Lift Heavy Lift Often
“My back can’t handle that!”
“My knees would explode!”
“I get too big too fast…” – that one is my personal favorite
J
But first, some house-keeping. I am not an exercise
physiologist or a doctor. I’m a guy that’s been lifting since high school, with
varying levels of consistency, and with surprisingly decent results. I’ve had
experience across a variety of training modalities, and consider myself a
student of exercise and fitness. In 2012 I decided to get a CrossFit
certification and ran a small box for a few years. I trained people with a full
spectrum of exercise experience and fitness levels – from young athletes to athletes
of yesteryear (aka old guys that were athletes 30 years ago), to fit moms and
moms yearning to be fit again. I’d like to think that everyone I've trained had a positive experience - here are a few reviews I've received recently (starting a training biz, BTW). My classes and one-on-one sessions were an
amalgamation of my over 20 years of experience working out mixed with CrossFit.
A pretty cool combination, if you ask me. So there are my credentials… read on
at your own risk. ;)
Whenever anyone asks me what I do at the gym, I usually give
them some long-winded answer that overtime I’ve learned to streamline to, “I
lift heavy and I lift often.” It’s true. I’ve done a lot of different programs
over the years – some of which I’ll list below for reference – and what they
all have in common is that they entail heavy, frequent weight lifting.
At 41, I weigh 180lbs and I’m 5’-8” without heels. #DadJokes.
I’ve never been overweight or had to deal with excess fat. I’ve never been big
on cardio, running, etc, although I dabble here and there. So by default I have
to credit my workouts to keeping me slim, because lord knows it isn’t diet,
lol.
To that end, you do have to eat appropriately to compliment
your heavy, frequent weight lifting. If you read my article on clean eating,
you know how critical of a role diet plays. If I ate right, I’d be jacked. I
don’t – so I’m just “in decent shape.” The cleaner your diet, the better and
longer lasting your gains…there’s no supplement that could circumnavigate that
simple fact. Eat more, and you’ll build more muscle. You might gain some fat in
the process, but that’s ok because once you build the muscle, it’s much easier
to lose the fat by simply cutting calories. If you want to lean out, eat less.
The heavy lifting will help minimize muscle breakdown while you burn fat, and
put your metabolism in overdrive mode.
Gym Vocabulary Words of the Day:
Split = division of exercises into different days. A popular
2-day split is Day 1: Push/Pull, Day 2: Legs. A popular 3-day split is Chest/Triceps,
Back Biceps, Shoulders/Legs.
Reps = short for repetition, these are the number of times a
movement is performed. I just performed 5 reps of bench presses.
Sets = number of times prescribed reps are performed. I just
finished 1 set of 10 pull ups.
Sets X Reps = typical way set/rep programming is
communicated. 4X10 means the prescribed routine calls for 4 sets of 10 reps.
So what do I do at the gym? Here comes the long-winded
answer.
For the past year, I’ve focused my efforts on 2-day splits
with cardio in between, focusing on either low rep, high sets, heavy weight, or
high rep, low sets, slightly less heavy weight. The constant is always heavy
weight.
For the past 2 months, I have been doing Dogg Crapp. I know –
strange name for a workout. In a nutshell, it’s an advanced program that
utilizes a 2-day split and the rest-pause method. Read all about it here.
It’s a rough workout that allows for heavy weights and high reps. I like it
because it’s a bit unorthodox with its methodology. Day one calls for chest, shoulders,
triceps, back width, and back thickness. Day 2 calls for biceps, forearms,
calves, quads, and hamstrings/glutes. Dogg Crapp programming tends to favor
machines over free-weights – again, unorthodox for a body building routine. The
reason for that is that this program utilizes rest-pause sets to near failure.
Using free-weights at failure is dangerous, particularly for those who lift
alone. So we use machines mostly. To understand how Dogg Crapp works, here’s an
example set for a machine chest press:
Set 1: Warm up at 90lbs x 10 reps
Set 2: 120lbs x 8
Set 3: 140lbs x 6
Work set: 165lbs x 7, rest 10 seconds, x5, rest 10 seconds,
x3. Total reps = 15. Move on to the next exercise.
Did I mention I hate cardio? Below are the 2 cardio routines
I swap out on cardio day.
Cardio 1:
-
30 minutes on the stair climber. 3 minutes at 7 resistance,
1 minute at 13 resistance.
-
21 minutes on the treadmill. Start at a run with
no incline, and end with a walk at high incline. It looks like this:
(speed/incline, change every 2 minutes) 8/0, 7.5/3, 7/6, 6.5/12, 6/15, 5.5/18,
5/18, etc…
Cardio 2:
A circuit consisting of various exercise combinations. It’s
a bit more haphazard, but over the course of an hour the workout could include
any combination of burpees, sprints, medicine ball slams, rope slams, planks,
shuffles, sit ups, sled work, and my favorite, tire flips.
I have another 6 weeks of Dogg Crapp to shuffle through. In
a few weeks when I switch things up, I’ll come back and update you with the
plan for the next 12 weeks.
Some of my favorite workouts:
Circling back to the opening quotes, the common misconception is that heavy lifting is detrimental to your joints and back. The fact is that a slow and steady progression to heavy compound lifting will have the opposite effects: your back will be stronger and more stable, and your joints and ligaments with will strengthen to support the loads. The key, of course, is slow and steady progression. If you need help understanding what that means and how to get there, hit me up.
What does your workout currently look like? Comment below!
What does your workout currently look like? Comment below!
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