Alternate Saturday-Pull Day

 Pre Training

This day is utilized as an alternate to the push day on Saturdays previously discussed in the blog. This can be utilized on opposite weeks or when your upper body is too sore to complete the push day. 

When focusing on this day just like the push maintain a light weight and higher reps to achieve peak blood flow in muscles already utilized throughout the week. This not only helps overall growth of the muscles but it also helps recovery. 

Training Saturday- Pull Day

Before conducting training, properly warm up your shoulders and lower body. Complete arm circle rotations both forwards and backwards to warm up your shoulders. Then complete a couple sets of air squats to properly warm up your legs if you plan on deadlifting. 

For the first exercise complete 3 sets of body weight pull ups until failure. This will give your back and arms blood flow before completing the other exercises. 

Next complete seated rows at a wide grip variation utilizing light weight. Complete 4 sets of 12-15 reps.

Next complete 6 sets of deadlifts. If you have already deadlifted on your designated back day do not do these again. If you did not deadlift on the designated backs day go ahead and complete 6 sets of 4 reps for deadlifts. 

On pull days it is a good idea to incorporate accessory exercises such as Bulgarian splitt squats, calf raises, hamstring curls and quad extensions. 

First do a set of Bulgarian split squats with no weight. If you are more advanced go for 25+ reps on each leg. If you are not that advanced into a workout program aim for 12 reps on each leg or complete until you've reached failure.

Utilize a light weight super set with quad and hamstring extensions keeping the sets to 5 total sets for each. While completing these sets make sure you are completing at least 20 reps in total.

Finally add calf raises to the workout by splitting the variations between seated and standing calf raises. For the standing calf raises complete 4 sets of over 20 reps during each set. For the seated use a moderately heavy weight while completing 4 sets for a total of 12+ reps. These exercises should focus primarily on form and blood flow. 

If any of your muscles are stills ore from exercises completed throughout the week tis a good idea to not target them and make sure they are fully recovered before preforming any exertion again. It typically takes a muscle group 72 hours to fully heal.

Another suggestion is incorporating two of the rest and recovery days on Saturday and Sunday if you notice you're not recovering well enough. Especially for beginners, if you're new to any workout plan your body is going to feel extremely sore. Give it time to rest to get the most out of every single workout. 

Diet- Caloric Deficit

 Caloric Deficit

    Just like the caloric surplus post you want to be able to determine specific things about your body before trying to reach a caloric deficit. Make sure you try and attain your overall body fat percentage, your weight, height and most importantly your activity level. You will be able to achieve a caloric deficit much easier when you are active then when you are sedentary just trying to lose weight. Also, actively working out or doing cardiovascular exercises are a great way to boost your metabolism. 

When training for a caloric deficit  I recommend training fasted. This means lifting/exercising with just water and maybe a pore workout supplement in your system. The reason behind this is to help your body use the glycogen that's already stored in your body first. you can do this by lifting fasted  then doing cardio. As your body runs out of glycogen for fuel it will start to use fat cells already in the body for energy. This is a great method to lose weight, and a great way to boost your metabolism. 

Some ideas for meals ( be aware these are general ideas and not set for  anyone specifically) for breakfast one whole egg or two mixed with liquid egg whites. Egg whites are a great source of protein with low carbs and very low calories. You wan to restore your glycogen after your workout so low sugar or no sugar oats works great. 

For lunch consume another high protein low caloric fuel such as chicken breast. For a side consider maybe a half cup or one serving of rice. Rice is high in good carbs low in fats and low in calories overall with a great source of iron.

For a snack try consuming rice cakes. Some of the flavors taste great, especially when dieting and they are extremely low in carbs. Rice Cakes are a great way to curve the cravings you might feel throughout the day.

Then for dinner keep your meal high in protein and healthy fats and a little lower in carbs. Sweet potatoes or again rice is a good source of carbs in low calories. Make sure to be eating vegetables for your nutrients with every meal throughout the day.

One of the biggest struggles when trying to lose weight are liquid calories. Liquid calories are terrible for you. Many drinks contain very high calories at little servings long with high sugar contents. Liquid calories are dangerous because they don't fill you up like normal foods but many contain just as many if not more calories then the food you regularly consume. Also incorporate at least one re feed day throughout the week,. Don't cheat throughout the whole day with terrible meals because if you over consume just for one day it might mess your caloric deficit up for a couple days and for those couple days you aren't making any progress. One cheat meal on one day of the week shouldn't hurt through and its a good mental boost to keep in mind while you're dieting throughout the week. 

