New year, New you!

Pop the champagne......It is almost January 1st and you know what means. Every gym across America will be filled with those wannabees....imposters....you know the people who all of a sudden get the rush to workout and change their life. I mean hey that is great and I am all for people bringing fitness into their lives, but if you are going to start please keep with it. The difference between those who get results and those who don't is CONSISTENCY. You are not going to get big, trim down, improve strength by working out January through March. If you commit in January, commit for life. I think the biggest reason people fall off their resolutions is because they either don't achieve success or simply lack motivation as time goes on. The pitfall for lack of success is improper program design.

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself what are your goals. Do you plan to lose weight, add muscle, add strength, or all of the above? Below are sample splits you can use for the different goals I mentioned. Remember these are not the only way to go about things, just a simple suggestion for those who need it.

Weight Loss- Your objective is simple, burn calories and burn some more calories. What you want is the best bang for your buck, you want to take advantage of your gym time. You do not need to split up your training into chest days, back and bicep days or anything like that. Full body workouts that involve everything from head to toe will give you the best calorie burn on each of your workouts.

Split #1-My favorite

MONDAY-Full body Resistance workout ( anywhere from 40-50 minutes is plenty )

TUESDAY-Cardio day ( no longer than 45 minutes )

WEDNESDAY-Full body Resistance workout

THURSDAY-Cardio

FRIDAY-Full body Resistance workout

SATURDAY-Cardio

SUNDAY-Rest!!!!!!!!

Split #2

MONDAY-Upper body

TUESDAY-Lower body

WEDNESDAY-Cardio

THURSDAY-Upper body

FRIDAY-Lower body

SATURDAY-Cardio

SUNDAY-Off

*** Make sure to take into account your fitness level. If you haven't worked out in a long time or never at all you would want to start off with just two days of Resistance training and maybe 1-2 days of cardio and two off days.



Add Muscle- Your main objective is to workout hard and eat! This is when a body part split is best used. Most of you who are trying to bulk up want that muscle mag look. You want your arms to be popping, huge pecs, and a monster of a back. Make sure to look at yourself and find out your weak areas and then make sure you hit those spots more than other body parts. For instance, most guys are anterior dominant, meaning big and strong pecs and shoulders. The problem is that we work our chest all the time and our back not nearly as much therefore creating an imbalance. If this is you, which 90 % of you fall into this category, then you want to do chest just one time a week compared to back two times. I am not a huge fan of direct shoulder work due to the amount of work your delts get from chest work, however if you lack shoulder width or size try and work them directly one or two times week on your chest days.

Split #1-Need back help

MONDAY-Back and biceps

TUESDAY-Legs

WEDNESDAY-Chest and triceps

THURSDAY-Back and biceps

FRIDAY-Legs

WEEKEND-Off

*** this split could be switched by doing triceps on the back days and doing biceps just one time with chest.

Split #2- Need help with arm growth

MONDAY-Arms and back

TUESDAY-Legs

WEDNESDAY-Arms and chest

THURSDAY-Off

FRIDAY-Arms and back

SATURDAY-Legs

SUNDAY-Off

Split # 3-Need a bigger chest

MONDAY-Chest and triceps

TUESDAY-Back and biceps

WEDNESDAY-Legs

THURSDAY-Chest and triceps

FRIDAY-Back and biceps

SATURDAY-Legs & direct shoulder work

SUNDAY-Off

*** You can also do biceps with chest and triceps with back to change this routine up

Add Strength-Weight is critical for you, so push alot of it. Added recovery time might be needed do to the fact that you are using heavy weight. You want to focus on large muscle groups and you can spend less time on things like arms. Of course arm strength is important but you will get some indirect work from your pushes and pulls.

Split

MONDAY-Chest and back

TUESDAY-Legs

WEDNESDAY-Off

THURSDAY-Chest and back

FRIDAY-Legs

SATURDAY-Arms

SUNDAY-Off

Hope this helps you with your initial game plan.

