[quote]habashar wrote:
For about the past year I was lifting 3x a week with a full body program. It was a combination of mostly large compound movements: deadlifts, chin-ups, pull-ups, rows, over-head presses, bench & incline presses, etc. combined with some more targeted movements: lateral raises, shrugs, press-downs, curls. I tried to keep the intensity up by alternating pushing and pulling exercises with minimal rest. So a sample of a workout might be:
1a: Chin-ups
1b: Bench press
2a: Upright Rows
2b: Lateral Raise
3a: Weighted Dips
3b: Hammer curls
4a: Military press
4b: Deadlifts
I was basically using 3x8-10 for all exercises and working heavy enough to be challenged while keeping 1 or 2 reps away from failure/breakdown of form. Like I said, not a lot of rest (60-90 seconds between exercises) but being that I was A/B’ing each exercise it worked out just fine and sweating plenty.
After doing some reading here I decided to change up my lifting routine to be a bit more body part specific, working on two-three body parts per session (ex: back and shoulders) and adding the all important squat into my routine. I’ve beed doing this for the past month in an effort to regain some mass and to challenge my body in a new way…though I still use plenty of compound movements.
The boxing and full-body workouts worked really well for me. In about a year I went from low 20’s in bf% down to just over 11%. I also gained considerable strength, size and definition (particularly in my shoulders, lats and chest). Which leads me to believe that the idea that you can’t cut bf while gaining muscle mass is completely bogus, but that is a discussion for another time.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. I love the intensity of boxing. I highly recommend it to those who are looking for a good way to incorporate strength and cardio training.
Thanks for all the help so far. Just had a few more questions for ya. First, for your lifting, do you do 1a/b then rest 60-90 secs then do 2 a/b then rest 60-90? Or do you rest after a, then b? Second, do you do 3 sets of 1a/b then 3 sets of 2 a/b? Third, I just finished ABBH, so i had been doing chin-ups and weighted dips in my workout. However the weighted dips i did lean forward for more of my chest.
SHould I continue with the dips just not lean forward? ALso is there any substitute for chin-ups that i could do since i just did them in my last workout(same thing with deadlift)? Hopefully that makes some sense. thanks[/quote]
First off, I should say that I am not a fitness professional. I’ve definitely read a ton and experimented a bunch, but I just figured out what worked for me and stuck with it. I read in another post where someone was saying that all this (nutrition, developing workout programs) is mostly about trial and error. I have to say I mostly agree with that. There are some universal truths, but you just need to try new things and see how your body reacts.
OK, that being said, the sample program I gave you was just that, an example on what I’d do on any given day of my full-body workout. By no means are these the only exercise you should do. If you followed that specific set of exercises on Monday, Wednesdays exercises should be varied (incline instead of flat bench, front raises instead of lateral raises, flyes, pushup, etc.). I feel it is really important to mix up your exercises in that each variation will really target the muscle in unique ways…thus leading to further growth. You certainly don’t want to bench press 3x a week.
I rest about 60 seconds between each exercise. So 1a, rest 60 seconds. 1b rest 60 seconds. Then back to 1a. Once I complete 1a and 1b, I move on to 2a and 2b. I keep the rest to 60 seconds between groups of exercises as well. Meaning I would take 60 seconds between my last set of 1b and my first set of 2a. Hope that is not confusing.
Oh, and I’m not really staring at the clock either. I just shoot for around 60 seconds. No need to be super precise. Nothing is going to happen if you are 5-10 seconds off either way. But keeping it all moving and keeping the rest minimal is a good way to get in some extra fat-burning with your weight training program. And, by all means, keep the intensity high. Sweating during your weight training is by no means a bad thing!
I lean forward during my dips too in the hopes to get a bit more chest as I tend to have very overactive shoulders and triceps, so anything that I can do to maximize activating my chest is what I shoot for. I’m happy with my tri development and they tend to get plenty of indirect work with a lot of the other movements I use. You may feel differently about yours. Weighted dips are a good way to activate you tri’s so maybe you want to try them straight up and down. Or maybe you want to make one of your exercises a different type of tricep movement (skull crushers, pull downs, etc.). One of the things I like about my program is that it is very fluid, if I find a movement works for my development, I incorporate it into the workout. It’s just that simple.
Though I wouldn’t recommend it because it is such a great totally body strength exercise and a very intense exercise (remember, intensity is good if you are looking to get so fat burning into your weight lifting routine) you could lose the deadlift. Hard to find a single good replacement for it as it is such an effective exercise. Are you squatting? If not, that’s another great compound movement to incorporate.
I find chins to be very effective for lats and bis. I can activate those muscle groups really well with chins and it saves me from feeling I have to do too much isolated bicep work (which delivers a lot less bang for your time being as it only works on muscle group directly). But you could give pull-ups a shot. Another great intense exercise that works a lot of posterior chain muscles really well.
At the end of the day, it’s really up to you. I think we (and I include myself) have a tendency to overthink these things. If you get a good variety of movements, keep up the intensity of your workouts, use good, safe form and stay dedicated over the long haul, you’ll see very good results. Listen to your body and see what works for you.