Tips For An Improved Workout Program

1 – Don’t Use “Bodypart Splits”

Here are two big problems with bodypart splits:

1) You limit yourself to relatively ineffective exercises. For example, if you have a “hamstring day,” you can’t really do squats of any kind, or deadlifts of any kind (The most effective hamstring exercises), because both involve not only hams, but also quads, low back, and core stability, among other things. On a “chest day” you can’t do any form of bench (The most effective “chest” exercise), because it involves delts and triceps as well as pecs.

So if you go on the assumption that each “bodypart” needs to be trained at least twice a week (an assumption I happen to ascribe to), you’d need a schedule like this:

Monday: Chest & Back
Tuesday: Hams & Shoulders
Wednesday: Biceps & Triceps
Thursday: Abs & Calves
Friday: Chest & Back
Saturday: Hams & Shoulders
Sunday: Biceps & Triceps, Abs & Calves

2) Which leads to the fact that: of course you can arrange things differently, but anyway you slice it, you’re training 6-7 days a week, using inefficient exercises.

A somewhat better “compromise” might be to have 2 “upper body” days and two “lower body” days. Now your weekly split looks something like this:

Monday: Lower body
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Upper body
Thursday: Lower body
Friday: Off
Saturday: Upper body
Sunday: OFF

A schedule I prefer even more is to involve as much of your body as possible on every workout. This requires a bit more creativity in order to avoid redundancy (see point # 3 below), so here’s an example to get your started:

Monday: Back Squat, Bench Press, Low Cable Row
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Step-Ups, Dumbbell Overhead Press, Chins
Thursday: Front Squat, Dumbbell Bench Press, Suitcase Row
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Lunges, Barbell Military Press, Pullups
Sunday: OFF

With these last two examples, you have 3 days off, plus you can do the best exercises: squats, pulls, Olympic lifts, rows, lunges, presses, etc.

2- Use A Weekly Cycle

By a “cycle” I simply mean a recurring or repeating unit of time into which you place every exercise you think you must or should do. Using my last example, you obviously wouldn’t (or actually couldn’t) try to back squat, front squat, lunge, step-up, chin, row, bench press, etc., etc., all in one day. You’ve gotta spread them out into a cycle.

If your cycle is too small (compressed) you won’t be able to recover from all the work you’ve placed into it. On the other hand, if the cycle is too large (expanded), you’ll get too much recovery, meaning, you’ll be starting from scratch on each new cycle. The trick is to make your cycles just long enough to be able to achieve a full recovery, but not so long that your fitness levels recede back to the starting point with each new repeat.

The smalles possible cycle (in my opinion) is about 4 days. This would assume that you accomplish all desired work in two training sessions. The upper body-lower body split described earlier is one example. Using this, here’s what your 4 day split would look like:

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Lower Body
Thursday: OFF

Or, the 2 sessions could be distributed toward the front of the cycle, and the rest days placed at the rear:

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: OFF

Either of these two cycles could be repeated over and over with a good degree of success, for an indeterminate length of time. The problem I have with this split however, is that modern Western civilization is based on a 7-day week. It only makes sense therefore, to align your training cycle with your work/life schedule, which happens to be a 7-day cycle. For this reason, I think you’re best off using a weekly split. Using the last example, it might look something like this:

Monday: Upper Body
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Upper Body
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF

3 – Seek Maximum Diversity And Minimum Redundancy

If you look back at the earlier example of a “whole body” split, you’ll notice that although there is a repetition of fundamental movement patterns, there is minimal redundancy of specific movements. Here’s that split again so you don’t have to scroll back up to find it:

Monday: Back Squat, Bench Press, Low Cable Row
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Step-Ups, Dumbbell Overhead Press, Chins
Thursday: Front Squat, Dumbbell Bench Press, Suitcase Row
Friday: OFF
Saturday: Lunges, Barbell Military Press, Pullups
Sunday: OFF

So again, you’ll notice that we’ve covered pretty much every major movement pattern: vertical and horizontal pressing, vertical and horizontal pulling, squatting, lunging, etc.

4 – If A Movement Pattern Hurts, DO SOMETHING About It

Typically, if a lifter has a particular movement scheduled for a workout, and then the initial warm-up sets for that movement cause pain, the typical response is to simply skip the movement and hope it feels better the next time around. Bad idea. The solution is beyond the scope of this article, but let me suggest getting some medical advice for anything that hurts more than a week or so (as opposed to a year or so). Until you get a diagnosis, you don’t know what you’re dealing with. And you can’t fix a problem if you can’t define the problem.

5- Stay Flexible With Loading Patterns

Anyone who’s followed by work for any length of time knows that I’m not a periodization fan. It’s just simply impossible to predict how you’re going to respond to a specific stimulus weeks in advance. So on each workout, go in with a plan, but also don’t be afraid to modify the plan if things aren’t panning out the way you hoped. If you were planning on 3 sets of 8, and on the first set it becomes obvious that you could probably hit a new PR for a single, I’d take that PR. Conversely, if you’re planning on maxing out and it quickly becomes apparent that a new PR isn’t in the cards, take the opportunity to get some volume in instead.

If you don’t plan on being flexible, you’re likely to fall apart and lose motivation when your workout fails to go your way. So prepare for the unexpected, and have a back-up plan in place before you go in. This way, you’ll almost always have great training sessions, your motivation will stay high, and that leads to intense and consistent training. And that leads to great results.

The 3 Tips Necessary For Mass Gain (Triad/Triangle)

If you’ve heard the expression “eat big, train big, sleep big” before, you’ve already been exposed to the key components of all successful mass-gaining programs.

If you’ve taken this advice to heart and acted in it, you’ve already experienced the synergistic power of reprogramming your metabolism.

