The Skeleton of My Routine.

There are articles that have inspired me. But I can’t remember how to find them right now, as I’m not at home. So I’ll just write this on the fly and see how it turns out.

There’s a method to how I’ve structured my current workout. Same way I’ve been doing it since New Years, more or less. Once you get a feel for planes of motion, and how there are only so many ways to exercise a body part, you understand how some exercises are relatively interchangable. Each has its specificity, no doubt.

But I saw a guy today in the gym, doing at least five different kinds of curls. I am not kidding. Some people seem to believe in bodypart training, hitting one part of the body for all it’s worth once a week. Like chest/tris, back/bis, legs/abs. That’s madness. You beat up one part of the body once a week. That’s the key there. I favor full-body routines, or a responsible push/pull split, because it gives you more bang for your buck.

This isn’t to say curls are such a bad thing. Just curl responsibly. : D

My current workout can be stripped into this skeleton:

The order here doesn’t matter so much as what is contained. I call abwork and calfwork “accessory” because they don’t hit major muscles. (A calf raise is a wrist curl with your ankles. Think about it.) Moreover, some will argue that you don’t need to do crunches at all, as your abs will get hit with other exercises. Far argument, but I want to make sure my core is as strong as possible. And I don’t want to be the guy at the gym with forearms for calves. So I do those two exercises, it’s a personal flavor.

The rest of the six movements are the same six that make up the basic planes of motion of the body. Do those six compound exercises, and you hit every major muscle. If you’re thinking that eight exercises, six of which are compounds, is a lot of work, you’re right. I’m already thinking about periodizing the intensity. I can handle it right now. I still leave the gym feeling extremely refreshed and invigorated. But as my deadlift/squat weights go up, they’re going to suck up a lot of energy. It’s critical I have some gas left for the end of my workout. Moreover, it’s critical that I don’t spend over an hour working out. Something to do with rises in insulin levels after an hour, I forget the specifics.

I have no personal trainer. The best workout is the one you design yourself, to fit both the exercises you enjoy doing, and your own personal goals. If you only care about one muscle in your body (whether it’s your biceps or your vaginal muscles) go right ahead and curl or kegel your heart out. Though, it would be entertaining to see a girl do seven different types of kegels. *giggles* For the rest of us who care about overall fitness, like I do, I’d like to hit as many muscles as possible, as opposed to hitting only a few muscles with great variety.

What are my goals? I consider myself an amateur right now. I’m at the phase where I’m seeking out new exercises each rotation and mastering them. I do not believe in a perfect workout. There is only the workout that best fits the moment, and your goals. I’d like to have strong abs. I used to get ab cramps during sex! *blushes* I do not want that to happen! A strong core is important to me. As much as deadlifts and squats hit your legs, they require a finely tuned core, an awareness of your body.

Of course, knowing you can handle a hundred or two pounds on your back (or lift it off the ground) will give you confidence as well.

I think there’s virtue in proportion. Symmetry is the most attractive feature to humans. Who uses their calves? No, seriously, when do we use our calves in a specific, powerful way? Sure, when we walk. But walking itself will maintain them enough so we can, you guessed it, walk. Why bother with my calves? Again, symmetry. I work my triceps just as hard as my biceps both because I want symmetry, but also because I know your agonist muscles can be limited by your antagonist muscles. Keep your body in balance and it becomes a well-oiled machine.

Except, now I’m just babbling. Have I gotten a case of TEH SILLIES? We’ll see.

I also want strong deltoids. If I want any muscle to stand out, it’s that. Pecs? *shrugs* So I’m growing boobs. Bench pressing doesn’t impress me as much as being able to move something over your head. Or maybe that’s only significant to me. As a result, I keep my vertical movements at the beginning of my workout, if I can. If I can. With periodization, this may shift.

So let’s look at this silly workout of mine right now.

This isn’t set in stone. Let me think of other exercises I could toss in.

You should get the idea by now. If I felt random, I could have a sheet of possible exercises, and throw a dart each day to determine what I want to do. That’s how some people operate, just GOTO the gym and do whatever they want. But they’re conscious enough to hit a variety of movement patterns.

I’ve seen some routines that use only four exercises. Pairing a movement plane with a leg, and then one accessory. Like..

Day A:

Day B:

Of course, nobody actually labels their workout like this when they talk about it. Moreover, something like an overhead squat is a bit more compound, because it involves your deltoids and triceps as stabilizers. Olympic movements like the clean and press move over multiple planes, and as such, you can easily pair a hang clean and press with only a few other exercise, as a few sets of hang clean and press will knock the shit out of you.

(Something I’ll try in the future, I assure you.)

But I know not long ago when I didn’t know any of this. I didn’t know my own body, let alone what any exercise did for me. What come first, the muscle knowledge, or the plane knowledge, or did they come together? It doesn’t mean much to us to label exercises my muscles. There’s over three hundred muscles in the body, are we to label each one? Do we care about the separate heads of the deltoids? Not really.

You’ll notice all of these exercises are freeweights. All I care about is how my body moves when it’s unrestricted. There are very few other movement planes that are actually, truely utilized in real life. If you want to do wrist curls to help with masturbation stamina, go ahead. But I can also tell you that deadlifts will kick the shit out of your forearms, few things will improve your grip better. There’s shrugs, which some guys seem to care about. Which I seem to use when I deadlift/squat. There’s our neck muscles, which I would prefer to exercise in the bedroom, not in the gym. There’s the front out our shins, the .. I can’t remember the name of that muscle, I used to know. Lifting UP your ankle. I can lift up more with my ankle than my bicep can. Probably due to the insertion point distance or something. *shrugs*

What am I trying to convince? Hey, I was a n00b not that long ago. These are the same bodies we’ve had since we were kids. There are so many things we do on a daily basis with our muscles, yet we never think about it. A curious thing is to do back extensions, then add weight. Twenty-five pounds. Imagine if I had an extra twenty-five pounds right on my belly. Doing back extensions with twenty-five pounds makes a HUGE difference. I know what ninety-five pounds on my knees feels like when I do squats. I know what a 165 pounds on my knees feels like when I’m doing squats.

Some people like running. Hey, cool. Maybe I’ll take it up someday myself, if it weren’t for the fact that I hate the whole pushing yourself thing. But for me, lifting is about as organic as it gets. Sure it’s in a confined area, with bars and plates you wouldn’t find in nature. But to me, it’s using my body the way it was meant to be used. If you have a muscle, it was meant to be used. Use it, or lose it.

I just don’t think routine assembling is that difficult. Again, I consider myself an amateur. If anybody has any questions, go ahead. Everything I know I learned from teh internets.