3 Steps to a Better Workout Program

Most of us would agree that nutrition plays a really big role in the results that we see. Some may even say that nutrition is what makes or breaks you. This major emphasis on nutrition is good, and although I believe better nutritional habits should continue to be encouraged, the nutrition obsession has caused a lot of us to overlook the importance of a good training program.

This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of trainers are scrambling to put together at home workout programs, and 95% of them aren’t any good. Exercises are thrown together at random with the goal to make the client (you) move and sweat as much as possible.

“Well, isn’t getting super sweaty and sore a sign of a good workout?” Nope, not at all.

A good training program and even a good workout contain many intricacies that play a major role in the benefits you may or may not see once you’re done.

So, what does make a good workout program? Let’s find out.

GOOD WORKOUT PROGRAMS ARE PHASED

This is by far one of the biggest mistakes I see when someone shows me the the workout program they’ve been doing from XYZ company. Workouts aren’t phased the way they should be.

What is phasing, exactly? Think of phasing as progression. Your workout program needs to set you up to be able to progress week after week, month after month, phase after phase. In short, your workout program should contain phases that will call your body to progress each time it begins working in a new phase.

Generally speaking, our bodies adapt to exercise in 3-6 weeks. Because of that, phases are generally 4 weeks long. That is the length I use to phase my client’s programs because it gives them a good amount of time to reap all the benefits of the phase, and it simply works well on the calendar to have each phase last one month.

As you go from phase to phase, things need to change in order for your body to change. You need to tell your body to change by changing the way you exercise. I can’t tell you how many times guys my age are stuck and aren’t seeing any results because they’ve been doing 8-12 reps for the last year thinking that it’s the only rep range that can build muscle.

Three of the best ways to change and phase your program is to adjust the amount of sets, reps, and rest as you go from phase to phase. Here is an example.

Phase 1: 3-4 sets, 4-6 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

Phase 2: 3-4 sets, 8-10 reps, 90 seconds rest between sets

Phase 3: 3-4 sets, 12-15 reps, 60 seconds rest between sets

At week 3 or 4 of each phase, your body will begin to reap all the benefits of the routine you’ve been doing, and will be primed for more change as you transition into higher or lower reps, and more or less rest between sets.

Structuring your workout program as such will allow you to change and progress towards your goal as long as you stay consistent.

Before moving on, we need to address undulating periodization. UP is when there are multiple different rep ranges in a workout, and they change day by day. It would look a little something like this:

• Workout A

  • Exercise 1: 4-6 reps

  • Exercise 2: 12-15 reps

  • Exercise 3: 8-10 Reps

• Workout B

  • Exercise 1: 12-15 reps

  • Exercise 2: 8-10 reps

  • Exercise 3: 4-6 reps

• Workout C

  • Exercise 1: 8-10 reps

  • Exercise 2: 4-6 reps

  • Exercise 3: 12-15 reps

There really isn’t any rhyme or reason. Tons and tons of people have seen great benefit from structuring their workout program like this, but not more so than progressively phasing after each month. I normally don’t recommend UP because it is hard to pin point why your body is or is not responding well. If you do this for a month straight and don’t see any progress, there’s no way of knowing how you should change your reps because you were training at a different range each day.

Far better to simply do one rep range, assess your progress, and adjust for the next phase.

GOOD WORKOUT PROGRAMS ARE BUILT ON FOUNDATIONAL EXERCISES

When creating your workout program, don’t get caught up in the flashiest, most complicated moves. Stick to the moves that stand the test of time.

Good foundational exercises are squats, deadlifts, lunges, presses (bench press), overhead press, pull-ups, and rows. Does that mean curls and calf raises are useless? Absolutely not. But building a strong foundation on these movements will enhance the results your body sees from other exercises.

These exercises will also send a louder strength and muscle building signal to your body because they are compound movements. They use more than one joint and more than one muscle. But what if your goal is to lose body fat? You should still use these exercises with the intent to build strength and muscle. Not only do compound exercises burn more calories, but the improvements you see in strength and muscle will help you burn more calories each day, too. And that will make fat loss way easier.

Generally speaking, you want these exercises to be at the beginning of your workouts, because they require the most energy and mental focus to be done with lots of weight and quality form. I never recommend putting any of these exercises at the end of your workouts when you’re completely gassed.