Stud quotes

80 % of success is showing up

- Woody Allen

Exercise timing

When should you workout? Are certain parts of the day better? Day or night? Before even answering this question you must consider your own well being. What time of the day will allow YOU to stay consistent with your workout plan. If you are a morning person than workout in the morning, if not then don't.

Research has shown that late afternoon exercise tends to be the best, somewhere around 2-5pm. This is when your body temperature is at its highest. Muscles tend to perform their best when they are warm making this ideal time to resistance train. Strength output has been shown to be about 5 % higher at mid day as well.

In the end the time of the day is not a huge factor. The biggest and most important thing is that YOU pick a good time for YOU and workout at the highest level possible.

H4 Fat burner-# 6 ( Biceps and Legs )

This routine goes along with my H4 Fat burner # 5 so checkout that post for instructions on format. You can combine these two workouts together or use them separately. Remember every exercise is done without any rest between one another as well as no rest between sets. Each exercise is done for 30 seconds and your goal should be to do as many quality reps as possible. Your weight should not be that heavy since this is a high volume routine.

Dumbbell squat- 30 sec

SUPER SET WITH

Standing dumbbell bicep curl ( both arms together )-30 sec

SUPER SET WITH

Dumbbell alternating front lunge-30 sec

SUPER SET WITH

Sitting wall dumbbell preacher curls ( both arms together )-30 sec

Repeat 3-4 times without rest.

Hamstring blast

Most guys focus on their quads and hence tend to be quad dominant. To help combat this you need to start working our hamstrings and glutes more often. Try this routine to help put on some size to your backside.

Stiff leg deadlift 4 sets of 6-8 reps

Rest 1 minute between sets.

Dumbbell front lunges ( do all one side at a time ) 4 sets of 8-10

*** Make long strides to emphasize the hammies

Rest 1 minute between sets

Lying leg curl- 4 sets of 10-12 reps

Rest 1 minute between sets.

H4 Fat burner-#5 ( Chest and Back )

Time can be a valuable thing when programming your workouts. Often times we change reps, sets or the load but rarely time. Here is a good routine to help you lean up and cut up. Use this as part of another workout or use the other combinations I will post down the road. This routine combines chest and backs super sets which allows each muscle group to rest while you keep an intense pace. Do not use weight that is too heavy else you will fail to quickly. Weight is not the focus but rather volume. Your goal on each exercise is to do the most reps you can while keeping quality form. Move quick and don't let up!

***30 seconds as many reps as you can for all the exercises. Do not take any rest at all until completely finishing all 3-4 rounds. If you are still a beginner I would take a slight rest between rounds like 45 seconds or so.

Dumbbell chest press-30sec

SUPER SET

Dumbbell row- ( both arms at the same time while bent over ) 30 sec

SUPER SET

Pushups-30sec

SUPER SET

Lawn mower dumbbell row- ( stand straight, take a side step with your right leg and bend it. Keep your left leg straight. Take the dumbbell and reach it down to your right foot and then row tight to your body like you were starting a lawn mower) 3o sec each side

Do 3-4 rounds without rest.

Essential exercises for putting on mass

It is true that things are not all created equally. In terms of exercise selection some are truly better than others when it comes to packing on the muscle. Below are a list by muscle group of the best bang for your buck exercises in my opinion to build some serious mass. The exercises are not exclusive, other exercises that are not listed still should be done as well.

Chest- Dumbbell press. Dumbbells give you better range of motion which equals more muscles activated.

Back-Lat pull down for width, row for thickness.

Biceps-barbell curl. Load up the bar and watch those arms grow.

Triceps-Close grip press. Make sure the arms stay tight to the body the whole way through the press. This exercise loads the triceps allowing you to hit all 3 heads.

Legs-Deadlift. Increase the back side of your physique and increase your GH and testosterone levels. Enough said.

Shoulders- Arnold press. Shoulders like the great