Happy Thursday to you,
What crazy weather we have had this week in Oxfordshire.
One day the sun is out and it’s 20 degrees and then the next it’s snowing!
Today I’m waiting on a large delivery of timber. Lucy has decided she would like me to build an art studio down the bottom of the garden so I’ve got a nice summer project in store 🙂
My workouts have been steady recently, mixing in some power bag exercises, with kettlebells, barbells, my cable machine and some boxing.
Let me show you how I do it…
Designing your own workouts
First you need understand the 5 essential movement patterns. All exercises will fit into one of these categories:
- Push (vertical & horizontal)
- Pull (vertical & horizontal)
- Knee Bend (squats & lunges)
- Hip Hinge (deadlifts & swings) See 9 examples
- Core (Frontal, Sagittal, Transverse) Learn the 5 essentials
Include each of these movement patterns in your workouts and you will keep your body balanced, use every muscle and save huge amounts of time.
Next, choose your equipment:
- Bodyweight (great for beginners and travelling)
- Kettlebells (dynamic, explosive and fun)
- Dumbbells (readily available and very adaptable)
- Barbells (great for strength building)
- Powerbag (functional and fun)
- Cables (great for sports and multi-directional exercises)
- Rower (pulling cardio)
- Running (intervals and sprints for cardio)
- Boxing (fun, explosive cardio)
Now mix your equipment with your movement patterns:
Example 1
- Push (vertical) = Kettlebell Push Press
- Pull (horizontal) = Standing Cable Pull
- Knee Bend (lunge) = Power Bag Shouldered Forward Lunge
- Hip Hinge (deadlifts) = Barbell Deadlift
- Core (Frontal, Sagittal, Transverse) = Kettlebell Turkish Get Up
Example 2
- Push (horizontal) = Standing Cable Push
- Pull (vertical) = Bodyweight Pull Ups
- Knee Bend (squat) = Double Dumbbell Squat (& Press)
- Hip Hinge (deadlifts) = Kettlebell Swing
- Core (Frontal, Sagittal, Transverse) = Standing Cable Woodchop
Complete 1 to 3 circuits. Depending on your goals and experience perform 5 – 20 reps per exercise.
- Less reps + heavier weight = strength
- More reps + light weight = cardio
People get obsessed with numbers, reps, sets etc. Yes to a certain extent it is important but even more important is that you just DO IT.
Finish with your cardio.
Try to use intervals for your cardio, so for boxing 3 intense rounds of 3 minutes (60 seconds rest in between rounds) is more effective than just hitting the bag for 20 minutes. The same applies to rowing and running.
Depending on your lifestyle, stress levels, hormones, nutrition etc. you should be able to complete 3 workouts per week.
2 good workouts per week is better than 4 bad ones so don’t stress over missing a day just stay active.
It’s complicated
This has been a very simplified overview of putting together your own workout. The truth is program design is part science and part art. When I am working one-on-one with a client I’m adapting, chopping and changing variables all the time.
But…
Unless you are a professional athlete or training for a body building competition there is no need to make this more complicated than it needs to be.
Have fun mixing up your workouts!
Here’s a density workout from my 12 Week Men’s kettlebell program
- Reverse Lunge (knee bend) – 10 reps each side
- Renegade Row (pull) – 8 reps each side
- Overhead Press (push) – 8 reps each side
- Repeat for 12 – 15 minutes
For those really short on time you can perform abbreviated workouts like this one.
Using the same movement pattern principles outlined above, here you combine either a ‘knee bend’ exercise with a ‘push’ and ‘pull’ exercise or a ‘hip hinge’ exercise with a ‘push’ and ‘pull’.
This workout is especially devious because the renegade row uses both a horizontal push and a horizontal pull movement along with very strong core activation.
Here’s the advanced renegade row in action, for the less advanced variation put one hand on a bench:
This weeks question:
Q. “Greg, when should I increase my kettlebell weight?”
A. Depending on the weight and your goals you may never need to increase your weight.
For example, I still use my 16kg kettlebell all the time, even after 10+ years of training with it.
Yes I do use a 24kg for some exercises and I do use a 32kg but not very often anymore.
Discover what kettlebell weight I use for what exercises here
Don’t be in a rush to increase the load, you can try so many variations of an exercise to make it more challenging. You can progress from the single arm deadlift, to the two handed swing, to one handed swing, to high pulls and finally to snatches.
Often changing exercises is a better stimulus for change than increasing the load.
As I mentioned last week connective tissue takes longer to strengthen than muscles so if you progress too quickly you risk injury.
You will know when you are ready to increase the load because everything will just feel a little too easy.
I hope this helps.
Take care,
Greg