Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part VII: "How Was Your Workout?" Evaluate & Tweak Your Routine

Image 1: It's pointless to "hit your chest from every angle", when none of the 10+ exercises you do hits it at all.

"How was your workout today?" If you consider this question odd, this part of the "Step By Step Guide to your Own Workout Routine", could be the most important one for you to read. After all, squeezing your workouts into your daily routine, finding the right workout type, understanding the basics of reps, sets, density, intensity, volume etc. deciding on a health, hypertrophy, fat loss or strength focus and even having an idea of how to best periodize your training is of little value, if your workouts suck! I mean, you know that feeling when you already think about your next workout, before you even leave the gym,right? A feeling that nothing really seems to work and results that not far from abysmal.

Don't have your ego stop yourself from making progress

Over the years, I have found that the #1 reason my workouts sucked were my ego and my ambition. While I was constantly preaching others to "leave their ego at the door", the first thing I did on "chest day", when I hit the floor after a brief warm-up was the flat bench press. And I can tell you - that sucked! That and the rest of the workout which resembled Jay Cutler's chest + biceps workout - with the difference that I did some more sets, trained over a greater rep range and used as many intensity techniques in one workout as Jay during his whole prep.

Chest	Biceps	Back	Core	Legs	Triceps	Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.

"You got to hit a muscle from all angles!", that was my mantra. And since "you got to do power and stretch movements", "you got to lift heavy" and "you got to totally exhaust a muscle" were right next to the former on my list of to-do's, I ended up doing the flat bench, the incline, incline and flat bench flies, cable flies and - as a finisher - dips to failure. I could outline similar idiocies for other muscle groups, but that would thwart the idea of this series...

Your brain is the thing that resides (hopefully) next to your ego in your skull

It was not like I was not aware that the workouts were shabby and the results meager, but for whatever reason, the single most important question "How was your workout?" never passed my mind. I was simply too occupied with thinking about "How is my next workout going to be?" and "How do I bring up this sagging chest of mine?" to ask myself any of the following questions:

Image 2: Believe it or not, but your nervous system has to be trained, as well. And more often than you may think it has had enough long before your muscles quit their service.

• Did you feel the muscle working? Many trainees (me included at that time) focus way too much on lifting the weight, than on the lift itself. Your muscles could hardly care less how much weight you have packed onto the bar, and so should you: Focus on your muscle, not the weight!
• Which exercise worked best for you? Unless you have a twin brother / sister, it is very unlikely that you will find another person in the gym that has the exact same build as you. And even if you did, your twin could well outperform you on the flat bench simply because he / she has a better technique. Try all exercises and don't simply rely on what works for most people - I mean, look at them: In most cases it produces at best mediocre results!
• At which time point of your workout did you lose the mind-muscle connection? It is actually not difficult to decide when you have had enough, once you start listening to your body. When you can as hard as you want and still the one thing you can think about is "How much reps in this set and how much sets still left?", it's time to go - not to the next exercise, but home. Don't ignore the limits of your central nervous system, when your brain says "no", you better go!

Had I asked myself those questions after each and every workout, instead of just asserting that it sucked and my results were suboptimal, to say the least, I wouldn't have wasted hour by hour in the gym and had still seen way superior results.

It's good to have a large toolbox, but in the end, you never need all at once

Regardless of whether you want to build muscle, stay healthy, shed fat or gain strength. Having a broad range of "tools", i.e. workout styles, exercises, intensity techniques etc. is important. It is yet even more important to apply them correctly. The flat bench press, for example, has been figuratively gathering dust in my toolbox. I cannot even tell you why, but it simply does not work for me - the only thing I train doing it, are the front delts. And I would never have realized that without asking me the aforementioned stupidly simple question over and over again: "How was your workout?" I want you to answer this question - honestly! And that before you apply any of the following randomly arranged workout-tweaks:

• 

  Image 3: Vince Gironda was a proponent of a training style that, just like German Volume Training, focused on doing many sets of exercises that work, instead of doing dozens of exercise that don't. And I would say that his results spoke for themselves.

  Stick to one... if you are training to gain muscle, forget your current workout for the time being and try to identify the exercises that work for you by switching to a stupidly simple 3-day split routine where you do exactly one exercise for 10x10 sets x reps for one of the larger muscle groups (legs, back, chest) and exactly one exercise for 5x10 sets x reps for a smaller (shoulders, arms, auxilliary stuff) muscle group on each of the day. Go through all exercises that would qualify as a main lift on a given day and ask yourself the first of the three aforementioned important questions: "Did I feel the muscle working?" - When you have established the exercises that work, go through this series again and make them the staples in your routine.
• Do two more and one less... if you are training to gain muscle or strength, either pause in at the end of the eccentric or concentric phase (depending on the movement) or rack the weight at what would usually be the end of your second last set; pick up the weight again and perform another two reps; skip the last set! - Trust me, done periodically those two reps will produce increases in strength and size gains beyond what performing a regular last set would produce.
• Do the dumbbell push-over... if you are not feeling your chest working, try to turn the classic dumbbell pullover lying across (!) a bench into a pressing movement by briefly pulling the dumbbell up into a position that allows you to push it through the rest of the movement - This exercise really helped me to realize how it feels when your chest is working, not your shoulders; but the exercise is tricky and does not work for everyone
• Walk... if you want to lose body fat ignore the allegedly greater caloric expenditure from jogging vs. walking; if you decide to do light intensity steady state (LISS) cardio training for 30-45 minute, walk on an incline! - Even if you are well conditioned, the minimal difference in caloric expenditure is not worth taking the risk that you burn yourself out; and to increase your VO2Max you would have to train at a much higher intensity, anyway.
• Row... if you want to lose fat and do something for your muscles at the same time, do your LISS cardio on a rowing machine - I am not aware of another "cardio" equipment that would offer a similar full-body training effect
• Be flexible... if you don't want to waste your time waiting, you better plan for an alternative option for every exercise: All ergometers taken? No problem, you walk. Your 30lbs dumbbells in the hand of another trainee? No problem you do your side-laterals at the cable tower or 15 reps with 25lbs instead of your usual 10-12 reps with 30lbs dumbbells - By staying flexible you do not only avoid wasting time waiting, you also rotate through exercises and "keep your body guessing", something that can never hurt, no matter what your training goal may be.

• 

  Image 4: I guess you will be past that stage already, but do you actually know how to walk? I mean in way that your abs are working to keep you torso up right, your calves are trained with each step you take and your glutes literally burn after 30 min on an incline treadmill? No? Well, then you got to practice!

  Practice... even if you are just walking on the treadmill, everything - yes, even correct walking - must be learned; feel the movement, feel the muscle, change the tempo, control the weight - Improvements in your form, or the way you feel your muscles working will exponentiate your strength and size gains and they will help you shed body fat, because you activate more muscle fibers
• Do acclimatization sets... if you are training for size or strength, you do 1-2 sets with 50% or less of your target weight, picture perfect form and the exact number of reps you want to perform in your working sets. Contrary to regular warm-ups, these sets are meant to "warm up" or rather prime your brain not your muscles. You memorize the exact movement pattern, pick your regular weight and then simply recall the exact same movement pattern - you will be surprised about the positive impact this is going to have on your mind-muscle connection
• Do 100... if you want to build muscle or get into shape, pick one of the basic exercises, like squats, pull-ups, push-ups, farmers walk, etc. and do 100 reps in as much sets as it takes; try to reduce the number of sets from workout to workout - With the high intensity and build-in progression it is quasi impossible that you don't see results.
• Do it the other way around... to see what works better or just to surprise your body, do biceps before back, or cable flies before the bench press - Aside from the benefits any new stimulus will provide pre-exhaustion can allow you to work the target muscle even harder; give it a try! 

