This post is going to be on a different subject than my usual posts – power training. Over the last 6+ years, I’ve been training twice a week in the gym with heavy weights.
I’ve managed to keep my training regime mostly the same during those 6 years, excluding a few weeks here and there for vacations. With these exercises, I was able to increase my muscles mass (I’ve always been far from skinny, and never overweight), and greatly increase my strength and raw power.
Notice, that I’m working with a personal trainer (the wonderful Shay Goltman), which has been guiding me, teaching me and keeping me motivated.
For reference, I’m not a big guy – I’m 1.76 m tall (around 5’9″) and started training weighting somewhere around 90 kg (200 lbs).
My training regime consisted of two different training days, each focusing on other muscles group – Day A has chest, back and biceps; Day B focuses on shoulders, triceps and legs. Both days have a couple of abs exercises.
Day A: Chest, back and biceps
I’m doing 3 exercises for each large muscles group – chest and back, and 2 exercises for the smaller biceps.
I begin with bench press – 3 sets of 8 repetitions each. When I started, I pressed 45 kg (100 lbs). I am now able to press 110 kg (240 lbs) without too much trouble. After that, I move on to inclined bench press, again doing 3 sets of 8 repetitions – I’ve reached 100 kg (220 lbs) here. Lastly, I go 3 sets of 8 repetitions of flyes.
Moving on to the back, I start with 3 sets of 8 reps of lat pulldowns or around 74 kgs (160 lbs), followed by 3 sets of 8-10 reps of seated cable row. I leave the last exercise of the back – the deadlift, to the end of the training.
For the biceps, I usually go for the simple standing biceps curl and inclined biceps curls, each 3 sets of 8-12 reps, with 10-14 kg (22-30 lbs).
Lastly, we have the deadlift – the ultimate exercise. I once again go for 3 sets, usually of 6 reps (depending on the weight). I started with 70 kg (155 lbs), and reached all the way up to 210 kg (460 lbs) for multiple reps.
Day B: Shoulders, triceps and legs
Keeping in line with the theme, I’m doing 3 exercises for the shoulders and legs, and 2 for the triceps. I leave the leg exercises to the end of the training, or I won’t have the strength to keep going afterwards.
I start with overhead shoulder presses, doing 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions, with up to 90 kg (200 lbs), followed by 3 sets of 8 reps of upright rows (45 kg, or 100 lbs), and then 3 sets of 8 reps of lateral raise with 8 kg dumbbells (18 lbs).
Moving on to triceps, I’ll take 12 kg dumbbells and do 3 sets of 8 reps of triceps extension while lying, and then 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps of the rope pressdown.
For the legs, we have another super exercise – the squat. This exercises is extremely powerful, and boost your deadlift capabilities as well. I usually do 3 sets of 6 to 8 repetitions. When I started squatting, I used 60 kg (130 lbs), and over the years, I’ve reached 180 kg (400 lbs). I’m still breathing after that, I’ll do 3 sets of leg press, and/or 3 sets of leg extension (usually with 70 ks or 150 lbs).
Abs and cardio
To be honest, I don’t do enough abs. The abs usually work with the more complex exercises (such as the shoulder press) so I’m not missing that much. When I do, I usually do 2 or 3 sets of crunches and reverse crunches.
As for cardio, I sometime speed walk after my usual progress, but I don’t really have the patience of that. Instead, I try to make sure I walk a bit every day, and bit further on the weekends…
Making progress
The way I make sure I’m not just maintaining my body, but actually making progress, is by keep pushing myself to the limit. Every time I was able to finish the planned 3 sets in a certain exercise, I noted it to myself, and the next week I increased the weight a bit, usually by 2.5-5 kg (5-10 lbs).
Every time I found myself stuck in the same weight for a long period (more than 3-4 sessions), I would change the exercise a bit – using dumbbells instead of barbell or vice versa. Or doing a slightly different variation of the exercise, to stimulate the muscles a bit differently (for example, doing inclined flyes instead of normal flyes).
Form and style
Since my main reason for training is building up strength, I take special care in performing the exercises correctly (especially the deadlift and squat, which are known to have broken – literally – careless trainers). I make sure I do the full span of the exercise – whether it’s making sure my arms are fully extended, or that the barbell goes all the way down to my chest. I rather reduce the weight I’m lifting/pressing/pushing/pulling and work effectively, than do a bad workout with a crazy weight.