it might look something like this: 20kg (just the bar)x 10 to warm up 60kgx10 80kgx3 100kgx3 120kgx3 Keep adding 10kg plates each side and doing triples till you hit a three rep max If you’re very strong and your three rep max is 260kg+, it might even look like this: 60kgx10 100kgx3 140kgx3 Keep adding 20kg plates each side and doing triples till you hit a three rep max. At that point you have a few choices: From heaviest to lightest options: If you are feeling good you can add more weight and go for a set of one or two reps or a new personal best. See “One Rep Max”. You can do a few more sets of one to three reps with that top weight 139 You can drop the weight down to 90-95% of that top set and do a few more sets of three. You can drop the weight down to 60-70% of that top set and do some other kind of advanced technique-drop sets, rest pause, AMRAP, EMOM, etc. Or, just do something simple like three or four sets of eight to twelve reps to get in more volume. You can stop the exercise and move to a new one. Or go home. Note that for deadlifts, and Olympic lifting from the floor it’s best to start with 20kg plates per side, starting with the bar resting on the floor is effectively a deficit and a different movement entirely! The ramping method is the best way fully activate the central nervous system while keeping fatigue low. The ideal rep range is three to five reps per ramping set. Singles and doubles (one or two reps per set) can be used but three is better. It doesn’t cause much more fatigue but stimulates the CNS better. More than six reps you can’t really move explosively and each set creates more fatigue than three to five reps, limiting your maximum weight. The mind is the key to progressing in the gym, just as it is the key to progressing anywhere else in life. Try out ramping, you may find that you hit a new personal best and it feels a lot easier than you expect due to the magic of manipulating the central nervous system. When counting sets for ramping, count any set that is more than 50% of your one rep max as a working set…a set of three at 50% might normally be very easy, but when you are moving the bar as explosively as possible on a compound movement, it is enough to generate progress. Section Recap: Ramping is increasing the weight with each set while lifting as explosively as possible to activate the central nervous system. AMRAP This stands for “As Many Reps As Possible”. Choose a weight on a certain exercise and just do as many reps as possible for ONE, all-out, balls to the wall set. Aim for about ten to thirty reps done over the course of about thirty to ninety seconds. A good weight to use is around 60-80% of your one rep max. This works well for almost any movement and is a very time-efficient way to train. Count an AMRAP as one set for programming purposes, but because it is more stimulatory and also more stressful, only do one AMRAP set per exercise. Next workout, try to get more reps or increase the weight. Section Recap: An AMRAP set is just doing as many reps as you can during that set. 140 EMOM EMOM isn’t using tinder to hit up your friends mama. It’s “Every Minute On the Minute” This involves doing a set starting once every sixty seconds…so for the next five to fifteen minutes you’ll perform one to five reps on a given exercise every time the clock hits :00 seconds. You’ll need a watch or a clock with a second hand that you can check. It’s best to use a fairly heavy weight, about 75-90%. You might find that as the sets go on, it actually becomes easier to lift the weight. This is your central nervous system “figuring out” how to be more efficient and producing the necessary force more easily. This advanced technique works best with compound movements that work the whole body like squats, bench presses, push presses, deadlifts and Olympic lifting. For programming, just count the EMOM as the number of sets that you do. So if you do three reps of a deadlift on the minute, for ten minutes, that counts as ten sets. Pretty simple. Section Recap: An EMOM set is starting a set every minute for a prescribed period of time. Rest Pause What do getting drunk and muscle fiber recruitment have in common? Read on and find out. Your body is lazy, and only uses as much muscle as it needs to lift the weight. So if you are lifting a light weight only a few times, you are only using your weaker, slow twitch muscle fibers. As the set with the light weight goes on, those weak muscle fibers get fatigued, and you start to recruit more and more of the stronger muscle fibers. If you do a set of twenty reps in a row to failure, you are really on recruiting everything on the last four to six reps. You can tell when you are close to failure because you’ll be trying to move the weight as hard as you can but it won’t go very fast. The first fifteen or so reps were really just the pregame for the actual party. Fun, but not as effective as an actual party. And doing three sets of twenty with full recovery is basically the same as getting drunk, sobering up, getting drunk again then sobering up yet again, and repeating it a third time. You need a lot more “drinks” for a lot less “drunkenness”. If you do three sets of twenty with full recovery, you have sixty total reps and only about fifteen are fully effective. It’s just not cost-effective. Conversely, if you are lifting an extremely heavy weight-over eighty-five percent of your maximum, or about the one to six rep range-you are using all of your muscle fibers starting with the first rep. However, you can’t lift heavy weights all the time. It’s a bit like starting the night off with twelve shots of tequila. It’ll be effective, but not really sustainable. You’ll get drunk quickly, but also probably end up lying in bed with things drawn on your face. If you do three sets of five with your six rep max, all fifteen reps are effective…but it’s still only fifteen reps. 141 Rest pause uses a weight somewhere in the middle. It’s the barhopping of the weightlifting world. You get to that good level and then you sustain it for the whole night and reap the benefits. You don’t let your body fully recover between sets, aka sober up. But nor are you going ham right out of the gate and blowing your load. That’s not going to satisfy anyone. Choose a weight that get about ten to twenty reps on the first set. This will be roughly sixty to eighty percent of your maximum. Rest pause involves pausing slightly between reps during a set so you can do more of them. The short ~15second break in between reps lets lactic acid clear from the muscle and lets the central nervous system clear it’s head a bit, but not too much. So if you do one set of twenty, followed by five sets of five each with fifteen seconds rest, you get five effective reps on the first set, and all twenty-five of the 5×5 reps are also effective because you are fatigued and are recruiting all your muscle fibers for those minisets. Forty-five reps total, and thirty of them are effective…. sound like a better deal? Rest pause is a great method to gain size quickly, and will definitely help your strength as well, especially with heavier weights. Protocol 3x20 normal sets 3x5 normal sets 20+5x5 rest pause Load ~60% ~85% ~60% Total Reps 60 15 45 Effective Reps 15 15 30 Total Time 12-15 minutes 8-10 minutes 3-4 minutes There are many different protocols that can be used-a few popular ones include: DC training Choose a weight about seventy-five to eighty percent of your one rep max that you can lift ten to twelve times. Do so till one rep before failure, put it down, rest about thirty seconds, lift it again and try to get three to six reps, then rest another thirty seconds, and try a third time and get two or three reps. All sets should be until either failure or one rep close to it. Myo Reps Choose a weight about sixty-five to eighty percent of your one rep max that you can lift twelve to twenty-five times till one rep before failure, put it down, take fifteen seconds rest, then do three to five more. Repeat the mini-set four more times. So it might look something like 15+3+3+3+3+3 or 18+4+4+4+4+4. Predetermined Number 142 Another way is to use as many “mini-sets” as you want to hit a predetermined number, usually twenty to forty. For example, you might chose to do twenty-five total reps, and do eight reps on the first set. Rest fifteen seconds, then get back to work, and get five more reps. Continue until you hit that twenty-five total rep target. It might look something like this: 8+5+4+2+2+2+1+1=25. This is very fatiguing and difficult mentally but produces amazing results. If you choose to do this on exercises that load the spine, such as squats and deadlifts, be sure to keep good form. Predetermined number gives quite a bit of flexibility and allows for some creativity when training. It’s a good way to implement rest pause training for those who don’t like structure. Just put the weight on the bar, pick a number and go. Even the rest time can be instinctive. Protocol DC training Myo Reps Predetermined Number Approx % 75-80% 65-80% 65-85% Rest First Set 30s 15s ~15 s 10-12 12-20 8-15 Second Set 3-6 3-5 4-8 Third Set 2-3 3-5 3-6 FourthSixth Sets 3-5 2-4 Total Reps 15-21 27-45 20-40 For programming purposes, a good way to count rest pause sets is take the total number of sets, divide them by two. If you get a fraction, round up. So, if you do 20+5x5, that is six sets, divided by two, so three total sets. If you did DC training and did 10+5+3, that would be three, divided by two, then rounding the 1.5 up to two, so two sets total. Section Recap: Rest pause involves doing multiple sets with short rest, in order to not let your body fully recover in between. Clusters These are similar to rest pause but are planned out more in advance and usually use a heavier weight. Also, while rest pause uses one all-out set followed by several smaller and shorter ones, clusters do the same number of reps for each mini-set. For programming, count it as two sets. So, you might use a heavy weight that you could do for five to seven reps for one set, but do only two reps, then rest ten to fifteen seconds, two more, rest ten to fifteen seconds, etc until you do ten reps total. 2+2+2+2+2, or 5x2. Rack the bar in between mini-sets. 143 This allows you to get more reps total because you are recovering slightly between each “mini-set”. They are a very advanced technique and very draining on the body, but are one of the best ways to gain strength. This technique works best with heavy compound exercises. Weights under 85% are best used with rest pause rather than clusters. Weights above 92.5% are not suitable for clusters either, as that heavy of weights you will likely need full rest between sets. % of One Rep Normal Max Reps Max 85% 5-7 reps 87.5% 4-6 reps 90% 3-5 reps 92.5% 2-4 reps Rest Time Cluster Rep Examples 10-20s 10-20s 10-20s 10-20s 5x2 or 3x3 4x2 or 2x3 6x1 or 3x2 3x1 or 2x2 144 Section Recap: Clusters use heavy weight and multiple sets with short recovery to elicit sweet gains. Dropsets A dropset involves doing a set, and then immediately afterwards starting another set with a lighter weight. You can then do another set after that second set if you want. The drop is generally about thirty to fifty percent. Dropping less than thirty percent and the weight difference isn’t enough, while dropping more than fifty percent and it won’t be heavy enough. Usually the same exact exercise is used, not a different one. So it might look like this: ten reps with 100kg–>eight reps with 60kg–>eight reps with 40kg. The number of reps is just as an example. For each set, you are trying to get as many reps as you can. That way, you are really going to failure three times. Yes, these hurt as much as it sounds. For programming, that would count as three total sets. This method is effective because it traps lactic acid, calcium ions, hydrogen ions and other waste products inside the muscle which is painful, but can also trigger muscle growth. This works well with isolation exercises and machine work however it should usually be avoided with most squats, deadlifts and bent over rows. Also keep in mind the body adapts quite quickly to this stimulus and gets very efficient at clearing out waste products, meaning this technique should only be used on a certain body part or movement for a couple weeks in a row before changing it out for something else. After a few weeks your body re-sensitizes to this method and you can use it again. Section Recap: During a drop set you lower the weight in successive sets with minimal recovery to pump up the muscle and get you swole. Supersets A superset involves completing a set of one exercise and then, with little to no rest, moving directly to another exercise. This minimal rest period has some benefits, but also some drawbacks. 145 If the two exercises both work the same muscles, the accumulation of fatigue, lactic acid and waste products within those muscles can be a potent stimulator of growth. If the two exercises work different muscles, the body is forced to shift large amounts of blood and oxygen to different areas of the body quite rapidly, which stimulates the metabolism and cardiovascular system. The only way that I like to do supersets in my training is called an “isolation sandwich”. This is an isolation exercise, followed by a compound exercise using the same muscle, followed by another isolation exercise. For example: This allows you to really focus on the muscle that you want to develop. A lot of people feel squats more in their lower back or glutes than their quads, and this can help you to feel the quads working more, just be sure to focus on using them on the squats! You’ll certainly have to reduce the weight on the squats compared to what you usually use. Another example, for chest: For programming, just count each set as a set. The main drawback of supersets is that they take away from the quality of all of the sets. Mentally it is difficult to give a 100% effort back to back, meaning most people won’t try as hard as they can during the first set if they subconsciously know that they still have a set to do right afterwards. The second set quality suffers simply because…well…you’re tired. Subsequent sets also suffer so try to place super sets later in the workout. Supersets don’t work for very long, for the same reason that dropsets can get stale after a while. Sprinkle them in occasionally for a few week cycles on some exercises, but they shouldn’t be the bulk of your training plan. Section Recap: Supersets are two exercises performed back to back with as little rest as possible, with the goal of maximizing your training efficiency. 146 Manipulating Reps Failure The concept of failure is simple: if you lift a weight until you no longer physically can lift it, that’s failure. However, implementing failure into your workouts is a controversial topic. Some trainers say that you MUST fail in order to gain muscle, with their logic being if you don’t fail, the body has no reason to adapt and grow to the stimulus. Others say that failure is a bad thing, and that it is something that should be avoided at all costs. The truth, as it so often is, lies somewhere in the middle. You CAN gain muscle without ever failing, but there may be some value in occasionally training till failure. At the very least, if you are able to push a set until you fail, you can be damn sure that the set was effective. It also shows that you have large nuts. It’s very rare to see someone with the guts to push a set close to failure, let alone to it. For 90% or more of people, the mind will give up before the body does. So if you are able to actually go to failure, that shows that you’ll get great results, just due to you having a different mentality. That being said, usually the best method is to avoid failure and stop a few reps away from it. When you fail, sets that you do after that usually suffer in quality, because you are tired. So if you do four sets, all to failure, you might do something like ten reps, seven reps, five reps and four reps. If you controlled yourself and didn’t go to failure on the first set, you could probably do four sets of eight reps. The first gets you twenty-six reps, while the latter gets you thirty-two reps, and the difference in volume could mean that the second might actually be better for muscle growth! If you really want to go to failure, it’s best reserved for the last set of an exercise, closer to the end of the workout. That way, it won’t effect sets afterwards. Section Recap: Failure is failing, which can help grow muscle but also can be more dangerous and increase recovery time. Just be careful bro. Partials Usually, training with a full range of motion is a better way to develop both strength and size, but there may be some circumstances where training with partial range of motion may 147 be beneficial. Do the full range of motion first, until you cannot do any more reps, then reduce the range of motion and doing partials. For example, if you are doing cable hammer curls, usually you start the rep with your arms fully straight, then flex your elbows using your biceps until the weight is up near your face. A partial would be just using the bottom half of the range of motion. So you might do ten reps till failure, using full range of motion, then do another ten reps just using the bottom half-up to the point shown in the picture on the right. You can do this with a lot of machines, many movements for arms or shoulders, but it is best avoided for heavy squats and deadlifts. Count partials as you would dropsets: once for the main set of full range of motion, and again for the set that has partial range of motion. This will generally be two sets, but could conceivably be three in some circumstances. Section Recap: Partials are less than full range of motion used to overload the muscle after full range of motion has fatigued the muscle. Isometrics An isometric hold is when there is no movement at all. You are just holding the weight in a certain position and lifting as hard as you can. This keeps the tension on the muscle rather than using momentum to lift the weight, making it one of the best ways to improve your form. It is usually reserved for barbell exercises like the bench press, bent over row, squat or deadlift. The best way to do this is to lift the bar against an object that will never move. For example, you might put a bench in the power rack and set up bars at two different levels: one just off the chest, and one at mid-range. To start a set, you’ll take the empty bar resting just off the chest, and press it as hard as you can into the mid-range bar for a few seconds. The weight won’t actually be going anywherebe sure to weigh down the power rack or the bar enough-but you’ll be exerting all of the force you possibly can. About four to six seconds is ideal, although you can go up to ten seconds. This can be done either before or after your main weightlifting exercises, but I suggest before as it is a good way to activate the central nervous system-aka warm up. For programming, just count the isometric hold as one set. 148 squats in the bottom position. Paused Reps Similar to isometrics, this involves pausing at a certain point in the movement. In contrast to isometrics, however, this can be done with just about any exercise, and no power rack is needed The only ones that shouldn’t be paused are Rubish and Kroc rows, which are always performed explosively, and which pausing would somewhat defeat the purpose. You can pause other explosive exercises like push presses and jump It is one of the best ways to clean up your form as it basically forces you to do the movement properly. For example, when deadlifting, you might pause just off the floor for three to five seconds, at the knee for three to five seconds, then fully locking it out. You can either use this for all your sets or just your lighter ones to warm up. This forces you into using perfect form during the warm ups, which translates into making the heavier sets also have better form. It’s almost impossible to hold a weight