GOOD WORKOUT PROGRAMS ALLOW FOR REST

The thing I hate the most about fad workouts aside from the lack of progression and phasing is the lack of rest. Everyone wants to feel like they’re dying and getting a great workout from sweating their balls off, so they never rest. And that is what hurts them in the long run.

Let me make this clear. YOUR WORKOUT PROGRAM MUST HAVE REST PERIODS.

If your only goal is to get sweaty, then do your workouts in the blazing sun and just jump around for an hour straight. Actually, don’t do that. But if your goal is to get leaner, lose body fat, and get stronger, you need to allow your body to rest in between sets.

Resting in between sets will allow your central nervous system and muscle fibers to recover so they can lift the same weight, if not, more weight in the upcoming set. Remember, your goal is to progress workout after workout, week after week, and phase after phase. Do you expect your strength to stand a fighting chance if you do 10 heavy squats, rest for 10 seconds, and then try another set of 10 heavy squats? Absolutely not. You need to rest in between sets so your body can progress.

Methodically structuring your rest periods is just as important as the reps you do and the exercises you select for your workout program.

If you want pure strength benefits, you’ll want to rest a little longer, 90 seconds to 3 minutes in between sets as the central nervous system is largely responsible for strength and takes much longer to recover than muscle fibers do. If you want pure muscle building benefits, you want just enough rest between sets to allow your muscles to recover, but not so much rest that the muscle building signal goes down. 45-90 seconds is a good amount of time to rest in between sets when wanting to build muscle. Can you build muscle when resting for 2 minutes and focusing on strength? Yes. Can you build strength when purely focusing on building muscle? Absolutely. The two can certainly go hand in hand. But generally speaking, rest longer if your focus is strength, and a little shorter if your focus is on muscle building. If you want to improve your stamina and endurance, you can rest even shorter, around 30 seconds in between sets.

The main reason most people don’t rest long enough in between sets is because they don’t feel like they need to. All this means is that they need to lift heaver. Your muscles and central nervous system should feel like they absolutely need that rest before they go into the next set.

Your rest is important.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Good workout programs have phases. Structure your workout to allow you to progress phase after phase (month after month)

• Good workout programs have great exercise selection. Use the exercises that are going to give you the most benefit, and add accessory moves from there. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, presses, rows, and pull-ups are your best friends.

• Good workout programs have rest periods. Your rest is just as important as anything else. Your muscles and central nervous system need to be challenged with heavy weight. In order to meet that challenge, they need to rest before going into the next set.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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How to Stay Lean During Quarantine

I don’t know about you, but I’ve hit my breaking point. Being cooped up at home is the absolute worst. To make it worse, it started snowing again, only after one day of beautiful 70-degree weather. The gyms are closed, parks are closed, the world is closed.

But hey, there is always something to learn in any given situation. As good as it feels to vent, I need to be careful because that venting can turn into too much complaining. And complaining only leads to a negative mindset.

I don’t know about you, but life is a real b**** when you have a negative mindset.

So I need to focus on the positives. We need to focus on the positives. The positive here is that something can be learned. And what I’ve learned during this time is that there is not better time to create new habits than when the world is shut down and you have more time on your hands than you know what to do with.

Having said that, here is what I want to share with you today: there is ALWAYS something we can be doing to keep ourselves leaner and healthier. And, the better we are at keeping ourselves leaner and healthier during crappy times, the easier it will be to stay leaner and healthier in the best of times (when the gym opens back up).

So let’s dive in. Here is how you can stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #1: DIAL IN YOUR NUTRITION

Dialing in your nutrition means many different things to many different people. For you, dialing in your nutrition may mean figuring out how to curb your cravings. Maybe it means you need to practice better habits, like chewing slower and putting your fork down in between bites. Heck, maybe you just need to reduce your sugar intake from 200 grams per day to 180. Whatever it looks like, I am willing to bet there are some practices and behaviors that overlap from person to person.

Protein is a very familiar nutrient for the gym rats out there. But it must be a very familiar nutrient for you, too. Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine for many reasons. Protein is satiating. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer, thus causing you to feel less hungry throughout the day. Protein builds and preserves lean muscle tissue which is a main contributor to the amount of calories you burn in the day. Right now, being more sedentary than you usually are, you are at a high risk for losing muscle especially if you are not continuing your resistance training. Eating more protein can help you hold on to that muscle of yours. Protein also has a high thermic affect. This means that your body burns more calories breaking down and digesting protein than any other nutrient. Replacing excess carbs and fats with a little more protein may do you some good.

