In the 6th installment of “Indomitable Fitness, Athletics and Heroics” with guest contributor Bill Walker, he gives his views on formulating a gym plan as only he can do.
Huzzah!
Today we will discuss putting a workout together
No doubt this picture above may represent what it seems like to choose a workout plan. Today we’re going to make it easy.
There are many schools of thought here. If you’re somewhat initiated, you’ll know that we jokingly refer to Monday as that ye old holiday as “International Chest Day.” That’s right, millions and millions of individuals may do all types of chest exercises, from the Bench Press to cable crossovers, to the Incline Hammer Strength machine and so on. All for that huge chest that resembles an African or Greek statue. Then they may incorporate some tricep work, – Chest and Tri’s, Back and Bi’s (biceps), Shoulders on one day and hopefully they’ll work their legs. Or they’ll disappear and not hit legs and go back to you guessed it, Chest Day again!!! Don’t you dare do this! Ever. Start your path to excellence and glory by not being afraid to squat and dead-lift.
That’s called a “body part split.” Basically training “body parts” and then waiting for them to recover and hitting them again. You can find any routine like that on any website or magazine.
Some people do full body, as in working your full body one day, waiting and then doing it again.
Some people do upper body exercises one day, and lower body the next.
There really is no one way to do this. You’ll most likely change down the line.
However…I do something kind of different…I focus on lifts and performance.
What does that mean Bill?
Remember when I spoke on compound movements and main lifts? Well I’ll focus everything on my main exercises.
Ex:
Sometimes I’ll do a Hang Clean and Jerk (It’s done in the olympics but with a lot more skill and a lot more weight from the floor) and some front Squats. I’ll focus most of my energy on those two lifts as they work the whole body and give me the most results. Admittedly, they’re also cool. You can say I’m more full body with my routine. When most people ask what I’m doing, I’ll say ” _____ and a bunch of other cool stuff” versus whatever body part.
After that I’ll do some quick assistance work all time permitting. So then I may do something like Overhead Presses ( Shoulders), Hip Thrusters (glutes hamstring lower back), one arm rows (back) and dumbbell step ups (legs). This is not guaranteed at all. Depending on how much time I have left, I may just do some body weight work like some L hang pull ups, Burpees, core work, handstands and go home. My workouts are what I call “structurally chaotic.” I may add something that I didn’t think about or look around for what’s available at the time.
How did this come about? It’s a long story/short story. When I started lifting with my dude Rashad Mitchell, as our workouts progressed we’d focus mainly on…you guessed it…compound lifts. There was a lot of stuff that you might see in a typical body building workout that we didn’t use or need. Cool fun fact, the more research I did and still do on the old time athletes the more I found out our workouts were similar to theirs. Our workouts were mostly performance based vs aesthetically based. Not to say there is nothing against “working out to look good for the ladies” or for “the beach” or “the pool” or the infamous “kill em dress” that you ladies rock, but I believe in being strong as well as looking strong. The old time strongmen were legit strong. A great resource on this old time information is “Dinosaur Training” by Brooks Kubick. That’s not the only resource of course as I will put out a lot of list of resources in the future but it’s dope lesson in the history of physical culture as I’m a big believer in real world strength and performance. What’s the point of looking pretty if you pass out after doing ten Burpees.
Note: if you spend all day on the treadmill and you can’t do Burpees, your fitness sucks. I repeat, you suck.
Slight recap:
Hang Clean and Jerk…do Basic Clean and Presses first
Squat
Assistance work such as:
Standing Overhead press with dumbbells or a barbell ( A predominantly shoulder exercise)..standing works your core more
Step ups (A predominantly leg exercise)
Core work, and Body weight exercises
To break it down even further…one or two full body lifts, with assistance work that compliments what you did.
Next Core/Ab work which can be done with bodyweight exercises
How many sets and reps…3-4…I suggest heavy reps…you’ll have to decide what’s comfortable for you. Not so heavy that your form looks terrible and you’ll get hurt but heavy enough to feel a challenge. Body weight work? I suggest higher reps like ten. The whole point is to do something. Ten is often suggested because it’s a good round number for beginners. There’s no magic in the number ten. When I do clean and jerks, I’ll do reps of 1-3 as I’m going for max strength and perfect technique. Six is a good medium.
When I hit the Bench press, I’ll bench press for a few heavy sets then go do something like weighted ring push ups, dips and curls or just the push ups and core work. If I miss an exercise I just miss it. I’ll sometimes view a workout week as more than seven days. And since is not a t shirt but how I live my life, I know I’ll get to it when I get to it.
On a day when deadlifts are the primary goal…
Heavy deadlifts
Maybe another pulling exercise (pulling exercises are things like rows and pull ups)
Front Squats if I have time or I feel like it.
Burpees and core work…some body weight stuff for cardio
Another example of what I might do for new trainees or sometimes myself:
Back Squats, or some type of beginner squatting.
Overhead press
Step Ups
Dips and or rows
Core and ab stuff, and some Burpees.
I may give them a complex…two or more moves in one. Maybe for core, two moves for one rep instead of two exercises. You can get creative on these and I may for simplicity talk about them in another article.
When do I use the sled or that cool stuff on my social media…whenever I feel like it and it depends on how much time I have, and what does it fit but the main things are the big compound lifts. Again compound lifts work more than once muscle group, they also burn more calories and give you greater results. Quick history lesson, at one point I wanted my arms to be a bit bigger…I lifted heavier in my compound movements…viola!
Can you add more? If you want. What about Cardio? Well get into that later.
Does this count for women…a thousand times yes…you want your legs and booty to be awesome, you need to squat…with weights you want those curves to be break necks….you need to lift…you wan to keep your curves or even create them as you lose weight…lift weights…
Here is a recap of what was stated earlier:
Lift challenging objects
Add some assistance (extra work)
Work your core and abs
Body weight stuff…as I call floor work (this is my cardio)
Add more if you like.
That’s all.
If I have confused you let me know. If I have enlightened you, thank you for reading.
Now with that being said get out and there and do what is best in life!
