Here is a simple workout plan designed for the average individual who might be concerned about the following things:
- avoiding getting "overuse" injuries and unnecessary wear and tear on the joints.
- doesn't enjoy devoting a lot of time to lifting weights
- has other exercise to do and wants to avoid overtraining
- wants to avoid getting burned out, sick, or injured
- would rather have a good body that he/she can realistically maintain
Here is the basic exercise prescription:
Every exercise you do, you simply do one set, and always 25 reps.
Try to stick to one exercise per bodypart.
Hit all your major muscle groups, which should require about 10 different exercises.
Here is what I define as the major muscle groups of the body:
Chest (this includes any muscles that normally get worked as a natural consequence of using the chest, eg. front deltoids, triceps)
Back (this includes any muscles that normally get worked as a natural consequence of using the back, eg. rear deltoids, arms)
Traps
Abs/Core
Posterior Chain (glutes, lower back, hamstrings)
Calves (could be either soleus or gastrocnemius muscles)
Quads (either thru a large pressing movement which might also involve glutes; or thru a quad-only movement like leg extensions)
Biceps (sure they get tangentially worked on some back exercises, but we're going to afford them a slot of their own as well)
Triceps (sure they get worked on presses, but they have their own timeslot as well)
Deltoids (we're just worried about the medial head at this point, since the front and back were hit when doing chest and back
Here is what it might look like in practical terms:
Arrive at the gym. No warmup or stretching required. Just immediately go to your first exercise.
For this example, we're going to start with Bench Press.
Normally you might put 135lbs on the bar and do 10 reps. But since we're going to do 25 reps, we lower the weight to 100 lbs for example. Pumping out 25 reps should be very difficult.
Doing it like this allows you to both warm up that muscle group (with the first 10 reps) and then start to really work those muscles as reps 11-25 become increasingly difficult.
This also increases your "time under tension" of each exercise dramatically.
Another great thing about this weight is that it is less dangerous for your joints and therefore you'll be able to keep in shape more consistently.
Now we go to the second exercise:
Let's do Lat Pulldowns.
We just worked our front pushing muscles, so it makes sense to now work our rear pulling muscles: the lats, rear deltoids, biceps, forearms, etc.
We again use a lighter than normal weight since we have to get 25 reps. So now we've finished 2 giant muscle groups.
Now moving right to the third exercise: Shoulder Shrugs. We have to work our traps, so we can do shrugs with barbells, dumbbells, machines, smith machine, whatever you want. 25 reps, of course.
It doesn't much matter what order you do any of your exercises. You can do whatever is on your mind, whatever you see that is open, etc, keeping the rule in mind that you want to work your arms AFTER you've worked chest and back. Other than that, do the exercises in whatever order you want. And you can choose the exercise: it doesn't have to be what I've suggested. As long as its working the same muscles, its fine.
Moving to the fourth exercise: something for abs. We could do a machine, crunches, situps, leg raises, medicine ball stuff, whatever. Do whatever ab exercise you're in the mood for. 25 reps of something!
Now hit the next bodypart: for our example we'll keep following our above list, so we'll do Posterior Chain.
You want to hit any or all of the glutes/hamstrings/lower back muscles. You could do back extension, or still-legged deadlifts, or leg curls, whatever. Don't get too concerned that everything is not perfect, this has to be a fast, much-better-than-nothing kind of a workout. If you worry that you're not hitting individual muscles consistently enough, it will be easy to fall off the program and spend MUCH more time and energy on the gym. From there you can burn out and fall off of your exercise routine. For us, longevity and consistency is the key.
Now we'll do calves. Most people will be doing standing calf raises, or seated calf raises. Anything you can do for your calves will be fine. 25 reps will have them burning.
Now we will work Quads. We could do squats or a squat machine, any kind of leg press, leg extensions, lunges, deadlifts, whatever. It doesn't matter. Just do 25 reps of something that's hitting your quads. This isn't a ton of work to do on such a large muscle. Certainly we could do more. However, it is this FIRST set that is giving us the biggest bang for the buck, and its making it easy to get through our workout, and we'll have energy and time to hit our whole body without neglecting anything, and its making sure we don't dislike working out. So yes, we're sacrificing what we think is "best" (building the most muscular thighs) because we're trying at all costs to avoid overtraining, or to avoid losing our enthusiasm or desire for exercise. One set of Quads done consistently for 2 years is going to be much better than the constant starts and stops that accompanies the average person's workout as they burnout and set unrealistic goals for themselves.
Time for arms. We can work either biceps or triceps. We'll start with bi's. Arm curls with a barbell, on a machine, dumbbells, rope, however you wanna do 'em. 25 reps will pump you up!