Too many people just don’t eat enough protein. It is one of the very first things I address when I begin working with a client. Unless you’ve already addressed this and are focusing on making an improvement, I’m willing to bet you’re not eating enough protein. For relatively lean individuals, I recommend .6-1g of protein per pound of body weight each day. For overweight and obese individuals, I recommend .3-.6g of protein per pound of body weight each day.

Protein can help you stay lean during quarantine.

Addressing your micronutrient intake would also be a good thing to do during this time. No, you don’t need to diligently track your vitamin and mineral intake each day, but work to incorporate more fruits and vegetables that are nutrient dense. Start with one big serving (two fist fulls) of greens per day and build from there. Greens offer an incredible amount of micronutrients that we need for a healthy life and most of us simply don’t get enough of them.

Take time to analyze your highly processed food intake. Yes, your “healthy” protein bar is a highly processed food. Our bodies simply don’t do well with a lot of highly processed foods. You should aim to have a diet that is mostly (at least 80%) comprised of whole, natural foods. What I mean by “whole” and “natural” is that it previously came from the ground or previously had a face before it became the food you were about to eat. There should be minimal change from A to B during processing. For example, it is very common to get organic cereal because it has more natural ingredients. However, there was still a ton of processing that occurred to turn the ingredients into cereal. Oats would be a more whole and natural alternative. Find ways you can begin to minimize the highly processed foods in your diet, and replace them with whole, natural alternatives.

Like I said, dialing in nutrition is going to look different for all of us. Maybe you’re not great at creating healthy meals and you need to toy with some recipes. Maybe you eat too many damn Oreos a day and you need to reduce it by two Oreos per week. Whatever it is, now is the time to create new, healthy behaviors that turn into habits. Those behaviors will help you stay lean the quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #2: PERFORM RESISTANCE TRAINING

I’ve beaten this dead horse too many times, but it needs to continue to be beaten.

Resistance training is hands down the best form of exercise for your long term health. It is also the best form of exercise when it comes to keeping you lean during quarantine.

Resistance training keeps your muscle protein synthesis elevated, meaning you can retain and perhaps even build muscle, even when you’re away from the gym. The muscle you build from resistance training can help you burn more calories in the day, helping you keep a leaner body year-round. Many other health benefits can be seen from resistance training as well. By manipulating your rest between sets, tempo, and more, you can tap into the cardiovascular benefits, improving your heart health. By increasing your rests between sets, going into lower rep ranges, and increasing the amount of weight you lift, you can tap into the amazing strength benefits that resistance training has to offer. Resistance training is really a Jack of all trades. But this Jack is a master of each and every one of them.

I know your gym is closed, and you may not have access to the equipment your gym offered. However, that’s not stopping you from getting quality resistance training workouts in. You can use your body weight and a set of bands to test and challenge yourself more than ever before. Sure, your bodyweight may not provide as much resistance during a push up as a 200lb barbell does during a bench press, but putting a band on your back and under your hands while implementing one or a combination of these tips will certainly help.

• Slow down. Slowing your tempo down during your exercise can add more intensity and resistance. Instead of doing a regular push-up, spend five slow seconds on the way down, and five slow seconds on the way up.

• Squeeze. Getting a connection to your muscles and feeling them squeeze is one of the best things you can do to take your home workout to a new level. Instead of moving your limbs and hoping to feel something in your muscles, be intentional. Squeeze your muscles first in order to move the weight.

• Hold. Adding an isometric hold in the middle of the movement will intensify the signal your muscles are receiving. Sure, you may only have a twenty-pound dumbbell for goblet squats, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it very challenging. At the bottom of your squat, maintain tension and squeeze your muscles as hard as you can for five seconds.

You may be away from the gym, but now is NOT the time to say f*ck it. Now is the time to grab those bands and test those muscles of yours.

Resistance training will help you stay lean during quarantine.

BEHAVIOR #3: GET TO STEPPIN’

As far as I know, no one is standing outside your door, prohibiting you from walking around the neighborhood. And if they are, no one is keeping you from walking around your house. Now is the time to make a habit of getting more steps in.