I guess, I could continue this list for ever, but that would only increase the chances that you are getting bogged down in details again, when either a lack of consistency or a plain overload of useless exercises and things that work for others, yet not for you, are hampering your progress. Therefore I suggest, you put the Flex and Women's Health magazines with all their tips, tricks and workout programs aside for an hour or so and ask yourself a simple question: "How was my workout?"

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part VI: Periodization, Yeah! But How? Plus: Tapering vs. Detraining

Image 1: Do you really need to plan your workouts months in advance to gain muscle and build strength?

In the past installments of this series you have learned how to integrate your workouts into your schedule, how to select the appropriate workout style(s), type(s) and parameters and what specific workouts for general health, hypertrophy, fat loss and strength could look like. In today's installment of the "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout", we are going to take another look at what you have gotten so far and why this probably isn't the "be all and end all" of working out - no matter, how cleverly designed your workout routine may be.

Obligatory built-in progression (i + 1) vs. periodization

If there is one fundamental determinant training for strength, for fat loss, hypertrophy and, at least to a certain degree, even health have in common, it would unquestionably the "i + 1" principle - or put simply: The principle of continuous progression / overload. Obviously, every routine (the four I have introduced you to in the weeks before included) have a built-in progression - after all, they require you to train within a certain RM or put differently to increase the weight, whenever you feel that it becomes "too easy" to perform the prescribed number of reps. So, if you think of your current 100kg bench press, you can perform for 10 reps without ending up suffocating yourself with the bar, the i +1 principle would demand that you try (remember it is unrealistic to assume that you can increase reps and weight every workout) to bench 100kg for 11 reps or 102.5kg for 10 reps, the next time you hit the gym.

Now as easy as this may seem - I mean if you trained each muscle once a week and increased your bench by 2.5kg with each workout you would bench 230kg after one year - it usually does not work out in practice. And though the direct scientific evidence for this hypothesis is scarce, it appears prudent to assume that hypertrophy and strength are like master and slave - with your personal priority determining who is who.

• hypertrophy priority - someone who's main goal is to increase muscle size must look at strength as a means to an end; he/she has to get stronger to expose her muscles to continously increasing amounts of weights and thusly permanent overload
• strength priority - someone who's main goal is to increase muscle strength must look at size as a means to an end; he/she has to get bigger to be able able to lift heavier weights

If you take a closer look at the distinction above you will realize that it appears that no matter what you may have in mind, hypertrophy is more of a side-effect of strength (or lifting heavy objects) than vice versa.

Figure 1: Comparison of changes in arm and thigh girth in 20 pre-conditioned healthy young women (age ~20y) in response to a 12-week 3x per week training protocol employing linear or undulating periodization; the scientists found no statistical significant differences (adapted from Kok. 2009)

Despite the fact that there is there is insufficient scientific evidence for the superiority of periodized training for trainees whose only goal is to increase muscle size - there is evidence that it works and that it does not seem to matter whether you use linear vs. undulating periodization programs, cf figure 1 and the following mini-overview -

• Stone. 1981 - 6 weeks: 6x 3x6 vs. 3x 5x10, 1x 5x5, 1x 3x3, 1x 3x2, subjects were trained college age male: Greater increase in lean body mass and decrease in percent body fat (determined by hydrostatic weighing ) than the non-periodized group.
• Baker. 1994 - 12 weeks: 5x6 for core and 3x8 for auxilliary vs. linear vs. undulating periodization, subjects were trained young men: No differences in lean mass gains, or fat loss, but significantly greater increases in bench press and squat strength in the undulating periodization group
• Kramer. 1997 - 24 weeks: 1x8-10 +forced reps vs. 2-4x 12-15, 8-10, 3-5 (strength pyramid) + 2-4x 8-10 (classic hypertrophy), subjects were Division III college football players: Similar increases in strength and loss in body fat, but significant hypertrophy only in the "periodization" group

- it appears prudent to assume that the incorporation of rather strength oriented periods into your hypertrophy routine does make sense.

Finding the right approach for you

If you look back at my "training programming", you will notice that at least the health and hypertrophy programs had a weekly or intra-workout periodization "built-in", so to say.

• Health training template - full body hypertrophy + 5x5 strength workout (= weekly periodization)
   
• Hypertrophy template - strength / power focus in the core movements (4x 5-6), hypertrophy focus in the auxilliary movement 2x10-15 (=intra-workout periodization)

The rational here is to make the constant weekly or at least monthly change between different workout styles obsolete or at least optional. The fat loss routine on the other hand is nothing you would do "indefinitely", anyways - instead of periodizing the latter, it would be more prudent to stop dieting and chosing an appropriate training mode to increase strength or size over a 3-6 week maintenance phase.

A training regimen that sucks is never "optimal": Even a program that may be "optimal" from a physiological stand point can produce inferior gains in strength and size, if it "just isn't for you"! For me, this is the case for any workout that will have me lift in the <3 rep per set range for more than one week (even when tapering, I usually stick to 5 reps). If you have to drag your a** to the gym, feel that your workout sucks and would be happy, if the gym burned down so that you could skimp on one week of the current block in your periodization regimen, your results will suck, as well - there is no debating this.

In the end it is thus (once more ;-) up to you, to decide whether you feel that it is necessary to further periodize your program. Personally, I have always faired well with 4-6 weeks on intra-workout or intra-week periodization programs. After those 4-6 weeks I would totally re-vamp my program, anyways - making changes according to my past progress and not to what XY wrote in his smart e-book about clever periodization.

There is still one thing to take away from classic periodization: Tapering!

There is yet one very valuable asset in the toolbox of classic periodization, the use of which appears to be beneficial specifically for the advanced trainee, regardless of whether he or she trains on a

• linear periodization program, e.g. 3 weeks each of  hypertrophy (8-12RM), strength (5-6RM) and power (3RM) oriented training (optional peak week at 1RM), or a
• undulating periodization program, e.g. 3 cycles of 1 week each of each hypertrophy (8-12RM), strength (5-6RM) and power (3RM) oriented training, or follow a 
• "Hatfield-esque" intra-week or intra-workout periodization programm, as I outlined in the templates and elaborated in the previous paragraph,

And this asset is "tapering". Contrary to classic "detraining", as in dropping the bar on Friday and lying around on the couch for 14-28 days, tapering revolves around 2-4 weeks (if you want also only one) of intense but very low volume training.

Figure 2: Effects of 4 week tapering or detraining after a 16-week periodized strength training program in 46 competitive male Basque ball players (data adapted from Izquierdo. 2007)

In a 2007 study which compared the effects of classic detraining (dropping the bar, not training at all) to tapering (higher intensity - 3-4RM, lower volume - bench press and squat 4-6 sets total) on body composition and strength of 46 competitive Basque ball players (avg. 12 years of of regular training and competition) and found that the 4-weeks of training on an reduced volume, yet with an increased intensity, lead to reductions in body fat percentages and increases in bench press and half squat performance, while the "classic" detraining let to a profound decline in power in the upper and lower extremities and a minimal, yet compared to the tapering group statistically significant increase in body fat (Izquierdo. 2007).

Image 2: Adelfo's "famine phase" was essentially a very brief taper with reduced protein intake.

The take home message of this installment of the "Step by Step Guide to Your Own Workout" is thusly not to ask whether or not to periodize your training, but rather how to do it best - with the latter depending on your goals and preferences this leaves you with the aforementioned three possibilities, i.e. intra-workout, weekly, linear and undulating periodization, and emphases on strength or hypertrophy, with the latter being reflected in either the type (intra- and weekly periodization) of the workout, respectively their combination within your workout week, or the length of specific periods within your periodization regimen. Add in at least 1-2 weeks of tapering after every cycle (4-6 week intra- and weekly, or 6-12 week linear or undulating periodization) and you have made another step on your way to your ever-evolving "Own Workout Routine".