isometrically unless all your joints are in the right position. This helps prevent injury, just be sure to adhere to using perfect form. You can also use longer pauses of twenty to sixty seconds to strengthen a specific area of a lift. Progressively overload by adding time or weight to the bar. This is also a good muscle building technique for two reasons: It increases the amount of time that the muscles are under tension for. It eliminates the bounce or stretch reflex, placing greater stress on the muscle and less on the joints. Some good places to consider using pauses for some common exercises: Movement Squat Deadlift/Olympic Lifting Bench Press Location of pause Bottom position Half squat position on the way down Half squat position on the way up Around the knees (see above left) Just off the floor (see above right) On chest Difficulty Hard Hard Very Hard Moderate Very Hard Easy 149 Overhead Press Pullup Row Curls Midway point Just off the chest At bottom or lockout Around forehead (see above left) At full hang At full contraction At mid-range (see above right) Mid-range At full contraction At hang At full contraction Mid-range Moderate Hard Easy Very Hard Moderate Moderate Hard Hard Very Hard Easy Moderate Very Hard Section Recap: Paused reps are stopping temporarily during a particular part of the movement to make it more challenging. Eccentrics The eccentric part of a lift refers to the lowering part of the exercise. While you’d never say “Hey bro, I’m gonna go to the gym and *lower* some weights, want to come?”, the eccentric is actually a vital part of working out. You can lower twenty to forty percent more weight under control than you can lift, which makes this a very potent stimulator of growth. It also causes more muscle damage, which is one factor of muscle growth, just don’t overdo it. You can do eccentrics with special “weight releasers” that fall off the bar when you are finished lowering the weight, or a very trustworthy training partner that can push down on the bar as you are lowering it, and help on the way up. Eccentrics are ideal for dips, pullups, curls, lateral raises and flys. You can easily get back to the starting position by jumping up with the weight (the first two) or cheating it up with a slight leg drive (the last two). For an exercise like a chest fly you can bench press the weight up and lower it with the fly movement. For bench press, and most machine work, you will need a partner. For some machines such as leg extensions and hamstring curls you can lift with two legs and lower with one leg. Generally, don’t do eccentrics for squats, deadlifts, standing overhead pressing or bent over rows as it can be dangerous, the lumbar spine is an oft-injured region that doesn’t tolerate this type of overload very well. Also, don’t do it on any exercise where a partner couldn’t 150 help you if you completely fail. If you get stuck under a heavy three hundred kilo leg press on a shitty machine, you’ll need everyone in the gym to save your ass from getting squished. Eccentrics Never Yes, with GOOD training partner Yes, alone Movements Squats, Deadlifts, Standing Overhead Press, Bent Over Rows, Leg Press Bench Press, Seated Shoulder Press, Many Machines Curls, Lateral Raises, Dips, Pullups, Flys, Some Machines There are a few different ways to do this. Method One is to take a weight that is roughly 110-120% of your one rep max and lower it slowly under control for three to five reps. Aim for each rep to be lowered over the course of about three to five seconds…if you can’t lower it that slowly, reduce the weight. Don’t do more than a few sets using this method, as it’s difficult to recover from. This works well for maximal strength as well as size gains because when you go back to using a lighter weight it will feel strangely light, and you can get more reps than you otherwise would be able to. An AMRAP set following heavy eccentrics is a potent stimulator of growth. Method Two is similar but you use a lighter weight, around 60-85%. You start the set normally, with no assistance. When you hit failure in the set, go past it by doing extra eccentric-only reps. Either a partner will help you to lift the weight, or you’ll get it up by cheating. Be careful with this one. Section Recap: Eccentrics are emphasizing the lowering part of the movement in order to stimulate muscle growth. Explosive Reps Usually when lifting, you want to fully control the weight on the way up and the way down. However, there can be benefits to moving explosively, or as fast as possible on the lifting part of the movement. A cool study split subjects into two groups. One group was told to lift normally, while another was coached to move as explosively as possible on every rep of every set, even the warmups. The second group made TWICE as many strength gains as the 151 first group, JUST from that one cue of moving explosively. How is that possible? Similar to the concept of ramping, moving a light or moderate weight as fast as you can could actually generate MORE force than a heavy weight. Incoming science…. (if not interested, skip down a few lines) Force=Mass X Acceleration (time) So, if 100kg is your one rep max on the bench press, it might take you four seconds to lift-a long time, because you’ll really be straining and grinding against the weight. If you reduce the weight a bit to 75% of your one rep max,you will be able to lift it a lot more quicklysay, two seconds. If you reduce it further to 50% of your one rep max, you might be able to lift it even more quickly, perhaps even one second. Reduce the weight even further, you might be able to move 25kg even faster…but not twice as fast. Lets say .8 seconds. The distance travelled is all the same, about half a meter. Mass 25kg 50kg 75kg 100kg Distance .5m .5m .5m .5m Time Force (kg*m/s^2) .8 seconds 19.5 1 second 25 2 seconds 9.4 4 seconds 3.1 So actually you’ll be producing the most force NOT with the heaviest weight, nor with the lightest, but somewhere in the middle. …Science over. Anyway, the best way to implement this into your program is to choose about 40-60% of your one rep max, and do five to ten sets of three to five reps with the weight, and trying to move all reps as explosively as possible. The intention is everything here. You need to really focus on accelerating the weight as much as possible when lifting it. Throw it through the roof. Section Recap: Training explosively is a fun and exciting way to elicit gains and improve your athleticism. For programming, here is a chart that shows exactly how to count these advanced techniques. As said before, some of these techniques are stressful, and that’s exactly why they work! However, to represent that when planning your training, refer below to see how to program them. One Rep Max Count as one set Ramping Count each set during the ramp as one set 152 AMRAP EMOM Rest Pause Clusters Dropsets Superset Failure Partials Isometrics Paused Reps Eccentrics Explosive Reps Count as one set, but only do one AMRAP set per exercise Count each set during the EMOM counts as one set Count as 1/2 the total sets, rounded down Count as two sets Count each set during the drop counts as one set Count each set during the superset counts as one set Count as one set, and use sparingly Count as one set for the full range of motion part, plus one set per partial part Count as one set Count normally, as one set Count normally, as one set if just eccentrics (method one). Count as two sets if you went to failure on your own beforehand (method two). Count normally, as one set 153 Compendium Six: Cardio Often overlooked, cardiovascular exercise is essential not just for health but for your performance in the gym. In this section, we’ll look at how to program cardio in your workout plan, and whether High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or Low Intensity Steady State (LISS) is a better choice for you. For most people, it’ll be a combination of the two. We’ll also go over a few forms of cardio exercise, from biking to sprinting to weight training. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) This style of cardio involves short bursts of all-out sprints followed by recovery periods. This has the benefit of the EPOC effect-Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption, aka calories burnt after the workout. This is also known as the “afterburn” effect. While small, it can actually keep your metabolism elevated for days following the effort. It also reduces appetite for a long time as well, making this one of THE best ways to lose fat. There are many ways to incorporate HIIT into your training. First is a list of types of exercise to choose from, followed by some of the most popular and effective ways to structure the intervals. Sprinting Sprinting has the advantage of using the glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves, core, arms and torso, and thus you can burn a lot of calories very quickly. It also is potentially very useful in real life, such as when running from the cops or other assailants. However, it is hard on the body and difficult to recover from. I wouldn’t include hard sprint workouts on the roads or track more than once a week, MAYBE twice if you can recover quickly. It’ll also interfere with weight training, especially squatting and deadlifting. From hardest to easiest on the body: Roads Asphalt, and even more so concrete is very punishing on the body, especially when you combine it with roads that are often slightly sloped to one side, making it easy to develop muscle imbalances which lead to injury. Downhill running is particularly damaging, so definitely avoid that. 154 Track The track is a bit springier than most roads, and of course are always flat, but the left hand turns can also lead to injury. I would suggest doing half of your intervals clockwise and the other half counter clockwise to avoid muscle imbalances in the hips. I prefer 300m intervals over 400m ones because you can run two straights and one bend rather than two of each. Intervals anywhere from 150m-600m will get you shredded up quick. Personal favorites are 8x150m with short recovery(about ten to fifteen seconds), 8x300m with slightly longer recovery (about one minute) and 8x600m with two to three minutes recovery. They all suck in their own special way. Treadmill If you can find a treadmill at your gym that goes fast enough, they can be a great way to do intervals. Setting the incline up a few degrees can make it even easier on the body…but harder on the heart, legs and lungs which is exactly what we are trying to attack. You can hop on and off the treadmill and stand on the sides to rest, just be careful when starting each interval, especially the faster you go. Hill Sprints Hill sprinting is somewhat easy to recover from as there is less impact, but they absolutely destroy the entire lower body as well as the cardiovascular system. There is no better way to get in shape than running hills. They are shitty and will make you want to vomit at the end of them, but boy do they work. My personal favorites are 1620x100m (15-20 seconds) and 6x300m (50-60 seconds). If you can’t measure the length of the hill, just go by time. The hundred meter sprints are more for maximal speed and is less metabolic. The three hundred meter sprints will make you hate life but are awesome for stripping fat away. Any type of gradient is fine, but keep in mind if you are training for a track race steeper gradients will have less carryover to your event. Smooth surfaces are fine, but avoid running on trails or uneven grass as the risk of turning an ankle is too great. You can run stadium stairs if you can find them, but be careful. Don’t trip and get a face full of concrete! 155 Sled Dragging or Prowler Pushing The former involves strapping yourself to a weighted sled and pulling it behind you. The latter involves pushing a special sled. Both work the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves, and are exceptionally easy to recover from as there is no impact. If anything it will help your recovery from weightlifting, rather than hinder it like other forms of sprinting might. Cardio machines Most machines in the gym are fine to use-stair steppers, rowing machines, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, etc will all get your heart rate up if you set the correct resistance and are prepared to work your ass off. Most also have the advantage of being very low impact and easy to recover from. Battle ropes are OK but only work the upper body and thus might not be able to generate enough whole-body fatigue. They’re only in the gym because they look cool. Other sports like boxing, rowing, swimming and cycling are also good options…the main thing is that it uses the large muscles like the quads, hamstrings, glutes and back. Lifting With a moderate weight and a short recovery times, doing high rep training on full body movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges and push presses can definitely have a big training effect on your cardiovascular system. Lifting uses the muscles (duh) and the muscles use oxygen, so your heart and lungs can get a good workout if you plan the sets well. German Volume Training is particularly brutal but will get the job done. Keep your form strict, as lighter weights can still hurt you. Also, keep in mind that this WILL impact your workouts afterwards because you will probably get really sore from this type of training. I’ve personally recorded my heart rate at 200+ beats per minute after higher rep sets of full body movements. 156 Complexes A specific type of weightlifting, these involve doing several different exercises back to back, usually using a light to moderately loaded barbell. Generally, whole body movements are used such as deadlifts, back/front squats, push presses, overhead presses, bent over rows, hang power cleans/Power Snatch from the Hang, etc. This type of full body lifting uses enough muscle mass that it WILL get your heart rate up. A big advantage is that it also stimulates muscle growth, and might have some carryover to your heavy weightlifting. The biggest disadvantages are that it can be harder to recover from, particularly on the joints, as well as being basically impossible to do in a crowded gym. Trust me. Killing someone and ending up in jail for manslaughter might actually be decent for your gains but it sucks for other areas of your life. Exercises that are effective in complexes: Bar in Hands Bar on shoulders Bar on back Any Deadlift Front Squat Back Squat Romanian Deadlift Overhead Press Good Morning Bent Over Row Push Press Klokov Press Rubish Row Split Jerk Low Pull from the Hang Power Jerk Power Snatch from the Hang Overhead Squat Try to put exercises in the same group consecutively, so you don’t have to adjust too much. You can be creative and create your own complexes, just err on the side of caution. Bodyweight exercises Doing exercises like squat jumps, clapping pushups and burpees can definitely get the heart rate up and have the big advantage of being extremely convenient. Sprinting often requires a track, hill or roads…and takes a long time to warm up to prepare the body. Bodyweight exercises often require almost no warm up and can be done anywhere. Burpees are particularly effective. To perform them, do a pushup, followed by jumping as high as you can and 157 throwing your arms overhead. Repeat till you can’t. Section Recap: High intensity interval training is a time efficient way to burn a lot of calories very quickly. HIIT Protocols This section is all about the length of the work and rest times that can be manipulated to generate slightly different training effects. Some of the most popular ways to “hit it and quit it” are as follows: Tabata The Tabata method was invented by a Japanese sports scientist who experimented with many different ratios of work/rest times…so you know it’s good. He found that eight sets of twenty seconds on/ten seconds off produced the optimal amount of fatigue. On means ON…it really is an all out sprint, pretend like someone has a loaded gun to your head and will pull the trigger if you don’t give 100%. This protocol is extremely fatiguing in the short term but it only lasts about four minutes total, making it quite easy to recover from. You can do Tabata several times per week if you want, and it has many positive effects on your health. 10-12xThirty seconds/Thirty seconds rest This is a slightly more endurance focused version of HIIT. The intervals are slightly longer compared to tabata, and there are more of them, but you get significantly more rest. It’s also convenient because every interval will start on the minute, making it easy to know when to go. Things can get hazy during the heat of battle, so simpler is often better. 5-8×One minute/One minute rest This is a good mix between endurance and sprinting. The intervals are long enough that you will have to pace yourself, but you also get twice as much recovery. This will work your VO2 max (the most oxygen you can use in a certain time) very effectively. 4-6×Two minutes/One minute rest This is firmly on the endurance side of things, but definitely still high intensity! This is a good way to train the heart and lungs without losing muscle that longer endurance training can cause. 