*face palm*
The past couple days we’ve been talking getting in shape for summer – you know, different things that can help you look good in a swimsuit and/or with no shirt on.
By now, we know that intense circuit training is the best way to get started on this, as it’s gonna help you blast fat off you (giving you definition, helping you attain that “v-taper”, and making you highly injury-resistant to boot).
But when it’s time to really put the muscle on, there’s nothing that’s gonna beat plain, old-school heavy lifting.
Sure, there are plenty of dudes out there who make huge claims and tell you that they can show you the easy way out. Hate to tell you this, but they’re bullshitting you. If you wanna get big, you need three basic things in your workout:
- lifting heavy-ass weights
- volume (you’re gonna have to do a bunch of reps in total)
- density (getting a lot done in a short-ish amount of time)
This means hitting new PRs for 3RMs and 5RMs, heavy sets of 6-8 on basic compound exercises, and volume that puts you in the 40-70 rep range for larger bodyparts (shoulders & chest, back, legs, etc).
BUT, the one thing you *DO NOT WANT* to do is lose out on all that conditioning you just did, right?
I mean, didn’t you just spend a bunch of time busting your ass on the hardcore circuit training to get yourself in shape? You don’t wanna let that all go to waste, do you?
And at the same time, while you’re lifting heavy to put more muscle on, you still wanna stay relatively lean, right?
Well, you can’t go balls-out on conditioning while you’re doing your heavy strength work, because you need to save your CNS, recovery abilities, and effort for the heavy stuff. But, you *can* do some real basic ‘maintenance’ work that will keep you in check.
(This is what I have you doing in my upcoming “Body Armor – the 2nd Chapter”.)
First of all, start your workout off w/GPP. (This should be no surprise to any of y’all that have seen my workouts.) Then, your workouts will be made up generally of heavy, compound movements for strength and size.
But, between each strength exercise, toss in a quick bout of conditioning. This doesn’t have to be anything crazy – maybe do 20-30 burpees, jump rope for 1-2 mins, do some shadowboxing…that sort of thing. Anything that is short (usually a couple mins or less) and gets your heart going real hard, real fast.
This jacks up your breathing and heartrate, and will help keep it there during your next exercise. Do this between every exercise, and you’re keeping it up overall through the whole workout.
Cool thing about this is that it not only helps you maintain some of that cardio, but it also burns more calories, keeps your metabolism revved up post-workout, and helps you build more work capacity.
It’s like a win-win-win-win-win type of scenario.
Pretty sweet, huh?
Try it out and lemme know what you think.
More cool stuff coming your way tomorrow.
And mark your calendars – next Tuesday (24-May-11), “Body Armor – the 2nd Chapter” will be released.
You’re soooooo gonna dig it. (And you’re not gonna wanna hit summer without it!
Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins