I get a lot of questions from people who work at a job that doesn't support their training. Split shifts, unknown shifts, and traveling plaques a lot of people who want to build some strength and muscle. This is going to be one of many lifting routines I'm writing for specifically people who are busy and do not know exactly how many days a week they can give to training.
The beauty of this routine is anyone can do this, it is a full body routine and designed on a Workout A and Workout B setup so you can do this as your schedule permits. Although this is a full body workout you can do as many times a week possible, I would not recommend doing more than 4 days a week for recovery purposes.
Like I said, this is a full body workout, I would start out with a 70% of your 1 rep max so you can get a feel of the volume.
Planks: Do what will challenge you. For some people it's 20 seconds, and for others it can be a minute. Pick a time that is going to challenge you. You will need to work hard and strive to get longer times. Don't shortchange yourself.
General: This workout relies on progressive overload. Pick a workable weight to start with, 50%-75% of your 1 rep max will be enough to gauge how you are going to need to adjust. Keep tight form and work on getting good quality reps out every set to maximize muscle growth. This particular workout is meant to build muscle primarily; your strength will build with this routine, but is not the primary intentions. Check for the strength building alternating workout soon!
Be sure to leave any comments or questions below!
There is a significant change in firmer muscle, will keep going.
I am also doing a Ultra Marathon the 1 June 2014, do you perhaps have a weight training programe that I should do.
Looking at this routine to get me on track, been in and out of the gym the last two months but haven't been structured. I do wildland fire so I like to get a muscle endurance workout and mix it with 45min-1.5hrs of cardio. Would you recommend putting a cardio day in between workout days or would adding the cardio to the end of the workout be ok? Also what would you recommend for a warm-up for this workout?
Whatever works best for you in regards to cardio. There is an article about how cardio affects muscle growth that I wrote you should check out. Really whatever works best for you. For warming up I would do just some light stretching and cardio to get the blood pumping and increase your core body temperature.
Any more questions let me know!
Do you have to do exercise in order?
As long as you do the main compound lifts first, there isn't specifically any order.