Design Your Own Weights Program: Part 2 - The Practicals

In the last post we looked at some of the types of weights training and what they can achieve. Now it is time to put it all together, and create your own program! Yah!

Your Turn:

When putting together a program, there are a number of factors that will determine what type of strength you are building. This has been neatly summarised by the well respected and highly authoritative source: Wikipedia.

 

Across the top we have our four types of strength, while down the side are the different variables. Choose your load, number of reps and sets, rest duration and speed depending on which type of training you are focusing on in that particular workout.

 

 

Variable	Training goal
	Strength	Power	Hypertrophy	Endurance
Load (% of 1RM)	80-90	45-55	60-80	40-60
Reps per set	1-5	1-5	6-12	13-60
Sets per exercise	4-7	3-5	4-8	2-4
Rest between sets (mins)	2-6	2-6	2-5	1-2
Duration (seconds per set)	5-10	4-8	20-60	80-150
Speed per rep (% of max)	60-100	90-100	60-90	60-80
Training sessions per week	3-6	3-6	5-7	8-14
Table reproduced from Siff, 2003[9]

 

Key Terms as described by Buffy: 

Load - the weight you are lifting. Duh. 

% of 1RM - stands for % of 1 rep max. With a training partner to watch you, build up to the maximum amount of weight you can hold for one complete repetition of the exercise. This is your maximum weight, 100%. From there, you do your weight training based on a percentage of that max. Every few cycles you should retest yourself to see how much your maximum has increased and readjust all your training weights from there.

Reps - Repetitions. How many times you do the action before resting.

Sets - the number of groups of repetitions.

 

 

Scheduling Your Sessions: 

 

Obviously, for beginners you are not going to be doing the large number of training sessions suggested. Be sensible! It is best to start with two workouts a week (as mentioned last time, female muscle tone starts to disappear after 4 days, so you need to be doing strength training more often than that). Within each session you need to vary between arms, legs and core.

Therefore, based on the information above and earlier, I suggest the following: 

-  If you are only doing two sessions a week, focusing just on one session dedicated to power and one session to strength is a good way to start out.

 

- As you can see, both power and endurance require very little weight, so can be done as body weight exercise (pushups, squats, crunches etc. that don't require any additional weights). Circuits are a good way to keep up the speed required for power focused workouts.

 

- Strength training will probably require you to use weights, but do a day of testing with a friend to find out what your max is first. Maybe just lifting an empty bar will be enough.

 

Key Exercises For Particular Muscle Groups:

 

These are just some suggestions on exercises you can mix and match for your training.  

Click on each link to see a demo (mostly) from the CrossFit website, where you can find LOTS more exercises. Highly Recommended. Warning, though, they often have loud music so turn your volume down before opening the link. 

 

Legs: 

Squats - this is one of the best exercises to do as you can use it for both strength and body weight training. I know they might seem boring, but once you see how cute your rear end becomes, you'll forgive them. (Also, see a more detailed description of how to perform squats without weights).

 

Lunges - these are good body weight exercises, can be done holding hand weights, and if coordinated can be done with a barbell across your shoulders.(The demon shows walking lunges, but you can also do them stationary). 

Box jumps - these are my favourite killers for power. They have the benefit of a squat, but with added dynamic power. Stand in front of a box or high step that comes up to just below your knee (you can start lower, but try to push yourself a bit, you might be amazed how high you can jump.). You then jump up onto the box both legs together. 

I was taught the key to this exercise only the other day after killing myself for ages. You should lift your feet and knees up so you land on the box in a squat position and then push yourself up. I tried to jump so that I had my legs straight when I landed on the box, which is obviously a lot harder and less effective. 

 

 

Arms:

Chest/Bench Presses - These can be done either with very light weights as a power exercise focusing on speed, or with much heavier weights for strength training. However, if you are using heavier weights, you must always have a spotter on hand to catch it before it crushes your throat. It only takes a second and you really don't recover well. 

 

Pushups - I know, I know, everyone hates pushups, but they are soooooo good for you. They get your back, your arms, your chest, and your abs. What's not to love about that? (they only hurt so much because they are doing so much good!) If you can't yet do a full push-up there are lots of variations out there, so find one at a suitable level.  (This demo is great because it takes you through variations on a full pushup, as well as some bad technique to avoid).

 

Kettlebell Swings: I'm trying to keep it a bit different and not just have 'bicep curls' and 'triceps dips' in there, though they are both good. If you haven't used kettlebells or done swings before, they are great because they use so much more than just your arms, and mimic throwing a baby around rather well.

Core:

Plank: This is a bit of a classic, but is great for building core strength that includes abs and back. There are a lot of variations, up on your hands, on one side, etc., but start with the basic and once you can hold it for a minute, then try out some of the variations.

Knees-to-Elbows: want a bit more of a challenge than straight sit-ups? Try these. Hang from a bar and try to bring your knees up to your elbows. Make sure you stay controlled on the way up and on the way down. Try to get as far as you can when starting out.