Then go to triceps. You can do dips (although getting 25 is very hard), tricep extensions, rope pushdowns, the tricep machine... again, whatever you want to do. You'll notice that your bi's and tri's are feeling plenty full. But the most important thing to know is that for once, you're NOT overdoing it, and you're giving your muscles time to recuperate and grow, especially if you're getting exercise from another source on a regular basis.
One more muscle group to go: Deltoids. We mainly want to work the medial head because the front and back got worked when we did our, well, front and back. Lateral raises (again, a very light weight because 25 reps is tough on this one), upright rows, a shoulder machine, etc.
Heck, it probably took longer to read thru this stupid thing than the workout itself will take. Done properly, this workout should take you about 25 minutes. You're not rushing, but you're not wasting time either. You will be in and out of the gym in no time flat, leaving you plenty of time for the other important parts of your day. You will also have energy left over; you won't be completely exhausted like the marathon workouts would leave you.
Chances are, unless you're just a big gym buff, and you're the type who just loves working out, and you live for the gym...... you're going to find this program to be about perfect for you.
You're not neglecting any part of your body,
you're on a program you can actually do,
you're balancing your muscles evenly and not overworking any one area, and
you're leaving yourself plenty of time to recover.
You're certainly avoiding "overtraining", that beast who eventually catches up to everybody. Speaking of which, if you ARE that type referred to earlier, who loves the gym, this would be a perfect program for you to switch to every 6 months or so for a "step-down" to avoid exhausting yourself.
And there you have it. That's the 25/10 in a nutshell. Easy to understand, easy to do. Now you might wonder "how good could this workout plan be? Its easy. Its short. Nobody else is doing it." ???
All I can give you is my personal testimonial:
"I'm engaged in a kickboxing workout on the heavy bag. I also take BJJ classes. My body is involved in a lot of hard work. Its impossible to squeeze a regular weight training regimen into this mix. As it is, I actually have to train twice on some days. Both workouts can't be hard; I'll burn out, or I'll injure a joint like a shoulder or elbow. Dropping the weight low enough that I can get 25 reps allows me to worry less about my joints, because the weight is both a warm-up weight AND my max weight all at the same time! There is no other workout program that I could do that would be as effective. I can't work harder- I'll burn out or suffer injury. If I'm going to keep the kind of shape and strength in my body that I want, this program is really the only means by which to achieve it. This is MY workout program from here on out!"
- avoiding getting "overuse" injuries and unnecessary wear and tear on the joints.
- doesn't enjoy devoting a lot of time to lifting weights
- has other exercise to do and wants to avoid overtraining
- wants to avoid getting burned out, sick, or injured
- would rather have a good body that he/she can realistically maintain
Here is the basic exercise prescription:
Every exercise you do, you simply do one set, and always 25 reps.
Try to stick to one exercise per bodypart.
Hit all your major muscle groups, which should require about 10 different exercises.
Here is what I define as the major muscle groups of the body:
Chest (this includes any muscles that normally get worked as a natural consequence of using the chest, eg. front deltoids, triceps)
Back (this includes any muscles that normally get worked as a natural consequence of using the back, eg. rear deltoids, arms)
Traps
Abs/Core
Posterior Chain (glutes, lower back, hamstrings)
Calves (could be either soleus or gastrocnemius muscles)
Quads (either thru a large pressing movement which might also involve glutes; or thru a quad-only movement like leg extensions)
Biceps (sure they get tangentially worked on some back exercises, but we're going to afford them a slot of their own as well)
Triceps (sure they get worked on presses, but they have their own timeslot as well)
Deltoids (we're just worried about the medial head at this point, since the front and back were hit when doing chest and back
Here is what it might look like in practical terms:
Arrive at the gym. No warmup or stretching required. Just immediately go to your first exercise.
For this example, we're going to start with Bench Press.
Normally you might put 135lbs on the bar and do 10 reps. But since we're going to do 25 reps, we lower the weight to 100 lbs for example. Pumping out 25 reps should be very difficult.
Doing it like this allows you to both warm up that muscle group (with the first 10 reps) and then start to really work those muscles as reps 11-25 become increasingly difficult.
This also increases your "time under tension" of each exercise dramatically.
Another great thing about this weight is that it is less dangerous for your joints and therefore you'll be able to keep in shape more consistently.
Now we go to the second exercise:
Let's do Lat Pulldowns.
We just worked our front pushing muscles, so it makes sense to now work our rear pulling muscles: the lats, rear deltoids, biceps, forearms, etc.
We again use a lighter than normal weight since we have to get 25 reps. So now we've finished 2 giant muscle groups.
