A Work Out Schedule To Avoid If You Want Results

A good work out schedule is crucial if you wan to get results from your training program.

When you work out is going to be a very individual thing, based on your life, career, and other commitments. But that’s not the type of work out schedule I’m talking about right now.

In this instance, I’m talking about your actual training program, not whether you train before or after work, or whether you take off from training on weekends.

I’ve discussed the concept of the split routine before and how it’s often applied incorrectly, causing more problems than it solves when it comes to your workout routine.

I was recently reading a fitness magazine and an article that caught my attention had me thinking about training splits once again.

First, I’ll give you the recommended work out schedule.

Monday and Thursday

Bench Presses
Incline Presses
Flyes
Wide-grip chins
Barbell Rows
Deadlifts
Seated Military Presses
Lateral Raises
Barbell Shrugs

All exercises done for 3 sets of 6 – 10 reps

Tuesday and Friday

Hanging Knee Raises *
Cable Crunches *
Barbell Squats
Leg Presses
Leg Curls
Stiff-legged Deadlifts
Standing Calf Raises **
Tricep Pushdowns
Dips
Incline Dumbbell Curls ***
Barbell Curls ****

All exercises done for 3 sets of 6 – 10 reps with the following exceptions:

* Both done for 2 sets of max repetitions
** Done for 4 sets of 8 – 15 reps
*** done for 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps
**** done for 2 sets of 8 – 10 reps

So what’s wrong with this work out schedule?

We’re not going to look at the number of sets, exercise selection, etc. What I want you to understand is how the workout as a whole fits together so you can recognize the same problems with other split routines as well.

It’s important to realize that the body is designed to work as a whole, not in isolation. When you do bench presses, you work the shoulders and triceps hard, as well as the back and the biceps. Yes, really.

When you squat, it’s the quads, the hamstrings, the glutes, calves, lower back, etc.

Muscles take much longer to recover from intense resistance training than most people realize and up above we have a problem when it comes to overlap.

On Monday, you’re hitting the chest and triceps hard with the flat and incline bench press and then doing it again the very next day with dips and push downs! Then only one day off before doing it two days in a row again!

And with the above work out schedule you see this for almost every body part. Deadlifts on Monday and then Squats on Tuesday! Crazy!

Deadlifts and Barbell Rows (both hit the entire back, including the lower back hard) and then Squats and Stiff Legged Deadlifts the next day, both hitting the lower back hard).

It’s crucial, in order to avoid over training as well as injuries, to understand how muscles work together. It’s also important to know how different exercises fit together.

While working legs one day and back the next may not be the smartest move, exercise selection can make it better or worse.

Doing leg presses and leg curls one day and then chins or lat pulldowns the next day has a lot less overlap than doing deadlifts one day and squats the next. Make sense?

Even muscle or muscle groups we consider opposites, or antagonists, work together. For example, tricep push downs and bicep curls are opposite movements.

When you lover the weight on barbell curls you are, in effect, performing a tricep push down as well.

The negative, or lowering, portion of the bench press is like the positive portion of a bent over barbell row.

Are you seeing how muscle groups work together?

It’s very difficult to organize a work out schedule that includes multiple weight training days in a row without overlap. This doesn’t mean that split routines can’t be effective.

You just need to be careful how you devise your split and what exercises you select within that split.

But it’s not nearly as easy as dividing up body parts and training them on different days.

The simplest, quickest and easiest way to change the above training split would be to change it from Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday and make it an every other day split or a 3 days per week split so there is at least one day of rest after every weight training session.

Training is NOT just throwing together a bunch of exercises, sets and reps. And a good split routine is NOT just separating body parts into different training days.

People who do that are just working out, NOT training. And most don’t ever get anywhere. Take a look around your gym. Most of those people, if they were there a year ago, look the same because they work out instead of train. Don’t make that same mistake!

I’ll be writing more about a good work out schedule and how you can incorporate split routine training properly to keep you away from over training and injuries.

A complete body transformation requires high quality work out plans!

In the meantime, be sure and grab a free copy of my new fat loss program, the Secret Abs Manifesto, where you’ll learn how to boost your metabolism, burn fat faster with less effort, and get lean, sexy, abs… fast!

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