One of the main reasons we as Americans have such a hard time staying leaner year-round is because we don’t move enough. We’ve set up our lives to be so sedentary that we actually have to go out of our way to get activity. The average American only gets about 5,000 steps in per day, which is extremely low in my opinion. For someone that weighs 160lbs, 5,000 steps is about (and this is a rough guesstimation as there are many factors that play into this) 218 calories per day. 10,000 steps per day for that individual is about 435 calories per day. You many not think that is a huge difference, but that adds up over the course of a week, a month, and a year.

Making slight improvements to your step count can be the difference between and overweight version of you, and leaner version of you.

Seriously.

Sure, walking may not be a strenuous, bad-ass form of exercise, but those small improvements in steps compound over time to make a massive difference the the health of your body. Start making better habits by first figuring out your avg. step count currently. Whatever it is, aim to increase it by 1,000. Once that new target becomes a habit, increase it by 1,000 again.

When life gets back to normal and you’ve created a healthy habit of walking more, you’ll catch yourself going outside of the office for a walk before you head home instead of going to happy hour for another 500 calorie margarita. And your leaner self will thank you.

Steps help you stay lean during quarantine.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Whatever you need to address in your health, fitness, and nutrition, now is the time. Here is what you can do to stay lean during quarantine:

• Eat enough protein and focus on your greens. .6-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight for relatively lean individuals will do the job. Aim to get one big serving (two fistfuls) of greens per day.

• Do some resistance training. Help your body have an easier time getting leaner by testing your muscles, and testing your strength. Don’t workout to get sweaty and burn calories. Workout to get stronger.

• Get your steps in. Whatever your average is right now, start by increasing it by 1,000 and build.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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The Best Arm Fat Burning Exercises

Most of us would love to have better looking arms. So what exercises should we do to make our arms look leaner, tighter, and less flabby?

We need to perform the exercises that burn the most fat in our arms.

But, there’s just one problem.

No such exercises exists.

YOU CAN’T SPOT REDUCE, BUT YOU CAN SPOT PRODUCE

Despite what many marketing gimmicks have tried to sell you, you can’t use certain exercises to spot reduce fat on certain parts of your body. For example, doing crunches isn’t going to help you burn body fat around your tummy. The same goes for arms, doing an absurd amount of bench dips isn’t going to reduce body fat on the back of your arms.

You can’t spot reduce. Unless you get some sort of liposuction or other procedure, of course.

In order to understand why this is the case, let’s talk about the fundamentals of fat loss and fat gain, which comes from a difference in energy balance.

Our bodies use the calories from the food we eat as energy. When we burn more calories than we eat, that is called a calorie deficit, and we lose weight. When we eat more calories than we burn, that is called a calorie surplus, and we gain weight.

When we gain body fat, we store it in different areas depending on genetics, sex, hormone profiles, and more. Women tend to gain body fat easily around their hips, thighs, butt, and upper arms. Men tend to easily gain body fat around their midsection. The areas we tend to gain it first are the areas where we tend to lose it last. These are usually called our “stubborn” areas.

When we are in a energy deficit and we are telling our body to lose weight, our body will get rid of fat wherever it wants to. The stubborn areas are the last places where fat leaves. Continuing a protocol for a period of time to finally lose that stubborn body fat is challenging, and marketing companies know this. Therefore, they aim to sell on the idea that they finally have the exercises and equipment for those stubborn areas. But they don’t.

You have what it takes, though. And it’s just a matter of whether or not you really want to commit to doing what it takes to lose that body fat even in the most stubborn areas.

So, if you are in a state where your body is losing body fat (lifting weights, eating enough protein, and being in a calorie deficit), the fat on the back of those arms will finally leave.

But before you worry about trying to lose the most fat possible, you need to focus on something else that I believe is far more important.

And that, is muscle.

There’s a saying in the fitness space that goes like this: “You can’t spot reduce, but you can spot produce.” This means that although you can’t use certain exercises to lose fat in specific areas, you can use certain exercises to build up the muscles in those specific areas. And that is what will help you get that tighter, leaner, sexier look.

