I have a very important question I want to ask you. Ready? Why are you working out? Seriously. What is your primary health or fitness-related reason for exercising? Are you being honest with yourself about why you’re at the gym? There are many reasons to engage in a regular exercise program. The most common—though often the least discussed—is to look good naked. Hey what ever it takes to get your ass in the gym. with the summer nearing it's end I have some great training tips to carry you looking better than ever into the fall season.
1) Cut out (or at least limit) long distance endurance training, a.k.a. traditional cardio. Instead, make anaerobic activity—strength training, and to a lesser extent interval-based cardio—the foundation of your exercise program.
2)Strength train three to five days a week. Give yourself two to three days off from training to optimize recovery (although outdoor walking is cool).
3) Keep workouts to about 30-60 minutes. Intensity is more important than duration.
4) Train each body part once every five to seven days. Use body part splits over full body/total body training.
5) Train one to three muscle groups per session.
6) Perform three to five exercises for large muscle groups, two to three exercises for small muscle groups. Perform two to four sets per exercise. Perform six to 15 reps per set. Rest 45 to 120 seconds per set.
7) Focus on basic exercises—squats, deadlifts, various presses and rows. Save the fluff for the weekend warriors. Focus mostly on free weights, using machines to supplement.
8) Keep the rep tempos around two seconds up, two seconds down. Lower weight under control, lift under control, and don’t pause or lockout to rest in between reps. Don’t cheat by swinging or using rebound/momentum. Keep constant tension on the muscle.
9) Focus on stimulating and overloading the muscle, not just how much weight you lift. Think about feeling the muscle work during the set, not just on moving a weight from point A to point B.
10) Switch training variables. Vary—within the confines of the overall parameters—regularly (exercises, order of exercises, reps, etc.) in order to change the training stimulus.
Try to enjoy the process. Results are a by product of consistent training & proper eating.
These principles are based not just on the physical, anecdotal evidence of the fittest “looking” people in the world ( athletes and fitness models), but also on the scientific principles of human physiology, exercise physiology, and kinesiology. It’s not “meathead bodybuilding,” it is scientific-based body composition training. The goal is to combine the best of both worlds, the scientific and the practical. This prevents us from getting caught up in the fitness trends or health club hype that are more geared towards selling the consumer a product, service, or "system" rather than giving them real-world results.