Now moving right to the third exercise: Shoulder Shrugs. We have to work our traps, so we can do shrugs with barbells, dumbbells, machines, smith machine, whatever you want. 25 reps, of course.
It doesn't much matter what order you do any of your exercises. You can do whatever is on your mind, whatever you see that is open, etc, keeping the rule in mind that you want to work your arms AFTER you've worked chest and back. Other than that, do the exercises in whatever order you want. And you can choose the exercise: it doesn't have to be what I've suggested. As long as its working the same muscles, its fine.
Moving to the fourth exercise: something for abs. We could do a machine, crunches, situps, leg raises, medicine ball stuff, whatever. Do whatever ab exercise you're in the mood for. 25 reps of something!
Now hit the next bodypart: for our example we'll keep following our above list, so we'll do Posterior Chain.
You want to hit any or all of the glutes/hamstrings/lower back muscles. You could do back extension, or still-legged deadlifts, or leg curls, whatever. Don't get too concerned that everything is not perfect, this has to be a fast, much-better-than-nothing kind of a workout. If you worry that you're not hitting individual muscles consistently enough, it will be easy to fall off the program and spend MUCH more time and energy on the gym. From there you can burn out and fall off of your exercise routine. For us, longevity and consistency is the key.
Now we'll do calves. Most people will be doing standing calf raises, or seated calf raises. Anything you can do for your calves will be fine. 25 reps will have them burning.
Now we will work Quads. We could do squats or a squat machine, any kind of leg press, leg extensions, lunges, deadlifts, whatever. It doesn't matter. Just do 25 reps of something that's hitting your quads. This isn't a ton of work to do on such a large muscle. Certainly we could do more. However, it is this FIRST set that is giving us the biggest bang for the buck, and its making it easy to get through our workout, and we'll have energy and time to hit our whole body without neglecting anything, and its making sure we don't dislike working out. So yes, we're sacrificing what we think is "best" (building the most muscular thighs) because we're trying at all costs to avoid overtraining, or to avoid losing our enthusiasm or desire for exercise. One set of Quads done consistently for 2 years is going to be much better than the constant starts and stops that accompanies the average person's workout as they burnout and set unrealistic goals for themselves.
Time for arms. We can work either biceps or triceps. We'll start with bi's. Arm curls with a barbell, on a machine, dumbbells, rope, however you wanna do 'em. 25 reps will pump you up!
Then go to triceps. You can do dips (although getting 25 is very hard), tricep extensions, rope pushdowns, the tricep machine... again, whatever you want to do. You'll notice that your bi's and tri's are feeling plenty full. But the most important thing to know is that for once, you're NOT overdoing it, and you're giving your muscles time to recuperate and grow, especially if you're getting exercise from another source on a regular basis.
One more muscle group to go: Deltoids. We mainly want to work the medial head because the front and back got worked when we did our, well, front and back. Lateral raises (again, a very light weight because 25 reps is tough on this one), upright rows, a shoulder machine, etc.
Heck, it probably took longer to read thru this stupid thing than the workout itself will take. Done properly, this workout should take you about 25 minutes. You're not rushing, but you're not wasting time either. You will be in and out of the gym in no time flat, leaving you plenty of time for the other important parts of your day. You will also have energy left over; you won't be completely exhausted like the marathon workouts would leave you.
Chances are, unless you're just a big gym buff, and you're the type who just loves working out, and you live for the gym...... you're going to find this program to be about perfect for you.
You're not neglecting any part of your body,
you're on a program you can actually do,
you're balancing your muscles evenly and not overworking any one area, and
you're leaving yourself plenty of time to recover.
You're certainly avoiding "overtraining", that beast who eventually catches up to everybody. Speaking of which, if you ARE that type referred to earlier, who loves the gym, this would be a perfect program for you to switch to every 6 months or so for a "step-down" to avoid exhausting yourself.
And there you have it. That's the 25/10 in a nutshell. Easy to understand, easy to do. Now you might wonder "how good could this workout plan be? Its easy. Its short. Nobody else is doing it." ???
All I can give you is my personal testimonial:
"I'm engaged in a kickboxing workout on the heavy bag. I also take BJJ classes. My body is involved in a lot of hard work. Its impossible to squeeze a regular weight training regimen into this mix. As it is, I actually have to train twice on some days. Both workouts can't be hard; I'll burn out, or I'll injure a joint like a shoulder or elbow. Dropping the weight low enough that I can get 25 reps allows me to worry less about my joints, because the weight is both a warm-up weight AND my max weight all at the same time! There is no other workout program that I could do that would be as effective. I can't work harder- I'll burn out or suffer injury. If I'm going to keep the kind of shape and strength in my body that I want, this program is really the only means by which to achieve it. This is MY workout program from here on out!"