Program Design...

This will be a quick blog post - I've got 10 minutes to spare before my next client.

I am writing this in regards to almost every person I see at commercial gyms. With the exception of the ones who are doing some sort of split (upper, lower - Chest, tri's - whatever it may be) please just start designing programs that will hit the OTHER muscles in your body that maybe you can't see while looking in the mirror in front of the dumbbell rack. You DO have more than just a chest, biceps and abs.

Here is an easy solution if you decide to do a full body workout at the gym later today. Don't think in terms of "muscles worked" . .think more in terms of the motions that your body goes through.

If I get bored with my training, or just want to beat myself up with a random workout- I only need to follow a few guidelines;

Quad Dominant Movement - Whether it be squats, lunges, leg press - just something to work those muscles above your knee that seem to be quite useless to some... Remember, women like men with legs, not men shaped like candy apples. :)
Hip Dominant Movement - Deadlifts, pull-throughs, rear leg elevated split squats - Again, you may think that not having an ass is great, but a strong, powerful behind is something to be proud of.
Horizontal Push/Pull - Chest press, bent-over row, 1 arm row, chest flyes, face pull - If you pick some compound movements here, you can hit a lot of muscles in a short period of time.
Vertical Push/Pull - Chin ups, lat pulldown, shoulder press, military press - Same thing here, you can hit almost everything in your upper body with these push/pull movements.
Core exercise - This, I will leave blank. I train core different that most people do, and I don't want to get into the whole crunches vs. anti-flexion debate. There is a time and place for everything, and I only have 5 minutes left. ;)

So, there you have it. Throw yourself together a workout from this. I have gotten great results for people who have very limited time with workouts based off of this platform. The first time I saw this was in a book by Ian King, I forget the name now, but I am not taking credit for this. It was probably around long before Ian King's time, but just stick with the basics movement patterns and you will look and feel better than you have ever felt.

And, next time I am doing deadlifts and let out a war cry/yelp at the top of my lift, don't judge me! Stop curling the 35's and come over. There is no greater feeling than lifting as much weight as you possibly can off of the floor. Then, dropping it and doing it again.