5 Best Tips For Your Workout

I just received an email today from Frank – and in this email Frank wanted to know why he doesn’t have the power he needs to push heavy weights in his chest workout. It’s an interesting question, and I want to share it with you, because my answer will show you how to plan your workouts to get the most out of them!

This is a copy of Frank email (with his permission).

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Hi Martin,

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the good information you provide with your tips and your newsletter. I loved your tips and try to make all of them my new way of life.

I don’t know if you can answer to my question. When I train my chest, it’s very hard for me to be able to push heavy for my workout.  I’m pretty good with the rest of the body parts.

My split routine is like this:

Monday: Back/Core

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Shoulders/Core

Thursday: Biceps

Friday: Triceps/Core

Saturday: Chest

Sunday: OFF

Do you think this is a good split for my routine?

I usually do 5 set of 3 exercises for each body part?

Each set is around 12-15 reps and I keep the same program for 12 weeks.

Thank you

Frank

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I can see right away that a few things are not right with Frank’s routine.

First, let’s talk about how Frank split his workouts to work different body parts. It depends on what you want to accomplish, but for nearly everyone, heavy strength workouts out 6 days a week is too much. I might do this when I’m training for a bodybuilding tournament, but otherwise I do my strength training 4 days a week and I stay in amazing shape all year round.

Second, the idea of training different muscle groups on different days makes sense – it really hits those areas hard and then gives them plenty of time to repair and recover, which is when new muscle mass gets laid down.  That’s the point of strength training after all.  But Frank has taken this a little too far.  Instead of breaking down the muscle groups into, for example, biceps one day and triceps another, plan instead for a ‘legs’ day, an ‘arms’ day, an ‘abs’ day and so on.  This lets you have a little more variety in your sets, and will let you train a little harder for a little longer.

Remember that when you train your shoulders as a ‘primary’ muscle, your triceps will be working as well as ‘secondary’ muscles. If on another day, you target your triceps on its own, then the next day you train your chest  and your shoulders and triceps are again involved as a secondary muscles. That means your triceps are actually working hard three days on the week – by the last day, they’re dead!  You don’t have any power to push heavy. This is the mistake in Frank’s program design.

Third, doing 5 sets of 3 exercises for your any single small muscle area (like triceps) is way too much. That will give you a total of 15 sets and if each set is for 12 to15 reps, that’s 180 to 225 efforts for a single muscle area!

15 Sets for a big muscle group like chest, back or quads is fine, because of all the ‘secondary’ muscles that share the load. For smaller muscles like biceps, triceps, or calves, stick to just 8 to 12 sets.

Fourth, make sure you rest enough to be able to recover from your last workout. That’s when your muscles repair and build new muscle mass. If you don’t let them rest, your progress will slow and you could even get injured. Trying to keep going when your muscles feel fatigued is a sure way to get injured, and it’s a sign you haven’t given your muscles enough time to recover.  ‘Mixing up’ your program can help too; doing a pattern of shoulders – legs – chest and arms – abs, for example, means that you are not stressing secondary muscles too workouts in a row. Keep consecutive days of strength training focused on body parts that are ‘far apart’ or isolated from each other.

Fifth, Frank has been sticking with the same program for too long. Keeping a program going for more than 6 weeks isn’t going to work. Your muscles adjust to your workout and you won’t progress. Your body gets on “cruise control” and doesn’t need to work as hard to achieve the workout – and that means fewer results.

I like to change my programs every 4 to 6 weeks. It depends what phase I’m in (e.g. breaking plateau, active recovery, balance and nervous system, cutting phase, bulking phase etc.).  You don’t need to worry too much about this level of detail, but as soon as you start to feel like you aren’t making the gains you want, it’s time to change your program and challenge your muscles in a new way.

Here’s a sample program that I use:

Monday: Chest/Triceps/Core (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)

Tuesday: Quads/Calf/Core

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Back/Biceps (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)

Friday: Hamstring/Shoulders/Core

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: OFF or Cardio

I like to work my Chest and Triceps on the same day as well as my Back and Biceps; this means I don’t forget about those ‘secondary’ muscles!

So let’s thank Frank for writing in, because like many of you he’s working hard and trying to get results, and asked for help when he felt that he wasn’t getting the best results.  Chances are some of you have experienced the same thing. That’s why I’m here. Thanks to Frank, we’ve been able to talk about what he – and you – can do to get your strength training back on track and get the best results possible!

In my Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss I design a full program for you for 4 months. Everything is done with pictures and description of each exercises. This is based on years of practice on me, and on my clients. I bring you the best exercises planned in the most effective way to give you the best results!

You can read more about the system right here