158 Those are some tried and true versions to start with, but feel free to mix and match intervals to suit your needs. You can do something like a pyramid of 15s on/off, 30s on/off, 45s on/off, 60s on/off, 75s on/off, 90s on/off…then back down. Or just go for a run and throw in short 20-40 second sprints every minute or two. Perhaps go to a 200m hill and sprint up, walk down until you question why you did this. The main thing is to be strict with the rest intervals…when you are going all out you’ll instinctively want to rest more, and the training effect is lost if you rest too much. Section Recap: You can choose a variety of protocols to make your HIIT training as effective as possible. Low Intensity Steady State (LISS) As you might expect, this type of cardio is easy effort sustained for long periods of time. Typical sessions are thirty to forty-five minutes, although you can go longer. This type of cardio is good because not only is it easy to recover from, it can actually enhance recovery from your weightlifting training because it is good for blood flow to the joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles. Another benefit of LISS is that it is mentally easier than HIIT, and also much less complicated. You can sort of just zone out while it’s happening. The main drawback of LISS is that it’s…slow. A HIIT workout could be done in a mere fraction of the time that a LISS workout might. So if you’re rushed for time, HIIT is a better option. Another drawback is that it CAN interfere with muscle gains if you are doing it over thirty to forty-five minutes, especially if you are running. Section Recap: Low intensity cardio is easy to recover from and can actually enhance recovery. Tracking Cardio Heart rate monitor A heart rate monitor is a fairly cheap and common device that simply tracks how fast your heart is pumping, usually displayed in beats per minute. This has the benefit of producing extra data to analyze…but has the drawback of producing extra data for you to analyze. If you are the type of person that enjoys tracking extra workout data, this is a good thing. If not, it’s probably best to not even buy one in the first place, just go by feel. Heart rate does have a fair amount of variability from person to person and even for a particular individual from day to day. So, if your heart rate was 130 beats per minute 159 during last cardio session, then next session at the same intensity your heart rate might be 125 or 135. Also keep in mind that most devices are not 100% accurate, especially at higher heart rates. You can check your heart rate manually by holding a finger on your neck, wrist or inner thigh, counting how many beats you feel in fifteen seconds, then multiplying by four. Pace You can track how fast you are going and use this to gauge your intensity. This also will vary somewhat day by day, so don’t be worried if you have a slight five to ten percent fluctuation in your pace compared to the effort you are putting out. If you are using a machine, it is very easy to track your pace and even your caloric output. If you are outside (whether cycling, running, walking, rowing, etc) you can track your pace by using a GPS or timing yourself and checking on Google pedometer, Baidu maps, onthegomap.com and the like afterwards. Keep in mind that GPS might not be 100% accurate if you are doing interval training, but for long and steady efforts it should be very consistent. Effort Another way to track cardio is simply to go by effort. You try to feel the correct pace. The overall effort should require some noticeably elevated breathing but you should be able to fairly comfortably sustain the pace over the entire session. This has the disadvantage of having no numerical feedback to track your progress but the advantage of not having to worry about it. Your body doesn’t know if you are writing down the numbers in a training log, it just knows that fuel is being burned and that energy has to come from somewhere. However, it’s important to note that LISS doesn’t burn a ton of calories. A good estimation would be roughly three to six hundred calories per hour depending on the exercise and intensity. It won’t effect your recovery too much from lifting weights, particularly if you do it at a separate time than lifting, so it’s generally better to do LISS than to not do it. 160 It’s also worth pointing out that this caloric expenditure can be compensated very easily by eating a bit more, especially if the foods are very calorie dense “junk foods”. If you are doing cardio to lose weight, you are better off cleaning up your diet in the vast majority of circumstances. And if you are doing cardio for heart health, HIIT is probably a better choice overall. Section Recap: You can track cardio by heart rate, effort or pace. 161 LISS vs HIIT: How to Program Cardio These two forms of cardio are both great and you should at least do one of them. Here’s a quick chart of the pros and cons of each to help you decide which you might prefer. First of all, I haven’t been completely honest with you. There is actually a middle ground between LISS and HIIT, called “MISS”, or “medium intensity steady state”. This is doing moderately hard, sustained efforts for twenty to sixty minutes, like running a 10k or something. This zone seems to be bad for muscle and strength gains, why most distance runners are very thin. It seems like HIIT is too short to cause these muscle losses, while LISS is too low intensity. It’s only tough, lengthy cardio that causes it. So if you want to gain muscle and strength, avoid that type of work. Give it…a miss. (da dum chhhh) LISS HIIT Effort Easy and relaxed High to spleen-bursting Time 30-45+ minutes 4-15 minutes Physical Recovery Cost Minimal, can do lots of it Moderate to High Strength/Muscle Growth Helps recovery Helps (if programmed well) Calories Burned per Minute ~5-10 calories per minute ~15-20 calories per minute Calories Burned per Workout ~150-450 ~100-250 Afterburn Effect? Minimal Slight (~ 50-100 calories) Overall Health Good Great Secondly, if you are doing cardio to burn calories…well, lets just say the difference isn’t a lot. While LISS will probably burn more calories than HIIT overall, both forms of cardio represents a small portion of your calorie intake. If you want to lose fat, diet is much easier to focus on changing. This book won’t really touch diet but it’s worth noting that the few hundred calories burned during cardio quite literally could be a few mouthfuls of food. In terms of how it might affect your weightlifting, LISS can help reduce soreness after a workout. Going for a walk or pedaling an exercise bike the day after a leg workout can help recovery noticeably. So, a day or two after a lower body workout is a good time to put LISS. It can even be just a short thirty minute walk. HIIT will not only not help you recover, it’ll add to the stress load the body is facing. If you are doing a lot of sets of squats or deadlifts, 162 you might not want to be doing sprints on the track or hill sprints, both of which are at least as stressful to the body as weight training. That being said, if you time your HIIT workouts well, they can actually help your strength and size. Many people that do cycling or hill sprints report gains in leg size and to a lesser extent, squatting strength. The trick is to put them as far apart in your training week from squatting and deadlifting as possible. Directly after upper body workouts that aren’t the day before a lower body workout works best for HIIT. In terms of overall health, HIIT is probably going to have more of an impact than LISS. It’s effects on belly fat loss, diabetes prevention, heart disease and metabolic syndrome are well documented. LISS might get you some results, but if you really want to supercharge things, HIIT is probably a better way to go. At the end of the day…you can and probably should use both in your training. A couple of quick five to ten minute HIIT sessions a week after upper body workouts and a few LISS sessions, which could be as easy as walking around a bit during a lunch break, and you’ve got a jump start on more than ninety-five percent of people. Section Recap: LISS and HIIT both have benefits and drawbacks, and you should include both in your training. 163 Compendium Seven: Injuries You’ve probably heard it from someone you know: “Yea, my training was going great, and then I got injured and it took forever to heal. That was two years ago, I’ll probably start up again next year”. Hey, maybe that guy is YOU. Don’t be that guy! And don’t let any of your friends that lift or are thinking about starting lifting be that guy either, share this book with ’em! Here we’ll go over the most common causes of injury and how to prevent them. I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t medical advice, obviously. It’s much better than that. If you go to your doctor, who probably doesn’t even lift, they will probably simply say “stop training”, when in fact that is one of the worst things that you can do. You need to keep active, work around the injury, get blood flowing, and strengthen the areas that need to be strengthened. Part one will be more general strategies to avoid getting your shit snapped up, while part two will be exercise specific. Part three will be body part specific, more of a quick reference of what could be causing pain in a particular area. You can also check the injuries section of Compendium Nine: Making Progress for more details on how to work around an injury. General Strategies for Staying Healthy Lifting weights is actually very safe compared to most other sports, but there are some general strategies you can follow, and things to avoid, to ensure you stay 100% healthy. Every time that you step in the gym, your number one priority is not getting injured. Progressing with heavier weights or more sets and reps is secondary. You can’t get better if injured. Doing stupid shit Whether it’s pulling a bicep during a 405 pound twoman barbell curl, doing squats on an unstable object or trying to jump on a box the height of your face, doing stupid stuff is probably the quickest ticket to injury. Go on youtube for a few minutes and watch a bunch of gym fail videos. Watching natural selection in progress will be more 164 effective at keeping you safe than anything I can write here. Don’t be part of Darwin’s theories in action. If you aren’t sure if something is stupid, it’s probably stupid. Solution: Don’t do it. Going too heavy. Lifting weights above ninety percent of your one rep maximum creates significantly more wear and tear on your joints, ligaments and tendons compared to slightly lighter weights. It can be addictive going heavy every workout and constantly testing your strength, but it often comes at a toll. Some areas such as the lower back and shoulders are particularly susceptible to heavy weights. Even with correct form, heavy weights can mess you up. Going heavy has its time and place, always analyze the risk vs reward. Solution: Don’t go heavy every week, avoid doing reps at absolute hundred percent most of the time, and don’t do more than ten reps total across all sets at above ninety percent. Some exercises are absolutely not suitable for performing maximum, ten rep efforts-check section four for more details, or the “Special Workouts and Techniques-Modifying Sets” chart in the appendix. Maxing out on bent over rows or skullcrushers is just asking for problems. Going to failure too often. Going to failure, or beyond, is a great way to stimulate muscle and strength gains, but can place significant stress on the joints. It’s also dangerous with some exercises. Failing a bench press or squat is pretty miserable. The bar goes up...and then it stalls, and comes back down. Failure is a better option for isolation exercises or machines but even then, only go to failure on a few sets per exercise at most. Solution: Avoid failure on bench presses, squats, deadlifts, rowing exercises, and most other spinal loading exercises most of the time. Doing excessive volume. Everybody has a limited amount of training that they can recover from. While this varies from person to person, for the average guy, if you are spending more than about an hour in the gym per day training hard, it will be difficult to recover from. Volume is important for progress, but make sure that you aren’t doing too much. If you feel tired all the time and your joints ache, you will probably be better off cutting back. Solution: Train less but train smarter. If you plan your training well and use the most effective exercises you won’t need as many sets to get the same, or better results. Rest pause can help you get more from less volume-see section four for more details. 165 Becoming Unbalanced No one is perfectly symmetrical, even many elite athletes have some muscle or even bone length imbalances. For example, analysis by researchers shows Usain Bolt’s right leg generates thirteen more peak force and his left foot is on the ground fourteen percent longer. And he’s still the greatest sprinter of all time. Still, having an imbalance can leave you vulnerable to injury. Usain actually has back pain in part because of it. Having an imbalance between opposing muscle groups can cause a joint to become “uncentered”, and thus receive more stress. If you bench press a lot and don’t do any upper back work, a shoulder injury is not a question of if, it’s a question of when. Stretching can help but simply having a balanced program is better. Doing twice as much “pulling and rowing” exercises as “pushing and pressing” exercises is a good idea if you have achy shoulders. Having a left to right imbalance is an even quicker ticket to injury. If you notice you are shifting or rotating to one side when squatting or deadlifting, for example, that’s an issue you need to sort out sooner rather than later. Common causes of imbalances are deadlifting with a mixed grip-one hand over, one under-or too much running sloped roads or curved tracks. Solution: For upper body occasionally substitute barbell movements for dumbbells, and for the lower body sometimes do single-leg exercises like lunges and Bulgarian split squats. Letting your form break down Everyone is built differently, and everyone will look slightly different when lifting weights, but if your form begins to change during a set that increases your chance of injury dramatically. Your last rep of a set should look exactly like your first one, only perhaps slower due to fatigue. The best way to improve your technique is with moderate weights in the seventy to eighty percent range, not the ninety percent or more area. If your technique is breaking down, either do less reps with the same weight, or use less weight for the same number of reps. Solution: Learn to feel how your body is moving, and if you know your form is breaking down, stop the set. 166 Not listening to your body. When warming up and cooling down, listen to your “pain teacher”. If something hurts, usually there is a reason for it. Pain usually doesn’t happen for no reason. The entire reason pain exists is to give you feedback that you are causing damage to yourself! Also, learn to differentiate between pain and discomfort. Pain is sharp, acute, and localized. If your shoulder joint hurts, that is tissue damage and reactive inflammation. In other words, a problem. Taking anti-inflammatory medication to reduce the swelling can help, but is treating the symptom, not the cause. Furthermore, the inflammation is part of the healing process, so taking medication to reduce the pain is only smart when the inflammation is excessive. Usually pain=problem. Discomfort is the last few reps of a set of squats or the last hundred meters of a fourhundred-meter race-it hurts, but not in a specific joint. It sort of just feels bad…everywhere. That’s lactic acid and hydrogen ions building up in the muscle and in your bloodstream. From an evolutionary perspective, discomfort exists to keep us from wasting energy. It’s why you’ll never see people sprinting to work. It’s inefficient compared to walking so the body would rather have us walk. The entire reason why pain exists is to prevent us from doing stupid shit that could cause injury and jeopardize us getting laid and passing on our genes. No one wants to put that at risk, so listen to your body. Question How does it feel? Where does it happen? What does it represent? Why does it happen? When does it happen? Who does it happen to? What does it result in? Pain Sharp, acute, localized Joint Tissue damage Stop you from injuring yourself Excess or awkward loading Stupid people Injuries Discomfort Difficult to pinpoint Muscle, everywhere, your soul Metabolic stress Stop you from “wasting” energy During hard 30-90s efforts Gutsy people Adaptation Solution: Learn to differentiate pain and discomfort. Work with your body instead of against it. Not enough variation. Limiting yourself to a handful of exercises is a double-edged sword, you master those few exercises but you constantly stress your joints in exactly the same areas, leading to potential overuse injuries. Even small changes, like using a slightly narrower grip, a wider stance, or adding a pause can change the angle of stress on a joint enough to keep you healthy in the long term. Luckily you were smart enough to get your hands on this book, and thus many exercise variations for each movement pattern are at your fingertips. 167 Solution: Vary your exercises every two to four weeks. Learn which varieties work for you. Avoid movements that give you pain. Not recovering enough. This is obvious when you think about it, but often overlooked. Most recovery methods are simple. You don’t have to be standing in a chamber of freezing cold air alternated with a massage in a scorching hot sauna. Eating more quality food, getting more quality sleep and walking for ten to fifteen minutes a few times a day can go a long way towards recovering and staying healthy. Solution: Make recovery a priority, and if for whatever reason you can’t, reduce your training volume and/or intensity. Section Recap: A lot of factors can put you at risk for injury. Using your common sense is generally enough to avoid injury. Exercise Specific Technique Cues Many of the most effective exercises are the ones that cause the most injuries. This is because most of the exercises below put the muscle in a stretched position, and while that is fantastic for stimulating a muscle to grow, it can put excessive stress on the joint. Everyone is built differently and there is always a safer variation to try if you can’t do a certain exercise safely. Refer to the exercises section for the best exercises to start with, as beginner exercises will almost always be safer than more advanced exercises, just by their nature. Deadlift The number one area that the deadlift will mess up is the lumbar spine-the lower back. Herniated discs are no fun. The reason your back rounds is because it is actually stronger in that position, as it allows the weight to rest on the passive tension on the spinal disks rather than the muscles, and shortens the range of motion. This is good for lifting maximal weights but bad for staying healthy, because those discs and soft tissues can be injured. In general, when under load, keep your back in a neutral, straight 168 position, never rounded. This tip also applies to bent over rowing and squatting. Having a slightly rounded upper back is acceptable, but the lower back should never round under load, unless you really want to chip in for your orthopedists new Ferrari. Poop-dog deadlifting is a quick-ticket to back pain for most people. A good mental cue for deadlifting is to push the floor away with your legs, and keep your chest up. This will help most people stay in the correct positions. Another is to always lift with a belly full of air. Pretend like you are about to be punched in the stomach before lifting the weight, keep everything tight. Pallov presses (see the abdominal exercises section) are perfect for learning to brace. If you don’t have the hip mobility or natural leverages to get into the proper position for the conventional deadlift, try sumo style. It’s much more forgiving on the lower back and you can stay more upright. Other good options are a trap bar deadlift or a rack pull from around the knees. The Romanian deadlift, or RDL, is another nice option. Avoid movements that increase the range of motion, like deficit or snatch grip variations. Squat The best leg builder, the two main areas that squats stress are the knees and lower back. The low bar variation can also put a lot of stress on the wrists, elbows and shoulders due to the awkward position of the bar. I would suggest beginners start with high bar and try out low bar later. It’ll always be waiting for you. For the knees, letting them travel forward slightly over the toes is fine, but don’t let your knees cave inwards at any time. That’ll mess you up. Also, try to control the decent and bounce-using a stretch reflex is fine, but constantly dive-bombing your squats is a recipe for injury. Try different depths and foot positions to see which type of squat works best for you. For the lower back, learn to brace your core, as well as open your hips up when squatting. If your back is rounding (butt wink) in the bottom position, either squat higher or improve your mobility. At least once every three workouts, do single leg work like lunges or Bulgarian split squats. Box squats are usually fairly forgiving on the knee joint. 