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Weight Training For Summer

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Summertime Weight Lifting

Like many people my summertime schedule is much different then my spring, fall, and winter schedule. Some people have vacations, some people are on summer break from high school or college, others are doing sports. For me I always changed my summer lifting schedule so I could free up more time to ride BMX. Regardless of your reason here is a plan that I used effectively for a number of years to free up time in the summer but also to still get in a good amount of training.

During the summers I would switch to a full body, 3 days a week routine. Oddly enough years later I came to see that a lot of popular 5×5 style programs use a very similar template. I was rather proud to discover this as I seemed to be right on track with many of the proven methods.

Now, onto the program. This program is going to focus on the bench, deadlift and the squat as the core lifts. You will be lifting heavy on these core lifts once per week. On the other days you will be doing a light and medium exercise for each of these muscle groups as well.  It’s going to revolve around the idea of light, medium, heavy and will focus on all the core lifts and assistance exercises that will strengthen the core lifts. You will never have two heavy lifts in one training day. For example on heavy squat day you will be doing medium difficulty deadlift work, in this case you will be doing rack pulls. On heavy deadlift day you will be doing a light leg movement and a medium difficulty pressing movement. Every movement I have chosen will help add to the main three lifts, and will hit the most muscle mass as possible.

The program goes as follows:

monday

squats 5 sets of 5

rack pulls: 3 sets of 5

overhead press: 3 sets of 6

barbell curls: 3 sets of 6

Wednesday

bench press: 5 sets of 5

barbell rows: 3 sets of 8

front squats: 3 sets of 6

dumbell hammer curls: 3 sets of 8

Friday

deadlift: 3 sets of 5

weighted pullups: 3 sets of 6

light squat: 2 sets of 10

dips: 3 sets of 8

All work sets will be done at the same weight. Warm up sets can be pyramided but they don’t count towards your work sets. As far as loading goes you will want to add 5 pounds a week to the lower body lifts and 2.5 pounds per week on the upper body lifts. If you have to use a fixed barbell for the curls then once you can hit all the required reps in all sets then move up to the next heaviest barbell and repeat until you can get all the reps for all the sets and continue this way as long as you decide to do this program.

This is a very simple plan that I used very effectively for a number of years to free up some time spent training but still drive improvement in strength and muscle mass. Give it a try and stick with it for the whole summer and I think you will be very pleased.

Blog, Motivation

Simple is Best

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While I’ve been sitting here trying to come up with content, thinking about how I have trained and the things I have done, it has dawned on me that nothing I ever did was all that special.

While thinking about how I built my shoulders, I only had 4 exercises to write about. Three sets of four different exercises and that’s it. The entire plan could be written on a post-it note. The same goes for my workout split in those early days. four days a week, about 1 hour every day and that was it.

My rep schemes didn’t change all that often, my exercise selection didn’t either, neither did the days I worked out or the time I spent in the gym. The only major change was the change from using lighter weights to using heavier weights as I progressed. It was all part of a very simple, but very repeatable formula. Almost too simple it seems……

This is the fitness secret that everyone keeps asking for but no one wants to see. Everyone is hoping for that magic exercise, or magic diet or secret supplement that can allow them to reach their goals, but ultimately they hope that they can reach their goals by doing less work as well. Ultimately this seems to be the goal, to achieve their goals but without working for them. The problem is that if they spent just a little less time working for the secret and a little more time  working out in the gym they would already have those goals or be well on their way to them.

To get bigger and stronger you need only two things: A simple routine made up of big movements that you can add weight to easily, and a plan that you can easily stick to every week. If that is a three day plan then so be it. Four day plan, fine. If it is easy for you to do then go 5 days a week. The point is that going to the gym and deciding what movements to do should be the easiest part of all this.

Stop making it hard!

Simple and consistent is the key.

Blog, How-To

How To Begin Weight Training

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Beginning Weight Training

A lot of my posts so far on this site have been motivational in nature, after reading thru them a few times I feel like I really need to write something that is more instructive and more useful. Hopefully this will be the first of many posts that will give beginning weight trainers the info they need to get started, stick with it and progress.

So on the the meat of the issue, you want to start lifting weights to get stronger, get buff, build confidence, impress members of the opposite sex, perform better at sports or some combination of all of the above. The first step is going to be actually lifting some weights. Luckily for me my dad had been lifting weights his whole life so I had access to his free weights and some machines early on in my training so it was pretty easy for me to get to it. Also luckily for me, in my opinion, is that I can’t ever remember my dad ever giving me any real instruction on the matter. He had tons of books on the subject and magazines and he left me to my own devices as far as researching how to progress and what exercises to do. This helped ingrain a sense of self reliance that became valuable when I picked up BMX riding and later in other endeavors later in my life. He was always there to encourage or lend a spot but never to preach or make me conform to his own ideas. His main advice was always get stronger and stay consistent, and frankly if you only listen to those pieces of advice you will make it pretty damn far.

