Many times, I’ve told people that my best workouts are the shortest ones. Despite my affinity for working quickly, I’ve been having some monster long workouts as of late. Well, I think that’s changing. After Perform Better’s Functional Training Summit, I re-wrote my workouts to increase efficiency, and I’m extremely satisfied with what I’ve come up with. I’ve been doing more work in a shorter period of time, and am sufficiently kicking my own butt. Today’s workout was amazing. I’m not going to explain the reasoning behind every single exercise, but I would like to put up an example of the programming I’ve been doing for myself, and try to do for other people. There are a number of reciprocal supersets on this program, and after lifting with straight sets for quite a while, I now see the light. If you don’t already super-set, you better start doing them. I’ve included all working sets, reps, and loading, but not warm-up reps.
I started with some foam rolling of the upper body, performed halos, scapular wallslides, and a thoracic/scapular mobilization.
- Chin Ups, 5×5 (first 2 sets with 45lbs, last 3 with 55lbs, dumbbells on a weight belt around my waist)
- Clapping Push Ups, 5×5
- Dumbbell 3-Point Row, 5x (10,10,8,8,8) all with 95lb dumbell.
- Speed Bench Press, 5×3. 1-3 with 135lbs, 4-5 with 185lbs
- Unilateral Fat Grip Standing Cable Row 3x(12,10,8) with 80lbs, 90lbs, 100lbs. Alternate sides until all sets complete.
- Half -Kneeling Cable Lift 3×8, 40lbs. Alternate sides until all sets complete.
- Grappler Press, 3×8, Olympic bar(45lbs) +25lb plate, Alternate both arms
- TRX Body Weight Row, 3×10
Finisher, 5 minutes EDT superset:
- Curls: 65lb Barbell, Wide Grip.
- Press: 95lb barbell, ring fingers on rings (I do all my pressing with this grip.)
I don’t think I’ve ever been as sweaty as I was just from ‘lifting weights’ for those people that claim there is no cardiovascular benefit to weight training, you’re doing it wrong. I was a sweaty mess. What I’m most proud of is the fact that I got all of this work done in an hour and ten minutes. The first superset took up the longest period of time, maybe around 15 minutes, and then after that I flew. In fact, the two single-exercise sets took about 5 minutes total, to do 12 sets; It was epic.
Now, this is probably a workout that I’ll repeat again for a while, as Mondays are my Pull(RE)/Push(DE) days. I’ve found that the repetition effort/dynamic effort combination provides both a nice contrast and an evil little kick, as my heart was pumping hard the entire time. I may take the time to post all of my workouts this week, just so I can demonstrate an entire week of my madness.
Now, however, I’m exhausted. I chowed down as I wrote this, and I’m ready to shower, stretch, and get in bed.
Harold Gibbons 