169 Bench Press The bench press is a known shoulder-killer. Doing excessive volume or intensity on the flat, wide grip barbell bench press is a sure-fire way to leave your shoulders achy, even with perfect technique. There are a few solutions to this issue. One, is take a narrower grip. This shifts stress from the shoulder joint and chest muscles to the elbow joint and triceps muscles, which are generally more durable for most people. Two, learn to tuck your elbows and touch lower on the chest as opposed to flaring them out and touching higher. Three, use variation to your advantage. Using dumbbells, decline and incline variations will definitely keep your shoulders happier in the long term. Finally, do plenty of rowing exercises for the upper back, including external rotation movements like the face pull. Doing light cable rows, face pulls, and/or rear delt raises between sets of bench press won’t make you weaker for your actual workout and will make you feel more stable when bench pressing. The upper back is one of the most resilient areas of the body and recovers very fast, so it shouldn’t take away from your actual back workout. Dip The dip is a great chest, shoulder and triceps exercise but it can be stressful on the shoulders, breastbone (sternum) and clavicles even if performed correctly. Some solutions are avoiding the deep stretch at the bottom of the movement, using a slightly narrower grip if possible, and slowing down the lowering part of the movement. Don’t attempt to add weight until you can do ten clean reps in a row, and waiting until fifteen or even twenty reps isn’t a bad idea either. When you do add weight, keep the reps per set at eight or more. Maxing out on the dip is pointless unless you want your breastbone snapped like a turkey at thanksgiving. Like any exercise, if it consistently gives you pain even though your form is good, it’s not worth doing. There is always an alternative that suits your anatomy better. Curl The standing barbell curl is a great biceps exercise but it can be potentially injurious to the lower back, wrists, elbows and bicep muscle itself. Avoid leaning back too much, keep your 170 form fairly strict, and minimize the use of the hips and lower back. Control the eccentric part of the movement and keep your core tight. Using a curved EZ-bar can also help alleviate wrist or elbow strain. Curls using a preacher bench can help isolate the biceps and keep other muscles out of the movement. Use dumbbells with a neutral grip occasionally as they are easier on the wrists. Max out rarely, if ever. Skullcrusher The name alone sounding ominous, this “elbow shredder” is a fantastic triceps exercise but does put significant stress on the joints. The elbow is probably the most claustrophobic joint in the human body, as there’s a lot of nerves, muscles, tendons, veins and arteries passing through quite a small area. One simple technique hack is to push your elbows slightly forward when lowering the weight instead of just hinging back, lowering the weight to your chin rather than your forehead. Also keeping the reps above ten puts less stress on the joint. Finally, the overhead dumbbell tricep extension, close grip bench press and pushdowns are good alternatives that all put less stress on the elbow for most people. Pressing Pressing is one of the best overall upper body movement patterns but does have potential for injury. Avoid leaning back excessively, particularly using the lower back. Make sure to brace your core as in a squat or deadlift and squeeze your glutes to keep your hips stable. Make sure your upper back is strong and you have enough shoulder mobility. Avoid behind the neck movements if they give you any pain at all. Use dumbbells at a minimum every third workout. If all pressing still gives you pain, a combination of incline bench pressing and lateral raises should give you just as good overall shoulder development. Olympic lifts The Power Snatch from the Hang and clean and jerk as well as their variations are one of the best ways to develop total body explosive power, but they can also be a common cause of injury. A few technique hacks to consider. One, if you don’t have the overhead shoulder 171 mobility, avoid the snatch as it can put a lot of stress on the shoulders if you aren’t prepared for it. Two, avoid doing high reps sets as it can cause your form to break down when fatigued. Three, the jerk places a lot of stress on the knees as well as the lower back, so if you have issues with these areas just skip it after cleaning the weight. Four, doing lifts from the “hang” position requires less mobility and coordination and gives you most of the benefits. Finally, the low pull from the hang is probably the easiest option, as you don’t even have to focus on catching the bar at all, just pulling it as high as you can. Section Recap: Every exercise has specific cues that can help you stay healthy, and not every exercise is equal in risk. My ______ Hurts This section is a quick reference if a particular body part hurts. It won’t go into exhaustive detail, but will give you a few quick reasons why it might be hurting and what you might want to try changing in your training. The exercises are listed roughly in the order that might be causing the problem. They’re followed by what might be some good exercises to do in the meantime that put less stress on the area while you heal up. Knee Squat, Lunge, Push Press, Jerk, Running/Sprinting, Olympic Lifting, Sumo Deadlift If your knees are giving you trouble, focus on conventional deadlifting rather than squatting. Hip Sumo Deadlift, Squat, Deficit/Snatch grip Deadlift, Other Deadlift variations, Running/Sprinting, Bulgarian split squats, Lunge, Push Press, Jerk, Olympic Lifting If your hips are giving you trouble, avoid deep squatting. Something like a box squat or rack pull can help give you a chance to heal. Lower Back Deadlift, Squat, Overhead Press, Push Press, Jerk, Olympic Lifting Z-press or seated dumbbell press can take stress off the lower back and still give your shoulders plenty of growth stimulus, and Bulgarian split squats and lunges hammer the legs while being easy on that lumbar. 172 Shoulder Upright Row, Bradford Press, Flys, Klokov Press, Wide Grip Bench Press, Low Bar Back Squat, Overhead Press, Push Press, Dips, Behind the Neck Pulldowns, Pullover, Jerk, Olympic Lifting Close grip bench press and close grip pulldowns/pullups can maintain upper body size while putting less stress on the shoulder joint. Light seated lateral raises, rear delt raises and face pulls can hep get blood in the area. Elbow Skullcrusher, JM Press, Push Press, Jerk, Overhead Dumbbell Extension, Barbell Curl, Low Bar Back Squat, Cable Lateral Raise, Olympic Lifting, Lateral Raise High bar back squat puts minimal stress on the elbow and is a great lower body option. For upper body, avoiding heavy curling and extending exercises is a must. Go lighter in the twenty or higher rep range. Wrist Front Squat, Low Bar Back Squat, Barbell Curl, Reverse Curl, Chinups, Deadlift, Olympic Lifting Neutral (hands facing each other) grip options are almost always easier on the wrists. Using an EZ curl bar when curling is a good idea as well. If you’ve been low bar squatting, that’s probably part of the problem so do high bar for a while. Section Recap: If you have an issue with a specific part of your body, these are the likely culprits that are causing the problem. 173 Compendium Eight: Sample Training Plans These sample training plans are a good starting point for those who want something that will definitely work well. Each training plan WILL be effective, but feel free to tweak it within the guidelines presented-personalizing the program will not only help you get even better results, but will start you on the path of writing your own training. That’s the eventual goal. You can scale each plan to your level by starting out with fewer sets, and increasing them over time. You may want to start with about half the recommended volume at first. Each training program will have beginner, intermediate and advanced variations. All Three Two of the Three six Less than one year One of the Three None of the Three Less than two years Always Beginner Less than months Intermediate Six months-three One to five years years More than two years Never Advanced Three years Never Five years Never 174 Training Plan One: The Lazy Man’s plan This plan is designed to get you in the habit of going to the gym and learn some basic exercises. This is a balanced plan that doesn’t focus on any particular muscle group, and you’ll be in the gym doing just three full body workouts per week. For the beginner, the workout will take about forty-five to sixty minutes and for the intermediate around seventeen-five to ninety minutes. There’s no advanced lazy man’s plan. If you are advanced you can’t be lazy. This plan utilizes beginner exercises, but even famous bodybuilders such as Arnold Schwarzenegger used them regularly in their heyday, and even still use them today, fifty years later. That’s how easy on the body they are. Beginner Lazy Man’s Plan Description This plan is focused on the basic movements and will get you great results. The first day starts with two exercises performed in alternating fashion. You’ll do a set of fifteen reps in the pulldown, take a minute or two of rest, then do a set of twelve reps in the seated dumbbell shoulder press. The sets should be hard, but under control. You should feel like you could do a few more reps. Repeat three more times for a total of four sets of each. Then you’ll do two sets for each leg of the Bulgarian Split Squat, each with twenty reps. You might not be able to use much weight, if any, but try to progress week by week. That’s the key to progress on this plan, adding weight over time. This is followed by a couple sets of the goblet squat, doing fifteen reps on the first set. Rest a minute or two, then use a slightly lighter weight and try to get thirty reps on the last set. Try to stay as upright as possible. Rest a few minutes, then scrounge around for two light dumbbells. For the seated lateral raise, again, do a set of fifteen, rest a bit, then use a slightly lighter weight and do a set of thirty reps. Finally, go to the captains chair (yes that’s the real name of it!) and do hanging leg raises till failure. Rest about a minute, then do a final set to failure. Go home. Day two starts similarly to day one, with two exercises performed in alternating fashion. In this case, the chest supported row and close grip bench press. Again, each set should be moderately hard. After that, do three sets of the sumo deadlift, adding weight with each set. Aim for twelve reps on the first set, eight on the second and six on the third. After that, perform a couple sets each of the seated dumbbell curl and cable pushdown, both for sixteen reps. Go home. 175 Day three again has you doing two exercises back to back, a pulldown and dumbbell bench press. Start each with a set of ten reps, and then do a lighter set of twenty reps afterwards. Then bang out two sets of goblet squats, a twenty and a lighter thirty. Move over to the back extension machine and do two sets of fifteen, using a full range of motion. Add weight with a plate or dumbbell held at your chest if possible. Then go do two sets of seated lateral raises-similar to the goblet squats, do a set of twenty and a lighter thirty. Finish up with two sets to failure of cable crunches-try to use a weight Movement Pattern Sets per week that you can get around twenty to thirty reps with. HINGE 5 Go home. SQUAT 6 All of this is in the chart below, which you can use PRESS 4 for quick reference. Over time, try to progress by PULL 6 using heavier weights. When you feel ready, add PUSH 6 weight to the bar or use heavier dumbbells. ROW 4 SHOULDERS 4 IMPORTANT: If you are completely new to CURL 2 training, or haven’t exercised in a long time, the first EXTEND 2 week, do HALF of the written number of sets! ABS 4 As a beginner, you can run this plan for a long time TOTAL 43 and make great progress. Try it out for four to six weeks and enjoy the results you will get. After that, you can keep going, stay on the same plan but switch some exercises, or switch to a completely new plan to spice things up. Program Recap: The Beginner Lazy Man’s Plan is great for beginners as a way to acclimate your body to the gym. 176 Beginner Lazy Man’s Plan Schedule Day One #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Pulldown Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Bulgarian Split Squat Goblet Squat Seated Raise Sets and Reps 4 sets of 4 sets of 2 sets of 15- 1 set of 15, 12-15 10-12 20 1 set of 30 1 set of 15, Ex 1 and 2 alternated performed set by set 2nd set lighter Notes 2 sets per leg #6 Lateral Hanging Leg Raise 1 set of 30 2nd set lighter 2 sets failure till Day Two #1 Exercise Sets Reps Notes Chest Row #2 #3 Supported Close Grip Bench Sumo Deadlift Press and 4 sets of 12-15 Ex 1 and performed 4 sets of 6-8 #4 #5 Seated Dumbbell Curl Pushdown 3 sets of 12,8,6 reps 2 sets of 12-16 2 alternated set by set 2 sets of 12-16 Add a bit of weight Ex 4 and 5 alternated each set performed by set Day Three #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Pulldown Dumbbell bench press Goblet Squat Back Extension Seated Lateral Cable Crunch Raise Sets and Reps 1 set of 10 1 set of 10 1 set of 20 2 sets of 10-15 1 set of 20, 1 set of 20 1 set of 20 1 set of 30 Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set 2nd performed by set lighter set #6 2 sets till failure 1 set of 30 2nd set lighter 177 set Intermediate Lazy Man’s Plan Description This more advanced plan is for those who have been in the gym for some time already. The volume is roughly twice as much as the beginner plan and there are some special techniques used. If you are just starting out, get some time under the bar with a beginner plan first. As an intermediate lifter, you are starting to know how your body responds to some exercises, probably better than I do. Thus, while I encourage you to keep experimenting with new exercises, if you want to swap in one of your favorite exercise variations for something here, feel free. As long as it’s of the same movement pattern, it shouldn’t effect how the program runs much, and your enjoyment of your training IS important. This plan will develop the body fairly evenly and is focused on both strength and aesthetics. It will introduce AMRAP (as many reps as possible), dropsets, supersets and rest pause sets, check them out in Compendium Five: SWAT. While this is billed as a “Lazy Man’s Plan”, once you’re an intermediate lifter, you’ll have to work harder. That’s just a law of the iron game. Unlike the beginner version, I won’t walk you through the entire plan step by step, but I will make note on some areas that might require clarification. For the day one pullups, try to get to the thirty reps in as few sets as possible. Once you can do the thirty reps in less than five sets, add weight. For the back squats, add weight to the bar each set. All sets should be pretty hard, followed by a final all-out set. Back extensions are two normal sets, then dropping the weight a bit on the third for high reps. The lateral raises are business as usual for the first three sets, but really push it on the final drop set. It helps if you have the weights you want to use arranged beforehand, so you don’t have to go searching for them, try to take as little rest as possible. Finish with hanging leg raises. Day two, the bent over row and incline press are NOT supersets, take plenty of time between sets! Add weight to the bar each set. For the Romanian deadlifts, really attack that last set. Your hamstrings should be on fire! Finally, for the last reverse curl/overhead cable extension superset, be prepared for some pain. Expect to lower the weight for subsequent sets. Day three, the pulldowns and close grip bench press are performed alternated, but NOT for the rest pause sets. So for the 15-20+5x5, for the 5x5 you just rest fifteen to twenty seconds in between those mini-sets till they are done. Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS TOTAL Sets per week 11 9 5 10 11 6 12 4 4 6 78 IMPORTANT: If you haven’t exercised in a long time, do HALF of the number of sets week one! 178 Program Recap: The Intermediate Lazy Man’s Plan is great for intermediate athletes as a way to keep progressing. 179 Intermediate Lazy Man’s Plan Schedule Day One #1 #2 #3 #4 # 5 #6 Exercise Pullup Push Press Back Squat Back Extension Lateral Raise Hanging Leg Raise Sets and Reps 30 reps 5x3 total over multiple sets Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set performed by set 4 sets of 2 sets of 8-12, 15,10,8,5 Then 1 Then 1 AMRAP set AMRAP of ~20-30 set of 15- reps 20 reps 3 sets of 12-15, 3 sets till failure 1 triple drop set of 20, 20, 20, reducing the weight by half each time. Ex 5 and 6 alternated performed set by set Day Two Exercise Sets Reps Notes Ex 1 Ex 2 Bent Over Row Incline Press Ex 3 Ex 4 Ex 5 Bench Romanian Deadlift Reverse Curl Overhead Cable Ext and 6 sets of 6 sets of 2 sets of 10 4 sets of 15 20,15,12,10,8,6 20,15,12,10,8,6 AMRAP 20-30 reps Ex 1 and performed 2 alternated set by set Ex 4 and 5 4 sets of 15 performed supersetted Day Three Exercise Ex 1 Ex 2 Ex 3 Pulldown Close Grip Front Bench Press Squat Ex 4 Ex 5 Pause Glute Seated Bridge Raise Ex 6 Lateral Cable Crunch Sets and 2 sets of 15, 2 sets of 10, 4x6 Reps 1 rest pause set 1 rest pause set of 15-20+5x5 of 15-20+5x5 2x10, Rest pause set of ~15-20+5x5 reps Notes Pause at the Ex 5 and top performed Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by performed set 2 triple drop sets 3 sets of 20,20,20 till reduce weight by failure half each time. 6 alternate d set by set 180 Training Plan Two: The Busy Man’s plan The Busy Man’s Plan is for those who have learned to push themselves, and want to maximize their time efficiency in the gym. It’s different from the intermediate lazy man’s plan in a few ways. First, this plan will use heavier weights than the lazy man’s plan. This will usually be done by ramping. Second, it will often have one hard set that you really expend a lot of effort. If you have the ability to really push yourself, this plan will get you fantastic results in less time. If you don’t, you’re better off focusing on the higher volume lazy man’s plan for the time being. You can check the “Compendium Five: SWAT” section for more details, but ramping is basically when you increase the weight with each set, being as explosive as possible. This is a great way to ensure that you get the most out of your workout. Intermediate Busy Man’s Plan Description Feel free to swap exercises in and out if you prefer. By now, you’re a somewhat seasoned lifter who knows what exercises are ideal to you. If you want to swap out back squat for front squat or incline bench for decline, that’s fine by me. In particular, you can change the snatch grip deficit deadlift into another form of deadlift, especially if you are preparing for a competition and want to practice without a deficit or use sumo style. Day one-for the pullups and push presses, ramp up to a three rep max, adding weight each set till you are at your maximum. The sets on the way up are hard sets but not all out. Then, reduce the weight and do one AMRAP set each. Take plenty of rest between each. Then move to the back squat, again ramping to a three rep max by adding weight each set. Then, do one AMRAP with around eighty percent of your one rep max weight. Move to the sumo deadlift, warming up and then doing five sets starting on the minute, making sure every rep is explosive. Moving on to the gun show, do three sets each of barbell curl and skullcrushers, then one rest pause set of each. After that come lateral raises, with drop sets, and foot to bar. Day two, start with alternating between bent over row and incline bench press, going up in weight each set, ramping to a six rep max. Then do a cluster of low pull from the hang, 5x2 each time, followed by an AMRAP set. This is followed by reverse curls with lower half partials. Go to failure with full range of motion, then just do the bottom half of the range of motion till your forearms are on fire. Move to overhead cable extension for the triceps. Again, go till failure, then do partials, using the top half of the range of motion. Finish up with a drop set of prone rear delt raises, and after the final rep of the final set, hold the top position as long as possible. Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS TOTAL Sets per week 12 11 4 10 10 8 12 8 8 4 87 Day three, start with wide grip pulldown and close grip bench press. Ramp to a ten rep max and three rep max respectively, alternating between exercises, then one rest pause set of each. Follow it up with front squats and then back extensions and then lunges. Really push it on the AMRAP sets here, as they’ll determine if you grow or not. Follow that leg destruction with cable rows and paused face pulls-really focus on the end range of motion for both. Alternate the latter with cable crunches. The more advanced you get, generally the more training you can tolerate. However, if you are very strong and thus lifting very heavy weights, you might have some trouble recovering, so make sure to constantly assess your current situation. 181 Program Recap: The Busy Man’s Plan is a time efficient and effective way to train. 