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part V: Example Routines - Round 3: A Detailed Strength Workout

Image 1: Being strong has gotten somewhat out of fashion these days. Apropos fashion, can you imagine David Beckham doing that?

Aside from Thursday, when Adelfo "guest lectures" here at the SuppVersity, you usually have to content yourselves with the sometimes more, sometimes less knowledgeable stuff I am putting out on a daily basis. For today's sixth installment, you are yet lucky that I could convince my friend Sean Casey from CasePerformance to take care of the strength workout template in the "Step By Step Guide to Build Your Own Workout Routine" series. And though Sean, modest as he is, started out his article with a the words "I would like to thank my friend Adel aka Dr.Andro for giving me the opportunity to share a one week sample strength training regimen  with the SuppVersity community", I am the one to say "thank you", sit back and just have Sean take you through your new workout routine ;-)

Sean Casey's Strength Workout Template

Some of you may have seen my face on the SuppVersity facebook wall, already. Others may know me from (accidentally?) clicking on the "suggested reading" link in the navigation of the SuppVersity. Yet regardless of whether you know me or my business @ CasePerformance.com, I want you to know that I do not claim to be an originator of any revolutionary training technique or an "almighty" guru. Similar to everyone else, I'm searching for the best way to maximize human performance (ed. Dr. Andro: highly recommended article "The Guru I am not!" by Sean Casey).

Image 2: Sean's way of designing workouts was inspired by Ian King (photo) and Luke Richesson

My training philosophies and the way I set up training programs are heavily influenced by the writings of Ian King. Those familiar with his work will be able to note several of his original principles in my approach to program design (tempos, general layout, etc). I also must give credit to my mentor, Luke Richesson, with whom I worked for many hours when I first started in the physical preparation field. This does not mean that the program below is endorsed by either of these individuals, but I do feel it's important to give them credit.

If you will, take those workouts as being are "inspired" by these two extraordinary physical preparation coaches.

General Discussion on The Training Week – Strength Focus

There are a thousand different ways you could write a strength based training program depending on your goals. For instance a strength based program for a powerlifter will differ from that for a ball/speed/team sport athlete. Additionally, one's training age impacts things as well. I could have a novice lifter with <1-2 years of experience impressive gains in absolute strength while working in the 5-7 rep range. In contrast, if I went up to a powerlifter with 15-20 years of experience and told them that we were going to lift predominantly in the 5-7 rep range during their peak strength phase, my "street cred" would be tarnished and I'd  probably get laughed out of the gym.

Image 3: One of the things, I like about my friend Sean Casey is his modesty. So, I am not sure that he is going to like me promoting his service and knowledge - sorry, Sean ;-)

Other things to consider when designing the program are: How many days per week will you be training? How much time do you have available per day? What type of "build-up" work have you done in previous training phases? I'm not going to have one prioritize their bench and squat during a strength phase if they walk hunched over with caveman-"esque" posture and absolutely no back or posterior chain strength. This would be setting them up for injury by simply exasperating a problem that is already present. You will also have to take into account which of the main lifts you are specifically looking to increase your strength in – those that are most important should be placed first in the week when you're most fresh.

The latter brings up another issue, relating to the type and amount of baseline stress that is going on in your life at the moment. If you're overworked at the job, getting only 5-6 hours of sleep a night, this may not be the best time to start up a max strength training block (unless you're one of those individuals who thrives in the gym when life is crazy outside of it!) ...This list could go on forever, luckily I won't have to go into to much more detail on this as Adel covered them nicely in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this "Step By Step Guide to Building Your Workouts".

First things first… What are you doing for your warm-up?

The warm-up seems to be a highly debated topic amongst many individuals, some like to jump rope for a few minutes, do a few warm-up sets and hit the weighs hard. Others like a more comprehensive warm. I personally fall on the more comprehensive side of things. The "looser" I feel going into a workout, the better I recover after it. After playing around with various warm-up protocols, I have found the below to work well:

• Total Warm-up Time: 15-25 min
   
• Light Aerobic Activity: 5-10 min*
  *ride a bike, light jogging on a treadmill, etc.

Your goal in whatever type of warm-up you may be performing is just what the term "warm-up" implies, you want to get the muscles warm. To this ends, I find it most useful to perform your warm-up at an intensity that will give you a light sweat. You should be able to do it at a pace where you could have a conversation with someone standing near you. This will make you a little more limber for the stretching to follow.

Tip on warming up: A nice way to warm up is to simply ride your bike/walk to the gym (this will obviously work only for those who live close enough and don't have a super hilly ride that would turn something that is intended as a warm-up into a brutal leg workout ;-). This convenient and time saving strategy can also be applied to your cool down, once you've finished your workout and need to get back home.

Static Stretching: 5-10 min

I know, I know … "static stretching decreases muscular force and should NEVER be used prior to working out!" I used to repeat this mantra as well, until it was challenged by Ian King (read up on the issue in Sean's interview with Ian King). The fact alone that a highly respected and successful physical preperation coach like Ian, a man who has been coaching elite athletes on an international level for 30+ years questioned this "longstanding truth" made me think: "Could someone like Ian King be so completely wrong on a subject?" Thus, I forced myself to reevaluate the allegedly "conclusive" science which supposedly confirms that a stretching would decrease muscular performance. In doing so, I found that when followed by doing a dynamic/sport specific warm-up, static stretching DID NOT decrease performance (click here for Sean's full review of the literature on the subject).

From what I have learned during this research I deduced these two simple rules for my own, as well as my clients pre-workout static stretching regimen:

1. Focus the static stretches on the muscle groups that will be used during a given workout or are specifically tight
    
2. Before you slam static stretching during the pre-workout time, give it a try for 3-4 weeks. The best research study in the world is N= 1, with that 1 being you. Thus, If you find it effective – Great! If not, ditch it.

Dynamic Stretching: 10 min

Common ones that I'll do, depending on the workout I'm doing, include the following:

1. "World's Greatest" stretch
2. Walking heel-to-butt - Stretching quadriceps
3. Backwards lunge with lateral flexion - Upper body will flex towards side that has leg up
4. Handwalks/Inchworms - I've heard this referred to various things, but basically you get in a pushup position, "walk" your hands out in front of you and then "walk" your feet up to your hands. Your hips will pop up into the air similar to how the middle of a tent pops up when you stand it up
5. Single Leg RDL's/ Walking RDL's
6. Walking Knee Hugs
7. Walking Leg Cradles
8. Lateral Squats
9. Drop Lunge

I'll usually do 3-4 reps per leg, pausing for 2 seconds at the end range of motion. All of these are body weight only.

Ok, Let's Start Pushing Some Iron - The Workout

Here's an example workout for someone with a training age that would fall in the "intermediate" range. Overall body strength, with a focus on his posterior muscle groups, is going to be the general priority for our workout. Thus, we place these exercises 1st in the week on day's 1 and 2 followed by pushing exercises later in the week.

Day 1: Pullups, Wall Slides, DB Overhead Press, Abdominal / Core Training

• A1) Pullups
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo*: 201
  *time in seconds spent in eccentric, isometric and concentric phase as created by Ian King. Although the weight may be heavy which makes it impossible to perform the concentric action in 1 second, the intent should be to move as fast as possible during the concentric phase

• A2) Wall Slides
  
  Workout: 1x 6-8 reps
  
  Tempo: 212
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set or between 1st and 2nd warm-up set.
  Purpose of these is to activate the lower traps and scapular muscles.
   
• B) DB Overhead press
  
  Workout: 2-3x8  
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5-2 min
  Tempo: 311 or 211
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing all 3 exercises
  
      C1) PB Pikes- 2x 8-10  > Tempo 301
      C2) Prone Pillar Planks: 2x 40-60 sec          

Day 2: Romanian Dead Lift, Glute Bridges, Glute Ham Raise, Abdominal / Core

• A1) Romanian Dead Lift
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1-2x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 201 or 301
   
• A2) Glute Bridges
  
  Workout: 1x 6-8 reps
  
  Tempo: 121
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set. If needed, the 2nd  Set 2 would be done inbetween 1st & 2nd warm-up sets. Purpose of these is to activate the glute muscles.
   
• B) Glute Ham Raise*
  *if no machine, have someone hold your ankles and do them off floor
  
  Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Tempo: Between 201, 211 or 301
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing both
   
• C1) ½ kneeling Cable Chops 2x8-10*
   
• C2) ½  Half Kneeling Cable Lifts 2x8-10*
  
  *Tempo: Multiple parts in these lifts; can't use traditional tempo numbering system

Day 3: Active Recovery day

1. 20-25 minute easy conversation pace on a bike. The purpose of this is not to enhance your "cardio" fitness or accelerate your fat loss. It will rather help you to shake out some of the stiffness that may have build up in your legs following Day 2's leg session and increase the muscle blood flow. You should place the bigger emphasis on accomplishing the former vs. the latter so don't go at high speeds with the thoughts of getting a good "muscle pump workout".
    
2. Stretching. 20 minutes, combination of static and dynamic (regimen see above)
    
3. 15 minutes relaxing in a pool (submerged up to the neck or at least nipple line) while drinking one of those fruity drinks with the cool umbrella top straws that are always advertised with with those tropical vacation advertisements ;-)

Day 4: Bench Press, Band Pull Aparts, Single Arm DB Row, Abdominal / Core

• A1) Bench Press 
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 201 or 211
   
• A2) Band Pull Aparts
  
  Workout: 1-2x10 reps
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set or between set 1 & 2. Focus on pinching the shoulder blades down and behind you, activating the scapular muscle groups, similar to how they should be during the actual bench press.
   
• B) Single Arm Dumbbell Row (opposite arm supported on bench)
  
  Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5-2 min
  Tempo: 201 or 301
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing all 3 exercises
   
• C1) Curl Ups or Kneeling Cable Pulldowns/Crunches- 2x 10-1, tempo 301   
   
• C2) Prone Pillar Planks: 2x 40-60 sec

Day 5: Squats, Walking Lunges, Abdominal / Core,

• A1) Squats
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1-2x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 301
   
• A2) No Specific "activation" exercise for Squat. However, if you have tight hips, doing kneeling quad-hip flexor stretch can help assist hip mobility. If needed, I go with ~ 6-8 reps with each leg, holding the end range of motion for 2 seconds before relaxing out of it and completing the next rep (if one side tighter, will hit it in a second set).
   
• B) Walking Lunges
   Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5 min
  Tempo: Between 211 or 201
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing both
   
• C1) Lateral Pillar/Planks 2x 40-60 sec  
   
• C2) Standing Cable Russian Twist 2x8; Tempo: 211 or 311

Day 6: Active Recovery day

1. 20-25 minute easy conversation pace on a bike
    
2. Stretching. 20 minutes, combination of static and dynamic (see above)
    
3. 15 minutes relaxing in a pool (submerged up to neck)

Day 7: Lazy Day

That's right; I said "Lazy Day", rejoin the normal population and simply relax. Mentally prepare for your following week of training. 

A brief note by Dr. Andro: Although I am sure Sean is going to chime in on all your questions in the comment area, you may also want to check out his website for more information on training and supplementation and consider using his services. Unlike me, Sean is a fitness professional and not just some stray physicist ;-)

Notes on "The Workout": Tweaks, Upper Before Lower Body & More

Image 4: Exercises like the squats or deadlifts, here performed by Arnold, are more taxing to your system and require longer recovery times. Than bench presses and other upper body work. This is why you will perform the upper before the lower body workout, so that the squats and deadlifts won't hamper your performance on the bench.

As mentioned earlier, we have placed the upper body workouts in front of the lower body lifts simply because upper body days are less stressful on a "system wide" basis. In contrast, the heavy lower body lifts (squat variation, deadlift variation) which involve the entire body have, at least in my humble opinion, a much greater carryover effect on your exercise performance, when you perform them on the day before your upper body workout. This is also, the reason that a rest/recovery day subsequent to each lower body workout is an absolute must.

In general, I will place the abdominal/core work at the start of the training day after doing the warm-up.  When the day's workout is so heavily focused around a single lift and you've been mentally gearing into it since the previous day, however, I like to hit this one first. Hence, during this particular strength phase the main lift is done right away and core done afterwards. The reason I mention this is that you will find the core work as the first element of your workout, so I deemed it necessary to give you an explanation for why I deviate from this principle, which, by the way, is another one from Ian King's book.

On the core lift, take whatever amount of warm-up sets you need to get your body feeling "primed" to start the work sets. While I did suggest reps/sets, you know your body better than I!

Important: As Adel mentioned on his previous workout templates (Hypertrophy & Health, Fat Loss). There is no template that will work for everyone. For the one I outlined above, one of the most convenient tweaks you can apply is simply flip day 5 and day 6 depending on what works best with your schedule.

You will notice that I have 1 set of an "activation" exercise of some sort paired with the primary lift for the day. An experienced lifter may not benefit from this to the same degree as a less experienced individual as they may already be efficient at activating these muscle groups.

Rest Periods for the Rookie & Advanced Lifters and Tempo Prescriptions

There are not a whole lot of exercises per day for a couple of reasons. First, we have long rest periods on the main lifts (4-6 min). If we do 5 work sets, you're looking at ~ 20-30 minutes on one exercise alone, plus whatever time is needed for the 2-3 warm-up sets. Longer rest intervals  (5-6 minutes) are needed for those with greater lifting experience. Most of the individuals I work with tend to be in the 3-4 minute range. Second, I want all of your attention focused on that main lift for the day. Previous lifting cycles should have taken care of support musculature, etc to allow you to thrive for a few weeks with lower volume. Remember, our goal here isn't necessary to add slabs of muscle mass. Rather, we're trying to make our nervous system more effective at using the slabs of muscle mass that we already have in place!

The tempos I have listed are suggestions only. The main focus is to make sure you're under control during the eccentric phase and pushing as fast as possible during the concentric phase. The use of the "0" or "1" at the isometric pause interval is dependent upon goals. If you're looking to take advantage of the Stretch Shortening Cycle effect to assist the concentric phase, make the isometric as short of possible. However, if you're looking to emphasize the concentric portion of the lift, take a 1 second pause during the isometric portion of the lift. Again this is just another variable you can manipulate based off your desired goals

A Note on Intensity, Weights, RM-Prescriptions and Your Form of the Day

Image 5: Your form of the day is important not only on the days of big meetings. Weight prescriptions in % of RM do thusly have limited value. If your 1-RM max varies from day to day, it should be obvious that whatever percentage of this 1-RM you may be shooting for will vary as well.

Although some people like to work off % 1RM's for all of their lifts, I tend to work more off how my body, or that of the individual I'm training is feeling. 1 RM's (3 RM's, 5 RM's, etc) are only an accurate measure of strength for the day that it was originally set. Let's say that someone is having a phenomenal day (solid night of sleep, promoted at work, the good looking guy/gal that they've had their "eye on" finally agrees to go out on a date with them, etc). More than likely their given 1RM will test amazing.

