Category Archives: Workouts
A Lot Can Be Done In Under 15 Minutes
Long time client, Darryl, went through a very intense and deliberate workout involving 8 exercises. We timed Darryl’s workout and it lasted just under 15 minutes. At the end of his workout, Darryl was significantly trained. His respiration was elevated from the beginning and never returned to normal until a couple minutes after the session expired. Darryl’s full-body workout (Jeff Holt inspired) covered all the muscle groups as we will see. Here was his workout.
Hammer Strength Leg Press 1×15
Nautilus Leverage Leg Press with cable attachment 1×10
Hammer Strength Deadlift 1×10
2 minute rest
Hammer Strength Seated Iso Row 1×8
Pendulum Incline Press 1×12
Hammer Strength Shrug 1×12
Pendulum Shoulder Press 1×10
Nautilus Bicep Curl 1×8
The first 3 exercises were performed with very little rest. Darryl worked as hard as he could on each movement with the numbers listed as goal figures (which he achieved). Since I don’t have a leg extension (and there are very few worthy one’s out there) I had Darryl use the Nautilus LP with cable attachment to really emphasize the quads (click on hyper link to watch vide0). With the hips, thighs, low back thoroughly worked we emphasized his upper back and trap area, throwing in a couple pressing movements and a curl to round out his program. On another training day we will emphasize other areas of his body yet still stimulate the entire body and respiratory system.
When you’re short on time, try this workout and see how it goes….
Another Training Update
Here’s a quick update on what’s been going on with my training….
I convinced my wife to get a road bike so we could do some serious riding together and on July 2nd we went to EMS of Shrewsbury where my man Manny took care of us. Armed and ready to ride, we got on our bikes
July 3rd: Tuesday early AM and proceeded to knock out 25 miles.
Wednesday was a day off from exercise
July 5th: Thursday had us doing another 16 miles on the bikes at a faster pace.
July 6th: Friday 2 mile run
July 7th: Another 20 miles on the bike solo and a quick upper body workout
July 8th: Sunday we did another 20 miles on the bikes.
July 9th: Monday I needed some rest
July 10th: Tuesday – first full-body workout in a while:
Standing Barbell Curls: 1×30 (1 set of 30 reps)
Hammer Strength Dips: 1×25
Hammer Strength Leg Press (a new addition to the facility as of yesterday): 1×35
Paramount Machine Pullover: 1×20
Wrist Extension: 1×25
CoC: 1×25
Indian Club work
I’m still knocking back two shakes a day to help with recovery and it’s helping to get in enough nutrients and deal with the 100+ degree weather I’ve been riding in.
Another update in a couple weeks….stay healthy
Today’s Workout 5-31-2012
After training a bit heavier the other day than I normally do, I realized a couple of things.
1) After experimenting with my ultra-high repetition ranges, I lost nothing in the way of my strength levels at a heavier resistance. Maybe that’s due to all my experience with lifting heavier. Maybe it’s my “base line” of strength and I ‘m not going to lift any more than that anyway (but hey, at least I’m not losing anything either).
2) My body felt a bit more worse for ware and there’s no real need to go that heavy and stress the old joints, plus I was able to focus much better on purely having the intended muscle do most of the work – even when performing compound movements. For example, when I go heavier in the shoulder press my shoulder girdle and traps work much harder to stabilize my body. That’s not a bad thing of course, it’s just something I’ve noticed.
So, I going back to higher reps today I did the following:
Assisted Chins on Gravitron 25 reps immediately followed by:
Hammer Strength Dips 25 reps immediately followed by:
Assisted Chins on Gravitron 15 reps immediately followed by:
Hammer Strength Dips 15 reps
Dumbbell Shrugs 20 reps immediately followed by:
Barbell Curls 25 reps immediately followed by:
Dumbbell Shrugs 15 reps immediately followed by:
Barbell Curls 15 reps
Nautilus Lying Leg Curl 25 reps immediately followed by:
Nautilus Leverage Leg Press 50 consecutive reps – no locking out, no resting
Wrist extension 25 reps
Ab Crunch 50 reps
The multiple set for upper body is one that I usually don’t do but the little extra volume of work made a huge difference in how it effected my body.
Today’s Workout 5-29-2012
During the warmer month’s I tend to focus on being outside more often and therefore, do more activities if I have the time. I immensely enjoy very early morning jogs on the beach (I run in the soft sand to make it harder and less compressive on my joints) and catch the sunrise as often as possible. I also like to ride my bike and perform regular runs as well. Mind you, these efforts are not of any significant magnitude as I am far from being a long distance anything. The idea of riding 20 miles on my bike or running 5 miles is not gonna happen for me and I understand that and I’m perfectly fine with that…I do it more for the enjoyment of the activity.
