This is part four in a series of blog posts where I talk about living a healthier life. Some have told me these are too long and others have called them inspirational and motivating. I write this to get everything that’s in my mind down on digital paper so I can keep my routines and diets in my head and avoid getting things mixed up. So far, I’ve written about the keys to a successful fitness regiment and how to stay with it. I\u2019ve shared a bit about a diet that you could follow and I’ve been pretty clear about the benefit of supplements even if you don\u2019t need to get in shape and are happy with your body. Today, I\u2019m going to talk about training and what I\u2019ve been doing to get fit. It\u2019s important that you remember this is written as a guy who is trying to lose weight and gain muscle. Also remember I\u2019m not an expert and keep in mind that I am changing up my routine every 8 weeks which I\u2019ve already done once. I\u2019ll share my full basic routine as well as variances and different thing to work the same muscle. This may be a pretty long post but you can skim and just read the bulleted routines. Finally, I hope you\u2019ve spent the last month eating well, taking vitamins and stretching daily. Now that you are in a habit of eating well and thinking about yourself and where you need to improve, it\u2019s time to add in the physical part of this transformation.<\/p>\n
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The keys to a successful fitness regiment:<\/strong><\/p>\n Beyond the focus and determination and push to kick ass and be your very best, there are a few very common mistakes that people make. I know you\u2019re excited and pumped up about getting started but you can\u2019t take the excitement and put it into the wrong areas. Here are some basics that should be applied to nearly every type of physical exercise.<\/p>\n \n \n Those may have not been quick tips but they\u2019re absolutely critical for growth and progress while you\u2019re working out. Let\u2019s review my regiment. This workout has helped me go from 290 to 250 while increasing my chest, should and arm size by 2x in 3 months. Muscle weighs more than fat so, I\u2019ve lost about 60 pounds of fat while replacing it with 25 pounds of muscle. My beer belly is still here but, genetics has shown me that\u2019s the last thing I\u2019ll be getting rid of.<\/p>\n \n Monday: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps<\/strong><\/p>\n We group these muscles for a reason. While doing benchpress, you are using your soldiers to stabilize and your triceps to extend the arms. After a hard chest workout, you\u2019ve already started to tear down your chest and triceps muscles. So, it\u2019s only fair that we completely tear those muscles down for a full trifecta<\/p>\n \n Chest<\/strong>:<\/p>\n The key to benchpress is that you arch your back and push your body with your feet where a lot of the pressure is on your shoulder blades. Don\u2019t lay on the bench flat footed or flat backed. Arching slightly will put more focus on your chest. Arms should be wider than shoulder width and you should feel chest muscles and not shoulder muscles while doing these. Breathe out with every rep.<\/p>\n \n Shoulders<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Triceps<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Cardio:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Day 2: Back and Biceps<\/strong><\/p>\n These are another grouped set of muscle groups. While pulling things down or back to work your back, you\u2019re activating the biceps as well.<\/p>\n \n Back:<\/p>\n Biceps:<\/p>\n Cardio<\/p>\n \n Wednesday: Cardio & Core Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Thursday: Legs<\/strong><\/p>\n No cardio on this day. If you can still walk down stairs once you\u2019re done with this, you didn\u2019t do a good workout. You should be dying to find a chair after this is done. If not, you need to add more weight next time. Remember, when doing leg presses (not standing but sitting down), If you weigh 150, you can at least do that. Add 50 pounds to your weight as a baseline. We know you can lift yourself because you do it every day. that\u2019s why I can do 400 on the leg press because I already weight 300 pounds so adding 100 to that was no big deal.<\/p>\n \n Friday: Rest<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe in weekday rest days so, if you want, I\u2019d come in Friday and do another cardio & core day with some small things like benchpress, curls, pulldowns and some misc free weight exercises and another stretching session. Do an hour on the treadmill if you\u2019d like and then rest Saturday or Sunday. If you want to come into the gym on the weekend, that\u2019s fine but, I take weekends off since the gym is half an hour away so I always do something on Friday and then start the cycle over on Monday. It\u2019s up to you.<\/p>\n \n Saturday OR Sunday: Maintenance<\/strong><\/p>\n Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n So, that\u2019s my post on physical training. It\u2019s pretty basic and you should always alternate and change things up as often as possible. However, follow this for the first 2 months especially if you are currently doing no physical activity at all. You have to start somewhere and this will be much harder than you expect it to be.<\/p>\n \n When it\u2019s time to switching things up, If found this GREAT website that holds your hand with all of the potential exercises you can do<\/p>\n \n http:\/\/www.exrx.net\/index.html<\/p>\n \n It has GIF examples of every exercise you could ever think of and it shows you exactly what it\u2019s working and has categories. There are also sections on training for a 5K or marathon and training without weights. Browse through, take notes and build your workout. Thanks for reading. I don\u2019t think this concludes the blog series but, for now, it does. Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is part four in a series of blog posts where I talk about living a healthier life.…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-life","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-Nw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4232,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/08\/29\/28\/","url_meta":{"origin":3070,"position":0},"title":"28","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year for as long as I can remember, I post a blog post about the last year here on Earth and what I\u2019m looking forward to going forward. 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