Unfortunately with the ying comes the yang. Let's say that 1 week later, this individual oversleeps their  6:30 AM alarm (while staying up to 2 am just to get their business papers completed), gets yelled at by their boss for arriving late and were told to "take a hike" from their significant other, etc. etc. In this case doing 5x3 reps at a predetermined X% of their 1 RM may be absolutely futile if they're already mentally and emotionally drained from all the other occurrences of the day.

Thus, as long as you give yourself a planned deload at some point in the cycle, I encourage you to base your rep weights off how you're feeling on a given day; Not off your 1RM from a previous point in time.

Post Work Regeneration – Are you serious…. There's More?

In one word – YES! Remember, you're only as strong as your ability to recover between sessions. Dr. Andro has discussed many nutrition protocols and supplements that assist with this process. Thus, I'm just going to touch very briefly on some of the non-nutritive strategies, of which you may not have read that much on the SuppVersity, as of yet:

• I have found that taking my muscles though gentle, slow stretches to "re-limber" the body to be quite effective.
• If at all possible, I also like to follow my workouts up by doing hydrotherapy. This can involve either contrast, cold water immersion, thermoneutral water immersion or hot water immersion protocols. I've written an ebook on hydrotherapy which may be of interest to some of you who are interested in the research and applied evidence on this topic (you can get it for free when you sign up for my newsletter).
• Massage, when done by a skillful hand, can be helpful as well. I stress the word "skillful" because some massage therapist seem to confuse, "let's bring the muscle tone back to healthy levels" with "I am going to press as hard as I can on the muscle until the client screams, call it Advanced Trigger Release Mumbo Jumbo therapy….". I've seen to many people actually have to back off their workouts simply because their massage was way too aggressive and they're still sore 3 days later. 
• Although I've never done it myself, I do know that some individuals swear by acupuncture and similar types of modalities.

Assuming that you have made it thus far in this epic workout template, I hope that I have been able to give you an idea of how a strength specific workout could look like. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comment area, or just reach out to me either via the contact formula on my webpage or via Facebook!

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part V: Example Routines - Round 2: Fat Loss Support Routine

Image 1: These abs were not sculpted in the non-existent "fat burning zone" - that's for sure.

Today's fifth installment of "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine" series is about working out for weight, or I should say fat loss. In the past installments of this series, you have learned, how to incorporate your workout sessions into your daily and weekly routines (Part I), you have read about the basic workout types and their goal-specificity (Part II), you have recapitulated the basics about workload, sets and reps (Part III) and you have seen two detailed example routines that would be appropriate for trainees with a health, respectively hypertrophy focus (Part IV). And while both of the previous workouts will unquestionable help you shed fat, as well (assuming you got your diet dialed in), a fat loss specific routine should be more intense than the health routine and distinctly more metabolically demanding than the hypertrophy routine from the previous installment.

Working out for weight loss, not losing weight while working out

Before we get into the details of the actual routine, it is important to remind ourselves that we are not designing a workout to burn a maximal amount of calories. We are not designing a workout to lose the maximal amount of weight. And we are not even designing a workout to actively burn the maximal amount of fat, while in the course of the workout. What we will do, though is to design a workout that will...

• help you keep all your muscle while dieting, and
   
• prevent your metabolic rate from plummeting

This does also mean that the lions-share of your weight loss will happen in the kitchen, i.e. via modulating your macronutrient ratios and total energy intake, and in your bed.. not what you are thinking now! I mean, while you are sleeping ;-)

Figure 1: Effects of 12 weeks on a 800-kcal liquid diet with either endurance or resistance training on body composition and resting energy expenditure per pound of lean body mass in healthy obese men and women (left, based on Randy. 1999), and effects of 6 months of aerobic or resistance exercise in the absence of energy restriction on body composition and resting metabolic rate of young normal weight women (right, based on Poehlman. 2002)

Accordingly long steady-state cardio in the non-existent "fat burning zone", like the ones by which the obese subjects on an 800kcal starvation diet from the 1999 study by Randy et al. effectively" reduced their lean body mass and resting metabolic rate (RER; interestingly measure per pound of lean body mass, so the reduction was not a simple consequence of the muscle loss!) will not be part of your regimen (Randy. 1999; cf. figure 1, left). Likewise, you will not be working out like mad at 90% of your maximal heart rate for 40 minutes on the treadmill, as the young women in the Poehlman study from 2002 did (Poehlman. 2002; cf. figure 1, right) and shut down your metabolism to "make sure" that your weight jojos back up, when you fall of the wagon or simply decide that you have lost enough weight.

Figure 2: Body fat (measured by 4x skinfold), waist circumference and weight loss in women after 10 weeks of 5x week walking at 80%HRMax for either 2x15 or 1x30min (left; Murphy. 1998) and energy expenditure (in kcal/min) before during and after workout a full body resistance training workout with matched workloads performed slow (2s con, 2s con), explosive on the concentric or explosive and heavy (Mazetti. 2007)

What you will do is a combination of frequent, short, intense cardio-vascular workouts, similar to those thrice weekly 3x10-min workouts at 80% of their maximal heart rate, which helped the 47 women (44y) in the 1998 study by Murphy et al. shed more body fat than 1x30 minutes workouts at the same intensity (Murphy. 1998) and explosive lifting sessions (2s eccentric, explosive concentric) in the 8-10 rep range, similar to those 2007 study by Mazetti et al. (Mazetti. 2007; note: I am making this argument rather in view of the amount of glycogen you will deplete during your workout; this will ramp up AMPK and thusly increase your insulin sensitivity and fatty acid oxidation, cf. "AMPK's Effects on Body Composition").

You cannot "work out" a desolate diet! What you put, or do not put in your mouth is the key determinant of successful fat loss. And while we will have a "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Dietary Regimen" in the future, there are two basic rules apply to every non-morbidly obese person: Don't cut your calories back more than -20% unless you have very good reason, such as a bodybuilding contest due in a few weeks, and there is no need to go no-carb or no-fat.

The workout: Strength + AM/PM HI(I)T sessions

In view of what I have deliberately emphasized in the red box above, i.e. the fundamental role your diet plays when it comes to losing superfluous body fat, the following template is not a workout that will "make you lose fat", but one that will ideally support your "fat loss":

The fat loss support routine, four training days per week
 
• S1: Intense full body compound movement circuit training: You perform one set of each exercise in the given rep range and move on to the next, after one "circle" is completed you start anew. Try to hop from one exercise to the next in ~60-90s to keep your heart rate elevated. Depending on your fitness level perform the circle 2-4 times 
   
• Bench press or hammer strength BP: 8RM
• Squats or Leg press: 8RM
• Underhand pull ups or pull downs: 8RM
• Clean and press: 8RM
• Deadlift: 8RM
   
• As you can see there is no range for the reps. This means that you will perform 8 repetitions of each exercise in each round of your circle - no matter what!
   
• start your first circle with a weight you can lift for 8 reps
   
• on subsequent rounds, if you can still perform...
   
• at least 4 reps - rack the weight, take 10 deep breaths and do as many reps as you can, repeat until you get 8 reps, go to the next exercise
   
• less than 4 reps - reduce the weight by -15% and perform the rest of the reps - if you can't perform the rest in a row, rack the weight, take 10 deep breaths and rep out the rest; in the next round of your circle start with the reduced weight
   
• conclude your workout with 5 minutes on an incline treadmill (e.g. 5km/h at 10° incline) at a leisure pace; the cool-down is the only time in your workouts where you should be able read the flex / cosmopolitan and talk to your friend on the exercise equipment next to you about the latest gossip ;-)
   
• R1: Rest day - well deserved!
   
