It’s time to get in the zone. If you aren’t working out on a consistent base, now is the time. There’s nobody in the world that doesn’t have 30 minutes to spare. Yet almost 80% of the world is in poor physical health. All it takes is 30 minutes a day to change that. What’s your excuse? It’s time to activate your sense of discipline.
Everything you’ve been told about working out is likely wrong. As I’ll explain tomorrow, exercise is about building muscle, not losing fat. Stop wasting time jogging. Stop wasting time on the elliptical. The kitchen is for burning fat. The gym is for building muscle.
Whether you’re male or female, if you’re in the gym you should be lifting weights or sprinting.
You can start small and work up to bigger goals.
Everything great starts small. A few of my favorite goals to work up to:
– 15 pullups in a row
– 36 pushups in a row
– 50 pushups in 90 seconds
– 100 pullups in 10 minutes
– 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats in 30 minutes
Starting small and working your way up to more difficult goals will build your confidence. That confidence allows you to take on more. If you’re able to work your way up to achieving the goals above, I guarantee you’ll be more fit than 90% of the population.
The Beef Liver(s) of Exercises
If you have a gym membership or workout at home and don’t know where to start, I’ve made a list of the six most important exercises that anyone should incorporate as a staple part of their routine to efficiently build muscle. You can think of them as the beef liver of exercises. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Whether you’re at the gym or at home, you don’t need extremely fancy equipment to begin incorporating these exercises into your workout routine. Let’s get started.
Row
The row is a staple back exercise. This exercise works the rhomboids, posterior deltoids, and biceps. Other than the deadlift, this is one of the most important pulling movements you can do.
A basic row is done by grabbing the barbell with your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart, with your butt and chest out before beginning the movement. With the barbell in hand, bend down by about 60 degree, a little higher than fully parallel. While keeping your chest out, pull the barbell towards your stomach, aiming for the belly button.
You can do rows with any equipment. My favorite row is with a barbell. If you don’t have access to a barbell, you can also do rows with dumbbells, kettlebells, or even resistance bands.
Chest Press
While rows will help you develop the posterior part of your body, chest presses will help develop the interior part of your body, including your chest, front head of your shoulders, and triceps. You want to spend a majority of your time doing the chest press at two different angles: flat and inclined. An inclined press will help target more of your upper chest, while a flat press will help target more of your lower chest.
To perform a basic chest press, lie right under a barbell bringing the bar over your nipple line. Your elbows should neither be too flared out nor too tight to your ribs. You should be seeking to get them at a 45 degree angle between your body and your elbows. When you move the bar up and down, you want to be looking to move it up and down as perpendicular the the ground as possible. The same movement applies to an inclined press, with a slight difference of aiming for a couple of inches above your nipple line.
Even if you do not have a barbell, there are several variations of the chest press you can incorporate with all types of equipment, including dumbbells, bands, and cables.
And if you don’t have access to any of those either, the simple push up will do.
Squat
With the squat alone, you can pretty much target your entire lower body including your glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and lower back.
Squats are a natural movement that anyone can perform with or without equipment. Doing heavy squats can help strengthen your central nervous system, increase your testosterone, and stimulate growth hormone production.
To do a correct barbell squat, place your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart on the barbell. The bar should be resting on your traps, NOT on your neck. As you bend your knees, be sure your sticking both your chest and butt out to protect your lower back and maintain a neutral spine. As your lowering yourself down, make sure you keep your weight on your heels instead of on your toes. This is to ensure you aren’t putting too much pressure on your knees.
Don’t be afraid to allow your back to bend instead of keeping it perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Like our other exercise, you should be seeking to lower and raise the bar in a perfectly straight trajectory. If you need assistance doing weighted squats, I recommend putting some sort of platform or bench behind your heels for you to squat down to.
Pull Up
Pull ups are the best exercise for working on your lats and biceps. If you’re looking to build that v-shaped frame, pull ups are your best friend.
With pull ups, you want to take a wider overhand grip. Aim for a grip that will allow you to make a Y-shape with your arms. Stick your chest out and pull yourself up while keeping your elbows flared out until your chin fully clears the bar, and then lower yourself back down.
