WOW - Lower Body Workout Of the Week - Jun 16 - 2010

This week's WOW is a lower body strength workout with a lot of core emphasis.

As you progress through the workout, make sure to keep your focus on bracing your abdominals throughout each movement.

Top to bottom time 75 minutes including all warm-ups.

Foam Roller: Quads, Hams, ITB, T-Spine, Lats

Tennis Ball: Piriformis

Dynamic Stretching: Quads, Hams, Hip Flexors, Pecs, Lats

Activation: Glute bridges, band x-walking, band pull-aparts behind neck

Skipping 5 minutes

Mobility: Cossack squats, Kneeling kip-ups

Strength Training:

1 ) Safety Squat Bar High Box (1-2" above parallel) Squats 4x5

2) Trap Bar Deadlifts 3x7

3) Reverse Lunges from 6" box 3x9

4)Glute & Ham Raises 5x8

5A) Grappler Barbell Twists 3x15

5B) Band X-Walking 3x12

Foam Roller: Quads, Hams

Tennis Ball: Piriformis, Glute Medius

Give this workout a try and let me know how it goes in the comments section below!

Develop Powerful Shoulders Without Pain

Develop Powerful Shoulders Without Pain

Want crazy shoulders like Arnold? Don't get injured!

One of the best exercises for shoulder strength and size development is the Barbell Press Behind The Neck. But grabbing a loaded bar and trying to press it behind your neck without sufficiently warming your shoulders up is asking for trouble. So here's an awesome shoulder saver exercise.

Band Pull-Aparts Behind The Neck

This exercise takes all the muscles involved in the barbell press behind the neck and provides them with tension that helps activate them so they'll all contribute properly to the pressing movement.

As always, before any heavy lifing, make sure muscles that might oppose achieving the full range of motion are well stretched out first.

Stretch: Pecs, Lats, External Rotation

Warm-up:

Side-lying dumbbell external rotations

Serratus push-ups

Band pull-aparts behind the neck (as shown above) 1-3 sets

Rest sufficiently between sets to prevent accumulation of fatigue. Do only as many reps as you feel you need to fully activate the muscle. But make sure to stop your set before you feel fatigue or burning in the targeted muscles.

Pushing your warm-up and activation sets into fatigue will hinder performance of your heavy pressing movement to come.

Use this warm up and then do this balanced upper body workout to build awesome muscle size and strength.

1) Barbell Press Behind The Neck 3 x 8

2a) Mixed Grip Pull-ups 3 x 8-12

2b) TRX, Blast Strap, or chain suspended push-ups

3a) Barbell Shrugs 3x15

3b) Posterior Flyes 3x12

Let me know how it went in the comments section below.

WOW - Workout Of the Week

Trying to get the final touches on the new bootcamp website last week, I didn't have time to post last week's WOW for you guys... so here it is!

Workout Of the Week:

Foam Rolling: T-Spine, Pecs, Lats

Dynamic Stretching: Pecs/Lats/Shoulders

Activation: Serratus pushups, Band Pull-Aparts (behind neck), DB

retractions

Warm-up:

Barbell High Pulls & Muscle-Snatch

2 sets of 6+6 reps (just the bar, or for stronger guys, keep this still relatively light... should be easy... focus is on the mechanics)

Strength Work:

KB Snatch

Work up progressively to heavy 3x6

KB Push Press

3x6

Seated Cable Rows

Work up to heavy 4x8

Suspended Pushups

4x15

Superset:

Dumbbell Curls 3x10

Side-Lying Triceps Extensions 3x10

Mountainclimbers

3x40

Hanging Leg Raises

2x12

So get to the gym and hit up this WOW and let me know how it goes!

As always, I'd love to hear your comments or suggestions, so please leave them in the comments section below!

Strength Training On Limited Time

For whatever reason if you've got limited time to get your workouts in, don't despair, there's still ways to get stronger and build more muscle.

