Lift!

[shanmonster]

knightky bought me a gag gift for Christmas: a copy of Muscle & Fitness magazine. This is the sort of magazine that is filled with photos of heavy steroid users, sexist articles (the men are buff, but the women are just skinny with big tits), and over-the-top ads for supplements. One is even called Hemo Rage (and comes in flavours like Sucker Punch and Malicious Melon. I laughed.).

But hidden amongst all the overstated ads and macho hyperbole is some useful information. An article called "Break Your Legs," which promises to "make leg day suck at home, too," I learned about one-legged Romanian deadlifts.

I also found an article called "Beginner's Luck" which is an 8-week program to building muscle.

Distilled down, here are the first four weeks:

Day	Exercise	Sets	Reps/Time
1	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Dumbbell incline press	1	8-10
	One-arm bent-over dumbbell row	1	8-10 per side
	Plank	2	30 sec.
3	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Pull-up	1	8-10
	Standing dumbbell overhead press	1	8-10
	Standing barbell curl	1	8-10
5	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Overhead squat	1	8-10
	Romanian deadlift	1	8-10
	Side plank	2	30 sec. each side

And here are weeks 5-8:

Day	Exercise	Sets	Reps/Time
1	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Dumbbell incline press	1	6-8
	One-arm bent-over dumbbell row	1	6-8 each side
	Plank	2	60 sec.
3	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Pull-up	1	6-8
	Standing dumbbell overhead press	1	6-8
	Standing barbell curl	1	6-8
5	Squat	3	5
	Bench press	3	5
	Deadlift	2	5
	Overhead squat
	Romanian deadlift	1	6-8
	Side plank	2	30 sec. each side

Now, here's my issue. This looks like a good routine to acclimatize myself to doing some very heavy lifting. But with the plank sets, at the very least, I know I'd be regressing. I already hold planks, side planks, and reverse planks for 90 seconds each time I work out. So for you muscleheads out there, would you say I should keep doing my planks the way that I am used to, step them up, or is there some sort of benefit I'm just not seeing to scaling them back?

I intend on maintaining my plyometric training: jumping jacks, dragons, kick squats, Hindu squats, etc. I need that explosive strength in my legs for my dance, and also because I'm a huge fan of mighty gams.

I plan on monitoring my diet a bit more strictly again, to ensure I'm getting enough protein to build the muscle I want to build. I don't have a very big appetite, so I think this has been my biggest obstacle to building muscle, all along.

Let's see if I can get myself in my best physical shape this year. And maybe, just maybe, I'll hold my own at a fitness competition.

Comments

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I got a six month sub of M&F as a freebie, too, and my comment was "It's COSMOPOLITAN for meatheads."

I like the recipe section, but that's about all I can take away from it.

Yes, you should still do your "harder than suggested" stuff. They're unwittingly admitting that most lifters have shitty core strength and need to work on that (as well as their balance). There's nothing to be gained by scaling them back, because iso holds are a big part of how you use your core for dance anyway - "functional strength"

They don't say anything about weights entirely too often, which makes this stuff the next thing to useless (okay, I'm doing 8-10 reps, but is that of my 12RM or my 20RM?).

If a practitioner is hitting the main lifts hard enough and they're pressed for time, the barbell curls and dumbbell incline presses can be dropped without a second thought. I'd even go so far as to say that the RDLs could be dropped from the last bit and probably replaced with more pullups.

[harukoraharu.livejournal.com]

From a powerlifting perspective I would question doing the main three: Deadlifts, Squats and Bench Press in the same session but then I'm aiming towards low reps high weight or as much as I can without injury. So I do Deadlifts and Press on Mondays, Squat and Bench on Wednesdays, and mix in some other supporting lifts and bodyweight exercises with more reps and sets.

When I was first shown a plank in the gym it was against a swiss ball, and I thought that was a bit easy and took it to the floor but now think I was a bit hasty. Definately there are some strong lifters at the gym I train who couldn't hold a plank 90 seconds so guess that's why the program starts off quite easy at 30