Diet-Caloric Surpuls to Gain Weight

 Caloric Surplus

If you're looking to gain weight there are many factors you need to be aware of before you start this process. To gauge how many calories you accurately need to eat to gain a pound, you need to determine certain factors about your body. One of the most important things when determine the correct caloric intake needed is body fat. There are multiple instruments you can utilize to determine your body fat %. You need this information as BMI isn't an accurate way of portraying your physique needs because it doesn't  take in account  your body fat. It only takes your weight height age and gender.

If you're not able to calculate your body fat percentage that's okay you can use websites like health line . com  to at least get somewhat of an idea on your caloric needs to maintain your weight or gain weight. 

Once you find a specific number and determine your macros ( % of facts protein and carbs for the total calories needed). You can then determine some meals and foods to eat while trying to put on weight. 

I will go through some good ideas on how to eat to gain weight. Be aware that these options are being discussed without specifically being created for someone. These ideas are strictly general ideas to gain weight.

In the morning you should aim to eat a high amount of carbs and protein before you workout. This will make sure that the energy being used for activity is through food and not already stored in your body.

An idea for a morning meal is oats and a protein shake.

Directly after training look for a meal high in protein and carbs again with some type of vegetable for nutrients and digestion. Something like chicken , white potatoes, and broccoli works well here. 

I would then try and focus on eating this same exact meal later. For your final meal of the night focus on high carbs again with potatoes or even pasta. Include a red meat and a vegetable of your choosing. Also when you're bulking don't be afraid to eat snacks throughout the day like cereal with whole milk, and peanut butter. Peanut butter is very high in calories per servings. The serving size is only two able spoons for around d 190 calories. Just 3-4 servings of peanut butter throughout  the day is an easy way to get your calories to increase while trying to bulk. Also eating before bed is another good way to maintain your weight as while you're sleeping your body is fasting for 6-8 hours. 

Sunday- Rest/Recovery/Stretching

 Training

There will be no active physical training completed on Sunday. You can use this rest and recovery day any day of the week to break up your workout split when you are feeling over exerted. Sundays usually work best for most people when looking fat a normal work week though. For this day you want to focus on getting as much sleep as you can. Your recovery hormones are produced while your body is sleeping so if you can,  sleep in. These rest days can be utilized to positively effect your workouts for next week if completed correctly. 

Training Rest Days-Sundays

It's a good idea to use your rest days to relax and also stretch. Stretching can assist the recovery process after intense workouts. My suggestion is you have a timer or a stop watch while you're holding your stretches from position to position. 

You can Alsop incorporate fasted cardio on these rest days. Make are sure the cardio isn't too intense, this works perfect for people who are trying to lose weight or get leaner. I will have another blog describing ideas on how to get lean and how to gain weight. 

After you complete fasted cardio or wake up focus on starting your stretching routine. It shouldn't take long, implement at least a 20 minute to 25 minute window to complete your stretches.

Heres a simple stretching routine that will help improve overall flexibility and recovery. Start by sitting  down on the ground with both legs together. Take your hands and reach for the top of your feet stretching your hamstrings and lower back. (Hold each of these positions for at least 10 seconds.) Next spread both of your feet apart reaching both arms to your left leg. Then alternate tor eating both of your arms to your right leg. This will help stretch your lower back as well as stretch your hamstring. Next sit in a Buddha like posting with your knees on your inner thigh pushing doe. This position will help stretch your groin. 

Stand up with both legs together reach down as far as possible stretching your hamstrings and lower back. Now again spread your feet reaching both arms to one leg at a time. Alternate between your left and right legs. 

Take one arm across your chest, and place the forearm of your opposite arm that's not crossing your chest against the elbow of the arm that is crossing your chest. Pull the arm so its putting force on the elbow and in return stretching your triceps and chest. 

Finally place both arms behind your lower back interlocking fingers, slightly bend at the hips and take your interlocked hands as far up your back as you can.

This will complete your stretching routine  feel free to change or add to the routine as seen fit. 