Underneath the fat on your body is muscle, and muscle is what gives your body great aesthetics. Muscle is what makes your arms look better. Muscle is what makes your butt pop. Muscle is the chisel to the marble that is your body.

The more muscle you have in your arms, the more shape and definition they will have. You can lose as much fat as you possibly can, but if you don’t have muscle underneath to show off, you’ll just look like someone who hasn’t eaten in the past two years. I’m not even talking about an absurd amount of muscle. No, you don’t need to look like a body builder. Even a little bit of muscle can completely change the way your arms look. Even small increases in muscle on your arms can be the difference between flabby Abby and lean Jean.

So before you even think about losing tons and tons of fat on your arms, prioritize building muscle to show off first.

You may not be able to use curls and dips to burn the fat on your arms, but you are most certainly able to use curls, dips, and more to build muscle on those arms of yours.

EXERCISES TO SPOT PRODUCE

Here is a list of some of the most beneficial muscle-building arm exercises:

Biceps

• Chin-Ups (this exercise is primarily for your back, but heavily involves the biceps)

• Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns (this exercise is primarily for your back, but heavily involves the biceps)

• Barbell Bicep Curl

• Dumbbell Bicep Curl

• Dumbbell Hammer Curl

Triceps

• Dips

• Bench Dips

• Narrow Grip Bench Press

• Barbell and Dumbbell Skull Crushers

• Cable Tricep Extensions

Although the biceps and triceps are the main muscles involved in the look of your upper arms, the shoulders help highlight the biceps and triceps. So here are some great shoulder exercises you can use:

Shoulders

• Barbell Overhead Press

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press

• Dumbbell Lateral Raise

• Barbell and Dumbbell Upright Row

• Dumbbell Reverse Fly

If you incorporate some of these exercises in your routine, it’s likely you’ll see some improvement in your arms, given you incorporate them into your routine properly.

Although the exercises themselves are important, I would also argue that the way you perform the exercises is even more important. Doing bicep curls is great, but just doing them doesn’t mean you’re going to build muscle on your arms.

In order to properly utilize the above exercises, I recommend performing them in a 6-12 rep range for 3-4 sets, with 60-90 seconds rest in between sets. As you perform the exercises, focus on feeling those muscles squeeze as much as they possibly can. Think about flexing your muscle in order to move the weight, rather than just moving the weight with your arms and hoping you feel something in your muscles. Focus on moving as much weight as possible while maintaining good form, too.

If you are performing the exercises as described, eating enough protein and food in general, you may likely see muscular improvement in your arms.

Once you’ve found the importance and effect of building muscle on your arms, it’s time to prioritize losing body fat.

If you have more muscle, your arms will have more definition even at higher body fat percentages. But, it’s still important to focus on fat loss so you can really make those muscles pop. The more muscle you have, the lower body fat you have, the more that arm definition will show.

While focusing on losing body fat, make sure you are still lifting weights and focusing on your strength. The fat loss will come from changes in energy balance (nutritionally), so don’t turn your lift into a cardio session. Make sure you’re eating enough protein (.6-1g/lb of body weight for relatively lean individuals, .3-.6g/lb of bodyweight for overweight and obese individuals). If you’re eating a decent amount of food, you can slowly taper your calories down each week. If you’re already eating very little, you need to continue focusing on building muscle and slowly adding calories (50-150) to your daily intake each week. It’s important that you lose as much fat as possible from increasing your steps, and changing your nutrition before you even think about adding cardio in. Cardio is extremely effective, but only in the short term. The more you do chronic cardio, the more it can impede your fat loss goals. Use cardio as a last minute fat loss boost for about 2-3 weeks at most.

Remember, you can’t spot reduce, but you can spot produce.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Your body will lose fat wherever it wants to. Doing extra reps of tricep dips won’t equate to more fat loss from the back of your arms.

• You can’t spot reduce but you can spot produce. Focus on building muscle, then start to lose body fat.

• When focusing on muscle, perform your exercises with the right intent.

• When it’s time to focus on fat loss, get the most amount of changes from increases in your steps and slight adjustments to your nutrition. Get the most results with the least amount of change. Use cardio as a last-minute boost for 2-3 weeks at most.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam is a fitness professional, baseball fan, and cookie fanatic based in Fort Collins, Colorado. After hanging up the cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he is constantly moved to help people improve in all walks of life.

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