Guide to a Healthy Life Part Two: Your Workouts

If you have read Part 1 of the series, congratulations, you are now a healthier person. (Yes, even if you've just read it and didn't apply it... that is how powerful it is. =P)

If not, then get out of Part 2 and go read part 1. Your diet plays a more important role in your general fitness than your workouts. (Assuming you aren't on your ass all day long). Seriously though, diet plays at least 60% of your health (once again, assuming you aren't on your ass all day long). For the math illiterate kids out there, that means it is more than half of your fitness, and that means that it is more important than your excercise.

With that said, I begin part 2 of your healthier life: your excercise/workout/ whatever. This IS the easier part.

That is correct, working out is easier than mastering your diet. As long as you have enough discipline to START your "routine" you will finish. Trust me, the hardest part of working out, is getting to the gym.

With that aside, let's begin. (If you want to go straight to how to lift, scroll past this next section to the bold HOW TO ORIENT YOUR WORKOUTS)

I KNOW. Not every single one of you want to become a buff Shwarznegger like Arnold. Not all of you wish to become body builders. I did not start hitting the gym to become huge. (Though according to Pook, the buffer you are, the more you will appeal to the ladies.) It's okay if you do not want to be huge, I would still recommend EVERYONE to get a gym membership and hit the weights in a way similar to what I will show you. And don't worry if you don't want to become super big. Remember what I said about your diet being the more important factor of your health, well if you don't eat a lot (insanely alot) then you won't have to worry about getting huge.

The benefits of hitting the weights:

1. Overall body health will increase. I have been falling ill less often since I started working out.

2. You will be less prone to injury and recover(from whatever) quicker. Your body will be stronger, therefore, it will be harder to injure yourself, and you will have better recoveries since your body is already used to recovering from lifting.

3. You can eat more (this is actually the main reason I started working out). As I said in part 1, muscles require more calories to maintain than fat, meaning you can take in more calories without gaining fat, it will go towards maintaining your muscles.

4. CONFIDENCE. Major player here, you will see yourself looking better, and you'll just want to go walk around top less, you will likely become more confident as a side effect of working out.

5. Other guys will think twice before starting something with you. If you're a skinny kid, or a fat mofo that seems like he can't move, people won't have to think twice to swing at your face.

6. As Pook says, the more muscle you get, the more you appeal to women.
7. Excel at sports. This goes without saying.

8. Feel free to have me add to this...

HOW TO ORIENT YOUR WORKOUTS (Will write in a bit when I get home)

First and foremost (Gee i do a lot of these don't I?) UNLESS you really know what you're doing. DO NOT LIFT TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS. I do not care if one day you do chest, and next day legs, as a guideline do NOT lift two days in a row. EG: bench monday, then squat on tuesday. Reason is that even though they are different muscle groups, you want to devote your time as so. 1 day break your muscles down, next day recover it. if you're also lifting the next day, you then split your energy between lifting and recovering, see where I'm getting at?

Crap, I assumed that you guys took PE in high school. What happens when you lift weights? When you lift weights, you're basically making micro tears in your muscles. Muscles are like calouses, your body is smart. If you injure your skin, your body will heal that skin AND make it stronger so it doesn't get hurt again (callouses). Same with your muscles, your body will heal your muscle over the period of 1-4 days (hopefully 1-2, if it takes 3 or 4 days then you likely overtrained) AND build muscle on top of that to better carry the workload that you experienced the first time.

The Exercises

I will now list for you the most important lifts you will perform, in order:
1. Squat

2. Deadlift

3. Bench press

4. Pull Up/Pendlay Row

5. Military Press/Incline Bench Press
6. Some sort of ab exercise, I do sit ups w/ 25 lbs plate on a decline bench

7. Personally, I like to do Clean and Presses, though I've never seen them implemented into a solid routine.

There you go, the six (seven) most important(and maybe even only) lifts you will ever need to perform.

WAIT WHAT?!??!?! NO BICEPT CURLZ?!?!?! No bitch. (I'll explain later)

It is debatable whether the squat is #1 or the Deadlift is #1, whatever, you should be doing both anyways.

You really only need to do the first four exercises, the rest is just there to round you off, or train you for a specific sport or whatnot.

The Squat

This is possibly the most awesome exercise you can do. It benefits both genders, gives you an amazing pump, leaves you feeling great afterwards. Only problem? It takes a lot of willpower to get the most out of your squat session. IF you've ever done squats you'll know what I'm talking about. M'fuckers drain you, physically AND mentally. you'll feel like stopping at 5 (or maybe even less) but pump out those squats it is amazingly beneficial.

Squats are pretty much a full body exercise, you use your legs to actually do the lift, your arms to stabilize the bar, your body is tense throughout the whole exercise so you don't tip over. It also has gender specific rolls.

Men: Squats get your testosterone pumping, and testorone is a nice factor in building muscles (hence why men are bigger than women in general) Squats give you a nice big pump in testosterone, which is why I like to do these first when I get in the gym.

Women: Well this actually kinda goes both ways, but ladies, if you find yourselves complaining about your ass being too small or flat, stop bitching about it and instead, start bitching about how your last squat session was too intense.

Squats are hard at first, but that's shit too bad, man up and do 'em.

A good squat session should have around 15+ squats. my sets go as so:

10x135
7x145
5x155

I don't squat much... YET!

The more reps of squats you do, the better, just make sure you start feeling the burn at three reps, or else you're going too light.

The Deadlift

In case you don't know what a deadlift is (I didn't know when i first started) It's a lower back and hamstring exercise(among others, it works out a lot of muscle groups), go watch some videos on youtube or something.