• H1: HIT + HIIT day - You will perform two training sessions on your high intensity (interval) training day; the first one will require that you set your alarm clock, so that you can jump out of bed, get dressed and perform a 15min HIT workout at 80% of your maximal heart rate on an empty stomach (if you want guzzle 5-10g of BCAAs during your workout). The rest of the day is yours, until either right after your work-day or at least 4 hours before you go to bed (otherwise the workout will interfere with your fat loss and beauty sleep ;-) you perform a 15-25min HIIT workout.
   
• AM: 3min warm-up + 15 minutes at 80%HR doing whatever you like, and fits your type; examples for normal and fit individuals, as well as options for people who still carry more than a few pound too much:
   
• fast-paced jogging
• rowing
• speed skating
• cycling / ergometer
• stepper or cross-trainer
   
• swimming (for the good swimmers)
• rope skipping (for the very fit ones)
   
• hiking / walking
• water gymnastics
• simply taking the stairs to your office in the 25th floor ;-)
   
• PM: HIIT - 3-5 min warm-up + 4-7x 45s intervals with 120s active recovery, i.e. if you sprinted before you just walk now; use whatever equipment you feel is suitable and change things up from workout to workout (I assume you will perform the AM workout at home and head to the gym for the PM workout, so that you should have more than just one option)
   
• sprinting on track or stable treadmill
• cycling preferably on spinning bike or stable ergometer
• rowing on machine with easily variable resistance
• rope skipping
• stairmaster
• etc.
   
• do not neglect the warm-up on any of these workouts - if you injure yourself, your fat loss will come to a screeching halt
   
• do never look at the kcal-counter on any of the equipment you use; remember: you are not there to "burn calories"!
   
• do not confuse intensity with a high resistance or maximal workload; go fast not "heavy" and only increase the resistance on the equipment, when that does not suffice to bring up the intensity; do not use weight vests or similar equipment, unless you want to ruin your joints
   
• do not add a "45min cool-down", believing that this will help you lose body fat; stick to a <5 min cool-down after either of the workouts
   
• H2: Same AM workout as H1, only 3x intervals in the PM workout + additional ab-work
   
• Ab circle: Perform 3 supersets (60s rest between sets) of
• hanging leg raises 15-20
• bicycle crunch to failure
   
• Optional mobility work
   
• R2: Rest day - well deserved!
   
• H1 or S1: A bodybuilder on a contest diet would perform S1, while a slightly chubby person wanting to look good naked would repeat routine H1; optional: rotate from week to week
   
• R3: Rest day - well deserved!

This is just a template! I have said that before, but I will repeat it once more. The above routine is just a template. Beginners for example can tweak it to their individual conditioning and skills, by reducing the number of circles and intervals they perform and selecting the right HI(I)T exercise/equipment. It is also possible to replace the exercises in the strength workout - even a machine based training is better than no strength training at all - but it would be better to start with 10-12 reps and a trainer or mentor to teach you how to perform the compound exercises properly than to simply avoid them completely. It should also be mentioned that a "fat loss support diet", just like any fat loss diet, is not something to stay on forever - rmember that and take a week or two off, before digging a whole from which you cannot escape anymore (cf. "The Over-Motivational Roots of Overtraining & Orthorexia")

If you have never trained twice a day before, this may seem like overkill. Having done that, as well as the stupid 45-90min workouts in the "fat burning zone" (everybody makes mistakes, when he/she is young ;-) many people still believe were the non-plus ultra for fat loss, I can yet tell you that the AM-PM routine is not only way more productive, it is also comparably "light". So, if there was anything you should be concerned about in the above workout, that would be the lifting session. I can guarantee, you will soon realize that the rest day thereafter is more than "well-deserved" ;-)

Keep moving! And don't watch TV in-between workouts if you cling to life ;-)

And as with all the previous as well as the strength workout template which is going to be published tomorrow, staying active even when you are not in the gym is the key not only to an improved body composition, but more importantly to your health. After all, Matthews et al. have shown only recently, that the positive association between all-cause mortality and the time US adults spend in a sedentary state was not "fully mitigated" even by high levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity - specifically, if this time was spend watching television (Matthews. 2012). So don't dare lying on the couch on your rest day, if you don't want to rest... ah, risk shortening the rest of your life ;-)

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part IV: Example Routines - Round 1: Health and Hypertrophy

Image 1: Contrary to what still way to many people believe, intense (strength) training should be part, in most cases even the foundation of every workout routine - after all, "muscle is metabolic currency", as my friend Carl Lanore likes to say.

Based on what you have learned in the previous three installments (Part I, Part II, Part III) of the Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine series you should by now know when you are going to train, what type of workout you going to perform and that the foundation of every strength workout is intensity - a magnitude that is modulated primarily via volume and density. In other words, your current workout routine could look something like that

• Mo: Full-body workout - 5 exercises, 3 sets, 8-10 reps
• Tue: Recovery
• We: HIIT (20min)
• Thursday: Recovery
• Friday: Full-body workout - 5 exercises, 3 sets, 8-10 reps

if you are a beginner with an already decent body fat level and want to add some muscle (remember: as long as you gain only 0.1% more muscle than fat, your body fat % will drop!).

Example workouts to build on  - health and hypertrophy

Contrary to my initial intention to try and tackle reps and sets, exercise selection, intensity techniques, etc. in individual installments, I decided (after yesterday's disastrously abstract post) to just give you a set of concrete routines with some advice on how to tweak them. For that purpose I have picked one of the previously suggested workouts (cf. Part II of this series) and provide a concrete incarnation including exercises, sets, rep ranges etc. Instead of prescribing weekdays I will just outline the linear sequence of the workouts, so that it does not matter if your "workout week" starts on Monday or Thursday.
 

The health routine, four training days per week
 
• S1: Full body circuit training You perform one set of each exercise in the given rep range and move on to the next, after one "circle" is completed you start anew. Try to hop from one exercise to the next in ~60s to keep your heart rate elevated. Depending on your fitness level perform the circle 2-3 times
   
• Bench press or hammer strength BP: 10-12RM
• Squats or Leg press: 10-15RM
• Underhand pull ups or pull downs: 8-10RM
• Military press or DB presses: 12-15RM
• Seated row or DB row: 12-15RM
• DB or barbell curl: 10-12RM
• Triceps extensions (cable) or skull crushers: 12-15RM
   
• With rep ranges on the upper end of the hypertrophy continuum and the fast pace with which you are hopping from exercise to exercise, this workout will help you build muscle, and stay in shape and good condition.
   