If you can’t do a full pull up yet, you can work your way up with lat pull downs using resistant bands or a pull up machine. If you can do pull ups, set a goal of doing 15 pull ups in a row.
Deadlift
Deadlifts work more muscles than any other exercise. In addition to being a lower back and hamstring killer, deadlifts also work your quads, inner thighs, rhomboids, and traps. Similar to squats, lifting heavy deadlifts will allow you to stimulate more testosterone and growth hormone production.
Start by standing in front of a loaded barbell with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart. Stick your butt and chest out bend your knees reach down and grip the barbell right in front of your shins.
Look up as you drive your chest up and hinge your hips inward. Lower the bar back down while still keeping your head up. As you go down you have the choice of tapping the plates to the ground or stopping midway down your shins. Then come back up and repeat.
Shoulder Press
Shoulder presses will allow you to work the front and lateral parts of your shoulder, while also working your triceps, traps, and rotator cuffs. Shoulder presses will help widen your upper body. When performing a shoulder press with a barbell, grip the barbell wider than shoulder width with your arms. Lower the bar in a straight line under your chin before returning the bar back up. You should avoid lowering the bar behind your head. Stick to keeping the barbell in front of you.
Again, if you don’t have a barbell, you can do a shoulder press with dumbbells, kettle bells, or resistance bands.
Workout Program
I’m also sharing with you a simple full-body workout program. Are you ready to turn your physique into Olympic-class material? No more excuses.
I think full body workouts are the most effective form of workout, especially if you are short on time. They allow you to train hard and only require 3 days a week.
Full body workouts are great for any experience level. Below, I’ve provided a weekly workout program for lifters of all levels. It is designed to target major muscle groups and emphasizes the use of progressive resistance.
This workout program is designed for 3 days a week, allowing you to rest at least one day in between sessions. Below is a sample schedule:
- Sunday – Workout A
- Tuesday – Workout B
- Thursday – Workout C
A note on progressive sets
How to work progressive sets
You will notice that some exercises are annotated as “progressive”. This just means that you should seek to work your way up to maximum resistance, with the first sets as warm ups. For instance, in a progressive set 5 x 10, set 1 should be 50% resistance, set 2 should be 75% resistance, and sets 3-5 should be 100% resistance.
Specifically, if you’re max weight for doing 10 reps of a certain exercise is 100 pounds, then the sets will look like the following:
- Set 1 – 50 pounds (50%) x 10 reps
- Set 2 – 75 pounds (75%) x 10 reps
- Sets 3-5 – 100 pounds (100%) x 10 reps
How much weight to use per set
For a given exercise, use the same weight for each set and look to add in 5-10 pound increments. As you are able to increase your weights for each exercise, be sure to track your progress. This will serve as a great point of reference that will allow you to determine where you are improving and where you need more work.
Rest between sets
Rest about 30 to 60 seconds between sets.
Find a workout program below
| CA Workout Program | ||
|---|---|---|
| Workout A | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Squats (Progressive) | 4 | 8-10 |
| Chest Press (Progressive) | 4 | 10-12 |
| Row (Ramped) | 4 | 10-12 |
| Close Grip Push Ups | 3 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Curls | 3 | 10 |
| Dumbell Lunges | 4 | 10-12 |
| Pull Ups | 3 | 10-12 |
| Sit Ups | 3 | 25 |
| CA Workout Program | ||
|---|---|---|
| Workout B | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Deadlifts (Progressive) | 4 | 12 |
| Shoulder Press | 2 | 8-12 |
| Close Grip Inclined Press | 3 | 8-10 |
| Inverted Rows | 3 | 10-15 |
| Dips | 3 | 10-20 |
| Side Lateral Raises | 3 | 10 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 12-15 |
| Plank | 3 | 60 seconds |
| CA Workout Program | ||
|---|---|---|
| Workout C | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Squats (Progressive) | 3 | 6 |
| Squats | 1 | 20 |
| Incline Dumbbell Bench Press | 3 | 10 |
| One Arm Dumbbell Row | 3 | 10-15 |
| Chest Plate Squeeze | 3 | 15 |
| Skullcrushers | 3 | 10 |
| Barbell Curls | 3 | 10 |
| Leg Curls | 3 | 12-15 |
| Ab Wheel Rollout | 3 | 10-15 |
