Fitness Tips Body Blog

I know a lot of people have trouble getting started and then sticking with a training and nutrition program. Here are five quick tips you can use to help get yourself going.

1.  Determine the reality of your current situation.  Be honest with yourself about where you are and how far you have to go.

2. Figure out the things you are doing now that you would not have gotten involved with, knowing what you now know? Examples are smoking, drinking sugar laden soft drinks, junk food snacking late at night, spending most of your time on the couch, etc.

3. Do a complete and honest analysis of youself and your skills regarding health and fitness. What do you do well? Where do you need to improve?

4.   Determine a measure that you can use to gauge your progess.

5. Set specific goals for each day, week, month of what you need to do to move yoruself toward your goals and discipline yourself to accomplish these small goals that will lead you to big rewards.

Ouch! My legs are still quite sore from Tuesday’s new, brutal and effective training routine. Yesterday was chest, shoulders and triceps.

After a few weeks on my previous weight training routine, I made a number of changes to this workout as well, in order to keep my muscles from getting used to the program and preventing mental burnout.

I  always get a fresh round of motivation when I change my program around.

Here’s how my weight training program for chest, shoulders and triceps laid out for the past three weeks:

Workout #1 Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Decline Bench Press 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)
Flat Bench Flyes 3 x 15 (30 seconds between sets)
Seated Dumbbell Press 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)
Lateral Raises 3 x 15 (30 seconds between sets)
Lying Tricep Extensions 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)

On the 8 x 8 exercises, I will reduce the rest between sets until I can get 8 x 8 with only 15 seconds between sets. When I can do that, I will up the weight and go back to 30 seconds rest, reduce down to 15, up the weight, etc.

On the 3 set exercises, when I can complete all 3 sets of 15 reps I will increase the weight.

I will only take 1 minute between exercises.  It’s a fast paced workout.

My new routine that I used yesterday looks like this:

Chest

Decline Bench Press - 2 warm up sets of 10 and 5 reps. Then 3 work sets with the same weight. I shoot for 8 - 10 reps on the first set and then take only 20 seconds rest between sets.

After 2 minutes rest, I performed one more set with a reduced weight and did a staged set. I performed only the bottom part of the rep, keeping the tension on my pecs the whole set, with no locking out at the top.

Once I hit failure, I continued the set by performing only the top 5 or 6 inches of the set, where I’m the strongest.

Flat Bench Flyes - 3 sets with the same weight.  20 seconds of rest between sets

DB Incline Bench Press - 3 sets with the same weight.  20 seconds of rest between sets

Shoulders

Seated DB Shoulder Press - 3 sets with the same weight.  20 seconds of rest between sets

Lateral Raises - 1 triple drop set. In other words, I performed 3 sets without stopping. For example. 25 lb x 10 reps, then grab the 15 pounders and crank out more reps to failure (usually 4 - 6), then grab the 5 lb dumbbells and rep out to failure. You may only get 2 or 3 reps on this last set.

DB Upright Rows - 2 x 10 - 12 reps

Triceps

Flared Elbow Pushdowns - your elbows flare out instead of keeping them in tight against your body. You can use more weight and you’ll really feel this in your tricep muscles. 2 x 10 - 12

Decline Lying Tricep Extensions - Another triple drop set just like the lateral raises

Weighted Dips - 2 x 10 - 12 reps to finish off the chest and triceps. On the second set, I’ll do a staged set, just like the last set of decline bench presses.

As you can see, this routine is quite a change from the previous one. I’ll stick with this for about 3 weeks. After that, I will go a few workouts with less volume and no intensity techniques, just plain old straight sets. This will allow my body to recharge from all the intensity training I’ve been giving it so I can avoid overtraining and keep making progress.

Wow. Sorry. I mean to update the blog at least every other day but I had a huge project at work the past couple of weeks. I’ll try to do better. Promise.If you want to build muscle mass and do it quickly you need to focus on your largest muscles, your back and your legs. Unfortunately, no body parts are as brutally painful to train as the back and the thighs so most trainees just go through the motions and then they wonder why they aren’t building muscle the way they want.