• Although it is not necessary to train to absolute failure, you must make sure to increase the weights, whenever you could perform 2 more reps with appropriate form than the workout prescribes; e.g. you do 12 bench presses and feel that you could easily do 14 => increase the weight
• On the other hand, when you fail to perform at least the minimal number of reps, you decrease the weight and continue the same set; e.g. you did barbell curls for 8 reps, you decrease the weight and do another two; in the subsequent circle (of the same workout) you start with the lower weight
   
• R1: Rest day
   
• HIIT: High intensity interval training
  Do your HIIT training either on a track sprinting or inside on an appropriate piece of exercise equipment, such as
   
• spinning bike or a stable cycle ergometer (no recumbent bikes),  
• stairmaster with resistance allowing you to exert yourself within 30s,
• treadmill that is stable enough to survive a real sprint
• rowing machine with a high enough and easy to vary resistance
   
• perform 5-7x 30s sprints (all-out!) followed by 90s active rest (walking, paddling, etc.) finish your workout with a 3-5 minute cool-down
• add optional abdominal training after your workout (see EMG series for exercises)
   
• R2: Rest day
   
• S2: 5x5 lifting routine As a complement to the circuit workout S1, you will perform a classic 5x5 routine with a focus on free-weight complex movements (rest between sets 2-3min); for beginners this means that you will start out with weights you could lift for at least another 2 reps to get your form straight; in any case (beginner or not) you will drop the weight from set to set to get your 5-reps in and increase the weight, whenever you can do 7
   
• Barbell squats: 5x5
• Decline barbell bench press: 5x5
• Deadlift: 5x5
• Pull ups (wide grip, behind the neck): 5x5
   
• if you want to put an emphasis on your shoulders you rotate the deadlift with a clean and press
• if you don't have time for an additional training day you can perform a light 15 minute aerobic workout, like walking on an incline (12°) at 5km/h after this workout, otherwise do the the aerobics on the subsequent day
   
• LISS: Light intensity steady state
  Both your regeneration, as well as your overall conditioning can benefit from some non-ardeous classic endurance training. Do 35-40min at a pace that would or in fact does allow you to talk to a friend. While the possibilities are endless, here are a few examples of what you can do:
   
• walking outside or on a treadmill
• very light jogging
• cycling
• rowing
• swimming*
  *reduce time or make adequate breaks
   
• whatever you decide to do, bring a friend, something to read, a podcast to listen to or whatever to avoid getting bored
• do not do the same workout every week, rotate between different types of LISS
• optional: perform 15 min on one and 20min on another piece of equipment
   
• R3: Rest day
   
Note: If your focus is on overall health, it is not feasible to work out more than four times a week. If you can't keep your feet still and feel like you need some more activity (aside from not sitting around the whole rest of the time, this would not be necessary), get yourself a dog, go out play basketball, soccer or whatever you like with friends or find other non-exerting leisure time activities


The hypertrophy routine, three training days per week
  
• S1: Chest, Shoulders, Arms
  You will do one out of the bazillion of possible "bodybuilding"-oriented splits starting out with the body parts everybody trains like crazy and finishing up with the ones that distinguish the pros from the bros later in the week (see S2). You will try to keep the rest times in the 60-90s realm to keep the density of the workout up and you train in different rep ranges, similar to the "Hatfield" intra-workout periodization scheme.
   
• Bench press (rotate DB or BB): 4x 5-6
• Flys or cable cross: 2x 12-15
• Military press: 3x5-6
• DB or cable side laterals: 2x12-15
  
  Superset (triceps, biceps, rest, repeat)
• Skull crushers or cable triceps extensions: 3x10
• Biceps curls (rotate DB and BB): 3x10
   
• don't forget the primacy of intensity and increase your weight, whenever you are able to squeeze out more than the prescribed number of reps
• reduce the weight on a subsequent set, whenever you fail to perform the prescribed number of reps
• put an emphasis on working the muscle not moving the weight
   
• advanced athletes may want to add a double drop set to the last set of a given exercise; e.g. side laterals for 12, reduce the weight by ~25% rep out as many as you can, reduce the weight by another ~25% and perform to failure (use sparingly!)
   
• R1: Rest day
   
• HIIT + auxiliary work
  Do your HIIT training either on a track sprinting or inside on an appropriate piece of exercise equipment, such as
   
• spinning bike or a stable cycle ergometer (no recumbent bikes),  
• stairmaster with resistance allowing you to exert yourself within 30s,
• treadmill that is stable enough to survive a real sprint
• rowing machine with a high enough and easy to vary resistance
   
• perform 5-7x 30s sprints (all-out!) followed by 90s active rest (walking, paddling, etc.) finish your workout with a 3-5 minute cool-down
   
• Abdominal + forearm training:You can either do those in a linear or circular fashion. I personally would recommend a circle with only 30s rest between exercises
   
• leg raises (lying or hanging) - 12-15
• cable crunch - 12-15
• crunch - to failure
   
• cable wrist curl (pronated / supinated) - to failure
  
  
• perform either 3 sets for the abs and 2 sets for the wrist curls in a linear fashion or 3 circles(recommended)
• start with either pronated or supinated wrist curls and do the other version in the subsequent set
  
   
• R2: Rest day
   
• S2: Legs, Back and Traps (+ rear delts)
  Probably not the most common variety, but the reason I chose this split instead of the others you encounter more often is that there is a nice synergy between squatting and deadlifting and you are going to do both ;-); 90s rest between sets
   
• Barbell Squats: 4x5-6*
• Leg extensions: 2x15-25
  * if you can't squat for whatever reasons, do leg presses
• Deadlifts: 4x5-6*
• Pull ups or pull downs (underhand grip): 3x10
• DB rows: 2x12-15
  * if you can't deadlift for whatever reasons do bent-over rows
• DB shrugs: 3x6
• DB reverse fly: 2x15-20
   
• don't forget the primacy of intensity and increase your weight, whenever you are able to squeeze out more than the prescribed number of reps
• reduce the weight on a subsequent set, whenever you fail to perform the prescribed number of reps
• put an emphasis on working the muscle not moving the weight
   
• advanced athletes may want to add 4-6 peak contractions to the end of the last set of a given exercise; this is not advisable for squats and deadlifts, though
   
• R3: Rest day
   
• R4: Rest day
   
Note: Similar to the "health" focus workout you can and in fact should perform leisure time activities like playing ball sports with friends, taking a long walk with your girl- or boyfriend, using the bike on the way to work, the stairs instead of the elevator etc. on your rest days if your time allows this and you feel like doing so. It won't hinder your gains and will have beneficial effects on your physical and psychological health and (I know you are not interested in something as profane as "health" ;-) will help you to make even leaner gains.

A brief mea culpa - fat loss and strength will follow

Image 2: If that is you, "your time", i.e. the strength workouts (or fat loss? Just kiddin' ;-) will come next weekend - promise!

I know you will probably be wondering, why this is already the end of this installment. After all, I did boastfully promise to have three not just two templates in the last installment of the Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine series. I did however waste some time with further theoretical elaborations, before eventually I changed up my mind and thought that, in the end, all this theoretical bull*** will be of little to you, because even if I wrote a 1500-pages book in my effort to cover all the if's and why's, I bet that you (yes you! ;-) would still have a questions my elaborate dissertation would not cover.

I hope the decision to provide two detailed examples instead of three rough ones or further theoretical elaborations suits you. If it does not, you have the comment area of this blogpost to protest. This is also the place to post questions or suggestions - you know that read and answer all of them; and this is not an April Fool's joke ;-)

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part III: Understanding the Role of Workload, Density and Intensity

Image 1: Simply copying Arnold's routine would probably be a bad idea, but copying the way he played with workload and density to achieve maximal intensity would be.

After reading Part I and Part II of the "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine" on the last weekend and a whole week to think about your first / new own workout program, you should by now know

• how often and on which days you train (cf. part I), and
• what type of workout you perform on a given day (cf. part II)

Those of you who have not already done that may want to check out Adelfo's latest "own" workout plan, the details of which he explained in the last installment of his weekly guest-posts here at the SuppVersity, so that you get an idea of what I have already hinted at in the last installment: Despite that the number of possible workout regimen you could come up with is literally endless, your knowledge about your goals, your past training experiences and your personal preferences should always be reflected in your program design.

The logical next step: Set and rep prescriptions for your workouts

It goes without saying certain decisions you may have made in the last week will make at least part of the considerations regarding the total number of sets, the number of repetitions per set, the time-under-tension (TUT), the rest times between sets and many of the related, less important parameters obsolete. If, for example, you decided on a similar routine as Adelfo's week 1 EDT + 5x5 combo, you would not have to care about either the number of sets or reps, because both "workouts" (in this case the term refers to a the whole concept) include detailed prescriptions, i.e.