Not everyone has a parent or older brother to help them so hopefully in this aspect I can be of assistance. If you don’t have access to some free weights at your home the next best option is to see what your high school has available. My high school actually had a really good weight room and strength training program that was part of the regular PE curriculum, but many schools have an afternoon weight lifting program as well.  I would consider something like this to be your best option however I would still encourage you to research the proper methods as high school weight training today is not what it used to be. Do not even consider a program that leaves out heavy squats.

Another option would be to look into joining a local gym or YMCA depending on your age and driver’s license status. If this isn’t an option the last option is to buy some weights and equipment of your own. For less then 700 bucks you can acquire all the basics that you will need to carry you forward. I would suggest trying to find a way to earn the money somehow yourself as opposed to just asking your parents for it. Even if you have to do work around the house for your parents this is the best option as it shows you are serious and more importantly it will convince yourself that you are serious about pursuing this. The basic equipment you will need will be an olympic bar with 300 pounds of weights, a squat stand, and a bench. Shopping around online you may be able to obtain these items fairly cheaply.

What routine should you do once you’ve obtained these items? Although I started with a different routine I would suggest a simple full body style 5×5 routine. Something along the lines of a Starting Strength plan or a Bill Starr 5×5 will work very well for you. If for some reason you can’t afford those books or you are adamant about doing something different the basic exercises you should be doing will be the same. The meat of your training should be made up of squats, over head press and or bench press, deadlifts and or rows, and an olympic lift variation like power cleans. You can also throw in some barbell curls and close grip bench presses to hit the arms. These are the big basics that will suit you well for a long time. While I never did power cleans as a kid, mostly because I was never taught why they were beneficial; the power clean teaches you to apply the strength that you have built with the deadlift, quickly. It teaches you to turn on and accelerate the weight in a way that the deadlift cannot. This helps build athleticism and power, and power is basically strength displayed quickly as Mark Rippetoe says.

The two routines I mentioned above will show you the proper loading that you will need and what days you should lift. In an effort to not plagiarize their work I will recommend that you look those programs up to find out more about them. The absolute most important aspect of any of these plans will be adding weight each workout or each week. This increase in weight is what is going to drive your progress. Do not get mixed up in a lot of bodybuilding magazine info about advanced techniques that allow you to get a burn with lighter weights. There may come a time when stuff like that can be helpful but that is very far down the road. You will not maximize your ability to grow and get stronger using techniques like that as a beginner.

It will be important to leave your ego out of the equation and don’t waste time with a lot of one rep max attempts. You will just be wasting your training time. Instead focus on between 8 and 5 reps for everything and focus on increasing the weight you use for these reps. There will come a time when you will need or want to know your one rep max but again, this is not the time for that. You will not be skilled enough in the lifts to be able to demonstrate an efficient one rep max attempt and you certainly won’t be impressing anyone. Also, except on the arm exercises it will be best to stick to 8 reps or less because in beginning lifters their form tends to break down dramatically after 8 reps. Between 5 and 8 reps should provide all the strength and muscle gains you will need.

The last main point will be to resist adding more and more exercises to your routine. At best these will be a distraction and at worse they may shortcut your gains in the bigger lifts and hinder your ability to recover from workout to workout. A lot of the fluff exercises like flyes, and tons of variations of arm curls and things like that are basically a way to achieve a certain muscular look in the short term at the expense of serious strength and muscle growth in the long term. For beginners these are methods to create a small visual increase in muscle size to impress nonlifters and an excuse to not strive to lift heavier and heavier weights. Build up to a 150% bodyweight bench press, and double bodyweight squat and deadlift and a bodyweight overhead press and you will have much bigger muscles then a guy who spent his time doing shit loads of arm curls and chest flyes. Every kid’s favorite muscle hero spent the time to get big and strong at these basics long before they switched to more isolation, bodybuilding style exercises. Every one of them!

As you can see I’ve left out any mention of nutrition, as that can be an entire article on it’s own. Meat, vegetables and carbs like rice or beans are your friends and I would encourage you to eat lots of these things. If you start to become unable to progress each week then eat more, if you start to become a lot fatter then you intended then cut back on some of the carbs. Do not be obsessed with having abs or staying too lean as these things will hinder progress. If you are fat and wish to lose a lot of weight I would suggest doing that first and then begin training with the weights. Muscle burns fat so an increase in muscle mass will help you lose fat but if you are at an unhealthy weight and believe me you do know if you are or not then I would lose the weight first.

Those points above are all the basics that you need to get bigger and stronger. Be patient and consistent and the gains will come. Things may seem slow at first but in fairly short order the gains will come and they will be dramatic. Resist the urge to over complicate or change the program and continue it until it stops working.