182 Intermediate Busy Man’s Plan Schedule Day One #1 Exercis Pullup e #2 #3 #4 Push Press Back Squat Sumo deadlift Sets and Reps Ramp to 3 rep max using Ramp up to 3RM Ramp to 3RM using 5x3 EMOM ~3 sets using ~3 sets. ~3 sets explosive reps Notes Ex 1 and 2 performed alternated set by set # 5 #6 #7 #8 Skullcrusher Lateral Raise Foot to Bar Then a 10-15 rep AMRAP Then a 8-10 rep Then a 10-15 rep AMRAP AMRAP Exercis Barbell Curl e Sets and Reps Ramp to 6RM using ~3 Ramp to 10RM 2 triple drop sets 2 sets sets using ~3 sets 15,15,15, reducing failure weight by half each 1 Rest Pause set 15,5x3 1 Rest Pause Set time. 15,5x5 till Notes Ex 5 and 6 set alternated set by set Ex 7 and 8 alternated by set Day Two #1 #2 Exercis Bent Over Incline e Row Press #3 #4 Bench Low Pull from Reverse the Hang Curl Sets and Reps Ramp to Ramp to 6RM 6RM using using ~3 sets ~3 sets A 10-15 rep A 15-20 AMRAP rep AMRAP Notes Ex 1 and 2 Ramp up to cluster set 5x2 w/ 10s rest, A 10-15 rep AMRAP 1 set of 15+15 lower half partials #5 #6 Overhead Cable Ext Prone Rear Delt Raise 1 set of 15+15 far range of motion partials Triple drop set, 20,20,20 Hold at the top last rep alternated set by set Day Three 183 #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercis Wide grip pulldown e Close Grip Bench Front Squat Press Sets and Reps Ramp to 10RM using ~3 sets Ramp to 3RM Ramp to 3RM Ramp to using ~3 sets using ~3 sets 6RM using ~3 sets 1 rest pause set of A 15-20 rep 15+5x5 AMRAP A 15-20 rep AMRAP Notes Ex 1 and 2 performed alternated set by set #5 #6 #7 #8 Cable Row Pause Face Pull Cable Crunch 1 rest pause set of 20+5x5 Exercis Lunge e Sets and Reps Back Extension Bodyweight 2x20 Ramp to 10RM Triple drop set of 2 sets using ~3 sets 20,20,20 reduce failure 2 heavy dumbbells for 30-50 the weight by step AMRAP 1 AMRAP for 20~half each time. 30 reps Notes 184 till Training Plan Three: Athlete Power Plan This plan is for those who play a sport and are looking to add some functional muscle, strength or power to supercharge their competitiveness. If you want to run faster, jump higher or further and generally embarrass your competition, this is the plan for you! This will use an upper/lower split, and will focus on these muscle groups-glutes, hamstrings, abs and lats. The glutes and hamstrings are responsible for hip extension, which is integral for everything from throwing a punch to swinging a racket to jumping and sprinting ability. The abs are important for transferring force from the upper to the lower body and vice versa, as well as ensuring injury resistance. The lats are a crucial muscle for pulling objects (or people!) towards you, as in grappling or climbing. While this program will focus on those muscles, it will work the entire body to some degree, while leaving plenty of energy for your normal training. This plan will be more conservative for risk vs reward when selecting exercises-the last thing you want is for something to happen in the gym that prevents you from doing the sport that you love. This is supplementary to the main endeavor. Furthermore, for a lot of movements, the focus will not be on controlling the weight, but on moving as explosively as possible. You really want to be trying to put maximum force into the bar on every rep, even during the warm up sets. This will give the exercise much greater transfer over to whatever sport you play. This plan will make you faster, springier, more stable and more injury resistant. Keep in mind that you may need to adjust the training plan dependent on your own sport situation-if you are a field sport athlete and have a game on Saturday, Friday is not a good day to do a bunch of lower body work! Adjust the program to you, not the other way around. IMPORTANT: If you haven’t lifted in a long time, the first week, do HALF of the written number of sets! Start conservatively! 185 Intermediate Plan for Athletes Description As with the other intermediate plans above feel free to swap exercises in and out, as long as they are from the same movement pattern. Day one starts with pullups and push presses alternated set by set. For each of them, do five sets of three, being as explosive as possible with each rep. Rest about one minute between each set. Move to the cable row and close grip bench press next, doing four sets of fifteen and four sets of five for each exercise, respectively. For the rows, do them under control, but be as explosive as possible for the bench. Next move to face pulls and hanging leg raises. For each of them, really try to feel the muscle working. Day two is a lower body day, and starts with three sets of five reps on the squat jump. Be as explosive as possible and take as much rest as you need to in between sets-at least two minutes so that you are completely fresh. Next move to the low pull from the hang, also for three sets of five. Focus on maintaining good form and being as violent as possible as you launch the bar as high as you can. Next, move to the Bulgarian split squat, and do a set of twenty with your left leg then right leg. Go up in weight and do a set of fifteen with each leg and then finally go up in weight again and do a set of ten with each leg. Next move to the glute bridge, and simply do two sets of ten, followed by an all out set with the goal of getting to twenty reps. Finish up with cable crunches, pounding out three sets of twenty reps. Day three is another upper body workout, starting with pulldowns and dumbbell bench press. Alternate them set by set, doing 3x15 on the pulldowns and 3x10 on the presses. Move next to the chest supported rows and dips, doing three sets of twelve, ten and eight reps for each, going up in weight with each set and alternating between the two exercises. Finish up with Movement Pattern Sets per week HINGE 9 weighted crunches, doing three sets until failure. SQUAT 18 Day four is back to the lower body, again starting with PRESS 5 three sets of five on the squat jumps for activation. PULL 8 PUSH 10 Then move to the pause high bar back squat, doing ROW 7 five sets of three reps while being as explosive as SHOULDERS 3 possible. Pause in the bottom position for three CURL 0 seconds, and then explode upwards with purpose. EXTEND 0 After that, reduce the weight and do an AMRAP set ABS 12 of about ten reps. Move to lunges next, warming up TOTAL 72 with forty steps with just your bodyweight, and then loading up for two sets of twenty reps after that. Next move to back extensions, doing progressively heavier sets of fifteen, ten and five reps, alternated with three sets of fifteen at a constant weight on the Pallov press. 186 Program Recap: The Intermediate Power Plan is great for athletes to become more explosive, faster and healthier. 187 Intermediate Plan for Athletes Schedule Day One Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Exerci se Pullup Push Press Cable Row Close Grip Bench Press Face Pull Hanging Leg Raises Sets and Reps 5x3 explosive reps 5x3 4x15 4x5 explosive reps 3x20 3 hard sets Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Ex 5 and 6 alternated set by set Day Two Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Squat jump Low Pull from the Hang Bulgarian split squat Glute Bridge Cable Crunch Sets and Reps 3x5 3x5 20,15,10 2x10 3x20 AMRAP 20 reps Notes Day Three Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Pulldown Dumbbell Bench Press Chest Supported Row Dip Weighted Crunches Sets and Reps 3x15 3x10 12,10,8 12,10,8 3 sets till failure Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Day Four Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Squat jump Pause High Bar Back Squat Lunge Back Extension Pallov Press Sets and Reps 3x5 5x3 1x40 bodyweight 15,10,5 3x15 Ex 4 and 5 alternated set by set AMRAP 10 reps 2x20 weighted Notes 188 Advanced Plan for Athletes Description This plan is the same as the intermediate, with a few changes and additions noted below. Day one add an AMRAP set for the pullups and push presses. The cable row changes to bent over rows, with the same set and rep scheme. The hanging leg raises are replaced by foot to bar. Day two adds a set to the squat jumps, and a ten to fifteen rep AMRAP for the low pull from the hang. For the Bulgarian split squats change the movement so that you are jumping as high as you can with each rep. This takes a lot of balance and skill. The glute bridge gets shifted to hip thrust with a pause. Really squeeze your glutes at the end of the range of motion. Do an extra set of cable crunches. Day three the pulldowns get swapped out for the Kroc row, and the chest supported row gets swapped out for Pendlay rows. Add a set to weighted crunches. Day four, add a set to the squat jumps again. For the pause high bar back squat, do four sets adding weight each set, then a twenty rep all out set. Lunges are unchanged, but back extensions also gets a twenty rep AMRAP set, and Movement Pattern Sets per week the Pallov presses get an extra set. HINGE 12 In all, this program has nineteen squat sets (six of SQUAT 19 which are jump squats, which are pretty easy to PRESS 6 recover from), nine hinge, eight pull, five press, ten PULL 6 push, seven row, three shoulder, and twelve abs. PUSH 10 ROW 10 IMPORTANT: This is a lot of volume, so don’t be SHOULDERS 3 afraid to be a bit less. It’s best to progress slowly! CURL 0 EXTEND 0 ABS 16 TOTAL 82 Program Recap: The Advanced Athlete Power Plan is great for advanced athletes to become even more explosive, faster and healthier. 189 Advanced Plan for Athletes Schedule Day One Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Pullup Push Press Bent over row Close Grip Bench Press Foot to Bar Sets and Reps 5x3 explosive reps 5x3 4x15 4x5 explosive reps 4 hard sets AMRAP 15-20 reps AMRAP 6-10 reps Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Day Two Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Squat jump Low Pull from the Hang Jumping Bulgarian split squat Pause Hip thrust Cable Crunch Sets and Reps 4x5 20,15,10 12,10,8 4x20 3x5 AMRAP reps 10-15 AMRAP reps Notes 15-20 Ex 4 and 5 alternated set by set Day Three Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Kroc Row Dumbbell Bench Press Pendlay Row Dip Weighted Crunches Sets and Reps 40,30,20 12,10,8 3x8 12,10,8 4 sets till failure Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Day Four Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Squat jump Pause High Bar Back Squat Lunge Back Extension Pallov Press Sets and Reps 4x5 10,8,6,4 1x40 bodyweight 15,10,5 4x15 AMRAP 20 AMRAP 20 reps 2x20 weighted Notes Ex 4 and 5 alternated 190 Training Plan Four: Beast Plan This plan is for those who want to change their physical appearance as much and as quickly as possible, with the goal of looking like they actually lift weights. The plan achieves this by focusing on the muscles that have the greatest impact on your physique-the “circle of power” that surrounds the shoulder blades and includes the chest, traps, and shoulders. The triceps and lats are also given some focus-the former is the most important aesthetic muscle of the arm while the latter adds to both the width and density of the upper body from all angles. Finally, the glutes are also given a minor amount of attention, as they can add to the look of power. The hamstrings, quads, calves, abs, biceps and forearms are put on stasis while on this plan, so don’t expect much growth there. This plan is NOT for those who are interested in developing strength or the entire body equally-it is a specific plan for a very narrow goal-looking more jacked in a very short time period. Because this is a specialization program, it isn’t really suitable for beginners, and thus there are only intermediate and advanced versions. Both will have you in the gym five to six days a week doing short, intense workouts and running a pull/push/legs split. Intermediate Beast Plan Description The first day is pull day, focusing on the traps, lats and back of the shoulders. For the bent over row, do three sets of twelve under control, squeezing the back with each rep. From there move on to pullups, doing three sets of ten. You can use an assisted pullup machine if needed, or add weight if you can, just make sure you are doing hard sets of ten. From there move onto the cable row, doing four sets of fifteen-again squeezing the back with each rep. From there, move on to the farmers walk and prone rear delt raise superset. Walk for one minute, ending around an incline bench with dumbbells nearby. When you finish the farmers walk, immediately begin the set of rear delt raises, controlling the weight with each rep. Repeat three more times, keeping in mind that you may need to lower the weight from set to set a bit. Day two is a push day, focusing on the upper chest, shoulders and triceps. Start with the incline bench, working up to a top set of six reps. Drop the weight down and do 3x10, getting a good stretch and squeeze on the chest. Move next to dips, doing 3x10 and then a final AMRAP (as many reps as possible) all out set of fifteen to twenty reps. Next it’s cable crossovers and skullcrushers, performed alternated set by set. This isn’t a superset, take plenty of time in between each. With the crossovers, keep your arms tucked close to your body and make sure you feel your chest working with each rep-if not, drop the weight and slow the movement down a bit. On the skullcrushers, make sure to get a good range of motion-and if they give you elbow pain, switch them out for the lying dumbbell extension. Finally are the overhead dumbbell extension and seated lateral raise. Control both movements, and do each for three sets of fifteen, alternating each set by set. Do a triple drop set on the last set of lateral raises. 191 Day three is a leg day, although your back will also get a bit of work as well. Start with the low pull from the hang, doing 3x6. After that, move onto rack pulls, doing two sets of ten reps. With this exercise, start with the weight around knee level, and lift the weight up, making sure not to round your back. Lower the weight slowly under control. Don’t bounce the weight, reset with each rep. Finish with an all out set of twenty reps with a slightly lighter weight. Move to Bulgarian split squats, doing just one all out set of 20 with each leg. Get a good range of motion. Finish up with lunges, doing 1x20 bodyweight to warm up, then adding weight if possible and doing 2x20 again. Day four rest up, then get ready on day five for another pull day! Start with pulldowns, doing four sets and adding weight each set. Move next to standing cable pullovers, doing three sets of twenty. Next up are some machine rows, doing three sets of twelve. Finally, perform a face pull and prone rear delt raise superset-do the first exercise for a tough set of twenty, then move right away to the next and do another hard set of twenty. Repeat twice more-you will probably need to adjust the weight downwards to keep completing sets of twenty. Day six is another push day. Start with overhead press this time, workin’ up to a heavy set of three reps and dropping the weight down and doing two sets of ten with a slightly lighter weight. Move to dumbbell bench press, doing sets of fifteen, twelve, ten, adding weight with each set before dropping back down slightly and doing an all out AMRAP set in the fifteen to twenty rep range. Squeeze that chest! Next are cable crossovers, lateral raises and overhead cable extensions. Perform these in circuit fashion, doing a set of fifteen on crossovers, then a set of fifteen lateral raises and then a set of fifteen cable extensions. Remember, this isn’t a superset, so take enough rest in between. Repeat one more time, doing a triple drop set for each. Day seven is the second leg workout-start with the Power Snatch from the Hang, ramping up to a three rep max. Drop the weight down a bit and then do two sets of three. Move to the high bar back squat, doing an all-out set of twenty with as much Movement Pattern Sets per week weight as you can handle. Pick yourself up off the floor, HINGE 12 then do a set of ten of the Romanian deadlift, keeping SQUAT 6 the lower back tight and feeling your hamstrings work. PRESS 6 Lighten up the load a bit and do a set of twenty PULL 9 afterwards. Finish up with lunges, doing 1x20 with PUSH 17 bodyweight, then two sets of ten reps going as heavy as ROW 10 you can. Day eight is a rest day, then start over with day SHOULDERS 17 one. This will mean that the plan won’t line up perfectly CURL 0 with a week, which isn’t a problem-you’ll be doing a EXTEND 9 different workout each day of the week compared with ABS 4 the previous one. TOTAL 90 192 IMPORTANT: if you haven’t exercised in a long time, the first week or two, do HALF of the written number of sets! Program Recap: The Intermediate Beast Plan is ideal for guys trying to changing their appearance as much as possible and as quickly as possible. 193 Intermediate Beast Plan Schedule Day One Pull #1 #2 #3 Exercise Bent Over Row Pullup Sets and Reps 3x12 3x10 #4 #5 Cable Row Farmers Walk Prone Rear Delt Raise 4x15 Notes 4x1minute 4x20 Ex 4 and 5 supersetted Day Two Push #1 Exercis Incline Bench e Press Sets and Reps Ramp to 6 RM, 2x10 lighter weight #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Dip Cable Crossover (low to high) Skullcrushe r Overhead Dumbbell Extension Seated lateral raise 10, AMRAP 15-20 reps 2x15 2x10 3x15 3x15 Ex 3 and 4 alternated Ex 5 and 6 alternated Notes Day Three Legs #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercise Low Pull from the Hang Rack Pull Bulgarian Split Squat Lunge Sets and Reps 3x6 2x10, AMRAP 20 reps 20 AMRAP each side 1x20 bodyweight, 2x20 weighed Day Five Pull #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Pulldown Standing Cable Pullover Machine Row Face Pull Prone Rear Delt Raise Sets and Reps 15,10,8 3x20 3x12 3x20 3x20 194 Notes Ex 4 and 5 supersetted Day Six Push #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Overhead Press Dumbbell Bench Press Cable Crossover (low to high) Lateral Raise Overhead Cable Extension Sets and Reps Ramp to 3 RM, 2x10 lighter weight 15,12,10 AMRAP 15-20 reps 2x15, Triple 2x15, drop set on last Triple drop set on last Notes Ex 3, 4 and 5 alternated 2x15, Triple drop set on last set by set Day Seven Legs #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercise Power Snatch from the Hang High Bar Back Squat Romanian Deadlift Lunge Sets and Reps 4x3 AMRAP 20 reps 10,20 1x20 bodyweight, 2x10 weighed 195 Advanced Beast Plan Description The advanced beast plan is similar to the intermediate version, with a few exceptions. The volume is overall a bit higher, with some sets added here and there. Additionally, it’ll utilize ramping more often. This plan is NOT for the faint of heart! Be prepare to be tired! For day one, you’ll be doing wide grip pullups rather than normal ones-add weight if you can. After the last cable row, hold the attachment in the contracted position for thirty to forty-five seconds-drop the weight if you need to. Additionally, for the rear delt raises, when you get to twenty reps I want you to HOLD the dumbbells in the top position for thirty seconds or as long as you can. Day two, the dips will also include an isometric hold-at around ninety degrees just pause until you can’t hold it anymore. After that there will Movement Pattern Sets per week be drop sets of the crossovers, skullcrushers and HINGE 20 seated lateral raises SQUAT 12 Day three there are no major changes, just slightly higher volume and slightly different rep schemes. Day four, again there is more volume, and on the rear delt raises some holds at the end. PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS TOTAL 6 11 25 14 20 0 15 4 127 Day five and six also just more volume-try and focus on holding your technique even as you get tired. IMPORTANT: this is a LOT of volume…listen to your body, don’t be afraid to do a bit less. Progress gradually. Program Recap: The Advanced Beast Plan is ideal for advanced guys trying to changing their appearance as much as possible as quickly as possible. 