Weight Training | Effective Training Methods to Build Muscle

Today I am back up the Sunshine Coast for work, so after my shift, I headed back to the ‘Muscle Hut’, which is based in Kawana, about a 10 minute drive away from where I am staying. When I got there I noticed the gym to be the fullest that I have ever seen it.

We have all probably seen this phenomenon, it happens every year around the beginning of Spring. As Winter starts to fade away and the weather starts to heat up, people start covering their bodies with less and less layers of clothes.

As a result people are no longer able to hide the few extra kilos they have put on over the colder months. So what to do? Head back to the gym to get in shape for Summer. In Australia we are about 4 weeks into Spring and the weather has started out spectacular. As a result the gyms are getting filled with people who are trying to get back into shape for the hot months ahead.

As I have outlined on previous posts, I have set myself several strength goals, which I am aiming to achieve by the end of the 12 week program. I am placing these goals in brackets after the exercise that I am performing.

My Program for Staying Lean and Strong

Pre-Workout Nutrition:
• About an hour before training I downed a Pre-workout shake.

Warm-up:
• 5 minutes of skipping
• Dynamic Stretching
• Push-ups x 20

Workout:

• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press (Goal Weight: 50kg)
– Set 1: 8 reps x 30kg
– Set 2: 6 reps x 42.5kg
– Set 3: 5 reps x 42.5kg

• Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press (Goal Weight: 28kg Dumbbell)
– Set 1: 10 reps x 10kg
– Set 2: 8 reps x 15kg
– Set 3: 4 reps x 22.5kg
– Set 4: 5 reps x 22.5kg

• Lateral Dumbbell Raises (Goal Weight: 15kg Dumbbell)
– Set 1: 8 reps x 10kg
– Set 2: 5 reps x 15kg
– Set 3: 5 reps x 15kg

• Tricep Pushdowns (N/A Due to the fact that I am in so many different places and the machines all vary so much)
– Set 1: 8 reps x 11 pin
– Set 2: 6 reps x 15 pin
– Set 3: 6 reps x 15 pin

Finishers – My High Intensity Fat Burning Circuit

I am still incorporating finishers at the end of my weight training session. Today I alternated between Jump Squats and Explosive Push-ups. I started by doing 10 of each back to back, then 9 of each back to back and so on until I reach zero. The whole circuit is done without rest and took me only about 4mins to complete.

Warm Down:
• Static Stretching

The whole session including warm-up, the workout, finishers and warm down took me 49mins to complete burning about 360kcals with an average heart rate of 113BPM.

Post-Workout Nutrition:
• Straight after the session I downed a Post-workout shake.

Notes:
• All reps and sets are done with good form (no cheating or swinging the weight)
• Rest for exactly a minute between all sets except for the last 2 working sets where you rest for 2mins.
• During the workout sip on water.

Whilst I would never discourage someone from getting stuck into training to try and transform their body, I am still amazed by the amount of people that only try and get in shape for the warmer months. It shouldn’t amaze me, companies spend millions of dollars on advertising that directly targets these people.

Your training and nutrition should be a lifestyle, not just something that you stick with for the warmer months. If you are one of those people that try and only get in shape once the weather is warming up, think of how much easier it would be if when Summer rolled around, all you had to do was enjoy it, not worry about spending extra time in the gym or obsessing over your diet.