Just My Opinion – By LA This month’s topic - Intensifying Your Workouts
Ever feel burnt-out? Ever feel like another trip to the gym might just kill you? Can’t bear to do another 30 set workout? Well this article is for you! I’m here to tell you the good news- It’s not necessary! Yes, there is a life outside the gym (although it basically consists of drinking protein shakes and watching your friends party).

I believe every gym vet has been there. The thought of going to the gym just brings shivers up your spine. What once was an intense passion, is now nothing more than pure drudgery. What even worse is the thought of taking time off. See when you play hooky the guilt and thought of loosing muscle quickly starts to eat away at your sole. Sure a few days in a row feel great, but by the end of the 3rd or 4th day the mirror begins to send you a signal. Your brain then takes that signal and multiplies it by a factor of 10 and then immediately turns it into stress. You are getting small and fat- all at the same time!

Well, here’s an alternative for you, a new way of working out. Maybe a way of working out that you should be doing forever. See you are not a newbie anymore (a newbie isn’t going to feel the guilt to begin with). You need to do more than just change your workout, splits and exercises. You need to take a radical look at the way you are working out in the first place. You need to make your workouts more intense. How? By making them shorter!

What’s more important- lifting or eating right? Interesting question, much like the chicken (ahh, chicken) and the egg (ahh, egg). If you eat right but don’t lift you’ll end up with a good body most likely but perhaps a little lacking in the muscle department. If you lift but don’t eat right you’ll end up with a more muscular body but maybe slightly pudgy. So obviously you need to do both, but that doesn’t answer the question does it. Here is the answer- lifting is the ignition, eating is the engine. Now I used the word ignition for a reason. Now sit down before you read the next sentence. Here it comes, last chance, hit close on the browser. You didn’t, good! You don’t need to perform 20-30 sets to become massive. What you do need to do is lift with intensity and with just enough volume to cause your muscles to grow. Exactly, what do I mean? I mean 3-4 sets for major bodyparts and 1-2 for minor ones!

Wait, how can I grow on that little volume when I can’t grow on the 20-30 sets I’m doing now? Exactly! You are no longer a newbie. You should know what you are doing by now. Ever hear of something called mind-muscle connection? Use it! When you first started out I’m willing to bet that you used very little pectoral muscle when doing a bench press. It was mostly triceps with a little front delt thrown in for good measure. Your bench didn’t really go up until you figured out how to recruit those pecs. I’m saying take that same approach now. Ask yourself this question- How much intensity are you going to have left on your 19th or 20th set for chest. Even better, if you are doing 4-5 working sets on bench press, what’s your mental outlook on the first 3? You don’t have one. The first 3 aren’t doing squat for you because your mind is focused on how many reps you are going to get on sets 4 and 5. As a matter of fact you are going to judge your whole workout on what you do on those last 2 sets. So why do the first 3 at all?

Let’s talk reps too for a minute. If you are doing a set of 10 reps, how much attention do you pay to reps 1-7? None! You know what you are doing? You are lifting the weight up and down as fast as you can in order to get to rep 8!

Now lets put together what I’ve suggested already. Cut your working sets for major bodyparts down to 3-4. Also cut your rep range down. Here’s a sample for you to look at:

Day 1 – Chest, Delts, Triceps

Flat Bench, 1 set reps 5-8, 1 set reps 4-6
Incline Bench, 1 set reps 5-8, 1 set reps 4-6
BB Press to Front, 1 set reps 5-8, 1 set reps 4-6
Close Grip Bench, 1 set reps 7-10, 1 set reps 5-8

This occurs after warming up once on flat bench, no additional warm-ups are done.

That’s a total of 8 sets and you are out.

You should be able to cover all bodyparts in 3 workouts. Now depending on how quickly you’ll recover workout 3-5 times a week. I’m currently working out 4.

What this will allow you to do is focus and make each rep of each set count. Mentally you’ll be in the game like never before. Physically you’ll be out of the gym in 30-45 minutes. Take more time between sets if necessary. Lift as much as you can. You’ll find exercises that have been stuck at the same weight for months suddenly heading North.

Like always, I hope I’ve given you something new to think about. Feedback is welcome!

Till next time- LA out and it’s “Just My Opinion”!
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