Are You Sabotaging Your Results In The Gym?
“Spending time doing bicep curls and tricep extensions without concentrating first getting as strong as hell on compound movements is like try to do algebra without first mastering the basics of arithmetic & multiplication”
I can step into any commercial gym and observe the amount of people who are actually training effectively is a very small minority.
It takes focus and a bloody persistence to get under a heavy barbell week after week and squat it to a good depth for repetitions. It’s far easier to jump on a leg extension and get a deep burn in your thighs bro.
Doing weighted chin-ups, feeling like your shoulders are going to rip out of their sockets as the extra kettlebell you’ve attached around your waist fights to pull you to the floor is a lot more gruelling than doing some bicep curls. Though the weighted chin-ups much more likely to add size to your arms.
Pulling a heavy barbell off of the floor whist remaining disciplined enough to keep a good back position is far less pleasant than sitting on a machine to do some leg curls.
Doing a Turkish getup where every part of your body is straining to keep in position is going to add much more of a cap on your shoulders than doing some lateral raises with a weight that’s less than the average large handbag. If you are a Jiu Jitsu person this will also carry over much better to your sport.
Life is busy, people work 40-60 hours per week, have family commitments so realistically will only be able to get to the gym on average of 3 times per week for 45-75 minutes per session.
You must ensure that your limited time is well spent if you really want to maximise your results.
To hell with the latest fitness magazines “Grow Huge Arms with This 6-Move Superset Workout”. These publications are shit and are notorious for recycling the same bullshit articles month after month, often contradicting themselves every other print.
Common Excuses For Avoiding Compound Movements
Excuse 1
“Oh but I don’t know how to do these lifts safely”
This is a common cop out.
Listen, if you want to learn to drive effectively you’d invest in driving lessons with a good instructor, the same applies to exercise.
It’s not a good given gift that every guy instinctively knows how to lift weights properly, although some would like to think the contrary.
If the gym is something you are going to seriously invest 3-5 hours per week it makes sense to hire a good coach to teach you the proper fundamentals.
Excuse 2
“I don’t have the flexibility or I’m too old to do these lifts”
This granny thinks your excuse is full of shit, click on the picture to go to an article about her..
The beauty of doing exercises with a full range of motion is over time this will actually help you build flexibility in these ranges of motion. Its a loaded stretch!
Its also possible that due to the nature of your desk bound job that you’ll need to invest some extra time daily in a stretching routine to help counteract the 8-12 hours sat slumped over a desk. 15-20 minutes daily can make a world of difference!
I understand that we all potentially have some structural limitations. Height, past history of injuries etc should be taken into consideration when designing an exercise programme.
There are also certainly variations of exercises that can suit a persons proportions better than others. For example a taller lifter with long femurs may get more out of a Front Squat when compared to a Back Squat.
There are few injuries I’ve come across in my 16 years as a trainer that’s stopped someone from being able to perform some version of compound exercises. I’ve worked people with history of back, shoulder and knee problems.
As with above it makes sense if you are concerned what variations are best for you to invest in a coach to help you design the most effective exercise programme for you.
A Credit To CrossFit (yeah, really)
People know i’m not a big fan of Crossfit. Their kipping antics are embarrassing and use of olympic lifts for multiple repetitions to the point of fatigue and form breaking down is a damn liability. On the plus side it certainly keeps plenty of physios in business though…
However I give prop’s where its due and one of the best Crossfit gym’s in London focuses primarily on getting people very strong first using good form over pure WOD performance and their results in competition are excellent because of this.
Crossfit in general has helped get the trend back to using big compound movements and this is why many a CrossFit enthusiast will be sporting quite a muscled physique (drugs aside). I also do like the community spirit they have been able to build, having a peer group to help push you do work harder than you would alone can certainly be a valuable tool (provided they encourage you to use good form).
Back To Basics, Back To Big Lifts
When I first started training I bought a copy of The Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was before the big expansion of information the internet, the cringe days of dial up modems.
