My Next Workout

Edit: I've added the boxing we're going to be doing into the schedule. Wow! Looks heavy.
Until now, I've been focusing on strength training -- low reps and heavy weight. It's worked wonders. In the last nine months, I've started to look good enough to be proud of my body. It's probably the first time in my life that I can say that.

The constant pain and anguish that I put my body through is taking its toll, though. I'm tired of pain every time I move. My joints are killing me. I'm big enough, and I need to lose more fat so that I can show off a little of what I got.

Because of that, I'm moving to a high-rep routine after summer. Since my spotter was out of the country this week (Hi, babe! Miss you.), I tried out my plan to see how it worked. What were my thoughts on it? Any workout that makes me puke two to three times a week can't be bad ....

The system is three antagonistic super- sets at 10-15 reps per set, three to four super-sets per workout. When I can do 3x15, it's time to bump up the weight. Oddly, my tests with the workout showed that my high-rep weights weren't as different from my low-rep weights as I thought they would be.

As usual, my workout concentrates on compound movements, but I have a few more isolation exercises than usual, and I added an arm and shoulder day at the end of the week. If it ends up being skipped because I'm trashed, it's not a big loss.

Here's the split:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Upper Body	Lower Body	Boxing	Upper Body	Lower Body	Arms / Shoulders Boxing
Hammer presses / T-bar rows Dips / Low rows Military presses / Lat pull-down BB curls / EZ-bar skull crushers	Deadlifts / Leg curls Squats / Squat-rack calf raises Hack squats / Abs	Boxing work with Don	Incline DB presses / High rows Decline hammer presses / DB low rows DB shoulder presses / Chin-ups DB curls / DB reverse-grip presses	Stiff-legged / Leg extensions Leg presses / Leg-press calf raises Sumo leg presses / Abs	Front / Side / Rear raises Hammer curls / Kickbacks EZ-bar curls / EZ-bar skull crushers Revers cable curls / Cable push-downs Boxing work with Don

The workout takes the equipment available at my gym into account, but similar exercises can be substituted (e.g. sumo squats for sumo leg presses)

Think of the Legs

That's right, don't think of the children: think of your legs.

I had a conversation with my friend at the beach the other day about his legs. He was complaining how he's genetically limited and will never have good legs. I felt bad for him.

Then I went home and woke the fuck up. Sure genetics plays a part in how much or how well a certain body part develops, just as genetics determines body type and that some of us (me) tend toward large guts and pipe-cleaner arms and legs, but dismissing working on them entirely is the weight-lifter equivalent of the overweight guy moaning about his predisposition while shoving Ho Hos down his throat.

My gal hates chicken legs, and I can't blame her. Actually, I don't think she minds if a guy is generally thin and has proportionately thin legs, but too many of them spend a lot of time at the gym working on upper body, then can't wear shorts outside because their legs are underdeveloped.

It's no wonder that most of them have thin legs, though. What's your workout routine? How many times a week do you work legs? If you do a five-day body part split, one of those is for legs, right? Hmmm. You're spending 80% of your time on your upper body and 20% on your legs. Is it any wonder why your legs aren't as big as your chest or back?

This is why I'm for one of two kinds of workouts: full body or upper / lower split. Your legs get the same time as everything else. Throw your lower back and abs into your lower body if you don't have enough time.

Beat those chicken legs! No one likes to see them, and you'll be really glad when it comes time to put on those Speedos.