Starting up at the gym again today...it was painfully fun! Starting the periodization sequence from the beginning, with Hypertrophy I (Hypertrophy is muscle growth). The idea behind the hypertrophy routines are muscle confusion. Every time you repeat a workout the rep ranges and rest periods will have changed from the time before. The routine is comprised of 2 workouts that you will complete 12 times each (that's 24 total workouts). I'm planning on lifting at minimum 3 times per week, so I'm looking at a maximum of 8 weeks on Hypertrophy I. By varying the rep ranges, each workout will illicit different physiological responses. The standard rep/set used by body builders and the average weight lifter is 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps each set. This is generally accepted as the best range for steady muscle growth.
The beauty of this routine is that by encouraging different responses, your body has difficult time adapting to the routine, which puts additional stress in the muscles, which will illicit the greatest muscular growth while also increasing a relative level of muscular endurance. As an athlete, we want functional, large and strong muscles, not just one or two of the three. Here is the first day of Workout A, I'm listing only the maximum weight lifted for each exercise:
Alternating Sets of:
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 5x5 - 60
Cable Seated Rows 5x5 - 130
Alternating Sets of:
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 5x5 - 45
Wide-grip Lat Pulldown 5x5 - 150
Alternating Sets of:
Close-grip Barbell Bench Press 5x5 - 115
High Pull 5x5 - 95
Finish with:
Swiss-ball Crunches 3x15 - 11
Each set was followed by a 90 sec. rest before continuing to the alternate set. The only variance was with the crunches, those were followed by 60 sec. rest.
Killer to say the least! I was feeling it in my arms after finishing the first alternating set, and I was dead after the last one...the crunches were just icing on the cake.
All this was followed by a cardio routine called "Metabolic Overdrive." This is designed to, as it's called, kick your metabolism into overdrive and just melt off fat. Here it is:
5 min. warm up
repeat the following 3 times:
1 min. high intensity
2 min. medium-high intensity
finish with:
5 min. cool down
60 grams of protein later, and I'm feeling like life is worth living again...
Hopefully I won't be crying in the morning. Wish me luck!
The beauty of this routine is that by encouraging different responses, your body has difficult time adapting to the routine, which puts additional stress in the muscles, which will illicit the greatest muscular growth while also increasing a relative level of muscular endurance. As an athlete, we want functional, large and strong muscles, not just one or two of the three. Here is the first day of Workout A, I'm listing only the maximum weight lifted for each exercise:
Alternating Sets of:
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 5x5 - 60
Cable Seated Rows 5x5 - 130
Alternating Sets of:
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 5x5 - 45
Wide-grip Lat Pulldown 5x5 - 150
Alternating Sets of:
Close-grip Barbell Bench Press 5x5 - 115
High Pull 5x5 - 95
Finish with:
Swiss-ball Crunches 3x15 - 11
Each set was followed by a 90 sec. rest before continuing to the alternate set. The only variance was with the crunches, those were followed by 60 sec. rest.
Killer to say the least! I was feeling it in my arms after finishing the first alternating set, and I was dead after the last one...the crunches were just icing on the cake.
All this was followed by a cardio routine called "Metabolic Overdrive." This is designed to, as it's called, kick your metabolism into overdrive and just melt off fat. Here it is:
5 min. warm up
repeat the following 3 times:
1 min. high intensity
2 min. medium-high intensity
finish with:
5 min. cool down
60 grams of protein later, and I'm feeling like life is worth living again...
Hopefully I won't be crying in the morning. Wish me luck!
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