• "perform your superset for 20min with as many reps as you can" (EDT), and
• "do 5 sets of 5 reps to failure" (5x5)

While it would certainly be possible to modify these prescriptions that would leave you with something I like to call an XY-esque, as in EDT-esque or 5x5-esque workout. In the end, though, it does not even matter if you want to modify an existing routine to suit your current goals or come up with a new one, without at least a cursory understanding of the implications the number of exercises, sets, reps, TUT and weights you use will have on your results, it is pretty likely that the latter will at least be suboptimal - if not completely absent.

Tip #1: It is very well possible to modify any detailed workout prescription to suit your individual needs. Whenever you do that, you should yet keep in mind that whoever came up with the original workout probably had his reasons to incorporate for example 10 sets of 10 reps and not 10 sets of 3 reps. Or put more simply, if you change fundamental variables of a given routine - in the example at hand this would be using a strength specific rep-range in a workout routine that was designed primarily for hypertrophy gains - it usually is more prudent to start building your own routine from scratch instead of making one modification after the other to end up with an at best "suboptimal" routine (in many cases you will end up with a non-functional mutant, though).

Learning from the bros and checking with the pros

I guess, many of you will already be familiar with the most commonly cited principles of workout programing and in case you were expecting me to come up with revolutionary insights into what you may call the "workout 101", you have obviously overlooked that they were and still are the ones 90% of the successful weight lifters and bodybuilders adhere to.

Image 2: Unlikely that you won't find the information on the left somewhere in this incarnation of the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding (img MuscleMag International). Why? The answer is simple: They work - as long as you choose and combine them correctly.

If you take a look at the inferior and oftentimes non-existent results many of the trainees have, although they know many of these "fundamentals"

• in and out of the gym in <60min
• less than 18-20 sets total
   
• 10-15 sets for the back and leg muscles*
• 6-9 sets for chest and shoulders*
• 4-8 sets for arms*
  *the numbers apply to bodypart split training
   
• 3-5 reps for strength
• 6-12 reps for hypertrophy
• 12-25 reps for strength endurance (+conditioning)

it does yet become obvious that there is more to getting stronger, building muscle and improve your conditioning than the knowledge of these simple rules.

And as awkward as it may seem, my personal experience tells me that in 75% of the cases, where trainees are not satisfied with the results their workout programs are generating, the underlying reasons is not following the rules. In that, I have found that the "in and out of the gym in <60min" rule and the "less than 18-20 sets total" rule, as well as the "6-9 set for chest and arms" and "4-8 sets for arms" rules appear to be among the favorite "does not apply to me" rules for the average trainee

Tip #2: Even though the most fundamental contributer to continuous progress is having a sound workout program, sticking to the plan is a very close second. And both, coming up with a new plan every week and just doing more than your plan prescribes are the worst enemies of your progress.

Pull the trigger and leave!

The reason for the widespread ignorance towards these rules is the very human misconception that more was always better. To understand why this is not the case, it may be useful to read up on the underlying physiological processes of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and increases in contractile force in the respective parts of the Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle series, here at the SuppVersity.

Figure 1: The intricacies of skeletal muscle hypertrophy. For all the details check out the preliminary summary of the Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle (click here to be redirected)

If you take a closer at figure 1 and remember what you have learned in the course of the series, it should be obvious that working is at the heart of all those processes that will make you stronger and more muscular, but its role is not that of a driving force, but that of a trigger.And just as you probably do not push the "on" button on your computer ten times to accelerate the time it takes for the system to boot, you should leave the gym at the very moment, where the signaling cascade has kicked in.

The primacy of intensity and how it relates to workload and density

Of the many factors which will determine how "long" it will take to initiate this cascade, the training workload (often also referred to as "volume"), the density and the intensity are not only the most important ones, they are also the ones you can deliberately control. "Optimal" results thusly requite that you align these factors with the ones you cannot manipulate directly, such as your age, your overall health, your current training status, the time you have to spare, etc. to match your current goals.

Image 3: German Olympic lifter Julia Rohde - do you still believe lifting heavy will make you "bulky"? (img sportzentrum-flora.de)

• Workload: Of these three variables the training "volume" is probably the most straight forward one, as it can be measured simply by the workload. Even if you are no physicist you should be aware that the work (w) is the total amount of force applied to the weith (F = mass x acceleration) times the way (S) you are moving it (W = F x S). In other words, if you carry a 50lbs stone 100m exerting the force of F = 50lbs * 10m/s² (where 10m/s² is the acceleration due to gravity), you have performed the same amount of work as someone who carries a 5lbs stone in his pocket while walking 1km. It should be obvious that this measure alone is of little value and I do still see people training set after set, staying in the gym for 2 hours, performing twice or thrice the amount of "work" I do and still stagnate in terms of strength and size gains.
   
• Density: If we use the previous example of carrying a stone, and think of ten steps you take as one rep, then the density of your "workout", i.e. carrying the 50lbs stone for 100m would be 10x higher than the one of the other person, because - if we assume that you walk at the same pace - you will be ready in 10x shorter timespan than the person who carries the 5lbs stone for 1000m.
   
• Intensity: Contrary to what you often see in the "intensity" column of many workout programs, the weight (often expressed relative to your one-repetition max, the 1RM; or as the maximal amount of weight you can lift for X repetitions, the 12RM, 6RM, etc.) is not the single determinant of the intensity of your workouts. A workout with little to no rest periods, light weights, high reps and a medium amount of sets can be as "intense" as one of Metzner's HIT workouts where you warm up for two sets perform one all out set and head home. 

The last example, which revolved around the notion that a Metzner HIT workout could be as intense as a more medium workload, high density workout actually brings up an important point: Regardless of what your goal may be - you must always train intense!

Tip #3: Planned periods of light lifting after likewise planned periods of deliberate overreaching (we will get to the issue of periodization in a future installment), aside, you should always try to do the one rep more or add another of those ridiculous 2.5lbs plate to the bar. If you do not push yourself, you cannot expect to push the envelope on the way you look and perform.

Science says: Many roads lead to Rome

With "intensity" being a prerequisite and goal-specificity (re-)emerges as the fundamental determinant particularly in view of the number of reps and sets to perform. Against that background it is also less confusing that you will find scientific evidence to support almost every of the initially mentioned pieces of common wisdom. In 1999, for example, Weiss et al. confirmed the common wisdom that a low (=4x 3-5RM) rep-scheme produces favorable increases in squat performance (strength) compared to 4x 13-15RM or 4x 23-25RM routines. Now, was this a result of the heavier weight alone? No, it was the mere consequence of the specificity of the program - after all, the performance on slowly performed leg-extensions was slow-velocity (~1-2s concentric and 1-2s eccentric phase) was maximal in the 13-15RM group (Weiss. 1999). 

Tip #4: Although this is somewhat of an anticipation, the intensity principle and its dependence on volume and density do also explain why most trainees see success with higher rep work in their ab routines. While you can argue that this is a consequence of the physiology of the rectus abdominis (click here to read about the most effective exercises in the SuppVersity EMG series) and the way it is used in the exercise most trainees perform, i.e. the crunch. With the minimal range of movement and the low weight, density, i.e. short to non-existent rest periods and high reps (like walking 1km vs. just 100m in our previous example) are a must to achieve the intensity that is necessary to pull the "growth trigger".

In tomorrows direct follow up to this third part of the "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine" we will take a look at three concrete incarnations of this principles with some guidelines how to adapt total workload and density to allow you to train, recover and grow at full intensity ;-)