Keeping it simple...

My summer has officially come to an end .... Pretty sad stuff, but in all honesty I'm a routine guy and going back to teaching puts me in a very structured routine Monday-Friday.  Lifting/exercise-wise things always change when I go back to school.  I have learned a lot this summer about programming for different goals and I think I need to kick my own ass for some of the stuff I did in the gym and ate at the dinner table. 

Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.  Time to move forward.  Just an fyi, you can't out-train a crappy diet!   I forgot who originally said that, but I had a fun time trying to prove them wrong...

On with the real message of this post- keeping it simple in and out of the gym.  I got this idea from a livespill on T-nation.com- and Jim Wendler (the godfather of no bs lifting advice) described a 3 day lifting approach that would fit my schedule perfectly.  All basic stuff, NO fluff!  You can check out the Wendler link for the original plan, of course I added a couple things to it, but I've followed this routine for the past week and it only takes about 45min including a warm-up. The key is doing what is important, and focusing on slow and steady improvement.

Here's what it looks like:

Day 1 (Monday)
Squat - 4 sets of 5 (medium weight)
Dead Lift 5/3/1
Dumbbell Bench 3 sets (around 8-15 reps)
Pull-ups 3 sets / Band Pull aparts (my idea, not in the original plan)

Day 2 (Wednesday)
Squats 3 sets of 5 (light weight)
Bench 5/3/1
Clean 5 sets of 3 (my addition-I love this lift)
Dumbbell Row 4 sets of 8-12
Dips 2 sets, a lot

Day 3 (Friday)
Box Jumps (I like to jump on things) 
Squats 5/3/1
Overhead Press 5/3/1
Chin-ups 5 sets (weighted / around 5 reps per set)
Biceps / Triceps -  2 sets of whatever  (I live in South Florida, gotta hit the arms a little)


My conditioning is as follows:

Tuesday- Sprints. Usually about 20-30 minutes of sprinting and recovery.  Anywhere from 40 to 100 yards.  I try to switch up the distances and the rest intervals on a regular basis.

Thursday- Hill Sprints.  Anywhere from 12-16 sprints on the small hill or 8-12 on the big hill. Yes, we do have hill in South Florida at Vista View Park. aka- Mt. Trashmore.

Saturday- Lazy / Steady state cardio (about 30 min) and foam rolling.  I do this in the morning, just to get out of bed and get functioning before I go train some clients. 

Sunday-Sprints or Sled work.  Gotta get pushing and pulling my sled for a great conditioning session.  If I'm feeling lazy Ill just do some tempo runs after a dynamic warm up.  I do need to step it up and put that freakin' sled to work!

Well that's the plan for the next 4-6 weeks.  I will make necessary changes where needed (open house at school, out of town for a wedding, etc...)  Some people feel the more "complicated" the program the better the results, which is far from the truth.  The point is, sometimes making things simplified and doing basic movements with maximum effort and intensity will get you where you want to be. 

Slow and Steady...

One of my favorite things about the summer is that I have time off from school and I work more hours at the gym.  I get a chance to take on some new clientele and see some really good progress in a short period of time.  I also train some of my "college kids" that come home for the summer and have developed physically and mentally since they have been away at school.

With all new clients, as well as older one's, everybody wants to see results.  Whether it's a decrease in body fat or increasing a certain lift, results are what you pay a trainer for and why you step foot inside a gym.

We all know that you can't lose 5% body fat in a week, or increase your bench press 100lbs. in a month.  Sometimes sufficient progress is actually learning how to squat properly, or do a chin-up with a full range of motion.  Getting stronger on an exercise with godawful form, can do more harm than good.  Concentrate on small improvements such as range of motion, adding a little more weight, or a slight increase in reps. 

Once your form and technique is dialed in slow / progressive gains will provide long term results.  Increase the the difficulty of the movement by increasing the range of motion, such as going from a stationary lunge to a walking lunge- it doesn't seem like much but it's a slow and steady gain.  A reverse lunge can be made more difficult by lunging off a step, or adding a knee lift which incorporates a little more stability into the movement.

Increasing the weight of a movement by using 2.5's, you know those "little" plates you see in the gym.  If you add 5 lbs. to a lift every month, that's 60 lbs. a year.  Will you always be able to increase that much? Probably not- but for a while those 2.5's will really provide a measurable strength gain.

Add a couple of "quality" reps to an exercise.  Certain lifts like dead lifts should actually be done with lower reps, I'd say 3-10 (at the most) because of the possible strain on the lower back.  However, lifts like Dumbbell Rows or  Reverse lunges increasing the reps by 1 or 2 every few weeks is a slow and steady measure of progress.

When it comes to body fat / weight loss, you didn't get "pleasantly plump"  in 2 weeks, so it's gonna take a little longer than that to take it off.  Losing a couple pounds a week is good progress, of course the more you have to lose the easier it is to see the numbers on the scale drop.  If you go "gung ho" for you first 2 weeks and lose 8lbs., it's almost guaranteed that your going to cave into some Ben & Jerry's and put back on few of those pounds.  Improve you diet, but don't so crazy you drool every time you go past a McDonald's.

Little changes and little improvements will yield big results.  Don't think about losing 40lbs., just be focused to clean up your nutrition and concentrate on that first 5lbs.  You want to bench 300lbs. and you can only lift 250- let's try to get 255, than 260, and so on- small progressive gains also will be less problematic as far as joint health is concerned.

It's just about impossible to get better at everything at once  (increasing strength, getting leaner, gaining muscle, improving cardiovascular fitness) especially if you are using proper technique and performing exercises how they should be done.  You can improve on certain areas if you dedicate yourself to strengthening your weaknesses and focus on the right way to do things rather than, just doing them.  (ex. A squat above parallel compared to a squat to proper depth).

NO!

Yes.

If your mind is focused and you have a well structured plan, positive results will be achieved.  Look at your weekly progress, and concentrate on making slow and steady gains.  Within time you will be accomplishing your bigger goals and achieving great things.