If you’ve been following my  Fat Loss Secrets Revealed or  Fast Mass Tips! newsletters, you know that my leg training the last few weeks has been as follows:

One Legged Squat - 1 set of 20 reps for each leg using the weight you normally use for 10 reps. You can do this on a hack machine or on the Smith Machine.

Leg Curls - 3 by 12-15 reps with only 30 seconds rest between sets. After going to failure on the final set do partial reps in the contracted position (the top of the rep). You may need a training partner to help you get the weight into the contracted position. The reps should only be a few inches of motion. Once you can no longer do this, do partial reps just above the bottom of the rep stroke until you can’t do any more partial reps.

Full Squats with a Barbell - 1 x 20  Do these in a power rack for safety and squat ass to the floor.

Stiff Legged Deadlifts - 1 x 20

Standing Calf Raises 8 sets of 8 reps Do one leg at time, alternating legs without any rest until all 8 sets of 8 reps have been completed for each leg.

That’s it.  I only train legs once per week.

Now, I made a slight change yesterday that was brutal. For the first exercise, instead of 1 set of 20 reps for each leg, I did 10 sets per leg of 5 reps each, using the same weight I used for 1 set of 20 reps. Like I mentioned above for the standing calf raises, I alternated legs without stopping until all 10 sets (20 really, 10 per leg) were completed. Brutal? You bet! Effective? Damn straight! Try upping the intensity of your leg training and see how much muscle you can start building when your largest body parts start growing!

If you’re wondering, yes I’m having a bit of trouble walking today. Every part of my legs are sore from the quads to the hamstrings to my calves.

No BS, No Excuses,

Gregg

I just did. I didn’t take my advice and now I’m paying the price. As I’ve mentioned previously, I took some time off from weight training to train for a fund raising cycling event. So this past week was my first week of weight training in about 5 weeks. What happened?I didn’t take it easy, that’s what happened. I tell everyone I train, take it easy the first few times you train, either after a layoff, or if you just haven’t done a particular exercise in a while. This way, you won’t suffer excruciating, maybe even debilitating muscle soreness.

And I’m suffering that soreness because I didn’t take it easy enough on my on training this past week. Walking is a painful experience today. Heck, sitting is painful. Even my calves are sore, which never happens. Adn that workout was on Tuesday!

No BS, No Excuses,

Gregg

Learn How To Boost Your Metabolism, Burn More Fat with Less Effort, And Lose All the Weight You Want… Fast!" by grabbing my free report: Fat Loss Secrets Revealed

In the past, I’ve talked about weight training splits and how they can affect your progress. As I mentioned before, most people don’t give much thought to how they split up their body part workouts and this can cause some real problems.

Problems like not building muscle and not increasing strength, exactly what bodybuilders don’t want.  I was reminded again recently how widespread this problem is when reading a training question from one of my subscribers.

The trainee’s split was as follows (3 days on, 1 day off).

Day 1 - Chest and Delts

Day 2 - Back and triceps

Day 3 - Legs and biceps

Day 4 - Off

Day 5 - Repeat Split

So, what’s the problem? In a nutshell, overtraining. Even forgiving the fact that there are too many training days, there is too much overlap.

The delts and triceps get worked very hard two days in a row on days 1 and 2.

And if he’s doing the right exercises for legs and back (deadlifts, squats) he’s working his lower back hard two days in a row as well.  And the biceps get hit hard two days in a row as well.  This is going to be trouble in no time flat, especially if he’s doing any kind of volume or intensity.

What’s a more effective split, assuming they still want a three on - one off routine? You want to minimize the overlap so a better example of a good training split would be as follows:

Day 1 - Chest and triceps

Day 2 - Legs

Day 3 - Back, biceps and delts

Keep in mind, this still isn’t ideal because the back and legs get worked on consecutive days but it’s much improved over the original training routine.  If you followed this split, it would be a bad idea to include deadlifts, unless you take a rest day between leg day and back day.