Key Points

1. Limit the number of exercises

2. Every other day training with upper/lower split

3. Ensure you get soft tissue work for a couple areas as well as some dynamic stretching and activation prior to your strength work

4. Pick one main exercise, one supplemental, and one accessory.

Example:

Monday - Day 1 - Lower Body

Foam Roller: Quads/IT Bands/ T-Spine

Dynamic stretching: Quads, Hip Flexors

Activation: Glute Bridges

Squats 5x5

RDL 4x8

Weighted Plank 3x60 sec

Wednesday - Day 2 - Upper Body

Foam Roller: T-Spine/Pecs/Lats

Dynamic Stretching: Pecs/Lats

Activation: Band Pull-aparts behind neck, Band Pull-aparts to chest

Bench Press 5x5

Chin - ups 4xmax

Barbell Curls 3x10

Friday - Day 3 - Lower Body

Foam Roller: T-Spine/Quads/IT Bands/Hams

Dynamic Stretching: Hamstrings/Squat-to-stand

Activation: Glute Bridge variations

Deadlifts 5x3

Split Squats 4x12

Hanging Leg Raises 3x15

Monday - Day 4 - Upper Body

Foam Roller: Pecs/Lats/T-Spine

Dynamic Stretching: PNF Patterns for shoulders

Activation: Wall Slides, Scapular retractions

1- DB Push Press 5x6

Seated Cable Rows 4x10

EZ-Bar Skull Crushers 3x10

Volume Considerations

Progressive volume manipulations will also keep you from plateauing.

Using squats as an example:

Starting week 1 with an 80% 1RM load (225 lbs), volume progressions might map out as follows. Weeks 5-8, 9-12, and 13-16 use the same manipulations as weeks 1-4.

Week 1: 5x5x225 Moderate volume moderate load

Week 2: 4x5x225 Reduced volume, moderate load

Week 3: 8x3x245 Increased volume, increased load

Week 4: 3x6x205 Significant volume and load reduction (deload week)

Week 5: 5x5x230

Week 6: 4x5x230

Week 7: 7x3x255

Week 8: 3x6x215

Week 9: 5x5x235

Week 10: 4x5x235

Week 11: 6x2x260

Week 12: 3x6x220

Week 13: 5x5x240

Week 14: 3x5x240

Week 15: 5x2x265

Week 16: 2x6x225

Such volume manipulations allow increased for strength increases that you wouldn't otherwise get from simple linear progression.

The same types of variations can be done with all main exercises, and some supplemental exercises such as chin-ups, and weighted pushups.

If you're a beginner, you can probably keep the same main exercises throughout the 16 week period, intermediate and advanced lifters need to switch out the main exercises after each 4 week block.

Example substitutions include but are not limited to:

Main Upper Body

Bench Press

Board Presses

Floor Press

Military Press

Fat Bar Press

Swiss Bar Press

Weighted Pushups

Dynamic Effort work with bands/chains

Main Lower Body

Squats

Box Squats

Giant Cambered Bar Squats

Safety Squat Bar Squats

Zercher Squats

Front Squats

Deadlifts

Trap Bar Deadlifts

BTR (Beyond The Range) Deadlifts

Sumo Deadlifts

Rack Pull (Partials) Deadlifts

Dynamic effort work with bands/chains

Exercise ADD

I just received an email from an old client yesterday. He wants to come back and train with me. It's been more than a few years since I last trained him, but he said he's eager to put on some size.

I turned him down. I told him I was too busy, that I had no room in my schedule.

The part about being busy is pretty much true, but I would never turn someone down who was eager to train and was ready to sacrifice at the alter... er.. in the rack, under the bar.

So why did I turn him down?

Because I couldn't get him to focus 100% of his energies on his training. It's not entirely his fault anyway, let's just say he's got an incurable case of exercise ADD.

The exercise ADD industry, yes.. it's an industry, has got the internet and bookstores and magazine racks and supermarket checkout aisles flooded with so much contradictory information that many people feel like it's impossible to change their bodies.

While they're feeling helpless they're buying into every new exercise fad, gimmick, or magazine with some crazy promise of overnight abs, or nutritional supplement with a cure for their plumbers' crack, instead of buckling down and committing to sacrifice... in the rack... under the bar!

When I used to train this old client of mine, and please understand, this guy was 28 years old, 6'2" tall, and he barely weighed 140 lbs, he was always emailing me ads he would find on the internet for the latest nutritional supplement, and while I would be putting him through his workout, he would see a piece of equipment at the gym or in my studio that he hadn't used and ask me if he should buy one for his home gym.

