BUSY PEOPLE WORKOUTS

BUSY PEOPLE WORKOUTS
By Shane Robert

With the new year upon us, many people are making resolutions. There is nothing new here. Eat better (whatever that means). Exercise more. Lose weight. We have all heard these before. We may have even made some of them ourselves. I won’t go into goal setting as I have already done that in the past. Rather, I want to share ideas on how to make it easier to accomplish some of these fitness goals. 

The first hurdle that makes it challenging to accomplish goals is the easiest to address –- pick goals that are achievable! I know it seems obvious, yet most people don’t do this. If your goal is to exercise more and you are currently not exercising at all, it is silly to think that you are going to suddenly start working out 6 days per week and stick to it. Better to make your goal to exercise 2-3 days per week. But do it, without fail, the whole year. 2 workouts a week for a year is 104 workouts. That sure is a lot better than the 42 workouts you’ll get working out 6 days a week before quitting after 6 weeks.

The second hurdle that I most often hear is time. People are busy. They have lives and priorities that, like it or not, take precedence over training. This doesn’t mean that training isn’t a priority at all, but rather that they can’t make it a large time commitment in their week. Especially if they aren’t used to making training a regular part of your schedule. I won’t belabor the benefits of having equipment at home, but here are some workout ideas I have used successfully with clients who are pressed for time. 

For muscle-building workouts, I favor the model that total reps per muscle of 25-75 is a great goal to shoot for. Pick a number and make this a goal to achieve with a specific weight. With time being a factor, I generally advise fewer training days with more body parts per day. If frequency isn’t a problem but time each day is, do fewer exercises each day.

The setup is simple: determine the amount of time you have and divide that into blocks based on how many movements you want to complete. Pick non-competing movements to superset for each time block... I generally prefer upper/lower for most of this, but antagonist supersets work here as well. Set a clock and do the two movements back to back, without rest for the duration of your time. Pick weights that don’t require warm-up, but you can do for 12-15 reps, and try to complete as many reps as you can in the time block. Add weight when you exceed the total reps you decided

Example - 20 minutes of workout time:

Block 1 - 6 minutes: DB Bench Press/Deadlift
Block 2 - 6 minutes: Front Squat/Row
Block 3 - 6 minutes: Overhead Triceps Ext/Curls

For each set, push your effort to somewhere between 3 reps in reserve all the way to as many reps as you can each set. Complete as many supersets as you can in the time block.

This builds in 1 minute of transition time between blocks

Fast Strength

This program borrows heavily from Jim Wendler’s  5/3/1 program. I’ve always loved this program and find the setup lends itself well to fast workouts. 

Training max/TM is a weight that you can do 3-5 hard but good reps with. This number is considered your “max”

The +’s represent a max rep set. The number before it represents the minimum for the day. If you have time after the main workout, throw in some circuits of smaller exercises like facepulls, curls, abs, etc.

WEEK 1

DAY 1
Squat (55%x5, 65%x5, 75%x5) 85%x5+ of training max; 20 reps @45% of TM
Bench 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2
Deadlift 5x10 @ 60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)
Overhead Press 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Bench x5+ @85% of training max
Squat 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

WEEK 2

DAY 1
Deadlift x5+ @85% of TM
Overhead Press 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2
Squat 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)
Bench 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Overhead Press x5+ @85% of TM
Deadlift 5x10 @60% of TM (60 seconds between sets)

WEEK 3

DAY 1
Squat x3+ @90% of TM ; x20 + 5 pounds from week 1
Bench 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2
Deadlift 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)
Overhead Press 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Bench x3+ @90% of TM
Squat 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

WEEK 4

DAY 1
Deadlift x3+ @90% of TM
Overhead Press 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2 
Squat 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)
Bench 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Overhead Press @90% of TM
Deadlift 5x10 + 5 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

WEEK 5

DAY 1
Squat x1+ @95% of TM ; x20 +10 pounds from week 1
Bench 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2
Deadlift 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)
Overhead Press 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Bench x1+ @95% of TM
Squat 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

WEEK 6

DAY 1
Deadlift x1+ @95% of TM
Overhead Press 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 2 
Squat 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)
Bench 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

DAY 3
Overhead Press x1+ @95% of TM
Deadlift 5x10 + 10 pounds from week 1 (60 seconds between sets)

Complexes

A complex is a series of movements done back to back with the same implement. All reps of each movement are completed before moving on to the next. This can be just a couple of movements or many. Complexes are magical for building muscle and torching fat off your body while being incredibly time-efficient.

For some ideas from the originator of this style of training, see Istvan Javorek’s site. 

My favorite is a combination of the “Bear Complex'' mixed with the classic Joe Mills 20/20 workout. Start around 70% of your max for the weakest movement and add weight every 5 reps.

The complex is:
Power clean, Front Squat, Push press, Back Squat, Push Press

You do 1 rep of each movement, seamlessly flowing into each one, before resting for 1 minute. This is 20 reps of the complex but, since there are 5 movements, you end up doing 100 total reps. That’s a potent stimulus for hypertrophy. And you get the benefit of working up into heavy weights to get strong. 

There is no reason you can’t get a killer workout in, even with limited time available. Commit to a reasonable amount of days per week and be consistent. You’ll be amazed how you’ve changed come next new year.