My current workouts
Since I moved out of the house into and apartment I wasn’t able to continue with my previous home gym workouts. Luckily there is a YMCA fairly close to where I live, there are a couple other gyms in Newton, but I decided to join the YMCA because I could get a single parent / kids membership at a good price and they also have an indoor pool and a nice youth recreation area where my kids can hang out while I did my workouts.
The YMCA has an older but decent free weight room, they also have the usual cardio machines, bikes, treadmills, etc, and also a room of some Cybex brand single function exercise machines. But other than ride one of the bikes once a week, I spend my workouts in the weight room. For the past few months I have had good luck and enjoy doing a “Reg Park style” workout. I found the original workout on T-Nation in an article by Mike Mahler. At first I was pretty strict with the workout but I’ve added and modified a couple things. It’s basically a full body workout similar to what I was doing with my home workouts, but I can utilize some heavier weights and better equipment. At the core of the workout are the big basic, compound exercises, squat, dead lift, and bench press. I really don’t like to mess too much with isolation exercises.
There are 3 workouts to this and I try and get 1-2 days between for recovery, the first exercise is the back extension, a strong lower back is crucial to being able to do the big compound exercises properly. I really try to be strict with form and follow a 5×5 and 5×8 and gradually add weight over time. I don’t really use a lot of weight, yet anyway, I’m working on increasing slowly over time. The pattern I do is 5×5 one week, 5×8 next week, then back to 5×5 and adding 10lbs. So far I have noticed some good gains in size, strength, and endurance from this workout. Although after 6-8 weeks on this I will make some adjustments so as not to get into a rut and stagnate and many people do when the do the same workouts all the time.
Reg Park Workout Day 1
- Back extension 3×10 +40lbs dumbell
- Bench press 5×5 @ 155lbs
- Barbell bent over row 5×5 @ 115lbs
- Power clean and press 5×5 @ 105lbs
- Squat 5×5 @ 95, 105, 115, 125, 135lbs (my squat form has been terrible – my hip flexors are weak – so I decided to go light and really try to stick the full range and get my legs parallel or below before I try to use much weight)
- Barbell curls 5×5 @ 85lbs
- Dips 5×8
- Hammer curls 5×5 @ 40lbs dumbells
- Calf raises 3×12 @ 200lbs
- Hanging ab crunch 3×20
I will follow up in a couple days with the Day 2 workout.
That’s a good workout routine. I like the old-school Reg Park style to it. I also believe this kind of training gives you actual USABLE strength instead of just “the cut” or the “ripped abs”. It’s incredible how there are over 300 muscles in the body and most fitness “experts” focus on SIX to sell their services and products.
On a final note, does the addition of your bike cardio help keep the body fat in check?