 

Below are some helpful links. These are not affiliate links.

Squat Stand: http://www.mensfitness.com/life/gearandtech/21-things-add-your-home-gym-2015/slide/20

Bench: http://www.elitefts.com/flat-bench-white.html

Power Clean How To: https://youtu.be/mPsxlNjv7Aw

Blog, Motivation

Put The Books Down!

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Just 5 years ago the internet was a very different place. Today you can find any information you want, on any subject that you desire, especially fitness. Whatever your fitness goals, you can find methods of achieving them on the online.

Want safe steroid advice? The internet has it. Stuck at a 300 pound bench and not sure how to get it higher? The internet has the answer. Want advice about a new, trendy, yet inefficient new strength activity/sport? The internet has that too. The internet and especially youtube has enabled us to find a wealth of knowledge about any topic we wish.

Unfortunately there is no filter on the internet. There is also no “stop” button. It seems as though new studies are giving us new information every single day. Every day it seems as though the accepted knowledge is being challenged and new answers are being put forth. This seems to be happening in the fitness industry more then most.

Is brown rice better then white rice today? Should I do a linear progression plan or a periodized progression plan? What about squats? Are they good for the knees today or bad? High carb or low carb diet? Gluten free? What the hell is a paleo diet? With so much information available how does anyone know where to begin? Unfortunately this is exactly the problem.

Many people never begin.

They are constantly searching for the perfect information, the best plan, the best diet, and they put off achieving their goals until they find this elusive “perfect plan.” Another name for this is Analysis Paralysis. There is simply so much information available that you don’t know where to begin.

This can happen to anyone; it even happened to me.

About a year ago I got the competition bug. I decided to enter a few small powerlifting competitions being held at my local gym. I entered two push/pull competitions and one full competition that had bench, squat and deadlift.  Due to my advanced training age, I thought i was in need of a lot of advanced lifting techniques. I spent a year doing all kinds of crazy things, chains, partial reps, paused reps, heavy singles, deadlift every day, bench press every day, extended range of motion exercises, partial range of motion exercises, explosive variations of exercises, and all sorts of other “advanced techniques” that I had read about online. Every day I was learning about some new method to “strengthen my weak point”, and implementing it into my training.

My results were less then stellar.  In general after a year of such techniques and intense reading my results were not impressive.

At one point I realized that I myself had turned into one of those “program hoppers” and I had over estimated my response to training, and as a result I made much less progress then I would have made on a much simpler  intermediate program, or honestly, any actual program.

Beginning in 2016 I decided I was going to pick a proven plan and just stick to it. I tried out the Madcow Advanced 5×5 and I’ve never looked back. After running that for it’s entire 9 weeks I chose an even simpler intermediate program because I felt like my recovery abilities could support it and I’ve been extremely pleased. My progress has been astounding but almost as important as that was another unexpected side effect….

I had freed my mind!

Suddenly now that I was on a proven, effective program based around a simple linear progression of adding 5 pounds per week, I no longer felt the need or desire to constantly read the bodybuilding and powerlifting blogs every single day. I simply did not feel required to know every single trick in the book, I was already making effective progress with the tricks i was currently using. This allowed me to concentrate more on my work, and my side business and it really made training more fun and easier to do. All the trouble shooting and constant “improvement” was over. It almost felt like my training was on autopilot. And without having to read all the weightlifting blogs every morning I was able to use that time for more productive things.

I had realized that I had found that elusive perfect plan. The unicorn of the fitness world.

The only problem is that there is no such plan. There is no unicorn. No plan works forever. But the best part is, so what? So what if every plan will stop working someday? Why not just run the plan until that happens? There’s the answer. There is no need to fix something that isn’t broken. Wait till it breaks, then fix it. Once your program stops, assess what has happened and find a new program that will take you forward again. Every lifter goes thru these various phases throughout their training career. These are natural cycles.

The problem with the internet is that it provides new information at a pace that far exceeds our ability to fully assess and vet that very information. There is no need to suddenly change an effective program that is working simply because some new article got posted today, or some guy on Youtube has a new bench press variation “guaranteed to bust your plateau.” Hell, most of us, myself included, are not even strong enough yet to be at a real plateau.

The basic proven principles of building strength haven’t changed much in 50 years, I doubt tomorrow’s new blog post will revolutionize the weight training world with some amazing new techniques or methods. One thing that was true 100 years ago and is still true today, internet or no internet, is that no one ever got strong just by reading a book, or watching a youtube video, or reading a blog post. Action is the single most important thing, without action nothing will ever happen.  The only way books alone are going to make you stronger is if you hang them off the ends of the barbell and start squatting them.

Strength is built in the gym. Take Action; find a good plan, then turn off the internet and start lifting!