 

Back Extensions: You should never forget to keep strengthening your back. All the back injuries people have, a lot of them come from trying to do too much without building up the muscles first. Save yourself the pain, and remember your back every workout.  A lot of gyms will have a place for doing back extensions. If not, you can lie on a mat and just lift your chest off the ground.

 

Action time!

 

1. First decide how many sessions you can actually do. If beginning, just start with two and possibly work up to three. 

 

2. Next, with a friend go to the gym and test out your max reps for your key strength exercise. 

 

3. Sit down and design one body weight/power session and one heavier weights session, calculating how much load you need based on your max strength for that particular exercise, then your reps and sets, etc. 

 

4. Enjoy! 

 

Every few weeks swap some of your exercises around to keep the muscles guessing. But keep in mind the 10% rule, that you should only increase the work of an exercise by 10% at a time. Any more and you risk doing damage. So don't step up your weights too fast.

If anyone knows of other great exercises they would like to share, please feel free.

 

 

Now Is The Perfect Time To Reassess Your Fitness Program

Some of you will be excited by all the motivational talk about jumping into fitness, starting new programs, looking forward to a fit new year.

For these readers, in my third ever post, I gave you 4 steps to starting a fitness program.

Quickly outlined for those who haven't read it and can't be bothered going back:

1. Test your fitness to work out where you are at and where you you might be particularly weak.
2. Look at your schedule and find spaces where you can realistically do exercise.
3. Start slow - you are starting a lifestyle of fitness, not training for a competition next week.
4. Be fit for fitness sake - that is to say, make sure you have your motivation sorted out.

However, some of you will have been plodding or powering away at a program for quite a while.
In Australia, you might have started it in spring with the warming weather, so have been going for 3-4 months on your program. You find all this talk of starting anew a little bit boring, and want something more aimed at you.

Well, this is aimed at you: start again fresh!

When was the last time you tested out how much fitter you are now? Have you reviewed your program? Have you taken into accounts changes in your schedule this coming year; new family member, changes to your working hours, a new must-see TV program?

Every few months you should be reassessing your fitness and the program to make sure it is correctly adapted. Are you increasing the distance, weight or speed to make sure you are being challenged, and your muscles have not just adapted to the same repetitive motions?

Here are some steps to help you reassess your current program:

- review your goals: are you still aiming for the same thing, or have you found something new to aim towards?

- what have your results over the past few months been like? Have you continued to improve, or have you actually seen a decrease in performance? Can you pin-point what is working and what isn't?

- Is your program balanced? For a while you might want to focus on improving a particular area, such as increasing your arm strength, but for long term health and vigor, you need to make sure you are building up all aspects of your body in equal proportion. This will reduce the risk of injury (and funny bulging muscles out of place!). Also, mix up your high intensity with slower, longer sessions to build both speed and endurance (as well as allowing your body to recover, see below).

- Time for variety! No matter why you are exercising, every now and then chuck in something completely new just to keep your body on its toes. If you are a jogger, try a crossfit workout. If you are a weight lifter, maybe a gymnastics class. Be adventurous and look out for new things!

- Finally: are you factoring in enough rest? Muscles are built when your body repairs from the work of a session. So if you don't give it time to repair, you are just damaging yourself. Hard sessions can easily be mixed in with some aerobic exercise which will increase your fitness and means you don't need to do nothing on your rest days. 'Active Recovery' is what it is all about, just make sure it is recovery and that you don't start pushing yourself again. 

Now that you have considered all this, here are some more practical thoughts on your training plan.

The plan should be both weekly (eg. Monday - Strength training, Wednesday - Endurance/long run, Friday - speed work, etc.) and on a larger cycle to ensure increased performance over the year. 

For evaluating the actual weekly activities, keep in mind FITT:

• F - frequency - how often should/can you exercise?
• I - intensity - how hard should you exercise?
• T - time - how long should each session last?
• T - training activity - what exercise or training activity will help achieve your fitness goals?

An easy way to develop the larger framework of a program is to work in four week cycles: for the first 3 weeks increasing speed/strength/distance by 10% each week, and then fourth week is a recovery week, so keep everything light. Then start again and keep building up. The week recovery will make sure you aren't over training.

So, this week's challenge is to actually take the time to sit down and write out your goals and plan a proper program for the next few months, until it starts getting cold (a good time to change your exercise patterns to include more indoor activities!)

And if you have any questions, or good suggestions, please share!

Sneak Preview: 

Tomorrow I'll look at some tips for starting a strength training program. They are really nothing to be scared of, and can leave you feeling (and looking) great! Climb steps in a single bound, carry shopping with one finger! All this, and more...

4 Steps to Starting a Fitness Program

So, you've found my blog and it's inspired you to start a new fitness program (or, more likely, you were inspired to start a fitness program and happened to stumble upon my blog: good going you!)

