Football Season 15 Part III

Yesterday I covered what my diet starts to look like come January. Now I will let you take a look at what my training schedule looks like to get back to “fighting weight”. There is a lot of argument about which workout you should do and which ones are the best. The main goal is to do whichever one you pick 100% and make sure that you allow your body to get adequate rest . It doesn’t matter if you do P90x, crossfit, or an old-school program like mine; the effort, consistency, and intensity are what will get you results.

“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something. You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger

During the fall I follow a high intensity protocol meaning my workouts have very few working sets per muscle group but they are performed to and past failure. For example, I’ll warm up for 5 minutes on bench and pick a heavy weight and do it as many times as I can (shooting for the 8-10 range) and get a spotter to help me push 1-2 assisted reps out at the end. A lot of times I’ll immediately decrease the weight after my set to failure and do the same thing with a lighter weight. So on chest day I may only do 3 exercises with 1 working set to and past failure on each exercise. This may sound easy but trust me; it is a great physical and mental challenge.

After 6 months of doing this my body is prime for a new, drastically different workout. The immediate change of style will create muscle confusion and lead to immediate elevated anabolic responses. That basically means my muscles will grow and I could burn fat. I switch to a high volume workout. That means I may do 4 exercises for 4 sets a piece on chest day. Since I go from pushing 60-80 reps a workout to now up to 200 I have to ease into it a bit. First week I do 10 sets for 10 reps on all my days to get my body switched to a volume program. After 2 weeks add a couple sets to each workout and so on until I get to where I am now and will stay.

This workout is much more taxing on the body and requires the carbs to be consumed to be able to handle it. Instead of doing 3 days, I do 6.  Not only are my winter and spring workouts longer, they also finish every single time with 45 minutes of cardio. I usually do inclined walk, slow jogging, elliptical, or step climber. The body’s response to the change is pretty quick and you will see significant weight loss in your first 6 weeks.

I also start to supplement more. Before every workout I use a pre-workout drink to elevate energy levels and I also take a full days serving of the essential amino acids. After every workout I immediately drink a weigh protein isolate shake. I also take a men’s multivitamin daily. I drink a casein protein shake before bed every night as well. Depending on my day and if I’ve been able to consume enough protein, I may drink a 3^rd whey isolate shake for the day but I try to keep that to a minimum by taking in as much whole food macronutrients as possible

Sample Week Training

Monday

Seated Dumbbell Military Press- 5 sets of 8 reps

Standing Lateral Dumbbell Raises- 5 sets of 10 reps

Upright Row- 5 sets of 10 reps

45 mins cardio

Tuesday

Incline Barbell Bench- 5 sets of 8 reps

Flat Dumbbell Bench- 5 sets of 10 reps

Pec Deck or Cable Fly- 5 sets of 10-12

Seated Bench Machine (Nuetral grip-palms facing, thumbs pointing up)- 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Standing Front Dumbbell Raises- 3 sets of 10

45 mins cardio

Wednesday

Lat Pull downs- 5 sets of 8-10

Seated Wide Grip Rows- 5 sets of 10

Single Arm Dumbbell Row- 5 sets of 10

Seated Neutral Grip Rows- 5 sets of 10

Reverse Flys- 3 sets of 10

45 mins of cardio

Thursday

Dumbbell or Barbell Shrugs- 8 sets of 10

Calf Raises- 8 sets of 12

Ab Wheel- 5 sets to failure

Crunches- 5 sets to failure

Straight Leg Deadlift- 5 sets of 20

45 mins of cardio

Friday

Super set bicep and triceps

1A- Barbell Curls- 5 sets of 8

1B- Skull Crushers- 5 sets of 8-10

2A- Hammer Curls- 5 sets 10

2B- Single Arm Behind Head Tricep Extension- 5 sets of 10

3A- Seated Preacher Curls- 5 sets of 10

3B- Tricep Pushdowns- 5 sets of 10

45 mins of cardio

Saturday

Leg Press- 5 sets of 10

Crunches – 5 Sets of 10

45 mins of cardio

**I go easy on my leg to maximize cardio sessions in the winter/spring. I kill them in the fall due to no cardio**

Sunday

Rest

The actual workouts you do on which day is completely customizable to your preference. Some may look at my schedule and not like to do things in that order. Nothing wrong with that since everyone is different. Most people don’t train shoulders first but I do because of my body’s natural build. My frame makes it imperative that shoulders take precedence. It’s all about finding a comfort level that suits you and executing it to the best of your ability.

If anyone has any questions about the workout email me at 3rdAnd57@gmail.com