So, in the last "Lifter" post I was transitioning from bodyweight exercises to using weights.
My new inspiration was The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove:
The authors don't claim any of this is really new, but that a lot of popular training articles and programs have deluded people. In a nutshell, here are the "new rules" without giving you the actual "new rules" since there are at least 19.
1. Focus on large muscle groups - (ie. chest/shoulders, back, quads, glute/hamstrings) these programs have VERY few curls or tricep exercises. The theory is that when you do any sort of upper-body press, your triceps HAVE TO work hard. When you do any pull/chin up or row, your biceps HAVE TO work hard.
2. Focus on exercises that imitate (relatively) "natural" movements: push - pull - squat - bend - lunge etc.
3. Weights are tools to help achieve fitness goals and machines are relatively ineffective tools.
Use dumbells and barbells and occasionally a cable station or exercise ball.
4. Strength is the foundation of all movement.
5. You should set a personal record every workout.
6. A workout is as good as the adaptation it forces upon your body. Incidentally, this is why resistance training is better than "cardio" for fat-loss. You body adapts to it more slowly and it increases your metabolism WAY more than "cardio."
7. Warm-up, but don't stretch, before your workout.
I love these principles and I enjoyed these workouts and made progress, but the workouts were still just a bit too long for a grad student with a wife and a baby whose demands seemed so disproportionate to his size.
The missing piece I needed at the time was a workout system called Escalating Density Training (EDT). The program is described in basic form in several places online and was published in the book Muscle Logic by this guy, Charles Staley, and boasted, "Cut your workout time in half, with better results." This may be an exaggeration, but it did cut my workout time down. I did get better results and I loved the way this system makes you compete with yourself successfully and have continual progress.
Here's EDT in short. When I do EDT, I also have the "new rules" in mind. This seems complex at first because it is counter-intuitive, but when you get into it, it is amazingly simple.
1. Pick the exercises you want to do for your large muscle groups.
2. Put them in "antagonistic pairings" or roughly opposite exercises. Example are bench/row, lower-body push/upper-body pull. You will do these exercises back-to-back in what is called a "superset" moving back and forth between them.
3. Each pair, or superset also indicates a 15 minute "personal record" or PR zone.
4. Use your 10 rep max for each exercise (this can vary depending on your goals).
5. Structure your workouts based on these pairs but, you will NOT perform any exercise to failure. You should always feel like you could perform at least one more rep on all but maybe the last set of a PR Zone.
6. Start each set doing HALF of your rep max, moving the weight as fast as possible for each rep and moving back and forth between exercises with as little rest as possible between sets. Decrease reps-per-set and/or increase rest periods as you fatigue. Aim for around 45 reps per exercise, but the program is self-correcting BECAUSE....
7. If you beat your previous record by 20%, you increase the weight by 5% or 5lbs., whichever is less, and keep going!
NOTE: Even though the weights and reps are not maximal, moving them as fast as possible means you exert maximal FORCE for each rep. (Ex. You may exert 140lbs of pressure to move a 100lb weight as fast as you can).
Here's what your workouts might look like then:
Monday:
PR Zone 1-
Squat/Pullup
PR Zone 2-
Bench/Row
Wednesday:
PR Zone 1-
Deadlift - doesn't really need a pair
PR Zone 2-
Lunge/Military Press
Friday - repeat Monday and then repeat Wednesday the next Monday etc.
I've never done this exact workout, but its not bad. If you did a 3-5 minute warm-up and rested 3-5 minutes between PR Zones, you'd be in and out of the weight-room, or your basement, in around 40 minutes or less. If you need shorter workouts, do slightly shorter PR Zones. I think people could make progress with as little as 10 minute zones though you might want to start out doing 6-7 instead of 5 reps.
I'm doing some other things now that mix up a bunch of these principles with some other things I've learned, but these are the basic building blocks. My pastor recently preached on taking care of ourselves, so maybe this will help someone do that...
My advice to everyone is to do the exercise you enjoy. Play, run, lift, jump, march, whatever. But if you DON'T like what you are currently doing, try something else!
I haven't even talked about nutrition, but I have gained 25-30 pounds since I got back into lifting and I don't think my body-fat percentage has increase much at all. People might ask, "what about cardio-vascular health?" and even though I only run about once a year, I went out and ran 5 miles with a running friend a few weeks ago and felt pretty good!
So, if you're into working out, let me know what you've learned or found helpful! I'm always trying to learn new things. If you have any questions, feel free to ask...
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