Let me guess, you have decided you will be able to work out everyday, and you will take on all of Crossfit's advice and do weights, endurance work, speed, power, flexibility work, every week, as well as buying all the latest equipment, new shoes, home gym, why not a Pilates machine? 

Don't do it to yourselves, people!

Everyone has heard this before, but I'm going to say it again: yes, set goals, goals are awesome, but be realistic.

Haven't been able to fit in ANY exercise for the past few months? Tried a few times and were so crippled with pain that you couldn't move for the next few days?

We are trying to create a lifestyle of fitness, not a few days. 

Follow these four basic steps, and it could be a lot easier.

1. Do some sort of fitness testing.
So, back in high school you were on the track team and could run 10km in under 40mins. So, you think 'it's been a few years, but not that much has changed, I'm sure I could do it in under 50 at least'. So you start going to the gym, setting the treadmill to 14km per hour (does that work out? I'm a writer, not a mathematician! Work with me here).
Or you test out touching your toes, and you are super at that, so therefore all the rest of your fitness aspects must be fine too. Right? Right?
You get my point.
Well, just in case you didn't: if you try to set up an exercise program without knowing where you are currently, you will either make it way too hard and get upset with yourself that you can't do it or try to and hurt yourself, or make it so ridiculously easy you will never improve.

2. Look at your schedule and be prepared to make sacrifices.
Surprisingly, even once you take up a new fitness goal you still only have 24 hours in a day and strangely, every day up until now you have managed to fill up all that time without including exercise. 
So, you can't just say 'I'm going to exercise between 8.30-9am' because that time is already taken with something. You actively need to identify areas where you can sacrifice what you were doing and add in exercise instead. If it means sleep, make sure you are still getting enough. My recommendation is to choose a few TV programs that you usually watch, but haven't been so good this season, and say that when it comes on, you get out the door.

3. Start slow.
Okay, so jumping in there and feeling like a superstar on the first day does give you a little rush. But not being able to walk for the next three days tends to put a cramp on your style. (By the way, that wonderful feeling that springs up a day or two after you exercised, that's called DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. For a easy to understand article check out What Causes DOMS after exercise.)

I like Stew Smith's advice for starting a new lifestyle program: make it a year long project.
He divides the year into thirds and suggests spending the first 1-4 months doing nothing but aerobic exercise such as walking (jogging if you are a bit fitter), swimming, biking etc.  (For a good definition of aerobic/anaerobic if you are new to the terms check out this article at My Food Diary. Just to warn you, have only read this article, do not know anything else about the site.) He also suggests drinking a lot of water, which is good, but seems a bit random.
For this you can start with nothing but a pair of shoes, or even no shoes if you are into barefoot running, so don't put it off because you have no spare cash. Walking enough to make you breathless is all it takes.
In the next third, you can start bringing in strength and weight training. Try to stick to the 10% rule - only increase your workouts by a maximum of 10% at a time: 10% further, 10% longer, or 10% heavier weights.
By the final third, Smith suggests to start looking at other aspects of your life that could help in a healthy lifestyle, such as giving up smoking.

I like it because it's simple, sensible advice. 

4. Be fit for fitness sake.
This is something I'm going to talk about later, but are you exercising only to lose weight? Be honest, are you? It's fair enough, I've done it, lots of people have done it, the TV tells us to do it all the time.

However, more and more research is coming out which suggests that weight loss is actually 80% what you eat and 20% exercise. So, focusing on exercise alone is not the best thing for weight loss. It's also not the best thing for your exercise plan, because basically, if you find you aren't losing the weight, you stop being motivated to do the plan. And being fit is more important than being thin.

Having said that, here is my suggestion: struggling to lose weight and feel bad about yourself? Forget about it, and start an exercise plan focused on fitness for its own sake.

Trying to get out of bed early to go for a jog AND starve you is usually asking too much. Just starving yourself is unlikely to motivate you to also get out of bed at 5am (though admittedly losing some weight can make exercise a lot easier).

However, start exercising just because you want to be healthy and fit, and two things will happen:
1. You mood will improve. Exercise is a great mood enhancer (if you don't kill yourself).
2. You will want to eat better to feed your body so it can operate at its best.

You will want to eat better and suddenly have more will power to do so... it's a win-win situation.

Admittedly, sometimes after exercising, people can try to compensate and overeat, but I can't help you if you are determined to sabotage your own efforts. For aerobic exercise, you do not need to compensate by eating more unless you have already found you are losing large amount of weight, which for a lot of people is the goal.
(Guys, and some girls, I know you want to put on weight, but will have to wait until another post. Just don't think I've forgotten you, I haven't.)

That's just a brief introduction for those who want to start an exercise plan, but don't know how.
I've tried to explain all the specialised terms, without treating everyone too much life 5th graders (though those 5th graders appear to be damn smart), but if there is anything you are unclear on, let me know.