What this book laid out well for me was the importance of building a foundation using compound exercises. Arnold cautioned about moving to too complex a workout regime before first building this foundation (yes he was a steroid taking adulterer, but he certainly knew a thing or two about building muscle).
This was further reinforced by my own personal training qualifications from WABBA.
Most average people have both limited time and no aspirations of becoming a competitive bodybuilder on stage, thus negating the need to overly specialise their exercise programme. Monday should not be national chest and biceps day.
If you really want to make some progress in the gym drop those puny 5 kilo dumbbells and get ready to lift something heavy.
A Caveat On Loading
Now when I say heavy it needs to be scaled to your current level of strength. It's not use trying to load the bar with a weight you have no chance in hell of controlling with good form, attempting this is EGO lifting. If you struggle to squat to a good depth with with 60 kg’s then you probably will need to begin at say 40-50 kilo’s and build from there.
If you are unable to do even one single chin-up where you start from a dead hang with your arms fully extended and then pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar (none of this half rep shit where you don’t unbend your arms fully) then your journey to a chin up might need to start with just doing negative repetitions (the lowering phase of the movement).
A Sample Programme
Below I outline a programme that’ll sticks to the principles of basic and big. It should suit most people and gives you the ideas of the principles I’m talking about.
If you work hard by progressively adding weight to the bar I guarantee that you’ll add some muscle and strength by using this.
If you are training to add some size then make sure you are eating enough, you must have a slight surplus of calories in order to give your body the raw materials to grow. Don’t worry about taking some magic weight gainer shake, save your money and just eat more real food.
Videos are linked into the exercise names
Monday - Programme A
A1 Barbell Squat- 4 Sets of 6 to 8 repetitions, 3010 tempo, rest 120 seconds between sets
A2 Medium Supinated Grip Chin Up- 4 Sets of 6 to 8 repetitions, 3011 tempo, rest 120 seconds between sets
B1 Barbell Forward Lunges Alternating 3 sets of 16 to 20 reps total, 2010 tempo, rest 90 seconds between sets
B2 Single Arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per arm, 3011 tempo, rest 90 seconds between sets, 15 seconds between arms
C Side Plank on Elbow 2 sets of maximum time per side, 90 seconds rest
Wednesday - Programme B
A1 Barbell Deadlift 4 Sets of 6 to 8 repetitions, 2010 tempo, rest 120 seconds between sets
A2 Close grip Barbell Press 4 Sets of 6 to 8 repetitions, 3010 tempo, rest 120 seconds between sets
B1 Barbell Good Morning 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, 3010 tempo, rest 90 seconds between sets
B2 High Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, 3010 tempo, rest 90 seconds between sets, 15 seconds between arms
C Bent Knee Hanging Leg Raises 2 sets of maximum repetitions, 90 seconds between sets
Friday - Repeat Programme A
Following Monday- Repeat Programme B
Following Wednesday- Repeat Programme A
Keep rolling the days over between the two programmes.
notes
*The tempo outlines the speed of each exercise. Every exercise has 4 phases to it: the lowering, time between lowering and lifting, lifting and time between lifting and lowering. If we use the example of a Incline press at a 4010 tempo, in this case you lower the bar to your chest for 4 seconds and lift the weight for 1 second. If we look at another example in this case a seated cable row at a 3011 tempo, in this instance you release the cable from your chest towards the machine for 3 seconds, immediately pull the handle back to your chest for 1 second, then finally pause with the handle on your chest for 1 second. What you need to remember with the tempo of each movement is that you should be lowering the weight at a slower speed than you lift it.
*A note on Pairings. A1 - A2 denotes you do these exercise together. Programme A as an example you complete 1 set of the Barbell Squat; rest for 120 seconds; then you complete 1 set of Chin-up. You again rest 120 seconds and start the Barbell Squat again. In this example, as there are 3 sets you complete this rotation 3 times.
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