196 Advanced Beast Plan Schedule Day One Pull #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Bent Over Row Wide grip Pullup Cable Row Farmers Walk Prone Rear Delt Raise Sets and Reps Ramp to 6 RM, 3x12 lighter weight 4x10 4x15+ISO hold 4x1minute 4x20+hold Ex 4 and 5 supersetted Notes Day Two Push #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Exercise Incline Bench Press Dip Cable Crossover (low to high) Skullcrushe r Overhead Dumbbell Extension Seated lateral raise Sets and Reps Ramp to 6 RM, 3x12 lighter weight 3x10, 3x20, 3x8,Triple 2x15, AMRAP Triple drop set on Triple 15-20 drop set on last drop set on reps+ISO last last hold Notes Ex 3 and 4 2x20, Triple drop set on last alternated Day Three Legs #1 Exercise Sets and Reps #2 Low Pull from the Hang Rack Pull Ramp to 3 RM, 3x6 lighter weight 3x6, AMRAP 30 reps #3 #4 Bulgarian Split Squat Lunge 20, 10 each leg 1x20 bodyweight, 3x20 weighed Day Five Pull Exercise #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Pulldown Standing Cable Machine Row Face Pull Prone Rear 197 Pullover Sets and Reps 20,15,10, 8 Delt Raise 3x20 Notes 4x12 3x20 3x20+hold Triple drop set on last Ex 4 and 5 supersetted Day Six Push #1 #2 #3 Exercise Overhead Press Dumbbell Bench Press Cable Lateral Raise Crossover (low to high) Overhead Cable Extension Sets and Reps Ramp to 3 RM, 3x12 lighter weight 15,12,10, AMRAP 15-20 reps 4x15, Triple drop set on last 4x15, Triple drop set on last 4x15, Triple drop set on last Ex 3, 4 and 5 alternated set by set Notes #4 #5 Day seven Legs #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercise Power Snatch from the Hang High Bar Back Squat Romanian Deadlift Lunge Sets and Reps Ramp to 3RM, 4x3 at 90% of that 3x6, AMRAP 20 reps 3x10 1x20 bodyweight, 3x10 weighted Notes 198 Training Plan Five: Deva Plan This one is for the ladies, who are looking to create a sexy and streamlined physique able to effortlessly seduce men everywhere. It’ll focus on the lower body, with a particular emphasis on the glutes. The upper body will get some love as well though, as creating a V-taper through developed shoulders and lats enhances the appearance of a small waist. This plan will give you the proportions to look your best in everything from jeans to a bikini. Intermediate Deva Plan Description Day one is an upper body day. Start with pulldowns and overhead press, alternating between each exercise set by set and adding weight. After four sets of each, move to the cable row and close grip bench press, using the same weight for each set of the particular exercise. Follow that with three sets of face pulls supersetted with seated lateral raises. You might need to lower the weight with each successive superset. The next day is a lower body day. Start with Bulgarian split squats, adding weight with each set. Make sure to get a full range of motion, feeling a stretch in your glute with each rep. Follow that up with three sets of ten and an AMRAP set on glute bridges. Really try to feel your glutes working on this exercise-lower the weight if you need to. Move to pullthroughs next, again trying to really get a nice peak contraction with each rep. Do just one rest pause set-an all out set of twenty, followed by 5x5 with about Movement Pattern Sets per week fifteen seconds of rest in between each mini-set. Finish HINGE 17 with three sets of twenty on both the hamstring curl SQUAT 10 machine and cable crunches, alternating each set by set. PRESS 3 Day three is an upper body day. Begin with wide grip pulldowns and dumbbell bench presses, doing three sets of each, alternating set by set. For both exercises, control the weight at all times. Then move to seated rear delt and seated lateral raises-this one is a superset. Do fifteen reps of the rear delt raises, then sit upright and continue the set, aiming to get fifteen more reps of the lateral raises. Move next to overhead dumbbell extensions and seated dumbbell curls, and finish up with three sets of weighted crunches. PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS TOTAL 6 7 4 12 3 3 9 74 The final lower body day starts with the low bar back squat. Ramp up to as much weight as you can use for five reps. After that, reduce the weight and do a set of ten, and then again and do a set of fifteen. Move to the hip thrust next, adding weight with each set. Then, drop the weight back down and do an all out set of twenty. Move to lunges next, doing a warmup set of twenty with bodyweight only, and then doing two sets of twenty with added weight. Take long strides, getting a stretch in your glute with each rep. Finally, end the glute destruction with back extensions and Pallov presses alternated set by set. Squeeze your hips into the pad with each rep, using your glutes and hamstrings rather than your lower back. 199 200 Intermediate Deva Plan Schedule Day One Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Exercise Pulldow n Overhea d Press Cable Row Close Grip Bench Press Face Pull Seated Lateral Raises Sets and Reps 20,15,10 15,10,8, ,8 3 4x15 4x8 3x20 3x15 alternated set by set Ex 5 and 6 supersetted Notes Ex 1 and alternate Ex 3 and 2 d set by 4 set Day Two Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Bulgarian split squat Glute Bridge Pullthrough Hamstring Curl Machine Cable Crunch Sets and Reps 20,15,10 3x10 20+5x5 rest pause 3x20 3x20 Ex 4 and 5 alternated set by set AMRAP 20 reps Notes Each leg Day Three Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 Exercise Wide grip pulldo wn Dumbbell Bench Press Seated rear delt raise Seated lateral raise Overhead Dumbbell Extension Seated Dumbbell Curls Weight ed Crunch es Sets and Reps 3x15 3x10 3x15 3x15 3x15 (do each side) 3x16 (alternate, 8 per arm per set) 3 sets till failure Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 supersette d Ex 5,6 and 7 alternated set by set 201 Day Four Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Low bar back squat Hip thrust Lunge Back Extension Pallov Press Sets and Reps Ramp to 5 rep max, then 10,15 10,8,6 1x20 bodyweight 3x20 3x15 Ex 4 and 5 alternated set by set Notes AMRAP 20 reps 2x20 weighted 202 Training Plan Six: Spartan Plan This minimalist training plan requires no gym membership at all. A pair of parallel bars and a pullup bar are all that are required. While you probably won’t get huge off of this plan, you can definitely build muscle without a barbell or dumbbells and be in better shape than 99% of people. It’s also very cost and time effective Intermediate Spartan Plan Description Day one is an upper body workout, you’ll start by alternating pullups and dips, doing six hard sets of each. Don’t go to failure, but push pretty hard. If you get the same number of reps for each set, you were holding back too much. For both of them, control your body at all times during the movement. Next move to bar rows and pushups, using a wide grip on both of them. For the bar rows, flex your back with each rep, touching your chest to the bar. For the pushups, get a full range of motion, controlling the movement and trying to feel your chest working. For both, take all of the sets close to failure. The second day is a lower body, doing three sets of five exercises. Start with jump squats, doing three sets of three reps. Take plenty of recovery time, even if you don’t feel tired, you want to be jumping as high as possible. Quality over quantity for this one. Move next to lunges, doing three hard sets. You’ll want a large space for this one, as it’s possible to lunge for quite a distance if you’re in good shape. Rest a couple of minutes in between sets but no longer. Next move to bodyweight squats, doing as many reps as possible continuously. Don’t pause in between reps, just keep them continuous-the set ends when you stop. When you do, do a set of planks. Alternate between bodyweight squats and planks for three total sets of each. Finally, Movement Sets per finish up with hanging leg raises, doing three Pattern week hard sets with about a minute rest in between. HINGE 3 The third day is another upper session, SQUAT 16 PRESS 0 starting with wide grip pullups and wide dips. PULL 9 If you have shoulder issues, take a narrower PUSH 18 grip, especially on the dips. Do three hard sets ROW 9 of each, alternating between them. Then move to bar rows and SHOULDER 0 pushups, taking a narrow grip this time. Focus on your arms this S time, flexing your biceps on the rows and your triceps on the CURL 0 pushups. This workout should be pretty quick so is a good option EXTEND 0 if you’re in a rush. ABS 7 The last workout has sets of four, three, two and one. Start with TOTAL 62 203 four sets of three jump squats, getting as much air as possible. Next move to one leg glute bridges, really getting a good contraction in your glute. Follow it up with two sets of of Bulgarian split squats per leg, and then just one hard set of lunges. Finish up with one set of hanging leg raises and call it a week. Intermediate Spartan Plan Schedule Day One Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercise Pullups Dips Bar Row (wide) Pushups (wide) Sets and Reps 6 hard sets 6 hard sets 6 hard sets 6 hard sets Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Day Two Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Jump Squat Lunge Bodyweight squat Plank Hanging Leg Raises Sets and Reps 3x3 3 hard sets 3 hard sets 3 hard sets 3 hard sets Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Notes Day Three Upper Body #1 #2 #3 #4 Exercise Wide grip pullup Wide Dips Bar Row (narrow) Pushups (narrow) Sets and Reps 3 hard sets 3 hard sets 3 hard sets 3 hard sets Notes Ex 1 and 2 alternated set by set Ex 3 and 4 alternated set by set Day Four Lower Body #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Exercise Jump Squat 1 leg Glute Bridge Bulgarian Split Squat Lunge Hanging Leg Raises Sets and Reps 4x3 3 hard sets 2 hard sets per leg 1 hard set 1 hard set 204 Notes 205 Compendium Nine: Making Progress Sometimes life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. Making a training plan is a bit like cooking…you can follow a recipe perfectly, but the result might not be exactly what you expected. It’s as much art as it is science. This section will allow you to manipulate the ingredients over time till the finished product is perfect for your palate. It’s crucial that you can adjust your training over time so that it is ideal for YOU. The first section, progressing, is something you should try to do all the time. If you aren’t getting better, there isn’t much point in going to the gym. The second section, minor adjustments, is comprised of small changes that you might make to your program when something unexpected happens, these are more slight nudges to the rudder to keep you on the right course or an extra pinch of salt to bring out the flavor in your training recipe. The third section, major adjustments, refers to what to do when the aforementioned rudder gets blown off by an enemy missile, or the kitchen starts filling with smoke. Swapping Exercises This is the most basic form of making progress. There will be a time when you will want to change the exercises that you’ve been doing. I recommend staying with a particular exercise long enough to really get a good feel for it. If you swap out exercises too often, you’ll never truly master any of them! A good rule of thumb would be that if you haven’t progressed on an exercise in three workouts, you’ll want to consider changing it. The appendix is bursting with charts of most of the exercises in this book, sorted by risk/recovery and reward. They will help you be able to view at a glance which exercises are relatively “swappable”. A walking lunge is directly interchangeable for a Bulgarian split squat, but a snatch grip deadlift is not swappable with a hamstring curl, bodyweight squat or leg extension. Section Recap: Occasionally swapping exercises for each other is a great way to keep your training fun and interesting. Progressing It’s critical that you progress over time if you want to see any changes from your training. This might mean adding weight to the bar, but there are many other ways to progress as well. The key to making progress is progression. 206 Progressing in Intensity This means adding weight to the exercise over time, whether it is plates to the barbell, an extra weight stack to a machine or cable, or swapping in heavier dumbbells. Progressing in intensity (getting stronger) is the best way to progress, whether your goal is size or strength. Using heavier and heavier loads is the best way to force your muscles to adapt over time by growing. However, there are a few factors to keep in mind. First, technique trumps tonnage. If you can add weight but you lose form doing so, it’s not worth it. You aren’t ready. Second, if you really cannot do very much volume while working at heavier weights, the trade-off probably isn’t worth it. You’ll be better off sticking with the slightly lower weight and adding weight later when you’ll be able to master the greater weight. Third, you should be able to control the heavier weight, if you are flinging it around and not feeling the proper muscles working, lower the weight used. Progressing in Reps If you did 50kg for six reps two weeks ago, eight reps last week and ten reps this week, you’ve definitely gotten stronger, despite using the same weight. Progression in reps is one of the best ways to improve, but keep in mind you can only use this to a certain extent. Continuing the above example, if you progress to 50kg for thirty reps in a few months, you’d be better off increasing the weight and progressing in intensity for a while, because thirty reps is really too high for optimal muscle growth. Progressing in Sets Doing more sets is the easiest way to increase your volume, which does have an impact on your size and strength gains, especially the former. Doing more sets can be beneficial, but only up to a point. If you find yourself spending a lot of time in the gym doing endless sets and not really seeing any results, you might want to cut back on the number of sets you are doing and try to progress in another way for a while. Volume IS important but it should only be high some of the time. Progressing in Rest Time How much rest you take between sets is another way to progress, secondary in importance to the above three. Lets say you did four sets of ten at 50kg last week, taking two minutes rest in between each set. If you took one minute and thirty seconds this week, that’s progress, even if the sets, reps and weight are identical. This can be a great way to stimulate cardiovascular gains as well. Be strict with the timing. This progression method is useless if you don’t measure the rest periods accurately or actually start the set later than you should. 207 Progressing in Tempo Usually when you are lifting weights, you don’t pay that much attention to how long the lifting or lowering phases take, but if you time them it provides another way to progress. Generally, slower tempos are more difficult. So, if last week you took three seconds for the lowering phase, doing it in four seconds this week will make it more challenging. Doing it in five seconds next week will be even harder. I’d recommend slowing down the lowering rather than the lifting part of the movement, but either can be modified. Again, make sure to be STRICT with the timing, it’s very easy for “five seconds” to turn into two seconds when you are tired! Similarly to changing rest time, this is definitely behind intensity, reps and sets in terms of priority for progressing. Progressing in Range of Motion This one doesn’t apply to all exercises, but can be a valuable way to advance your training. Using the same weight, sets and reps but progressively increasing the range of motion can be a great way to get stronger. For the squat, you can do the Anderson squat, and slowly lower the pins over time. You can do the same with the deadlift and bench press. For lateral raises and dumbbell curls, you can do half reps and slowly raise the dumbbells up higher as you get stronger, keeping the weight, sets and reps the same. Section Recap: There are many ways to progress, and you should try to do so as much and often as possible. Minor Adjustments Adjusting Volume Volume is probably the easiest place to make adjustments, you can add or subtract sets from a workout very easily. If you are going through a stressful time at work or a breakup, that mental stress WILL effect your ability to recover, so it’s best to be proactive and reduce the amount of work you are doing. In general, though, your volume should go up as you gain 208 training experience. Looking at the graph, you want to have a Goldilocks level of volume compared to your experience-not too little, nor too much. When trying to adjust your training volume, ask yourself two things: Am I making progress? Am I feeling good? Kindly peruse the charts below. 209 Progress Chart Question Are you getting stronger at the main lifts? (Bench press, Pullup/pulldowns, Overhead press, Bent over row, back/front squat, deadlifts, etc) Are you getting stronger at the accessory lifts? (cable crossover, cable pullover, Arnold press, cable row, goblet squat, back extensions, etc) Are you getting stronger at the tertiary lifts? (standing rear delt raises, machine preacher curl, kickbacks, etc) Are your muscles appearing to slowly grow, or are you losing fat and looking leaner? Is your bodyweight moving in the right direction (up or down?) Answer One Answer Two Answer Three No, I haven’t gotten a Yes, I occasionally OH YEA, the new best in months get new bests PRs are coming weekly! No, I haven’t gotten a Yes, I occasionally OH YEA, the new best in months get new bests PRs are coming weekly! No, I haven’t gotten a Yes, I occasionally OH YEA, the new best in months get new bests PRs are coming weekly! No, I’m definitely Hard to tell, seeing no progress maybe seeing some changes If anything, it’s going Perhaps slow in the wrong direction! progress… Feeling Chart Question Answer One Are your muscles sore 1-2 Walking and sitting on the days after a workout? toilet are monumental tasks Do your joints hurt? Daily life activities are a struggle. Can’t do things I used to be able to How is your mood? F*ck off! Why are you even asking me these stupid questions??! How is your sleep? Zzzzz…what? How are your energy Part of the 24/7 caffeine levels? dream team How is your hunger? Sometimes ravenous, sometimes none for hours How would you rate your The world is collapsing in on life stress at the moment? me! How would you say you I’m like a towel, I fold pretty personally handle stress? easily. Old friends don’t recognize me Yup, no doubt about the scale! Answer Two Slight soreness, a bit achy or stiff Occasionally, but goes away after a day or two Uh…normal I guess. Answer Three I feel nothing unusual Joints…can hurt? Usually pretty good. Sometimes tired but normally good A bit inconsistent Solid 7-9 hours Consistent energy all day, boo ya! Normal This is fine. No worries at all, maan Very well, I’m as resilient as they come OK, I guess Great! grand! Life 210 is Give yourself one point for answer one, two points for answer two, and three points for answer three answers. You’ll come up with a number between five and fifteen for progress and between eight and twenty-four for feeling. Progress # 5-7=Not improving Progress # 8-11=Improving Progress # 12-15=Winning! Feeling # 8-13=Feel shitty Feeling #14-18=Feel OK Feeling #19-24=Feel awesome! Find where you are in the chart below: Winning!, feel awesome! WOW, Definitely don’t change anything! Winning!, feel OK Definitely don’t change anything! Winning!, feel shitty Lower volume. Improving, feel awesome! Definitely don’t change anything! Improving, feel OK Don’t change anything but keep assessing weekly. Improving, feel shitty Definitely lower volume. Not improving, feel awesome! Definitely raise volume. Not improving, feel OK Raise volume. Not improving, feel shitty Take a break from training Adjusting Frequency Frequency shouldn’t need to be changed much. The main reason to modify it would be if your schedule changes. If you suddenly have to work overtime several times per week, you might need to workout fewer days because of that. Conversely, if your schedule frees up, you might want to experiment with more days in the gym. Adjusting Intensity Modulating your intensity is mainly dependent on your goals. If you normally use the 7080% range but are interested in taking part in a powerlifting competition, you’ll want to slowly incorporate more work at higher intensity. If you have been using the 85-90% range for a few months now and are not seeing any progress, you might want to reduce the weights back down to the 60-70% range and build back up. The heavy weights will still be there in a few months and your joints will thank you later. Using a variety of loads ranging from 50-90% will be ideal for progress in the long term. 211 Surprise Day! Sometimes things don’t quite go as planned. Maybe it was going to be a nice, relaxing, well earned day off, but your old friend is in town and wants to do a leg workout…what to do? You could either refuse to workout with them, do a moderate workout, or go balls to the walls and try for an epic session. I’d say the middle option is best…working out with friends can be a rare treat, so you don’t really want to miss it. On the other hand, if you had planned for a day off, you probably don’t want to push it as hard as you normally would. Holding back is sometimes hard, but it’s the ideal solution in many cases. Just take a rest day the next day, there’s no real harm in pushing it back one day. The human body is pretty resilient. Conversely, if you had planned to have an epic session but are slammed with a surprise after-hours meeting at work…just take the day off and do the session when you can. It can be frustrating but that’s part of life. Moving days around in your workout schedule won’t have a large effect in the long term. Lagging Body Parts As you gain experience training, you might notice that some body parts respond better or faster. Over time, this can result in some body parts becoming much more dominant than others. Because these muscle groups are stronger, they’ll tend to take over movements from the weaker muscle groups, which causes them to get even stronger, a vicious cycle than can make it very difficult to build a balanced body. If you are primarily interested in strength, then it’s less of an issue, as it doesn’t really matter how you lift the weight during a competition. If you are interested in aesthetics, however, you will want to continuously assess your physique and change your training to mold the balanced body that you want. For example, most squat and hinge movements use similar muscle groups-quads, glutes and hamstrings. However, they all use a different ratio of quad to hamstring. From most “hamstring dominant” to the most ‘“quad dominant”. 