And every week he would ask me if we were going to do this exercise, or that exercise, or some other exercise instead of just sacrificing... in the rack... under the bar.

If You See This Man On TV...Turn it off quickly or you might end up with one of his ridiculous exercise gimmicks!

I would tell him we were going to be deadlifting today, and he would respond with, "Deadlifts? again? Didn't we do them last week?".

Can you see how frustrating this was for me?

Folks... I've been training for more than 20 years, and I would say that there hasn't been a month go by in those 20 years that I haven't trained deadlifts. Now it doesn't have to be deadlifts, it could be anything. But deadlifts are one of the moneymaker exercises. You just always deadlift.

So getting these kinds of responses just bores down on you over time.

I just can't take it anymore!

And I made a decision afterwards that I won't take any more clients who don't have the right attitude. Because guess what? If you don't want to deadlift... you ain't gonna get strong! And you're definitely not going to reach your goals.

Back in the day when nutritional supplements didn't exist, and fancy-schmancy equipment didn't exist, there were Men!

Very Strong men!

The Great Eugene Sandow

Men who couldn't care less about whether they were lifting a bar, a stone, or the back of a car.

They didn't care about silly spandex outfits!

They just wanted to get STRONG!

And they knew if they just persevered through the torn and sweat stained shirts, that they would become Powerful Beasts!

They lifted kettlebells, heavy sandbags, they pulled cars, trucks, boats, and even airplanes using thick ropes. They flipped massive tires, and did thousands of bodyweight exercises.

The Great Goerner...

Deadlifting With Only TWO Fingers!

They'd even resort to lifting other people when no other tools were at their disposal... or.. if it might get them laid!

The Great Paul Anderson

They'd never seen an exercise bike, a treadmill, an elliptical machine, or a stairmaster, and even had they seen them they would have probably tried to lift them not ride them.

The Great Paul Anderson Bench Pressing A Plate Loaded Power Rack!

Lionel Strongfort with 105 lb Kettlebell

These men were ripped to the bone and not one of them did any cardio!

Why?

Because they knew without knowing, that aerobic metabolism continues in the background throughout their tortuous workouts of lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling!

While spandex wearing fufu men would do traditional cardio, which is fueled by aerobic metabolism, these men would allow their aerobic energy system recover them from their lifting.

These men were committed...

These men came prepared...

These men sacrificed...

In the rack...

Under the bar...

Where do you stand?

Strength Training Workout of The Week

Due to popular demand, I'll be putting up the strength training workout of the week. Each week when I work with my one-on-one private studio clients, there will often be a workout that is so good, in fact, I'll even get jealous that they get to do it and not me. So I may post it as the strength training workout of the week.

For you guys who are my one-0n-one private studio clients, you may recognize one of these workouts as your own! ;)


Warm-up
Skipping 5 minutes

Soft Tissue Work
Foam Roller: Quads/IT Bands/Lats
Tennis Ball: Piriformis/Glute Medius

Activation Work
Glute Bridge w/Medball between the knees
20 sec isometric squeeze then 10-20 reps

Serratus Pushups 10-15 reps

Wall Slides 10 reps

Tube External Rotations 10-20 reps ea. side


Strength Training Workout

Always work up to your heaviest weight for each exercise with a couple lighter warm-up sets first. For example, if your working weight for 5 reps on Box Squats is 150 lbs, then you might do your warm-ups as follows: 1x6x45, 1x5x95, 1x3x135... then move onto your work sets.

For exercises where technique is more of an issue and you aren't using that heavy of a weight for your working sets, you may find you don't need any warm-up sets. This may also be true of subsequent exercises for each body part, as they will be warmed up well from the previous exercises.

1a/ Box Squats 5x5
1b/ 1-Dumbbell Push Press 4x6

2a/ Supported Pistol Squats 3x10
2b/ Weighted Pushups 4x10

3a/ Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 4x8
3b/ 1-Blast Straps/TRX/Barbell Inverted Rows 3x10

4a/ T-Twist Abs 3x20
4b/ Band X-Walk 3x10


Move from one exercise to the next immediately within each superset group.

Rest a minute between each superset group.


Do this workout, then let me know how it went in the comments section!

Kill it!

:)
Shane