The Workout | Cardio Is For Suckers

As I’ve said before, I don’t like being in the gym for long periods of time. I like to get in and out. My work out is simple, straightforward, and efficient.

My training days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and I love it. You get a mid week break on Wednesday, then two days to recover on the weekend. If you’ve read my diet, you’ll also know that Wednesday is usually a low carb day, so it works out pretty well.

I have two ‘things’ that I stick by with my routines. One, always go to give it 100%, if you can’t, it’s pretty much a waste. You’ll get the heart rate up, burning calories, but other than that, you aren’t making progress… and in the end it’s just a disappointment. Two, I make sure I never work conflicting body parts on back to back days. I’ve always been very big on this, it’s just a personal belief of mine. What I mean is, if I train triceps, or shoulders (that work triceps) on Monday, then there is no way I want to do chest the next day. I even try to avoid two days apart, which is another reason why I take Wednesday off. I don’t always want to give 100%, but I want to feel 100%.

With that said, my week usually works like this:

Monday – Chest/Triceps
Tuesday – Back/Biceps
Wednesday – Off
Thursday – Legs/Calves
Friday – Shoulders/Abs

I’m probably a rare one out there that doesn’t care that much about arms, that’s one of the reasons why I don’t have an ‘arm day’. The other reason, when you work your chest, you’re doing a lot of pushing, which is also working the tricep. So when you do triceps after a chest workout, they are warmed up, and have already been worked quite a bit. I finish off with a little more tricep work, and I’m done for the day. Same applies to back.

As for calves and abs. Last year I started doing calves and abs every four days, and whatever day they would fall on, except my cheat day. If it was an off day, like Wednesday or Sunday, I would do them at home. I felt it worked pretty well, and I will probably get back into that routine come spring/summer.

Now for the actual workouts.

Chest/Tricep

For the most part I will do two incline exercises, a flat exercise, and finish off with an isolation exercise like flies or cables. Example, incline barbell, flat bench dumbells, incline flies, cable flies. I feel the first exercise is really what the workout is all about. I go for two warm up sets, then two really heavy sets. For instance, if I was starting with flat bench…. I’d put on one plate a side(135lbs) and do 20 reps. Put on two plates a side(225lbs) and do about 15 reps. I’d then put three plates a side (315lbs) and do as many as I could, which is anywhere from 7-10 reps. I will then put on top of that a 25lb plate(365lbs) and do as many as I can. This will be anywhere from 3-6 reps. I tell my spotter I want to get at least three reps in, preferably at least four. So, even if I’m struggling at rep two, my spotter will help me get a couple more in.

For the second exercise, I will do one heavier warm up, then do two heavy sets, that’s it. Then on to the third exercise and do the same. Depending on how I feel, that might be it for chest, but if I do a forth exercise, I will do two sets of the last exercise and that’s it.

As for triceps, I’ll try and do one heavy exercise first, such as, skull crushers, then a more isolating exercise, like something on the cables. I usually do 4-5 sets of each, so I’m still getting in 8-10 sets even though I’m only doing two exercises. That’s it for Monday.

Back/Bicep

Applying the same rule as Monday, I put a lot of the effort into the first exercise. Because of that, I will usually start with some type of heavy row. I’ll follow that with either dumbells, or a cable row. But when I do the cable row, I will try and use an opposite grip and pull then the first exercise (ie. Start with a wide heavy row pulling to lower abdomen, then a narrow handled cable row, concentrating higher in the back.

After the core back is trained, I move on to the lats, which I’ve been trying to focus more on lately. I will pick two exercises of chins, pull ups, cable pull downs, reverse cable pull downs, Hammer Strength pull downs, etc. I will also vary my grip with these as well. Some as wide as I can, and some shoulder width. When working the lats, for the most part I go with lighter weight, and really focus on my form, and pulling with the lats, and concentrating on the lats. You will see guys pulling with so much momentum, then are almost horizontal by the time the bar is at their chest… I don’t like that.

After back, I will do the same as I did the triceps, but for biceps. Usually something like standing barbell curls, followed by incline single dumbell curls. Again, trying to go heavy after a couple warm up sets.

Legs

Because of injuries, my legs are a bit behind. But it goes the same as my other workouts, first exercise is the big one. This will usually be squats. I always go as low as I can when I squat. I will either focus on the outer or inner quad, narrow stance for outer sweep, wider, with toes slightly pointing out for inner quads. Then the next exercise I will do the opposite, which is usually a hack squat or leg press. I will then finish with either standing or walking lunges. My hamstring routine is pretty basic. I will either do stiff legged deadlifts, or lying leg curls. I try and do 5-6 sets, as it’s the only exercise I do. Moving on to calves, if I’m doing them twice a week, I try to hit them hard with 5 heavy sets. I will go with a very slow negative, about 10 seconds, then a fast positive.

Shoulders

Once again, the first exercise is what is key. I will start with a shoulder press, either bar or dumbells. Shoulders have always been my strongest exercise. I will usually do 5-6 sets of this, because I’ve had shoulder problems, so I will start off with 30-35lbs. Before this I will even do rotator cuff exercises to get warmed up.

After the presses, I move to side lateral raises. Here I will start light again, do a couple warm up sets, and make my way up to two heavy sets.

From there, I will do front delts, usually single arm dumbell raises. One lighter set, then two heavy sets. After those, rear delts, with my chest against an incline bench doing reverse flies. If I want to keep the heart rate going, I will alternate front and rear delts, with shorter time in between sets. I never do trap work. I feel I get enough trap work from other exercises.

Abs
My ab workout is very simple. It usually takes 5-10 minutes. I will either do heavy decline situps with a weight, or heavy cable crunches. I do my abs like all other exercises, work my way up to heavy weight where I’ll do about 6 reps. I will then do an exercise targeting the lower abs, which is some type of leg lift. (I’ll get more into abs in my next post). Obliques, I will sometimes do two light sets of side planks, but I feel other exercises strengthen your obliques enough.

Time between sets and variation

When I’m lifting heavy I take as much time as I need between sets, so I can lift 100% for my next set, and know for certain, I was not still tired from the last set. This can be anywhere from 2-3 minutes, even more if I’m going heavier than normal. However, even though I’m taking 2-3 minutes between sets, I’m never just sitting there. I always walk to the furthest water fountain for water, then I keep walking until I’m just about ready for my next set.

Every 5-6 weeks I switch up the routine. Then usually after I switch it for the second time (10-12 weeks), I will do two weeks of low weight, high rep, low rest exercises. I will exercises I don’t normally do, just for something different, like machines for chest. The pump you get is unbelievable, especially if you are taking an NO2 product. But because of the low rest, I usually don’t increase weight, but stay the same, and often because I’m fatigued, my reps will go down and down.

Form

Form is the most important thing to me (though you’d never guess because I always get injured!). I make sure my back if flat on bench, I’m not swinging when doing pull downs/pull ups, etc. I will often do curls with 15-20lbs, and they feel amazing. I keep my shoulders back, and only bend at the elbow, absolutely no momentum from swinging.

That is the basic workout. I will probably have to add/edit a few things over the next couple days. Post any questions or suggestions below! Thanks for reading!