There is a lot of focus on social media of posting a 'Workout of the Day' which can be great if you are looking for quick inspiration but I believe that skipping from session to session is not the best use of your time and, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to mix things up to keep the body guessing.
Muscle adaptation occurs through progressive over load. You can achieve this in a number of ways including:
- adding more weight to the exercise
- increasing the number of reps you managed with the same weight in the previous workout
- increasing the time under tension - for example, on a squat taking 3 seconds to lower the weight down and one second to come back up or adding a pause at the bottom of your rep
Here are 2 whole-body workouts that you can try for the next 5-8 weeks, alternating between the 2. Personally I like to change my program every 5-6 weeks or have a down week with minimal training to keep the body and more importantly the mind fresh.
Focus: Strength
Tip: Form is key, up the weight as the weeks progress. Not every weight will go up every session, focus on small improvements...you will plateau - but don't stress! Note down all your weights so that you can keep track of your progress and also so that you know roughly what weight to start with at the beginning of each exercise instead of losing time trying to work out your base weight.
SESSION 1
- A1: SQUATS - 5 Reps x 5 Sets
- A2: PULL UPS - 5 Reps x 5 Sets
Rest 3 minutes between sets
- B1: ROMANIAN DEADLIFT - 5 Reps x 4 Sets (Tempo 3-1-1-0 - 3 seconds eccentric, 1 second pause, 1 second up and no rest at the top)
- B2: SHOULDER PRESS - 5 Reps x 4 Sets
Rest 2 minutes between sets
- C1: LEG EXTENSION - 8 Reps x 3 Sets
- C2: SWISS BALL HAMSTRING - 8 Reps x 3 Sets
- C3: BI ARNOLD CURL AND PRESS - 8 Reps x 3 Sets
No rest between sets
SESSION 2
- A1: BENCH PRESS - 5 Reps x 5 Sets
- A2: DEADLIFT - 5 Reps x 5 Sets
Rest 2 minutes between sets
- B1: BENT OVER ROW - 5 Reps x 4 Sets (Tempo 1-3-1-1 - one second to lift the weight into position, 3 seconds pause at the top, 1 second eccentric, 1-second pause at the bottom)
- B2: RAISED SPLIT SQUAT - 6 Reps x 4 Sets
Rest 2 minutes between sets
- C1: HIP THRUSTERS – 12 Reps x 3 Sets
- C2: INCLINE DB PRESS – 12 Reps x 3 Sets
- C3: INCLINE DB ROW – 12 Reps x 3 Sets
No rest between sets
Good luck if you are giving these a go, let me know how you get on!