Saturday- Push day

Pre Training 

Saturdays can be manipulated however you feel comfortable. If you're upper body is too sore to do a push day go ahead and try a pull day or maybe another lower body day. Use Saturdays to hit lagging body parts again throughout  the week to incorporate more blood flow into that muscle group. Increasing the blood flow will bring nutrients to those lagging body parts and help recovery as well as over all growth. 

If you are not fully recovered at all or feel drained give your CNS a break and take two consecutive rest days. 

Training- Push/Upper Body

 Before completing the push day make sure you are properly warming up your shoulders and neck as you should before any upper body movement. Push days on Saturdays should focus on blood flow and more high rep movements focused on form as you will be benching again on Monday.

Training- Saturday Push Day

Start of by completing dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets of 15+ reps. If you  did dumbbell shoulder  press  on Thursday for  shoulders change a barbell press for today. 

Next completely barbell bench press for reps around 65% of your max. Stick to doing 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. Doing shoulder press first will properly warm  your shoulders and upper body for the barbell presses. next you will be incorporating incline bench press. If you did dumbbell  for chest  on Monday while incline, use barbell today and vice versa. 

Next you will do a very light super set of  front/ side raises. Do 3-4 sets with 25+ reps for each set. Then  you can start incorporating a couple exercises for arms. 

Start with dumbbell skull crushers for 5 sets of 20+ reps. This exercise should be different than the barbell  skull crushers completed on a  normal arm day.

Lastly do standing alternating dumbbell curls with light weight. Complete a total of 5 sets each set completing 20-25 reps. 

If you don't feel completely recovered before completing the push day make sure you use even lighter weights. 

I believe for the best results every other Saturday you're switching your workouts from upper body to lower body. I will make another post on how a lower body/ pull day looks on Saturdays compared to the push/ upper body Saturday.

Alternating Saturdays workouts will give your body ample amount of time to recover. Around 72 hours your muscles for each group should be close to fully repaired or ready for more workload. 

Friday- Back training

Pre Training

This  is another day where heavy compound movements will be completed. Make suer you're properly recovered from the previous workouts as well as properly hydrated before completing the following exercises. Sometimes if your legs don't fully recover you can complete the back d ay and save deadlifts for Saturday. IF your hamstrings are too sore listen to your body and wait another day.

Training

You will be recruiting your lower leg muscles and your upper body muscles throughout the day today. Be sure to complete shoulder warm ups with the arm circles as previously discussed as well as your lower leg warmup routine that's been discussed in my leg day routine blog.

Friday- Back Day

The first exercise will be deadlifts. Deadlifts are the number 1 overall muscle/ strength/ testosterone boosters out of all lifts. Deadlifts are critical to building a good foundation and good muscle all around. 

Complete one or two warm up sets with a a light to moderate weight utilizing the same exact form you will use for your working sets. After warming up complete 6 sets of 4 reps for deadlifts.

After this move to lat pull downs. Use a m moderate weight here completing 5 sets with around 10-12 reps and a final set of 15+ reps for a burnout. 

Next do seated rows with a close grip accessory. Complete 6 sets of 10-12 reps. Your back is utilized throughout your day every day for almost your whole life. It needs a lot of volume and weigh to grow.

Next do one arm dumbbell rows as heavy as you can go for 5 sets of 8-10 reps.

Next find a t bar row machine and complete 4 sets of 6-8 reps with a  heavy weight. This machine is a rather safe machine as if the weight is too heavy you can just set it down without trying to lift it all the way. I recommend trying to go as heavy as possible for this  reason. 

Another great exercise to implement into your back training  days are weighted pull ups. If you can't do weighted pull ups just stick with body weight pull ups and if you aren't able to do those utilize a resistance band attached to the full top bar and one of your feet to assist you drug pull ups.

Finally complete bent over rows with a  barbell. This exercise does put strain on the lower back so be mindful on your form and the weight you chose. I recommend 5 sets of 8-10 reps. 

Thursday- Shoulder pump

 Pre Training

Acquire adequate rest per usual. Make sure your hydrated and properly recovered before completing the workout.

