Why Split Routines are Effective

Split routines are very effective if you train often enough.

If training 2 x a week, you’re probably better off with 2 full body workouts because you need to work all the muscles each time.

Consistently train 3 or more times per week?

Make the switch to a split routine such as the one above.

Being able to focus on body parts, such as chest, back, legs, etc will mean you can get more out of each session.

A more focused session will mean more exercises for each muscle, meaning more overload.

More overload = more muscle!

Body Part Weight Training

This is also known as a split workout plan, as mentioned above.

In short it means targeting a specific set of body parts per workout. Common splits include:

• Legs & Shoulders
• Chest & Biceps
• Back & Triceps

There are a lot of ways you can split your workouts to focus on individual body parts, depending on how much time you have and how advanced you are.

Within each workout you may target each body part with 2 to 4 different exercises. This allows you to really target each area specifically.

Body part training is more of a body building concept, because the focus is on building aesthetically pleasing muscle by increasing its size and definition.

Why Cardio Must be Included

Often you find people in one of two camps. They either love weight training and hate cardio, or hate weight training and love cardio.

The key is to love both!

Here’s the thing. If you want to look like an athlete, or as near as you can realistically get, you have to train like one.

Athletes will do weight training, stretching, steady state cardio and HIIT style sessions.

Cardio helps maintain your cardiovascular system – heart, lungs and blood vessels.

It also helps burn calories and gives your muscles a nice lean, functional look.

The best amount of cardio to do?

I’d recommend 1 x HIIT session and 1 x steady state cardio session per week.

In addition to your 2-3 x weight training sessions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, 4 x a week training is the sweet spot for muscle growth, fat loss and fitness.

Compound & Isolating Exercises

Compound exercises are those which use multiple muscle groups at the same time. For example, deadlift, bench press, pull-ups, chin-ups, squats.

Isolating exercises are those which focus on a single muscle group. For example, bicep curl, tricep extension, calf press.

Compound vs Isolated Weight Training

When you should use them is a good question.

In general, compound moves are great when you only have 1-2 sessions a week to train because they hit lots of muscles all at once.

Isolated exercises are perfect when you have 3+ days per week to train and want to really target specific muscles.

Can you mix them..?

Yes, you can. Most workouts will include compound moves as the base and isolating exercises on top.

Start off with compound moves, to work the bigger muscles and then add some isolating moves to finish them off.

Example compound and isolating moves…

If you’re working the back & biceps, you might do the following:

• Wide arm pull-ups
• Seated row
• Bicep curls

This first targets the larger muscles of the back, while also using the biceps and forearms.

Then targets the biceps with a specific isolating move to finish them off.

Functional Training

Functional training became ‘the in thing‘ many years ago now, but it’s what athletes have been doing for years.

Any football, rugby or fighter will incorporate this style of training into their routine because it’s rooted in real world movements.

Why is weight training not functional?

Typical weight training is not very functional because the movements you make don’t reflect how you move in sport.

For example, squats and deadlifts are not the kind of movement you’d do on a football pitch.

In most sports, there is much more dynamic movement where the whole body is used not just a small set of muscles in one direction.

So what’s functional training then?

Things like box jumps, renegade rows, lunges in different directions are all functional because they are more similar to what you’d do on a sports field or in a game.

Should I add functional training to my workout?

It depends on your goal. If your only goal is to build muscle to look good, it’s not that necessary.

If you want a strong, fit and well functioning body then yes you definitely should.

High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT training is an ideal way to get a fast cardio and muscular workout when you’re short on time.

Done right, it can push you very hard physically, which in turn helps you get fitter, stronger and leaner.

What is HIIT?

I’ve defined what HIIT is below, but I’ll quickly recap and then cover some practical examples of it.

HIIT is timed intervals of high intensity activity followed by rest or lower intensity intervals.

The intervals can vary in length. For example, Tabata is the most famous HIIT protocol. Which looks like this:

20 seconds 100% effort, followed by 10 seconds rest. Repeat 8 times.

Should I include HIIT?

For most people the answer will be yes.

HIIT helps get you fitter and stronger and works you in a way that steady state and weight training can’t do alone.

My free to download workouts above include 1 HIIT session per week.

Most gyms have HIIT classes now so you could just go along to one of those.

HIIT is something where you will benefit from training with others, as doing it alone you will not push yourself hard enough.

What is Tempo?

If you’ve ever read any workout guide, you will probably have heard the term “tempo” mentioned. What does it mean? Allow me to explain…

In short, tempo is the speed you move. In weight training it means how fast or slow you lift and push the weights.

It will often look like this “Bench Press 4 x 12 reps, tempo: 3-1-1-0”

Let’s dissect that…

The tempo in this case of the bench press means the following:

• 3 seconds to lower the bar
• 1 second pause at the bottom
• 1 second to push the bar up
• 0 second pause at the top

There are 4 phases to every movement; up, pause, down, pause.

Usually the first number will be for the eccentric phase. That’s lowering in bench press and most movements, but in other moves will be where you are not contracting the muscles.

What is Time Under Tension?

In short, it means how much work you are doing per set and can be calculated like this:

Time Under Tension (TUT) = Reps x Tempo

Let’s look at the good old bench press as an example…

12 reps, tempo 3010…So that’s 4 seconds per rep x 12 reps = 48 seconds TUT

The higher the TUT, the more load on your muscles and the more they will grow.

What is Hypertrophy?

It means to build muscle. Simple.

Hyper always means bigger, better, faster, etc. For example…

• hyperactive – annoying people…
• hyperoptic – really fast broadband
• hypertension – high blood pressure
• hyperspeed – very fast

I think you get the picture. Hyper is usually good. Now get hyper-working-out!

What is Steady State Cardio?

Steady state cardio is where you perform exercise, which raises your heart-rate, at a consistent (steady) speed or intensity.

Typical examples are running, cycling and swimming and would last anywhere from 20 mins to 1 hour or more.

It’s often used when doing fasted cardio because it’s seen as a way to burn fat rather than using stored carbohydrates (glycogen).

What is HIIT?

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It is exercise performed for timed intervals of higher and lower intensities.

For example, you might sprint for 60 seconds and jog for 30 seconds. That would be 1 round and you may complete 4-10 rounds.

A very famous and common HIIT protocol is Tabata, where you perform 20 seconds at 100% effort followed by 10 seconds rest.

A Tabata workout is incredibly hard if done correctly. Using a stationary bike is a really good way to do it.

What are SuperSets?

Supersets are simply two or more exercises done one after the other without rest between.

Let’s say you do bench press followed by bent over row without taking a break.

That’s a superset. You have completed each one back-to-back.