You could just hit the gym 7 days a week without a clue, and make up your own plan from exercises you see the regular gym rats doing.
Or you could buy a bodybuilding magazine, and see how those half- human half-beasts are training, in between their injection sessions in the dark corner of the locker room.
Or even better, you could go to all the bodybuilding forum and websites and read about a million different way to train, endlessly searching for a suitable program. Well, that might actually work if you have the time to try out all the program.
After 2 years:
It's hard to believe how much progress is made, both physically and mentally in that mere 2 years. I'm going to list down some of the key points that I wished I knew earlier in my lifting journey. It may or may not be beneficial to you, so take those that make sense to you ! :)
1. Listen To Your Body
I know, you've heard this time and time again. But guess what, you're going to keep hearing it because it is THAT important. No program out there will ever be a substitute for your ability to listen to your body and lift by feel.
I used to tell myself not to give excuses and man the fuck up on those days that my body felt being hit by a truck. That's good only to a certain extent, for example, you're supposed to lift that weight for a certain amount of repetitions, but your form is totally fuck up to a point that it may caused injuries, would you still continue doing it ? The weights might be moving but definitely it is not by your muscle, instead your ego!
If you're feeling beat up, take a day off. If you are still feeling beat up, then deload. It's that easy folks. Your body tells you how it is feeling all of the time, but unfortunately most people are just too caught up in everything else to listen.
2. Vary Your Intensity Levels Weekly
This specific point is meant more for the strength athletes out there, but it can definitely be applied to the weekend warrior's training too. It is simply a modification of the regressive overload principle. According to progressive overload, you must gradually increase the intensity of work for optimum results,
Let's move away from this old way of thinking:
- Week 1- High
- Week 2- Higher
- Week 3- Highest
And on to the new method:
- Week 1- High
- Week 2- Medium
- Week 3- Very high
Just this small change in weekly intensity level has brought about some great personal records for myself. Squats: from 225lbs to 335lbs. Deadlift: from 275lbs to 365lbs. Bench: from 135lbs to 175lbs. Some people's bodies cant handle that first scheme. Unfortunately, mine is included amongst that list. But luckily, there is an alternative for those of you that can't manage that kind of progression.
We are still following the idea of progressive overload here, but with one tiny modification, instead of three straight weeks of overload, we back off on the second week and give the body the rest it needs to come back strong for the third week. The small tweak has the potential to make a world of difference.
3. Warm-up
Don't underestimate it. A solid warm-up is key in the prevention of injuries or other complications like Rotator Cuff (RC) pain. In fact, it is key in the prevention of all sorts of pain. So don't be a dummy like I once were. Do your warm-up.
RC warm-up:
Windmills
Don't underestimate it. A solid warm-up is key in the prevention of injuries or other complications like Rotator Cuff (RC) pain. In fact, it is key in the prevention of all sorts of pain. So don't be a dummy like I once were. Do your warm-up.
RC warm-up:
Windmills
Start with bodyweight and work up to 5-10lbs. 3 sets of 5 forward and 3 sets of 5 backward per arm. For those of you with limited ROM where the humerus connects to the scapula, this is the exercise you need to include in your routine.
Internal and External Rotations
3 sets of 12-15 per arm, increasing weight as your body allows but never sacrifice forms for heavier weights.
Now on the hip flexors. Tight hip flexors can contribute to lower back pain via pelvic tilt. In particular, I'm talking about the anterior pelvic tilt here. This means that the psoas major, which is responsible for lumbar extension and hip flexion is too tight.
The gluteus maximus is supposed to oppose this muscle, but it's too weak, as are the hamstrings and the abdominals. So obviously we have a problem here. But no worries. It's really not that complicated to fix.
Stretching the hip flexors and strengthening the core can help to reduce the level of pelvis tilt and in turn decrease lower back pain. I've had lower back pain once in a while, until a few months back, i finally realised the importance of the hip flexors. It turns out that most of my lower back pain was due to extremely tight hip flexors. Below are two of the most common stretches that I have successfully used to alleviate lower back pain:
Lying Hip Flexor Stretch
Lie down on your back. Pull one knee up to your chest keeping the other leg on the ground. You may also draw in your belly button (therefore recruiting the abdominal muscles) to help stabilize the pelvis.
Lunge Hip Flexor Stretch
Kneel into a lunge position. Tuck the front of the pelvis up towards your head and lunge forward. You should feel a stretch at the front of the hip on the leg that you are kneeling on.
Utilize these stretches before all your lower body workouts, whether it be running, squat, deadlift or any other lower body exercise that you do. Hold it for 15-20s and repeat 3x.
4. Compound Exercises
Exercise selection can virtually make or break a workout program. If you aren't choosing the correct exercises, you are going to have a difficult time reaching your goals and seeing progress. Often, beginners like I once were, think that the more exercise they can do, the better. After all, hitting a muscle from every angle imaginable must mean you are training it in the best possible manner right? Wrong.