212 So, if you wanted to build quads more, you’d select squats and hinging movements that were relatively more quad dominant, like the trap bar deadlift. If you wanted to build hamstrings, you’d focus more on hinging movements and hamstring dominant squatting variations like long step Bulgarian split squat and low bar back squats. How you perform the exercise is important as well, if you stay very upright and drive your feet through the floor, squatting is very quad dominant, but if you focus on pushing the hips back and leaning forward a bit, it is much more hip dominant and thus uses relatively more hamstrings, even for the same movement. Section Recap: Adjusting your intensity, frequency and volume are critical to keep progressing over time. Major Adjustments These are large changes that will have to be made due to significant roadblocks in the path to your fitness goals. Everyone has these, and if you haven’t yet encountered one, you just haven’t worked out long enough! A good thing to keep in mind is that time off isn’t the worst thing in the world. It can be hard to take a break, but you’ll lose a lot less fitness than you think. Most people think that you lose size and strength instantly, but it actually takes a few weeks for you to stop unadapting, and the losses are never as great as you think. Furthermore, once you start training again, those adaptations come back amazingly fast, because you are so sensitive to training. Some exercise scientists actually theorize that taking a few weeks off per year is better for long term progress, because it allows the muscles to re-sensitize. Essentially you are taking one step backwards to take two or three forward in the future. So don’t sweat time off. 213 Injuries Lifting weights is actually very safe compared to most other sports. You are far more likely to get hurt during almost any team sport compared to lifting. Trust me, your knees are not happy when you are playing a pickup basketball or football game, all that twisting and turning is just tearing up the joint in a way that squats could never dream of. That being said, if you train hard enough, for long enough, you’ll probably eventually encounter some minor injury that will force you to adjust your training. The first thing to do is to analyze what caused the problem. Sometimes it’s very obvious. If you just started a program that has you front squatting four times a week and now your knee hurts, well there you go. Other times it can be harder to diagnose. If your new program introduced wide grip bench presses, behind the neck pulldowns, push presses, flys and low bar back squatting, then your shoulder starts to hurt…well, that’s tricky, because it could be any of those exercises, all of those exercises, or just the combination of a few of them that caused the issue. The best solution is to try to add exercises in one at a time, so you can assess how it effects you. If it hurts during the exercise, then don’t do that exercise, or try to modify it so that you can do it pain free. If you have an injury, total rest is usually not a good plan. Nowadays, most doctors will get their patients moving as soon as possible after the injury, because it helps a LOT with recovery. Potentially good rehab movements (all very light, performed slowly, if more than slight pain don’t do them) Area Exercise Knee Leg extensions, walking Hip Forty-five degree back extensions, pullthroughs, Yoga, hip flexor stretching, walking Lower back Forty-five degree back extensions, pullthroughs, glute bridge, plank, walking, hanging from a bar, leg raises Shoulder Face pulls, seated lateral raises, cable/chest supported/machine rows, rear delt raises, pushups Elbow Pushdowns, dumbbell kickbacks, dumbbell curls, pushups Wrist Dumbbell curls If you have to take time off, definitely do so, but you may get better long term results by working around the injury. Just because you cannot squat heavy doesn’t mean that you should sit on the couch. At the very least, it keeps you in the habit of going to the gym. 214 Sickness Usually you can still go to the gym when you have a cold, you might just reduce the volume or intensity slightly to make it easier to recover. However, major sickness will require time off. Take care of the health issue and then ease back in to training when you are ready. Again, your strength and size will come back very quickly once you get going, so don’t be afraid if you’ve lost a bit the first few sessions back. Planned Time Off A lot of the above situations are unplanned time off. No one plans to get injured or sick. There might be a time, however, when you know that you won’t be able to make it to the gym. A good strategy is to train harder than usual before you are going to take the time off. If you know you are about to go on vacation and won’t be able to train hard, you might as well train a bit beyond your capacity to recover beforehand. Plenty of time to recover when lying on the beach, eh? This is also known as “crash training” and is widely used by professional athletes. Instead of training “somewhat hard” all the time, the pros usually train brutally hard for a week or two, then take a period of very easy training for an equal amount of time to recover, recuperate and adapt. I wouldn’t recommend most people train like this year round, but if you know that you’ll be unable to workout normally for a week or two, you can give it a shot if you want. A good way to implement it is keep intensity the same, and increase volume by 50-100% compared to normal. You might want to increase frequency to handle this extra volume. Yes, you will feel shitty, but you might be pleased with the results. Competing Whether competing in weightlifting, strongman, powerlifting or bodybuilding, these will all require major changes to your programming. Weightlifting will obviously require you focus on the two weightlifting movements, the snatch and clean&jerk, but it will also demand that you change your program in other ways. You might need to cut out some arm movements so that you can improve your mobility, you might need to reduce upper body work and increase squatting frequency, volume and/or intensity. Strongman definitely demands both a strong cardio and strength base, practice on some unique movements and a lot of guts. You might need to buy or create some of the strongman equipment that they use in their sport. Powerlifting requires practicing with heavy weights on the squat, bench press and deadlift to refine your technique. You might need to reduce or modify some assistance and tertiary work. The main requirement of bodybuilding besides muscular development is having a low body fat percentage, which will require dieting. When you are eating less food, you have less energy, so you might need to adjust your volume and intensity if preparing for a show. You also might need to focus on more isolation work for lagging body parts, such as arms, shoulders and hamstrings. 215 Section Recap: Working around injuries, sickness, planned time off and competitions are incredibly important for your long term progress. Keep an eye on the horizon as well as the more short term goals. 216 Compendium Ten: Strength Standards With the internets, it’s a lot easier to compare yourself to others. While everyone is an individual with their own goals and abilities, knowing how your strength ranks in the general scheme of things can be a huge source of motivation. Furthermore, it definitely checks the ego a bit. When people tell me I’m strong, I simply reply that the world record is almost double what I can do. That tends to make people chuckle, humility is never a bad thing. Of course, the look on their faces a few seconds later when they realize that if their level is half of what I can do, and I am calling myself weak, they definitely are as well is quite priceless. Onward and upward! Starting is a weight that the average untrained person could walk in and do with little to no previous training. If you can’t do this, don’t worry. Just because your starting point is below average doesn’t mean your potential is. Trained represents a good goal to achieve within three to six months of starting training. Strong is a good weight to shoot for within about six to twelve months of starting training. Getting here means you’ve added some muscle and are definitely stronger than the average person. Beast means you are much stronger than the average person and probably look like it too. This would be a good goal after about two years of training. Hulk status indicates you are probably stronger than ninety-nine percent of people out there. Very few people achieve this level of strength and it usually takes three to four years. Elite requires a combination of great genetics, work ethic and smart programming. For most people it takes more than five years of consistent, hard training to achieve this level of strength, but you’ll be rewarded with a great physique and strong body as well as mind. You’re probably stronger than 99.99% of the general population. World record is roughly the official, drug tested IPF (International Powerlifting Federation) world record in the squat, bench and deadlift at the time of writing for the 90kg weight class, or 85kg in the International Weightlifting Federation for the clean&jerk. For women it’s the 60kg/58kg divisions. Just an idea of what the ultimate combination of training, genetics, work ethic, diet and programming can do. Something to shoot for, ya know? 217 Men Exercise Starter Trained 1 Rep Max Back Squat 60kg 100kg 1 Rep Max Bench Press 60kg 80kg 1 Rep Max Deadlift 80kg 120kg 1 Rep Max Clean and Jerk 40kg 60kg 5 Rep Max Bent Over Row 40kg 60kg 5 Rep Max Pullup 60kg 80kg 1 Rep Max Overhead Press 40kg 50kg Strong 120kg 100kg 140kg 80kg 80kg 100kg 60kg Beast 140kg 120kg 180kg 120kg 120kg 120kg 80kg Hulk 180kg 140kg 220kg 140kg 140kg 140kg 100kg Elite 220kg 180kg 260kg 160kg 160kg 160kg 120kg Women Exercise Starter Trained Strong 1 Rep Max Back Squat 40kg 60kg 80kg 1 Rep Max Bench Press 30kg 40kg 50kg 1 Rep Max Deadlift 50kg 70kg 90kg 1 Rep Max Clean and Jerk 30kg 40kg 60kg 5 Rep Max Bent Over Row 30kg 40kg 50kg 5 Rep Max Pullup 40kg 50kg 60kg 1 Rep Max Overhead Press 20kg 25kg 30kg Beast 100kg 60kg 110kg 80kg 60kg 70kg 40kg Hulk 120kg 80kg 130kg 90kg 70kg 80kg 50kg Elite 140kg 100kg 160kg 110kg 80kg 90kg 60kg WR 300kg 250kg 350kg 220kg - WR 220kg 140kg 225kg 140kg - Squat (front/high/low bar, but must be down to upper legs being parallel with the floor or below) Bench Press (pause or no pause, any style or grip width) Deadlift (sumo or conventional, but rack pull doesn’t count) Clean and Jerk (This advanced exercise isn’t included in this book but is a fantastic test of explosiveness) Bent Over Row (fairly strict, minimal cheating) Pullups (any grip, body weight+added weight, full range of motion, strict) Overhead Press (One rep, strict, no leg drive, not a push press!) The above exercises were selected because they are commonly used-the squat, bench and deadlift are the three movements tested in powerlifting competitions and the clean and jerk is done in the Olympics. The bent over row, pullup/pulldown and strict overhead press are very commonly performed as well. If you don’t do the basic exercise, you can substitute another from the exercise progressions and variations page, but keep in mind the strength standard here definitely won’t apply. For example, you can substitute a dumbbell bench press for a barbell one, a Bulgarian split squat for a back squat or a back extension for a deadlift in your training. But because they are using different implements, one leg instead of two, and a shorter range of motion, 218 respectively…you can’t really compare them. You can, however, can check the appendix for a longer and much more inclusive list of standards. These standards may seem high to some, and impossible to others, but they are assuming a level of commitment higher than the average gymgoer, and there’s no shame in not achieving a high level. Section Recap: These strength standards for ladies and gents are the best way to see how you measure up against others. Frequently Asked Questions Is diet important? Yes, it’s very important. There will be an upcoming book on diet as it’s a very complicated topic! As a very general guideline, eat a diet consisting of natural, whole foods like vegetables, eggs, fish, meat and poultry. Fruits can be added in moderation as well. High carbohydrate foods such as bread, pasta, rice, corn, potatoes and oats can be included if you want to gain weight, but if you want to drop body fat they should be reduced or eliminated. Processed carbohydrates, sugar and packaged foods should be avoided regardless of your weight goals. How should I warm up? The best way to warm up for lifting is doing light sets of the exercise that you are about to do. This will get the joints, muscles, central nervous system and brain ready to perform the task at hand. For most exercises, that’s as complicated as it gets. Should I do stretching? If you enjoy stretching, feel free to do it! That being said, the research on stretching shows that it doesn’t really have a benefit for health or strength. The best way to increase your range of motion is to USE that range of motion. Babies can get in a deep squat position but many adults cannot, because they don’t put themselves in that position anymore, and they slowly lose the ability to do that movement. In many ways, just doing the movements themselves is enough to regain the ability to do them, just make sure to progress slowly. 219 Should I take steroids? That’s a personal choice. I never have and likely never will. Be aware of the side effects and plan accordingly. You shouldn’t even think about taking them unless you have 5+ years of consistent training and a solid diet. Taking steroids without those in place will get you all of the harm and very little benefit. Also keep in mind that they can cause lasting damage to your endocrine (hormonal) systems, and that if you stop taking them, you’ll lose all of the muscle and strength you gained anyway. If you are natural, what you earn is what you keep. I’m not getting the same results as you, what’s wrong? We’re different people. Genetics, lifestyle and work ethic are all just as important as the exercises you choose and how you program them. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results as I have, but I can guarantee that I can optimize the results that you DO get. Everyone is dealt a different hand in life, you can only play the iron game to the best of your ability. I can’t help you look like me, I can only help you look and feel like the best version of yourself. 