There are 2 camps “of complicated” with fitness training.
One is you are always looking for that extra edge in your training (because wide grip pulldowns give you the “V” in your back or 21’s give your biceps the best pump of all….). You read Muscle and Fitness, Mens Health or one of those magazines because every month they always add SOMETHING to your training or you follow a “celebrity” trainer online meaning you get to see the “latest” innovations in training techniques. Or it could be that massive dude in the gym who you got friendly with throws you the odd bone of wisdom, “supersets are last months news, tri-sets are where it’s at” or “add bands onto your lifts and get greater concentric AND eccentric loading” or whatever.
The other way of overcomplicating your training is by simply doing too much. I see people in gyms all the time rushing from one piece of equipment to another, no pausing (and likely no thinking), quickly “getting to work” and knocking out 10-15 reps in record time before moving on to the next machine. Or doing a set of bench presses before jumping onto the floor and doing push ups to er, I really don’t know why…….maybe to get tired because getting tired means it’s working, I guess?
These people have no time for squats or deadlifts because putting plates on a bar takes too much time, time they could be investing in rushing to the pec-dec or the leg extension or getting that bonus set of push ups done. A simple bit of planning would suffice in this case.
More is NOT better despite the immortal Brad Thorn telling aspiring Saders and AB’s that, “Champions do extra”, in the gym lifting weights, it just ain’t so.
One of my clients told me once that it had become clear to him I used a formula for the session plans when I coached him. He then went through the formula in very accurate terms pinpointing exactly the different exercises, timings and variations. Clever guy which he is because he is engaged and learning, good for him!
I have discussed the formula YOU can adopt in a previous post. Plus you can get hold of my eBook that goes into more detail here.