A lot of novices tend to forget their lower back and it painful to watch them neglect it.

Now, if I were you I wouldn't take deadlifting advice from me, cause I just recently hurt my back doing these, just watch the videos and learn from them, if you're at a gym, you can always ask around for help. I need to shape up my form for my deadlift.

In general though, deadlifts are a short burst exercise, your sets should have around 5 reps.

As much as possible, use a nonstaggered (both overhand) grip to build up your forearms, but when you start getting heavier, you'll need to use a staggered grip (one overhand, one underhand) to be able to grip the bar. remember to switch off which hand is under and over so you don't end up with retarded looking forearms.

MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR FORM CORRECT FIRST, it is easy to injure your back while deadlifting.

The Bench Press

What do I need to say about this one? I'm pretty sure most of you have already benchpressed at some point in your life.

Depending on if you want to get big or toned, I would recommend this:

If you want to get big, stick to 5-10 reps, and just keep working up the weights
If you want to get toned, work up to 135 (45's on each side) then, go for 20 reps and you should be good, increase weights as needed.

Now, even though the Bench Press is performed all the time, people still find ways to retard it up.

Make sure you GRIP the bar, use your thumb... Has anyone else seen that idiot that gripped the barbell without using his thumb, dropped the weight on himself. No sympathy for an idiot.

There are many ways to hold the barbell. If you're using a standard 45 lbs barbell, it should have that line dividing the grip on the bar, i would place either my middle or ring finger on that line.

When you bench, make sure you pinch your lats(those are your upper back muscles) together. Bring your shoulders back and pinch your lats. That way you have a solid base and you're not flabbing all over the bench.

A lot of people will swear by making your arms 90 degrees. If they are skinny, well now you know why they are skinny, if they are big, well shit, 90 degrees is all you can go. Don't be a pansy, the bar should touch your shirt.

The Pull Up/Pendlay Row
I have never done a pendlay row, don't ask me how.

As for pull ups:
There is a difference between a PULL up and a CURL up. Curl ups your hands are underhand grip and your arms tend to be in front of you. These are pansy. The only reason you do curl ups is because you cannot do a pull up yet, a curl up trains you to be able to do a pull up, once you can do ONE pull up, stop doing curl ups.

A PULL up is where you will overhand grip, and your hands will be holding the bar a bit farther out than shoulder width. Some of you may not be able to "feel" it. That's okay, you're just starting and weak. I recommend getting a stool, and just hold yourself up for as long as possible, and do curl ups. Sooner or later you will be able to do a pull up.

When you can do a lot of pull ups, then it's time to start adding weights, but this has no place in a beginner's guide.

Now notice there are no arm exercises. WHY? BUT I WANT TO IMPRESS TEH GURLZZZ AT TEH BEACH.
These are CORE exercises. Think of it this way, when was the last time you saw a tree with a tiny trunk and huge branches? Never, it just doesn't work that way. You ever see a person with ripped arms and a scrawny body? No way, unless they are on roids. Notice that all these exercises DO incorporate your triceps/biceps. Don't worry, your arms will grow. In fact they will grow much faster than if you were to just curl everyday.

Okay, you know the main lifts, now what?

Well the rest of the lifts are just icing on the cake, you will get along fine just doing these four workouts.

If you are a beginning lifter, I recommend following the Rippetoe training program, it's advocated everywhere, easy to find, you can try www.bodybuilding.com, or buy his book.

My current routine is somewhat like Rippetoe's program except that I incoporated some extra lifts, and took some out. you can follow it exactly, it's a VERY good program, if you feel like adding anything in, I would suggest ONLY adding in pull ups at the end of each workout, no curls, whatever. don't fuck with this program.

Now In addition to lifting, if you need to shed some body fat(and even if you don't), I recommend light jogs and some sort of ab workout on your non-gym days. a 10-20 minute jog in the morning is all you need, maybe 50-100 crunches at night and you're good to go.

So if you were to follow rippetoe's workout:

mon - gym
tues-jog/abs
weds-gym
thurs-jog/abs
fri-gym
sat -jog/abs
sunday - REST

Rippetoe's program is based on fullbody workouts, if you don't like that you can also do a three or four day split with major muscle groups in each day. For example:

mon: Legs (you can do lunges,squats, calf flexors etc etc)
wed: Chest/triceps (benchpress, incline or decline bp,some cable cross overs, dumbell flies, dips, skull crushers etc etc)
fri: back/bicep (deadlift, seated row, upright row, pull ups, curls etc etc)

That concludes this article, at least this is all I can think of, but here are some quick tips to remember:

Final Tips/Advice

-Again, don't hit the gym consecutive days.

-Remember to BREATH while lifting, for example, inhale when you go down on benchpress/squat, exhale while going up.

-drink plenty of water throughout working out.

-get your diet in shape, if your diet is not looking good, your workouts won't either.

-Have some light carbs preworkout, fruit is a good choice.

-remember your post workout meal, if you have whey protein, great, if not, milk works also. also take in a bit of carbs post workout, again fruit works well. Also remember that your biggest meal of the day should come about 1 hour after you workout.

-Bring a spotter.

-Form is more important than how much weight you can throw on the bar.

-Don't be afraid to ask for advice at the gym.

-Do your core exercises.

-Do your squats.

-Your workouts shouldn't last too long (40 minutes-1 hour is good).

-Cardio (jogging/whatever) right before or right after lifting is counterproductive.

-Try to stick to freeweight or cables, I don't even touch the machines anymore unless something is preventing me from doing an exercise. (For example, I hurt my back doing deadlifts so squats wouldn't be so smart, so i've resorted to leg presses for a while).

Cheers,
Kev