No BS, No Excuses,

Gregg

Grab more great information and tips on training, nutrition, health, cardio and supplementation for burning fat and building muscle by grabbing my free report: http://www.fatlosssecretsrevealed.com

It’s been a very hectic summer. Lots of cycling for my 160 mile charity bike ride that took place a couple of weeks ago.  In August, I went on my first vacation in about five years.  Spent 10 amazing days in sunny (and HOT) Arizona.  Had an absolutely incredible time.  Even managed to squeeze in a few workouts.

After that, I really had to get back on track for this year’s MS 150, which was completed a week and a half ago.  Over 7,000 riders this year, rode 160 miles over 2 days.  The weather on Sunday was absolutely perfect.  Saturday, not so much.  It poured for the first 25 miles or so of the Saturday ride.  Not the best way to start. Everything was soaked.  I can’t wait to see how much money we raised this year.  Once again, it could not have happened without all the amazing volunteers.  It was another huge success and I look forward to my 14th (or is it 15th?) ride next year.

I hadn’t even been able to take on online training clients the last few months due to other obligations and projects.

Now, it’s time to hit the gym hard again.  My weight was down to 163 by the time of the ride.  Yeah, skinny!  Happens every year.  I’m back up to 167 now and want to get up to about 190 before cutting down again.

So, I’ve put together a new program that I’ll stick with the next 4 weeks before making some slight changes and adding some intensity techniques as well.  I’ve been doing this routine for the past week and I can tell you this - everything is sore!

Here’s how it lays out:

Workout #1 Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Decline Bench Press 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)
Flat Bench Flyes 3 x 15 (3o seconds between sets)
Seated Dumbbell Press 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)
Lateral Raises 3 x 15 (30 seconds between sets)
Lying Tricep Extensions 8 x 8 (30 seconds between sets)

On the 8 x 8 exercises, I will reduce the rest between sets until I can get 8 x 8 with only 15 seconds between
sets.  When I can do that, I will up the weight and go back to 30 seconds rest, reduce down to 15, up the weight,
etc.

On the 3 set exercises, when I can complete all 3 sets of 15 reps I will increase the weight.

I will only take 1 minute between exercises.  It’s a fast paced workout.

Workout #2 Legs, Abs

Squat 1 x 20 (with my normal 10 rep weight - this is incredibly intense)
Leg Curls 3 x 15 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Stiff Legged Deadlift 1 x 20
Squat 1 x 20 (much lighter weight than the first set)
Standing Calf Raises 8 x 8 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Oblique Twists 3 x 15 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Weighted Crunches 8 x 8 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Reverse Crunches 3 x 15 (30 seconds rest between sets)

Workout #3 Back, Biceps, Forearms

Chin Ups 8 x 8 (30 second rest between sets)
Seated Row 8 x 8 (30 second rest between sets)
Pullover 3 x 15 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Seated High Row 8 x 8 (30 seconds rest between sets)
Incline DB Curls 2 x 10 (include rest pause reps at the end of the second set, then partial reps, then stand and
do regular curls
Incline DB Hammmer Curls 2 x 10 (same intensity techniques as regular curls)

I’m breaking down the routine into the following split.

Monday - WO 1
Tuesday - WO 2
Wednesday - WO 3
Thursday - Off
Friday - WO 1
Saturady - Off
Sunday - Off

Monday - WO 3
Tuesday - WO 2
Wednesday - WO 1
Thursday - Off
Friday Workout 3
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Off

As you can see, I am only hitting legs once a week.  This is due to the intensity of the 20 rep squat program.  You may want to experiment and see if a slightly higher frequency works better for you.  You may want to try twice per week and then go to once per week as you increase the weight and intensity.

This is a pretty intense program that will work for both muscle building and fat burning as long as your nutrition program is in place.

No BS, No Excuses,

Gregg Gillies

Customized training and nutrition plans for fast results.  http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/online-personal-trainer.html

Learn How To Boost Your Metabolism, Burn More Fat with Less Effort, And Lose  All the Weight You Want… Fast! Free Report!   http://www.fatlosssecretsrevealed.com

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