Training For Life

Resistance training exercise, or weightlifting, is crucial to attaining your goals. Research has shown that a combination of
weight training and cardio sheds more pounds and boosts the metabolism higher than cardio alone. This is primarily
because you burn several more calories per day for each droplet of fat that you replace with a fiber of lean muscle. In
addition to the weight loss benefits, resistance training provides you with higher bone density, a more coordinated and
well-functioning collection of muscles and joints, and better agility and balance. Furthermore, athletes can use weightlifting
to improve force potential, decrease injury potential, and cross-train with sport specificity.
Unfortunately, the number of weight training “routines” that exist in magazines and on gym walls can be intimidating and
confusing, and what works best for your lean next door neighbor or marathon-running friend may not be your body’s cup
of tea. So how do you choose what’s best for your personal goals? I’m going to describe four basic and popular methods
of lifting, and then help you decide which one to choose, depending on your individual needs.
1. Body Split Training
This style of training involves splitting the body into several “groups” of muscles, and working those muscles on certain
days of the week – for example, a 5 day split would look like this:
• Monday: Chest/Back/Abs
• Tuesday: Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps
• Wednesday: Quads/Calves
• Thursday: Shoulders/Abs
• Friday: Hamstrings/Low Back
This style of training is very popular among the bodybuilding crowd, because it allows an individual to focus on a specific
muscle group and work that muscle to complete exhaustion. With proper rest, this results in very large and defined
muscles. The sets can be as a high as 10 sets per exercise, and the reps fall anywhere in the range of 8-20. Rest periods
can be as short as 10 seconds and as long as 5 minutes. Strategies include back-to-back sets, pyramiding up or down in
reps and/or weight, pre-fatiguing, bouncing, super-slows, negatives, and a host of other tricks from the realm of
bodybuilding. If you simply want to get “big and cut”, this is a good approach. The problem with this style of lifting is that it
only works well if you can sufficiently exhaust the muscle groups, so you need to plan on spending at least an hour and a
half, and up to three hours every day weightlifting in the gym. Many of the lifts are single joint lifts, meaning that the focus
is not on calorie-burning, strength, or athleticism – but simply muscle isolation and growth. Many of us don’t have that kind
of time: the people who get the most benefit out of a body split routine must have a high amount of dedication and
devotion to their exercise program, and have a single desire: build muscle.
2. Traditional Weightlifting
When most of us think of “resistance training”, we think of a traditional weightlifting program. This typically involves 3-4
sets of 10-12 reps of a specific exercise, with a 45-60 second rest after each set. Once on exercise is completed, you
move on to the next. Usually, a routine is made up of 8-10 exercises that work the entire body. Usually, this kind of routine
is performed 3-4 days of the week. This is a good, straight-forward way to build strength, bone density, and add lean
muscle. Compared to some other types of lifting, traditional weightlifting does not burn a high amount of calories or elicit a
high cardiovascular response, since you spend a significant amount of time sitting down and “resting” between exercises.
If your goal is maximizing weight loss and/or toning and cutting, there are better programs out there for you. The same
can be said for athleticism. If your goal is simply to maintain fitness and keep your body strong, this would be a good
choice.
3. Circuit Style Training
Circuit style training involves choosing a series of exercises – typically multi-joint movements that work a large amount of
muscles and joints at the same time – and performing these series of exercises, one after another, with minimal rest
between exercises. The heart rate and metabolism get screaming high during a circuit training workout, and the density,
or volume, of exercises performed can be very high with this approach. When you are trying to get the most “bang for your
buck” out of your resistance training routine, a circuit style training program can be very effective. Reps are typically in the
range of 10-20, and many of the exercises include a cardio component, such as a 250 meter row, a 2 minute treadmill
sprint, or 25 medicine ball throws against the gym wall. As mentioned, the weightlifting exercises are primarily multi-joint, like a “squat to press”, “lunge to curl” or “deadlift to overhead extension”. Most of the clients that I train who desire weight
loss and toning will have some resemblance of a circuit training routine in their program. Often, a 20-30 minute core
routine performed every day of the week will literally melt away fat. The downside to circuit style training is that since the
rest periods are so short, you typically can’t lift very heavy weights, and strength gains can be minimal when compared to
body split training or traditional weightlifting.
4. Periodization
Periodization simply means that a training year is divided into workout cycles or “periods”. Each cycle of the training year
involves a different type of weightlifting approach. For example, a training year might be divided into 1) the off-season; 2)
muscular endurance building; 3) muscular strength and/or mass building; 4) power and explosive strength development
and 5) strength maintenance or competition season. Obviously, this style of training has the most benefit for an athlete
who is preparing for a competition. Periodization allows an athlete to “peak”, or have maximum physiological preparation,
prior to their event. An example of a periodization weightlifting scheme for, say, an Ironman triathlete training for a June
race, might involve the following, with three full body workouts per week:
• July-September: off-season, cross-training
• October-December: muscular endurance building, 3 sets of 15 reps, 8-10 exercises, 30-45 seconds rest
• January-March: muscular strength building, 4 sets of 12 reps, 6-8 exercises, 60-90 seconds rest
• April-May: power and speed training, 5 sets of 4 reps, 3-4 exercises, 2-3 minutes rest
• June: strength maintenance, 2 sets of 10 reps, 4-6 exercises, 1-2 minutes rest
This scheme might look different for a basketball or football player, but the underlying concepts are the same: take the
body through several different training periods to allow for peak performance when it really matters.

No serious athlete
should choose any weightlifting routine that doesn’t include periodization.
Obviously, there are many choices and limitless combinations of workout routines. Not sure which one is right for you.  Always feel free to e-mail me or call for your free consultation today.  Remember you don’t have to do it alone.  Happy Training!!!!