Until recently, I’ve not posted any free workouts or routines. At most, I’ve shown a few exercises I use and where they could fit into a session.
I don’t even detail my own workouts, again just putting out one or two exercises, maybe some sets and reps.
Why not?
Not enough time? Laziness? Super complicated workouts?
Nah to all the above - well, maybe a little laziness.
Instead, some thought did go into it. And now, after some more thinking, I’ve changed my mind.
WHY NOT?
We’re all different.
Aesthetically, biomechanically, functionally and more.
What one person needs to grow, we already have in proportion; what works for one person, might not work for us; what is one person’s weakness, could be our strength.
So doing an arm blaster workout for bigger triceps could over-shadow your bi’s and shoulders, putting the look all out of whack. For someone with a naturally narrow bench grip, the arm blaster is likely going to just add to strengths (narrow grip already working the triceps more than a wider grip), instead of building up weaknesses - and what’s the point of a strong lockout if your pecs can’t get the weight up off the chest?
Some people just flat out hate doing skull-crushers and dips. That’s half the workout spent hating everything, which isn’t a great way to spend time.
Thinking of those reasons it made sense to put out some general principles, and take a look at different exercises and what they were useful for, so you could pick and choose what you wanted to add to your sessions.
“Add to your own program”, “experiment”, “throw in at the end of a workout” are all phrases peppered throughout my social media and general advice to people. It didn’t feel right throwing out a full-on workout for the masses (yeah I said masses, gotta dream big) - because there’s no time to work with and judge what would most likely benefit y’all the most: exercises, frequency, workout order, rest, sets and reps, and how to adjust along the way. It just seemed like too much variety to nail down a solid and worthwhile workout for everyone.
With clients it’s far easier, being able to work with each individual and craft plans suited to them and their lifestyle; instead of trying to guess what would be best for everyone’s background.
There’s a lot more that goes into it than “crack on with curls, hammer curls and spider curls to build bowling ball biceps *muscle emoji* *fire emoji*” - although the emojis are the most important ingredient. Can’t argue with broscience.
WHAT CHANGED?
We need to start somewhere.
That doesn’t mean having the most iron clad programming or tailor made 16 week competition prep - it just means getting out there and busting your ass at training.
It’s getting in there, experiencing something, seeing where your strengths and weaknesses lie, what you enjoy and what you don’t, what has a good effect and what doesn’t.
It’s about just starting, and figuring it out as you go.
What if you start out bodybuilding, and discover a love for strength training? Forgetting about bicep peaks in favour of peak week deadlifting? Maybe starting out wanting to master a push-up, and getting into obstacle course racing?
That’s what happened with me - as a kid I was a swimmer, then distance runner, then physique competitor, a touch of obstacle course racing and now dabbling in competitive powerlifting and strongman. With some running on the side. Goodness knows what I’ll be doing by the end of 2018.
There’s no set path, and sometimes you just discover things by accident. There’s no one thing better than the other, just what’s best for you. Especially when it comes to health and fitness - if your moving and working up a sweat, it’s some kind of exercise. Beyond that, it’s just challenging yourself to more and harder things to keep the progress going.
That’s the idea that swung the balance for me, just trying something and seeing what happens. Even if it’s not perfect, you can adjust and play with aspects along the way - just get a good start point, a couple of ways to step forward, and go from there.
So if I can provide you with a solid start point, something that sets you in the right direction or gives you a good foundation to build upon, then that’s something.
Maybe not super personalised or ideal for your specific goals and circumstances, but it’s something.
Whether any of the workouts will be a success or not remains to be seen, I’m just going to try it out here and there, and see what happens.
NB: Featured workouts won’t be a scheduled thing, so keep an eye out on here and my social media for when they do drop - if you’d like a workout for a specific goal or just a certain type of workout then just give me a shout and I’ll see what I can do!