Training 

When completing a shoulder workout its is critical to focus  on form and not over-all weight when dealing with a majority of these exercises. A lot of athletes try to press too much weight or don't properly warm their shoulders/ neck up before  training their shoulders or traps. This can result in injury if not done correctly. Do the normal shoulder arm circles/ along with neck holds with your chin to chest, ear to shoulder left and right, and the  head all the way back to properly warm up.

Thursday- Shoulders

The first exercise will  be a super set with side dealt dumbbell raises and front dealt raises. These exercises are meant to be preformed with a lighter weight controlling the range of motion. Do 5 sets aiming for 20+ reps for every  single set. If you can't get  to 20 reps without failure lower the  weigh in  5 pound increments.

 Next will be dumbbell or barbells shoulder press. Complete 1 set for 12+ reps to properly focus on the form and muscles being recruited throughout the movement. Next do 3 sets of 10-12 with 1 final set of 6-8 reps with a heavier weight.

The next exercise will be shrugs, focusing on  the trap muscles. Use a moderate weight and complete 4 sets of 10-12 with a 5th set being a burnout of 20+ reps.

The next two exercises will focus on the rear delta of the shoulders. Do seated dumbbell reverse flies, Use a moderate weight for 5 sets of 10-12+ reps but no more than 20 reps. If you're able to do 20 reps the weight is too light.

Standing rope face pulls for sets of 15. Do a total of 5 sets, focusing on the stretch and squeeze of the movement as rear deal'ts are a difficult muscle to feel working. 

Finally you will be hitting an exercise called upright rows, disclaimer if this exercise feels painful or uncomfortable on your shoulders substitute it for something else such has Arnold shoulder press. 

When completing up right rows make sure to keep your feet planted and don't use them for momentum to get the weight up. Complete a total of 5 sets with reps ranging from 10-12 for the first 3 sets. Aim for 6-8 reps for the remaining two sets. 

Wednesday- Leg Training

 Pre Training

I recommend a high dose of carbs before completing heavy compound movements such as squats and deadlifts. Also make sure to have a belt if your doing work over 70% of your max. This will help keep your core tight and back stable while completing the reps.

Training

Before hitting lower body you want to make sure your hips are loose and ready to be utilizied. You also want to try and get blood flow into the bottom half of your body. First start by doing alternating leg lifts while standing. Find something to hold onto and swing each leg separately as high as you can forward stopping before you go past your other heel on the decline of the kick. Then  do the same thing but swinging your leg completely backwards and stopping on your decline before you pass your still foots toes. Also complete a set of air squats for around 25 reps.

Wednesday- Legs

Squats! Squats are going to be the biggest exercise for overall leg growth and stimulation. For the first set make sure you're preforming the movement as if there were a moderate weight on the bar but keep the bar empty. Complete a good amount of these sets to properly prepare your body for sweating.

Complete 1 set of 10 reps followed by a set of 8. Then do 3 sets of 5 reps with adequate time of rest between your sets. This will touch hypertrophy but also go into overall strength development with he sets of 5.

Next complete weighted lunges. Hold a dumbbell and each hand or placed  barbell on your back. Do 5 sets of 12 reps for each leg. You can do this stationary alternating legs or walking and alternating legs.

 Next will be leg press. For your first set do a set of 15+, spending time on proper range of motion. Next complete 4 sets of 6-8.

Next will be a super set of quad machine extensions and hamstring curls. Completing 4 sets of 15+ reps for each exercise. These area accessory movements meant for higher rep ranges.

Next complete 5 sets of standing calf raises. Use a moderate weight focusing on very strict form as calfs are hard to find a mind to muscle connection. Go for over 20 reps for 5 sets.

Next complete seated calf raises, still focus on properly executing the movement but at the same time ad more weight to these ones. Go for 5 sets of 10-12 reps. 

Lastly complete Bulgarian split swats while utilizing a box to stabilize. Complete these with weight or without weight. 4 sets of 10+ reps in total. 

Tuesday-Training for Arms

Pre Training Routine

Most pre training routines are the same on a day to day basis. So before working out I would recommend taking a pre workout supplement that will give you a physical and mental boost. If you plan on eating before your workout at least wait an hour before taking your rpe workout to give your body room for proper consumption of the pre workout.