There is a lot of confusing information about workout nutrition out there that can make it nearly impossible to figure out how much protein to take or if carbs are beneficial, let alone whether other supplements can support your results.
As a general guideline, the safest way to know your macro split is to determine your BMR using an online calculator. Next, in order to calculate your daily protein intake (grams), multiply your BMR by a value of 1.0-2.0 depending on your goal and divide the number by 4. Then, multiply your BMR with 0.3 or any ratio of fat intake desired, divide the number by 9 to get your daily fat intake in grams.
Finally, to calculate your daily carbs intake, take your BMR and minus off the calories from the protein and fat, divide the remaining value with 4.
Personally, I would just consider the macro split as a reference and then tweak the ratios according to how my body react as time goes by.
In conclusion, those 5 points up there are the things that I wished I could go back in time and slap myself hard in the head to give myself a wake-up call.
Now on the hip flexors. Tight hip flexors can contribute to lower back pain via pelvic tilt. In particular, I'm talking about the anterior pelvic tilt here. This means that the psoas major, which is responsible for lumbar extension and hip flexion is too tight.
The gluteus maximus is supposed to oppose this muscle, but it's too weak, as are the hamstrings and the abdominals. So obviously we have a problem here. But no worries. It's really not that complicated to fix.
Stretching the hip flexors and strengthening the core can help to reduce the level of pelvis tilt and in turn decrease lower back pain. I've had lower back pain once in a while, until a few months back, i finally realised the importance of the hip flexors. It turns out that most of my lower back pain was due to extremely tight hip flexors. Below are two of the most common stretches that I have successfully used to alleviate lower back pain:
Lying Hip Flexor Stretch
Lie down on your back. Pull one knee up to your chest keeping the other leg on the ground. You may also draw in your belly button (therefore recruiting the abdominal muscles) to help stabilize the pelvis.
Lunge Hip Flexor Stretch
Kneel into a lunge position. Tuck the front of the pelvis up towards your head and lunge forward. You should feel a stretch at the front of the hip on the leg that you are kneeling on.
Utilize these stretches before all your lower body workouts, whether it be running, squat, deadlift or any other lower body exercise that you do. Hold it for 15-20s and repeat 3x.
4. Compound Exercises
Exercise selection can virtually make or break a workout program. If you aren't choosing the correct exercises, you are going to have a difficult time reaching your goals and seeing progress. Often, beginners like I once were, think that the more exercise they can do, the better. After all, hitting a muscle from every angle imaginable must mean you are training it in the best possible manner right? Wrong.
- Number of muscle fibers stimulated:
Isolated exercises simply won't give you the biggest bang for your buck because they just don't target that many muscle fibers. Take a bench press verses a tricep kickback. The bench press is going to your pectoral muscles, triceps,deltoids, with your biceps acting as a dynamic stabilizer.
While, the tricep kickback will pretty much only target your triceps. Now, which one do you think is going to provide the most growth?
- Reduced Time in The Gym
Compound exercises are considered as superior because you are hitting more muscle fibers with each lift and therefore required to spend less time in the gym. Now, who doesn't want more results in less time.
My training sessions (at least 2 hours) used to consist of around 7-8 isolation exercises for each muscle group with the bro-split of Monday-Chest, Tuesday- Arms, Wednesday- Leg, and so on...
Now, my 1 hour training sessions consist of 3 or 5 compound exercises which are Squats, Bench presses, Deadlift and Military presses as my first exercise and followed up with any accessory work.
- Greatest release of hormone
Not only will compound exercises target the greatest portion f muscle fibers, they will also result in significant release of anabolic hormones in the body. The two prime examples are testosterone and growth hormone.
The more taxing the exercise on the system, the greater the release. This in turn results in greater growth (assuming proper nutrition and rest protocols are followed). Now think of the last time you did a bicep/tricep workout. Did you sweat as much as you're doing Deadlifts or Squats? These are such small muscles that it's hard to really tax the body when training them alone.
5. Nutrition
There is a lot of confusing information about workout nutrition out there that can make it nearly impossible to figure out how much protein to take or if carbs are beneficial, let alone whether other supplements can support your results.
As a general guideline, the safest way to know your macro split is to determine your BMR using an online calculator. Next, in order to calculate your daily protein intake (grams), multiply your BMR by a value of 1.0-2.0 depending on your goal and divide the number by 4. Then, multiply your BMR with 0.3 or any ratio of fat intake desired, divide the number by 9 to get your daily fat intake in grams.
Finally, to calculate your daily carbs intake, take your BMR and minus off the calories from the protein and fat, divide the remaining value with 4.
Personally, I would just consider the macro split as a reference and then tweak the ratios according to how my body react as time goes by.
In conclusion, those 5 points up there are the things that I wished I could go back in time and slap myself hard in the head to give myself a wake-up call.