If you haven’t tasted the Kool-Aid yet, what are you waiting for?

The rationale behind the “Big 3″ philosophy is rooted in simple evolutionary biology. If you consider the essential components necessary for successful species-propagation, you arrive at a few inescapable conclusions:

1) In order to pass on your genes to the next generation, you need to survive long enough to reach sexual maturity. This means (among other things) having the ability to create a portable energy supply in the form of excess fat deposits.

2) In order to create an excess layer of bodyfat, you’ve got to be able to taken in more calories than you need, on a consistent basis.

3) A big part of this equation is carrying a minimum amount of muscle (relative to your survival needs), since muscle is metabolically expensive to create and maintain.

As you flesh through these 3 points, you quickly arrive at the idea physique for survival purposes: “skinny-fat.” So first off, congratulations are in order, because I’m guessing (by virtue of the fact that you’re reading this article), you’ve got the perfect physique for surviving to mating age!

OK, I get it- you just want to be bigger.

Been there, done that- at age 18, I weighed 148 pounds at 6’2″, and I wasn’t particularly lean either (today at age 49 I’m about 213 pound at that same height, and still not particularly lean, but I’m currently carrying about 177 pounds of lean mass, which is more than my total bodyweight was as a skinny 18-year old)

Hopefully I’ve managed to adequately explain the problem- mother nature doesn’t really buy into your plan to get all big and jacked.

Which leads to the solution- you’ve gotta fool ol’ mother nature. And we’re going to do that by convincing her that 1) you actually need more muscle in order to survive (“train big”), and that you’re taking in plenty of food- on a chronic basis- to justify those muscles (“eat big”).

And along the way, we’re going to further pacify your survival safeguards by sleeping big, which serves the purposes of reducing your energy expenditure enough to allow even more additional muscle growth.

Let’s discuss each component of the “Big 3″ equation in more detail…

Training Big

When I speak of training “big,” I’m really talking about adhering to a handful of tactics and principles. These concepts are not controversial, cutting-edge, hard to understand or implement. In other words, they’re not “sexy.” (If you’re among the 87% of readers who just closed this browser window- SEE YA!).

For the rest of you, let’s explore the tried-and true components of successful mass-gaining programs:

1) Restrict your training to multi-joint movements performed with free weights.

All forms of squats, deadlifts, presses, and pull-ups fulfill this requirement. The “non-approved” list is much larger: any & all forms of exercise machines, including pec dec, leg curl, leg extension, and leg press.

Don’t do curls, ab exercises, or calf movements. Also avoid all forms of running, swimming, cycling, aerobics, stretching, and/or dance classes. Refrain from any form of pilates, functional training, spinning, tae-bo, yoga, body pump, and/or any device/method you see on a TV infomercial, including Total Gym, Bowflex, P90X, Hip Hop Abs, The Perfect Pushup, Iron Gym, etc. If I’ve missed anything (and I have, trust me), simply line up the questionable exercise you’re thinking of with the first sentence above: “restrict your training to multi-joint movements performed with free weights.”

2) Train 3-4 days per week.

Not 1, 2, 5, 6, or 7, or any number higher than that (no two-a-days, in other words). Can you train 3 days one week and 4 the next? Yes.  Try Escalating Density Training with your workout. This should be the most simple recommendation to understand and follow, so I’ll move on to the next point…

3) On your “work sets,” use weights that are heavy enough to prevent the performance of more than 10 reps in a single effort.

Yes, that means you have a lot of flexibility in the weights you select, and the set/rep brackets you use, all the way from singles with super heavy weights to 10 reps with more moderate weight. There is no single “ideal” set x rep equation- anything in the “10 reps and under” category will prove effective.

What really matters is how many “quality” repetitions you perform in a session. By “quality” I mean reps where you expose large muscles to high tensions. Let’s explore that in just a bit more detail…

Creating High Tensions: Load VS Speed

If you load up a bare to a weight that’s just slightly less than you can lift, and perform one rep, you’ll have exposed your muscles to a very high tension- that’s probably obvious. What’s less obvious to a lot of people is that you can get similarly high tensions by lifting lighter weights.

The way you do this is with acceleration. Using between say, 65 and 75 percent of a weight you could lift only once, performing sets of maybe 2-5 reps per set, using as much controlled speed as possible on the “positive” (concentric) phase of the lift, creates as much tension as a very heavy weight would.

And it’s both safer and more fun to boot. So in your mass-training, use a variety of weights, but always move every rep as fast as possible. There is a good example of this in Escalating Density Training.

4) Limit (And Time) Your Training Sessions.

Most experts would say that 60 minutes is a maximum ideal length for a weight-training session, but I’ll go out on a limb and use 90 minutes instead.

The reason for my recommendation is that if you’re using effective exercises (as described earlier), you’ll need a relatively large number of warm-up sets before you can tackle your work sets for that exercise. So for example, you don’t need to do much of a warm-up for tricep kickbacks or the adductor machine, but you do need a significant warm-up for a deadlift workout or a heavy bench press session. This is especially true once you get stronger- which you will.

5) Limit each training session to no more than 4 exercises.

The reason for this recommendation is dictated by the previous suggestion regarding workout length. If your total session is limited to 90 minutes, and assuming that you’re using effective exercises as recommended earlier, you’ll only have 22.5 minutes per exercise, and that includes warm-up sets. That’s not a lot of time if you’re working hard. So remember, the recommendation is no more than 4 exercises- in many cases, 3 is even better, and very often 2 exercises per session is absolutely ideal.

It’s not about hitting the muscle from all angles, muscle confusion, or any other bullshit you’ve picked up on the internet somewhere- it’s about picking 1-2, or maybe 3 big, hard movements, and working the piss out of them.