220 Appendix MAIN MOVEMENT ASSISTANCE TERTIARY HINGE Trap Bar Deadlift, Sumo Back extension, Glute Bridge, Deadlift, Conventional Romanian Deadlift, Rack Pull, Good Deadlift, Low Pull from the Morning, Broad Jump, Hip Thrust Hang, Deficit Deadlift, Snatch Grip Deadlift, Power Snatch from the Hang Hamstring Curl Machine, Hamstring Ball Curl, Pullthrough, Nordic Hamstring Curl SQUAT Box Squat, Bulgarian Split Bodyweight Squat, Goblet Squat, Leg Leg Extension Squat, High Bar Back Squat, Press, Overhead Squat, Squat Jump, Machine Walking Lunge, Low Bar Box Jump, Vertical Jump, Step Up Back Squat, Front Squat, Anderson Squat ROW One-Arm Dumbbell Row, Cable Row, Chest Supported Row, Shrug Pendlay Row, Barbell Bent Machine Row, Bar Row, Seal Row, Over Row, T-bar Row, Kroc Row, One-Arm Barbell Row Trap Bar Bent Over Row, Rubish Row PUSH Dumbbell Bench Press, Pushup, Decline Bench Press, Wide Flys, Cable (Assisted) Dips, Close Grip Dips, Wide Grip Bench Press, Crossover Bench Press, Incline Press Reverse Grip Bench Press, Machine Press PULL Pulldown, Pullup/Chinup PRESS Seated Dumbbell Press, Arnold Press, Klokov Press, Bradford Standing Barbell Overhead Press, Jerk, Z-Press Press, Push Press Wide grip pullup, Behind the Neck Pulldown, Standing Cable Pullover, Dumbbell Pullover, One-arm pullup, Dual Handle Cable Pulldown SHOULD Lateral Raise, Upright Row Seated Lateral Raise, Face Pull, Prone Rear Standing Rear Delt Raise, Cable Delt Raise, Rear Delt Raise, Bus Driver Cable Lateral Raise, Front Raise, Seated 221 Rear Raise Delt CURL Barbell, Strict Seated Dumbbell, Reverse Grip, Concentration, Cable Hammer, Incline Dumbbell, Machine Preacher Preacher, Hercules, Onearm Cable, Spider EXTEND Overhead Dumbbell Extension, Skullcrusher Cable Pushdown, Overhead Cable Kickback Extension, JM Press, Lying Dumbbell Extension ABS Dumbbell Side Bend, Ab Wheel, Plank, Cable Pallov Press, Weighted Crunches Crunch, Hanging Leg Raises, Feet to Bar, Stir the Pot CALVES Seated, Standing, Leg Press Calf Raise 222 Movements by Difficulty BEGINNER INTERMEDIATE ADVANCED HINGE Back extension, Glute Bridge, Trap Bar Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift, Hamstring Curl Machine, Pullthrough Romanian Deadlift, Rack Pull, Hamstring Ball Curl, Low Pull from the Hang, Conventional Deadlift, Broad Jump Good Morning, Power Snatch from the Hang, Deficit Deadlift, Snatch Grip Deadlift, Nordic Hamstring Curl, Hip Thrust SQUAT Bodyweight Squat, Goblet Squat, Leg Press, Leg Extension Machine, Box Squat, Bulgarian Split Squat, High Bar Back Squat Walking Lunge, Low Bar Back Squat, Front Squat, Vertical Jump, Step Up, Anderson Squat Box Jump, Overhead Squat, Squat Jump ROW Cable Row, Chest Supported Seal Row, Kroc Row, Trap Bar Bent Over Row, Machine Row, Bar Pendlay Row, Barbell Bent Row Rubish Row, Row, One-Arm Dumbbell Over Row, T-bar Row, Shrug One-Arm Barbell Row Row PUSH Pushup, Machine Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Assisted Dips, Close Grip Bench Press Flys, Cable Crossover, Wide Dips, Incline Press, Dips Wide Grip Bench Press, Reverse Grip Bench Press, Decline Bench Press PULL Pulldown, Standing Cable Pullover, Dual Handle Cable Pulldown Pullup/Chinup, Wide grip pullup Behind the Neck pulldown, Dumbbell Pullover, One-arm pullup PRESS Seated Dumbbell Press, Arnold Press Standing Barbell Overhead Press, Klokov Press, Push Press, Z-Press Bradford Press, Jerk SHOULD Seated Lateral Raise, Face ERS Pull, Prone Rear Delt Raise, Seated Rear Delt Raise Standing Rear Delt Raise, Lateral Raise, Cable Rear Delt Raise Cable Lateral Raise, Front Raise, Bus Driver, Upright Row CURL Reverse Grip, Barbell, OneConcentration, Arm Cable, Incline Dumbbell Hercules Seated Dumbbell, Preacher, Cable Hammer, Machine Preacher, Strict, Spider EXTEND Kickback, Overhead Dumbbell Extension, Cable Overhead Cable Extension, JM Press, Lying Dumbbell Skullcrusher 223 Pushdown Extension ABS Plank, Cable Crunch, Pallov Press, Farmer’s Walk Weighted Crunches, Dumbbell Side Bend, Stir the Pot, Hanging Leg Raises Ab Wheel, Foot to Bar CALVES Seated Calf Raise Standing Calf Raise Leg Press Calf Raise Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS CALVES Volume Guidelines Balanced Sets Beginner Intermediate 3-6 4-10 3-8 4-10 3-6 4-8 4-8 6-12 2-8 6-12 2-6 4-8 4-8 6-12 0-4 2-8 0-4 2-8 2-4 4-6 0-4 2-8 Advanced 6-14 6-14 8-10 8-16 8-16 8-12 10-18 6-12 6-12 6-14 6-12 Movement Pattern HINGE SQUAT PRESS PULL PUSH ROW SHOULDERS CURL EXTEND ABS CALVES Specialization Sets Beginner Intermediate 6-10 10-14 8-12 12-18 6-10 10-14 8-14 12-18 8-12 12-16 6-10 10-14 10-12 12-18 6-8 12-16 6-8 10-14 6-8 12-18 10-12 12-18 Advanced 12-22 12-22 12-22 16-30 16-24 12-22 16-30 16-22 16-22 16-30 16-30 224 225 Equipment Checklist Equipment (Essentials!) Barbells Notes Should be straight, not bent. The ends should spin freely. At least three or four is ideal, as other people will use them as well. At least 5kg/10kg/20kg. 2.5kg is nice as well. Rubber is best, for Olympic weightlifting and deadlifting, but metal is OK. Round is better than hexagonal. The heavier the better, 40kg is a minimum. If they only have 25 or 30kg you’ll outgrow those quickly. Don’t believe them when they say 30kg is enough, tell them every proper gym has 40, 50, 60kg usually. Essential for many movements. Try it out a few times, it should have a place to catch the bar if you fail that is just BELOW the height of the bar in the bottom position of your squat. Very useful; similar to a squat rack but more versatile, this will allow you to do everything from benching and incline benching to squatting, rack pulls and partial reps. Try it out a few times, it should feel sturdy, as you’ll want to add weight eventually. Incline should be adjustable, and they should be sturdy Weight on each side should go up to at least 40kg Try it out a few times, the dip handles should be comfortable and about shoulder width apart. The pullup should have a palms facing grip as well. Weight should go up to 120kg+, ideally. For seated dumbbell pressing and Arnold pressing Exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical machine, row machine Plates Dumbbells Squat rack Power rack 45 Back Extension Benches Cable Station Dip/Pullup station Pulldown machine Seat with back support Cardio machines Equipment (Optional) Incline Bench Press Preacher Curl Bench Trap bar Bands If they don’t have one, flat bench will have to suffice If they don’t have one, you can use an incline bench and dumbbells. If they don’t have one, a normal barbell is OK. Good for warming up, and for advanced lifters modifying movements by changing the resistance curve. Good for adding resistance for barbell movements and dips Crunches, stir the pot and hamstring curls Curl One of the best hamstring exercises Chains Swiss ball Hamstring Machine Leg extension Machine Leg Press Chest Press Machine One of the best quadriceps exercises A great full lower body developer A very solid chest developer 226 Cable Row Chest Supported Row Machine Row Decline Bench Press Ab Wheel Sit-up Bench 90 Back Extension Smith Machine Exercise A staple rowing exercise Another great rowing exercise Yet another great way to row Rare but useful chest developer One of the best abdominal developers Fantastic way to stimulate the abs and hip flexors Great glute, hamstrings and lower back exercise but woefully rare Lunges, squats, bench press, incline press, overhead press Special Workouts and Techniques-Modifying Sets 1RM Ramp AMRAP EMOM HINGE Back Extension No No Yes No Glute Bridge Yes No Yes No RDL No No Yes No Deadlifts (not RDL) Yes Yes Yes Yes Low pull from hang Yes Yes Yes Yes Good Mornings No No No No Power Snatch from the Hang Yes Yes No Yes Bodyweight Squat No No Yes No Goblet Squat No No Yes No Box Squat Rack Yes Yes Yes Leg Press No No Yes No Bulgarian Split Squat No No Yes No Back Squats Rack Yes Yes Yes Front Squats Rack Yes Yes Yes Walking Lunge No No Yes Yes SQUAT 227 Overhead Squat No No No No Squat Jump No Yes No Yes Exercise 1RM Ramp AMRAP EMOM ROW Cable/Chest Supported/Machine Row/Seal No Row No Yes No One-arm Row/ Barbell/Bar No No Yes No Pendlay Row No No Yes Yes Kroc Row No No Yes No Barbell Row/T-Bar Row/Trap Bar Row No Yes Yes Yes Rubish Row No Yes No Yes Pushup No No Yes No Machine Press/ Cable Crossover No No Yes No Dumbbell Bench No No Yes No Assisted Dips No No Yes No Close/Wide/Reverse/Incline/Decline Bench Spot Yes Yes Yes Dips/Wide Dips No Yes Yes Yes Exercise 1R M Ramp AMR AP EMOM Pulldown/Behind the neck pulldown/ Standing No Pullover No Yes No Pullup/Chinup/Wide Grip Pullup Yes Yes Yes Yes Dumbbell Pullover No No Yes No Dumbbell/One-arm PUSH PULL 228 PRESS Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press No No Yes No Arnold Press No No Yes No Barbell Overhead Press Yes Yes Yes Yes Klokov Press No Yes Yes No Bradford Press No No Yes No Push Press Yes Yes Yes Yes Jerk Yes Yes No Yes SHOULDERS (ALL) No No Yes No Seated Dumbbell/ Reverse Grip/ Preacher No Curl/One-arm Cable Curl/Cable Hammer Curl No Yes No Barbell Curl Yes Yes Yes Yes EXTEND (ALL) No No Yes No ABS (ALL) No No Yes No CALVES (ALL) No No Yes No CURL 229 Exercise Rest Pause Cluster Drop Sets Super Sets Back Extension No No Yes Yes Glute Bridge Yes Yes No Yes RDL No No Yes No Deadlifts (not RDL) Yes Yes No No Low pull from hang No Yes No No Good Mornings No No No No Power Snatch from the Hang No Yes No No Bodyweight Squat No No No Yes Goblet Squat Yes No Yes Yes Box Squat Yes Yes No No Leg Press Yes No Yes Yes Bulgarian Split Squat No No Yes No Back Squats Yes Yes No No Front Squats No Yes No No Walking Lunge Yes No Yes Yes Overhead Squat No No No No Squat Jump No No No No Exercise Rest Pause Cluster Drop Sets Super Sets Supported/Machine Yes Yes Yes Yes One-arm Dumbbell/One-arm Yes Barbell/Bar Row No Yes Yes Pendlay Row Yes No No HINGE SQUAT ROW Cable/Chest Row/Seal Row Yes 230 Kroc Row Yes No No No Barbell Row/T-Bar Row/Trap Bar No Row No No No Rubish Row No No No No Pushup Yes No No Yes Machine Press/ Cable Crossover Yes No Yes Yes Dumbbell Bench No No Yes Yes Assisted Dips No No Yes No Close/Wide/Reverse/Incline/Decline Yes Bench Yes Yes Yes Dips/Wide Dips Yes No Yes Yes Exercise Rest Pause Cluster Drop Sets Super Sets Pulldown/Behind the neck pulldown/ Yes Standing Pullover No Yes Yes Pullup/Chinup/Wide Grip Pullup Yes Yes Yes Yes Dumbbell Pullover No No Yes Yes Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Yes No Yes Yes Arnold Press Yes No Yes Yes Barbell Overhead Press Yes Yes No Yes Klokov Press Yes No No Yes Bradford Press No No Yes Yes Push Press No Yes No No Jerk No Yes No No SHOULDERS (ALL) Yes No Yes Yes PUSH PULL PRESS 231 CURL Seated Dumbbell/ Reverse Grip/ Yes Preacher Curl/One-arm Cable Curl/Cable Hammer Curl Yes Yes Yes Barbell Curl Yes Yes Yes Yes EXTEND (ALL) Yes No Yes Yes ABS (ALL) Yes No Yes Yes CALVES (ALL) Yes No Yes Yes Special Workouts and Techniques-Modifying Reps Exercise Failure Partials Isometrics Back Extension/ Glute Bridge Yes No No RDL/Good Mornings No No No Deadlifts (except RDL) No No Yes Low pull from hang No No No Power Snatch from the Hang Yes No No Bodyweight Squat Yes Yes No Goblet Squat Yes Yes No Box Squat No No No Leg Press No Yes No Bulgarian Split Squat Yes Yes No Back Squats No No Yes Front Squats No No Yes Walking Lunge Yes No No Overhead Squat No No No Squat Jump No No No HINGE SQUAT 232 Exercise Failure Partials Isometrics Cable/Chest Supported/Seal/BarOne-arm Dumbbell/Barbell Row Yes Yes No Pendlay Row No No No Kroc Row Yes No No Barbell Row/T-Bar Row/Trap Bar Row No No Yes Rubish Row No No No Pushup Yes Yes No Machine Press Yes Yes No Dumbbell Bench Yes Yes No Assisted Dips/ Cable Crossover Yes Yes No Close/Wide/Reverse/Incline/Decline Bench No Yes Yes Dips/Wide Dips Yes No No ROW PUSH 233 PULL Pulldown/Behind the neck pulldown/Standing Yes Pullover Yes No Pullup/Chinup/Wide Grip Pullup Yes Yes No Dumbbell Pullover No No No PRESS Failure Partials Isometrics Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Yes Yes No Arnold Press Yes Yes No Barbell Overhead Press Yes No Yes Klokov Press Yes No Yes Bradford Press No No No Push Press Yes No No Power/Split Jerk Yes No No 234 SHOULDERS (ALL) Yes Yes No Seated Dumbbell/ Reverse Grip/ Preacher Yes Curl/One-Arm Cable Curl/Cable Hammer Curl Yes No Barbell Curl Yes Yes Yes EXTEND (ALL) Yes Yes No ABS (ALL) Yes Yes No CALVES (ALL) Yes Yes Yes CURL Exercise Paused Reps Eccentrics Explosive Reps Back Extension/ Glute Bridge Yes No No RDL/Good Mornings Yes No No Deadlifts (except RDL) Yes No Yes Low pull from hang Yes No Always Power Snatch from the Hang Yes No Always Bodyweight Squat Yes No No Goblet Squat Yes No No Box Squat Yes No Yes Leg Press Yes No No Bulgarian Split Squat Yes No Yes HINGE SQUAT 235 Back Squats Yes No Yes Front Squats Yes No Yes Walking Lunge Yes No No Overhead Squat Yes No No Squat Jump Yes No Always Exercise Paused Reps Eccentrics Explosive Reps ROW Cable/Chest Supported/Seal/Bar/One-arm Dumbbell/Barbell Row Yes No No Pendlay Row Yes No No Kroc Row No No Yes Barbell Row/T-Bar Row/Trap Bar Yes Row No Yes Rubish Row No No Always Pushup Yes No Yes Machine Press Yes Partner No Dumbbell Bench Yes Partner Yes Assisted Dips/ Cable Crossover Yes No No Close/Wide/Reverse/Incline/Decline Bench Yes Partner Yes Dips/Wide Dips Yes Yes No Pulldown/Behind the neck pulldown/ Yes Standing Pullover Partner No Pullup/Chinup/Wide Grip Pullup Yes Yes Yes Dumbbell Pullover Yes No No PUSH PULL 236 PRESS Paused Reps Eccentrics Explosive Reps Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Yes Partner No Arnold Press Yes Partner No Barbell Overhead Press Yes No Yes Klokov Press Yes No No Bradford Press Yes No No Push Press Yes No Always Power/Split Jerk Yes No Always SHOULDERS (ALL) Yes Yes Yes Grip/ Yes Cable Yes No Barbell Curl Yes Yes Yes EXTEND (ALL) Yes Yes No ABS (ALL) Yes No No CALVES (ALL) Yes No No CURL Seated Dumbbell/ Reverse Preacher Curl/One-Arm Curl/Cable Hammer Curl 237 238 Additional Strength Standards (Men) Exercise HINGE 10 Rep Max Back Extension 10 Rep Max Glute Bridge Starter 30kg 60kg Trained 60kg 120kg Strong 80kg 140kg 239 10 Rep Max Romanian Deadlift 1 Rep Max Broad Jump 1 Rep Max Low Pull from the Hang 10 Rep Max Good Morning SQUAT 10 Rep Max Leg Press 10 Rep Max Bulgarian Split Squat 20 Step Walking Lunge 1 Rep Max Vertical Jump ROW 10 Rep Max Cable Row 10 Rep Max One-Arm Dumbbell Row 10 Rep Max Shrug 10 Rep Max T-Bar Row 10 Rep Max Pendlay Row 30 Rep Max Kroc Row PUSH 10 Rep Max Fly 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Bench Press 10 Rep Max Incline Bench Press 10 Rep Max (Assisted/Wide) Dips PULL 10 Rep Max Pulldown 10 Rep Max Standing Cable Pullover 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Pullover 10 Rep Max One-Arm Pulldown PRESS 5 Rep Max Push Press 10 Rep Max Seated Dumbbell Press SHOULDERS 20 Rep Max Face Pull 20 Rep Max Lateral raise 20 Rep Max Rear delt raise (any) CURL 10 Rep Max Barbell Curl 10 Rep Max Reverse Grip Curl 10 Rep Max Barbell Preacher Curl EXTEND 10 Rep Max Skullcrusher 10 Rep Max Cable Pushdown 10 Rep Max JM Press 10 Rep Max Overhead D. Extension ABS 1 min Farmer’s Walk total wgt Plank 10 Rep Max Pallov Press 40kg 1.80m 40kg 20kg 100kg 20kg 20kg 40cm 40kg 15kg 40kg 40kg 20kg 25kg 10kg 20kg 40kg 60kg 50kg 20kg 10kg 25kg 50kg 15kg 10kg 5kg 2.5kg 25kg 15kg 15kg 15kg 15kg 25kg 10kg 40kg 1 min 10kg 80kg 2.10m 80kg 40kg 200kg 40kg 40kg 50cm 60kg 25kg 80kg 60kg 40kg 35kg 15kg 30kg 50kg 80kg 80kg 30kg 20kg 40kg 70kg 20kg 15kg 10kg 7.5kg 35kg 25kg 25kg 25kg 25kg 40kg 15kg 60kg 2min 15kg 100kg 2.45m 100kg 60kg 300kg 60kg 60kg 60cm 80kg 35kg 100kg 80kg 60kg 45kg 20kg 40kg 70kg 100kg 100kg 40kg 30kg 50kg 80kg 25kg 20kg 12.5kg 10kg 45kg 30kg 30kg 35kg 35kg 60kg 20kg 80kg 4min 20kg Exercise HINGE 10 Rep Max Back Extension 10 Rep Max Glute Bridge Beast 100kg 180kg Hulk 120kg 220kg Elite 140kg 260kg 240 10 Rep Max Romanian Deadlift 1 Rep Max Broad Jump 1 Rep Max Low Pull from the Hang 10 Rep Max Good Morning SQUAT 10 Rep Max Leg Press 10 Rep Max Bulgarian Split Squat 20 Step Walking Lunge 1 Rep Max Vertical Jump ROW 10 Rep Max Cable Row 10 Rep Max One-Arm Dumbbell Row 10 Rep Max Shrug 10 Rep Max T-Bar Row 10 Rep Max Pendlay Row 30 Rep Max Kroc Row PUSH 10 Rep Max Fly 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Bench Press 10 Rep Max Incline Bench Press 10 Rep Max (Assisted/Wide) Dips PULL 10 Rep Max Pulldown 10 Rep Max Standing Cable Pullover 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Pullover 10 Rep Max One-Arm Pulldown PRESS 5 Rep Max Push Press 10 Rep Max Seated Dumbbell Press SHOULDERS 20 Rep Max Face Pull 20 Rep Max Lateral raise 20 Rep Max Rear delt raise (any) CURL 10 Rep Max Barbell Curl 10 Rep Max Reverse Grip Curl 10 Rep Max Barbell Preacher Curl EXTEND 10 Rep Max Skullcrusher 10 Rep Max Cable Pushdown 10 Rep Max JM Press 10 Rep Max Overhead D. Extension ABS 1 min Farmer’s Walk total wgt Plank 10 Rep Max Pallov Press 120kg 2.75m 120kg 80kg 400kg 80kg 80kg 70cm 100kg 45kg 120kg 100kg 80kg 55kg 25kg 50kg 90kg 120kg 120kg 50kg 40kg 60kg 90kg 30kg 25kg 15kg 12.5kg 55kg 35kg 35kg 45kg 45kg 80kg 25kg 100kg 8min 25kg 150kg 3.05m 140kg 100kg 500kg 100kg 100kg 80cm 120kg 60kg 160kg 120kg 100kg 70kg 30kg 60kg 110kg 150kg 140kg 60kg 50kg 70kg 120kg 40kg 30kg 20kg 15kg 65kg 45kg 40kg 55kg 55kg 100kg 30kg 160kg 16min 30kg Additional Strength Standards (Women) Exercise Starter HINGE 10 Rep Max Back Extension 20kg 10 Rep Max Glute Bridge 40kg Trained 40kg 80kg 180kg 3.35m 180kg 120kg 600kg 140kg 140kg 90cm 140kg 70kg 200kg 140kg 120kg 90kg 40kg 70kg 130kg 180kg 160kg 80kg 60kg 80kg 140kg 50kg 40kg 25kg 20kg 80kg 55kg 50kg 70kg 70kg 120kg 40kg 200kg 30min 40kg Strong 50kg 100kg 241 10 Rep Max Romanian Deadlift 1 Rep Max Broad Jump 1 Rep Max Low Pull from the Hang 10 Rep Max Good Morning SQUAT 10 Rep Max Leg Press 10 Rep Max Bulgarian Split Squat 20 Step Walking Lunge 1 Rep Max Vertical Jump ROW 10 Rep Max Cable Row 10 Rep Max One-Arm Dumbbell Row 10 Rep Max Shrug 10 Rep Max T-Bar Row 10 Rep Max Pendlay Row 30 Rep Max Kroc Row PUSH 10 Rep Max Fly 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Bench Press 10 Rep Max Incline Bench Press 10 Rep Max Dips/Wide Dips PULL 10 Rep Max Pulldown 10 Rep Max Standing Cable Pullover 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Pullover 10 Rep Max One-Arm Pulldown PRESS 5 Rep Max Push Press 10 Rep Max Seated Dumbbell Press SHOULDERS 20 Rep Max Face Pull 20 Rep Max Lateral raise 20 Rep Max Rear delt raise (any) CURL 10 Rep Max Barbell Curl 10 Rep Max Reverse Grip Curl 10 Rep Max Barbell Preacher Curl EXTEND 10 Rep Max Skullcrusher 10 Rep Max Cable Pushdown 10 Rep Max JM Press 10 Rep Max Overhead D. Extension ABS 1 min Farmer’s Walk total wgt Plank 10 Rep Max Pallov Press 30kg 1m 30kg 15kg 60kg 10kg 10kg 20cm 20kg 10kg 20kg 20kg 10kg 15kg 5kg 10kg 20kg 30kg 25kg 10kg 5kg 15kg 25kg 7.5kg 10kg 2.5kg 2kg 15kg 10kg 10kg 15kg 15kg 15kg 5kg 20kg 1 min 5kg 50kg 1.3m 50kg 30kg 120kg 30kg 30kg 30cm 30kg 15kg 40kg 30kg 20kg 25kg 7.5kg 15kg 25kg 40kg 40kg 15kg 10kg 20kg 40kg 10kg 15kg 5kg 4kg 20kg 12.5kg 12.5kg 20kg 20kg 25kg 7.5kg 30kg 2min 10kg 60kg 1.5m 70kg 40kg 160kg 40kg 40kg 40cm 40kg 20kg 50kg 40kg 30kg 30kg 10kg 20kg 35kg 50kg 50kg 20kg 15kg 25kg 50kg 15kg 20kg 7.5kg 5kg 25kg 15kg 15kg 25kg 25kg 30kg 10kg 40kg 4min 15kg 242 Exercise HINGE 10 Rep Max Back Extension 10 Rep Max Glute Bridge 10 Rep Max Romanian Deadlift 1 Rep Max Broad Jump 1 Rep Max Low Pull from the Hang Beast 60kg Hulk 80kg Elite 100kg 120kg 80kg 1.8m 90kg 140kg 100kg 2m 110kg 160kg 120kg 2.2m 120kg 243 10 Rep Max Good Morning SQUAT 10 Rep Max Leg Press 10 Rep Max Bulgarian Split Squat 20 Step Walking Lunge 1 Rep Max Vertical Jump ROW 10 Rep Max Cable Row 10 Rep Max One-Arm Dumbbell Row 10 Rep Max Shrug 10 Rep Max T-Bar Row 10 Rep Max Pendlay Row 30 Rep Max Kroc Row PUSH 10 Rep Max Fly 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Bench Press 10 Rep Max Incline Bench Press 10 Rep Max Dips/Wide Dips (total) PULL 10 Rep Max Pulldown 10 Rep Max Standing Cable Pullover 10 Rep Max Dumbbell Pullover 10 Rep Max One-Arm Pulldown PRESS 5 Rep Max Push Press 10 Rep Max Seated Dumbbell Press SHOULDERS 20 Rep Max Face Pull 20 Rep Max Lateral raise 20 Rep Max Rear delt raise (any) CURL 10 Rep Max Barbell Curl 10 Rep Max Reverse Grip Curl 10 Rep Max Barbell Preacher Curl EXTEND 10 Rep Max Skullcrusher 10 Rep Max Cable Pushdown 10 Rep Max JM Press 10 Rep Max Overhead D. Extension ABS 1 min Farmer’s Walk total wgt Plank 10 Rep Max Pallov Press 50kg 200kg 50kg 50kg 50cm 50kg 25kg 60kg 240kg 60kg 60kg 60cm 60kg 30kg 80kg 280kg 70kg 70kg 70cm 70kg 35kg 60kg 50kg 40kg 35kg 12.5kg 25kg 45kg 60kg 80kg 70kg 50kg 40kg 15kg 30kg 55kg 70kg 100kg 90kg 60kg 45kg 20kg 35kg 65kg 80kg 60kg 25kg 70kg 30kg 80kg 35kg 20kg 30kg 60kg 20kg 25kg 35kg 70kg 25kg 30kg 40kg 80kg 30kg 25kg 30kg 35kg 10kg 7.5kg 30kg 20kg 20kg 30kg 12.5kg 10kg 40kg 25kg 25kg 35kg 15kg 12.5kg 50kg 30kg 30kg 40kg 30kg 40kg 12.5kg 35kg 50kg 15kg 40kg 60kg 17.5kg 50kg 60kg 80kg 8min 20kg 16min 25kg 30min 30kg 244 245 Acknowledgements So, that’s it. You made it to the end. Or you skipped to the back and started reading this way. Cheater. Go to the front! Do not pass GO! Do not collect 200$! I’m just kidding, read this book however you want. It’s like a trampoline, it’s meant to be able to jump around in. First-and this list is in order of importance-I’d like to thank my wife. You’ve been amazing throughout this whole process of me writing-on-a-website-andnot-making-any-money. Your support means the world to me and everything I do is just to make you happy and proud. I love you. Second, my first trainees, the ones who let me advise them even though I had zero experience. You all took a leap of faith, and I’ll never forget you all. Third, I’d like to thank my fans on Quora and elsewhere. You guys are great! Thoughtful, inquisitive, supportive and thoroughly wonderful. Someone answering questions is nothing without just that-the questions. Thank you for asking. And thank you for being awesome. Fourth, Baleaf. You guys came to me when I had a hundred followers and were willing to put your faith in the fact that I had great content and was willing to work my ass off. Fifth, you. If you’re reading this, you’re likely past the free chum that Amazon throws in the water. There are plenty of things to spend eight bucks on and I’m honored and grateful that you chose this manuscript. For feedback, feel free to add me on Instagram and shoot me a DM-good or bad, I’d love to hear it. This is my first book, I wrote it alone, over a few months, in a word document, on a whim, and there are bound to be errors and imperfections. Till next time -Geoffrey Verity Schofield 246