I Want To Get Fitter!

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by JamesGlen

Do you guys(Esaias, EB, Aaron?) have scheduled days and times that you do free weights? And do you do a certain number of sets for each muscle group, and a certain amount of times per week for that muscle group?
Like i.e.: each muscle group 2x a week...or 1 time?

Or just when you have 30 minutes thru out the day to get to it?

Maybe different ways work better for each individual, just curious what you guys have found works best for you....and making sure it gets done..(like combing the hair

I used to get all the workout I needed from my employment, back in the day. Several injuries and a couple of desk jobs since then, so I'm not what I once was physically, but I am considering getting a weight set and getting down to business once again.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by JamesGlen

That's good stuff, Esaias

All Ive basically ever done is the old school bb style:
Mon-Chest/Tri's
Tue-Back/Bi's
Wed-off or cardio
Thurs-Shoulders/traps
Fri-Legs
Sat-Off
Sun-repeat

I've wondered in the past, about doing a full body split workout - twice a week but I've never tried it.

I have a leg press/sled that I've had for probably 10 years, but don't have a squat rack anymore.

By far, my biggest battle with not only weights, but with Spirituall disciplines, is finding time.(and then continuing beyond a couple months)

I'm self employed, I generally get up at 6am and go to work at 7, work till about 5pm, then come home eat dinner and then either go back out and bid jobs thruout the rest of the evening, or on some days I don't have to bid jobs, so I spend the rest of the evening with my wife and kids, and a majority of the time they either have soccer, or gymnastics, or baseball practice.
My work is physically demanding, so it sure is hard to motivate myself to work-out, after working out

I really do want to do better time wise at both Spiritual and physical disciplines. Plus, like Aaron mentioned, the physical discipline helps one to stay sharp.

Im going to study out your example workout some more. I've never seen one like that.

Yes, time... that's the main issue for us old guys.

If you're pressed for time, you can just do a "big three" - squat, press, pull, do 3x5 for each, and call it good, two or three days a week. Each workout vary your press and pull (day 1, do bench press and barbell row, day 2 do overhead press and dumbbell row, etc).

If you don't have a squat rack or bench with a rack for bench pressing you can do deadlifts and overhead presses instead. you can vary the deadlifts (squat stance deadlift, aka the "deadsquat", is a good middle ground - grab bar with your arms between your knees, squat down into position, and then deadlift it, works your legs more like a squat than a deadlift, but you don't have to worry about getting the bar over your head and onto your shoulders). Or, you could go old skool, and pick up one side of the bar, lay it across your shoulders, then lift up the other side, do your set, then set it down the same way.

Instead of bench presses, you can do chest dips (like regular dips, you just need to be leaning slightly forward with your arms either slightly in front of your hips or directly alongside them, not behind them). Or, you can do pushups with a kid or two on your back, increase difficulty over time by elevating your feet, until you are doing handstand pushups.

In fact, you don't actually need any equipment, really, just got to figure out how to make the basic movements, and make them as difficult as you can.

[Esaias]

And yes, I'm a big fan of full body, heavy, compound lifts. (Heavy of course is relative to your actual strength, not relative to Arnold's...)

The only isolation work I bother with is curls (because... c'mon, who doesn't do heavy barbell curls?), maybe wrist curls if I think my forearms are lagging, and then whatever that isolation movement is that stabs a piece of rare grilled ribeye steak and brings it to my mouth.

Isolation work is really for either helping out a weak spot that's interfering with a compound lift, or "shaping" some part you think is lagging.

I prefer full body workouts because I just don't respond well mentally or physically to 45 minutes of "chest work", for example. Plus, if my whole body isn't nuked I just don't feel like I've actually worked out. Lots of people argue incessantly about which split routine is best, which full-body routine is best, isolation vs compounds, etc etc etc. Kind of like christians arguing about doctrine, come to think of it... Anyway, I'm a big believer that most of that debate is irrelevant, just about anything will work as long as certain basic parameters are met, and your diet and resting is taken care of. And stress, stress is like Kyptonite, it will zap your gainz. Cortisol, bad juju.

It's really whatever works for you. Once a person has been lifting for about 6 months to a year, they start modifying their workout anyway to personalise it, and after a year or so they're usually doing their own thing because they've discovered how THEY respond to exercise.

Ignore all the magazine workouts though, they are designed to give you busy work that doesn't work so you'll buy supplements thinking that's the missing secret key ingredient to looking like a genetic drug-addled freak in less than a year.