Walk into any gym and what is the typical weight workout you see? Probably some guy stacking 2 plates on each side of the barbell getting ready to bench 3 sets of 12. Then he'll probably head over to the pec dec machine do a set or two of very light weight setting for 20 reps, followed by a few sets of dumbbell curls, tricep pushdowns, and some shoulder extensions on the cable machines. He'll probably end the workout on the treadmill of bike for some cooling down.
Now this workout is fine if you just want to train the beach and mirror muscles, the chest, biceps, shoulders, but this type of workout can get boring very easily. And boredom is probably, in my opinion, one of the motivator killers of training. It's also a one-dimensional way of training that doesn't transfer training effects well to other athletic endeavors.
Ask yourself, is that how you're currently training? Are you just going through the motions of training and winging your workouts? Because half of the people in the gym are doing just that. I'm going to say there are much funner ways of trianing. More dynamic ways of training that can be productive and effective while being fun to help you reach your body transformation, fat loss, and muscle gaining goals.
You can use different exercise modalities and different ways of training to keep your workouts fresh and force you to be more alert. Exercise modalities means you can train in many different ways: weights/strength training, body weight exercises, kettlebells, sandbags, running, biking, and other forms of cardio. Each can be used to achieve certain fitness goals and objectives to building muscle, improving conditioning, getting fitter, and losing weight. You can train lying down, sitting up, standing, bending over, and even suspending on rings and ropes.
Who says you have to stick with just jogging and lifting weights to build muscle and lose fat? Conventional wisdom doesn't necessarily bring the best results. You can train in these different positions using machines, barbells, dumbbells, free weights, for different compound and isolation exercises. Expand your horizons for fitness and realize that you can train more dynamically with variety and to have more fun working out.
You can use bodyweight exercises. You can run, sprint, or jog. You can use resistance bands. You can climb ropes. You can combine weights with bodyweight movements. Weights with bands. You can jump rope. You can even flip tires, push cars, drag sleds, climb rocks and poles. So dynamic workouts just means you can use different equipment, tools, and ways of training if you're creative. Just look at professional strongmen and recreational lifters 50 years ago. They didn't have gyms with treadmills and ellipticals lined in in a perfect line back then. They found whatever heavy things they could and lifted it over and over again. Sandbags, rocks, logs, sleds, piles of rocks, wood stacks, back packs, tires, carts, shovels, etc.
And the point being is that you can train in a variety of ways. There are 4 main exercise modalities:
1) weights, includes machines and free weights
2) body weight exercise
3) combination of body weight exercises and free weights exercises
4) distance work, includes high intensity interval cardio, biking, running, jogging, sprinting, swimming, elliptical, walking, rowing, long and short distances.
You can accomplish your body transformation goals using a variety of the above exercise modalities. Variety is good. Nature loves variety, if you take action and train. The law of specificity says your training has to be specific to your goals. And building muscle requires resistance training. Your body is the resistance. Further, you can also combine body weight and free wieghts to build muscle. Additionally, you can use it to burn fat and lose weight, especially if you apply high intensity protocol to the workouts.
For example, you know heavy weights build muscle. Try a handstand pushup between 2 chairs for a deeper stretch on the bottom position. The movement produces tremendous tension on your upper back, shoulders, and triceps. You will build muscle if you're able to crank out multiple sets of 12 reps with handstand pushups, better than if you were to do 3 sets of 12 on the bench press. And try doing a set of single legged squats while holding a 50 pounds dumbbell. You'll build more muscle, strength, balance, and flexibility than leg presses or leg extensions.
And you don't have to use straight sets, doing one set after another with weight workouts, You can combine a bunch of exercises together for a full body workout into circuits. Great for fat loss and building endurance while improving conditioning. Try some rest-pause sets, drop sets, strip sets, compound supersets, or other shock techniques for increasing the intensity of your workouts (link to shock article).
With distance work, you can run short intervals or long intervals (link to HIIT for fat loss) rather than a slow jogging session for an hour. You can even combine running with body weight exercises at a football park with a chinup bar or monkey bars. For example, go to your local track or park and run really fast for half a mile, then drop and do a set of 20 pushups, 10 pullups, and 10 bench dips, rest for 2 minutes by walking and take deep breaths. Then repeat 3 more times for a total of 4 circuits. The entire workout can be done in under 2 minutes. This higher intensity can help you lose more weight as it elevates metabolism several days after the workout so you end up burning more overall calories than if you were to just jog for an hour.
The main point is that there are plenty of different strategies and methods of training and working out to reach your fitness and body transformation goals if you use all your resources. For the next part, you'll take a look at how you can use each modality to reach your goals, then in the final article of this series, I'll list some sample programs and guidelines.
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