Training

Before training arms properly warm your shoulders by completing 25 full arm circleyours  forward and backwards. Also complete small arm circles at the same rep ranges. When completing your small arm circles make sure to keep your palms out facing vertical with your fingers stretched to the sky.

Tuesday- Arms

The first thing you want to do when training your arms is to get blood flow going into your triceps and biceps. Do this by utilizing a super set of weight lifting movements. A superset means, that you do one exercise immediately after another exercise. It's a good way to get blood flow to muscle groups that work together through flexion and extension.

For the first two exercises you want to use a light weight aiming for 25 reps. This high volume will work great with attributing blood flow to your arms. Superset tricep rope extensions with standing dumbbell curls. (If you're ever confused on what an exercise is just YouTube the exercise and there will be plenty of informative videos.) Do this superset at least four times for a total of 100 reps for both your triceps and your biceps.

Next move to barbell skull crushers, this exercise will target your triceps. While completing this exercise use a moderate to heavy weight while staying in a 12-15 rep range for 3 sets and 3 sets of a heavier weight for 8-10 reps.

Next exercise will be standing hammer curls. For this exercise begin with a set of 20 as this will not directly be hitting your biceps, but mainly be focused on the forearms. Complete 4 more sets within a 10-12 rep range.

The next exercise will be tricep kickbacks. Preform this with somewhat of a lighter dumbbell to save your elbow joint from too much stress. Complete 4 sets of 12+ reps.

Next move to ez bar or barbell curls. Utilize strict form without swinging when completing this exercise. For the first 2 sets complete 10-12 reps. The next two sets complete 6-8 reps with a heavier weight. Then do a final set with a lighter weight then both previous sets. This is considered a burnout set, grab the light weight and do 1 set to complete failure. Your goal is to hit double the reps form your very first set. So aim for 25+.

The final tricep exercise will be overhead tricep rope extensions of 20+ reps for 5 sets.

The final bicep exercise will be called 21s. Take a pair of dumbbells that are moderate weight. Do 7 half reps only goin 50% of the way up, 7 reps going from halfway up to fully ups, then 7 full reps from the bottom of the rep to the very top of the rep. 

Monday Exercise - Chest

Pre Training

     Before any workout I would recommend drinking a pre workout supplement and eating a quick source of carbs. You will get more of a feeling from the pre workout if you drink it on an empty stomach. Pre workouts are supplements designed to give you energy and sufficient bloodlfow throughout your workouts. I would recommend either nitraflex or Pre- Jym as a pre workout. If taking supplements isn't for you a coffee would do just fine. Caffiene has beens studied and proven to increase production during exercise so I would recommend consuming at least some amount of  caffeine. 

Training

    A normal  weekly lifting split during summertime looks something like this.  Monday chest, Tuesday arms, Wednesday legs, thrusday shoulders, Friday back. Saturday either being rest day or hitting a lagging muscle group again. Sundays I would reccomened as permanent rest days as these are critical to the recovery process. 

Monday-Chest

    A typical Monday is dedicated to chest. These workouts are hypertrophy based, which include more volume. Research  has  suggested that reps in the 10-12 range are best to acquire a pump (stretching the muscle fascia/hypertrophy) There are many ways to build muscle, this is just one. 

    Before completing your  first exercise make  sure  to properly warm your shoulders up. 25 full circles forward and back. Then  put your hands out horizontally and do 25 small circle sfoward and backwards. First exercise is typically flat barbell bench press.   1 warm up set of 15 reps with a light weight. 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps. Finally 2 sets of 6-8 reps. The next exercise  will be incline bench press with  dumbbells. Satying with a moderate weight  complete 4-5 sets until failure. Failure should be met around the 10-12 rep ranger hiss how you know you are utilizing the correct dumbbells. Practice perfect form and quality reps over quainty of weight. The  next exercise will be dumbbell chest flies. Use a lighter weight for these and complete 4 sets of 20+ reps. Finally the last exercise for Monday will be Dips. If you are more advanced feel free to add weight to your dips. Complete 3 sets of dips until absolute failure. If you aren't comfortable with one or two of the previous listed exercises here are some replacement chest exercises. 

Flat dumbbell bench press, Incline barbell press, cable flies, push ups, chest nebula machine and decline barbell bench press.  Do to safety precautions asking someone for a spot while completing barbell bench presses is always beneficial.