My summer strength workouts after today will become a matter of convenience – meaning if I can catch a beach run before or in between clients, I’m opting for that over grabbing a strength session indoors. Keep in mind, I DO NOT abandon my strength training, I merely find other ways of invoking it into my fitness program and yes, I will grab a session here at my studio to cover all my bases. Sprints on the soft sand for instance can light up your thighs and hips as well as your midsection. Chins on the monkey bars and a variety of pushups on the jetty, playing around with some rocks and some other bodyweight movements and you get a well-rounded workout.
Anyway, here was today’s workout:
Pendulum Shoulder Press 1 warm up set (50% of what I was to use for my work set) 1×15
Assisted Chins 1×15
Machine Pullover 1×10
Alternate Dumbbell Hammer Curls 1×20 each arm
Bodyweight Dips 1xmax
Nautilus Hip Adduction 1×12
Nautilus Hip Abduction 1×12
Machine Pullover (with more weight than previous set) 1×8
Alternate Dumbbell Curl 1×15 each arm
Bodyweight Dips 1xmax
Crunch 1xmax
Captains of Crush 1×15
Today’s Workout 5-24-2012
It’s no secret amongst those who know me that I loathe stationary cardiovascular exercise. I tend to rely on my strength training sessions to stimulate my cardiovascular system (and trust me, it does) and I use the great outdoors to recreate via my bike, a jog or sprints on the beach. Unfortunately, weather has been a bit crummy so outdoor activities are off the table for the moment so when getting outside to recreate is prohibited, I often strength train more often. As mentioned, my training protocol gets me breathing heavy so I opt for a three-times-per-week strength program when additional activities are not being performed.
As usual, I performed one set per each exercise, focusing intently on my form the entire set. The repetitions completed were arbitrary, but goals were in mind at the beginning of each exercise and I terminated the set when I know longer could get another repetition in good form. With that said, I chose to do the following workout today.
Hammer Strength Pulldown 1×30
Hammer Strength Dip 1×27
Standing Barbell Curl 1×26
Hammer Strength Deadlift 1×35 (no straps)
Toe Press on Nautilus Leg Press 1×22
Wrist Flexion 1×24
Oblique Ab Crunch 1×15 per side
At first blush this workout may look quite compact – and it is – but over the course of subsequent workouts, the use of variety and planning, a well-rounded program can be established that will cover major muscle groups along with joint functions to help a person lead a healthy and functional life.
Today’s Workout 5-22-2012
My training takes on new life on a constant basis – in part because of my personality and the fact that I’ve been training consistently now for over 36 years – plus I have come to realize after countless hours of pain-stacking thought and research that I already know what I need to do and I simply should let nature take its course.
As I list today’s workout below, many will wonder why I did what I did while others may not give a rats bottom or understand my purpose. Most often my workouts are predicated on my mental and physical energy as well as my schedule, past and upcoming activities and what baggage I may be carrying around in my head that I need to dump. All these factors (and more) are part of what happens on any particular day. I have no set schedule – due to the factors I just mentioned – and kind of “go with the flow” when I can. As a side not, I tend to treat my clients in a similar manner as their “personal factors” are a strong consideration for their training schedule as well.
Something to consider: I am a firm believer in that a great workout can be had in under 10 minutes and anyone working hard would probably not be able to or need to exceed 60 minutes so if you have 10-60 minutes on any given day, you can do yourself a world of good by grabbing a workout. Again, my schedule, energy, enthusiasm, etc. play a big part in when, where and how I train. Today I had some extra time and got a decent nights sleep last night so I took in a strength workout.
Recently I’ve been experimenting and researching to the Nth degree what repetition and time under load (TUL) will stimulate the most muscle fiber, in particular, the type II fast twitch fibers. The FT fibers are the one’s that build muscle and prevent sarcopenia (more on sarcopenia in a later installment) and after several hours of research, I have come to my own conclusions and therefore train the way I do. So, on to today’s workout:
Each repetition is done in a controlled manner. I initiate the movement under control (no momentum), pause in the contracted position and lower in a controlled manner. The key is not to have any rest anywhere throughout the movement – NO REST AT ALL – which makes the set very intense. This stimulates many systems and will leave you breathing quite heavy when performed correctly. If I venture a guess, I’d say each set took 90-120 seconds to complete. Each set was done until I couldn’t perform another rep in good form and without resting. The reps were not predetermined, they were goals.
Barbell curl 1×30 (1 set of 30 reps)
Hammer Strength Pulldown 1×17
Dumbbell Shrug 1×20
Hammer Strength Dip 1×25
Nautilus Leverage Leg Press 1×35-5-5-5 (wanted to get a total of 50 so I rested 15-20 seconds between sets until I got all 50)
Wrist Extension 1×25
Leveraging 1×20
Ab Crunch 1×30
I finished up with Indian Club work for shoulder mobility.
