If you have been reading weightlifting materials for any length of time, you have probably heard of 5×5 training. It has worked for many trainees. We folks at Project Swole even made excellent progress on a 5×5 program. But with all this 5×5 hype, has anyone stopped thinking there might be an even more efficient way to train? You might want to take a moment to learn about The Swole 3×5 workout.
In my experience, at least for trained athletes, there are benefits to a Swole 3×5 workout routine which include added volume for accessory movements, core training, and conditioning due to the slightly lower workload.
Everyone knows how to jump rope. Hold the two ends and whip over your head, under your feet, back over your head, and so on. But we don’t all have a convenient plan in our back pocket. Hopefully, we can provide some useful suggestions here to help you work routines for jumping rope into your weekly routine.
This great exercise is an awesome fat burner, but it can also be pretty boring if you just use steady-state jumping counting the reps. That boredom can be overcome through, as jump rope is one of the greatest inventions ever for fitness enthusiasts and athletes, with many variations in technique, timing, intensity, and duration.
You also benefit from routines for jumping rope by strengthening your rotator cuffs and shoulders, increasing power in your lower body, developing your calves, and much more. Use some of the techniques listed below to make your jump rope sessions more challenging. Use the highest intensity techniques for your HIIT training.
High-Intensity Interval Training, often represented by the acronym HIIT, is really a big deal. HIIT training is the ideal and most effective replacement for underachieving endurance cardio. High-intensity interval training has been regarded for years now as one of the best ways to burn calories and maintain muscle mass while encouraging a long-lasting metabolic effect post-workout.
As a matter of fact, in studies, HIIT is 9x more effective at burning fat than endurance cardio.
More often than not, I have talked about HIIT workouts made up only of interval sprints. Today I would like to discuss HIIT training with resistance machines, but not to be confused with High-Intensity Resistance Training, or HIRT, which I will write about shortly.
HIIT Provides the Following Benefits
Burn more calories than endurance cardio
Burn more fat than endurance cardio
Increase power
Increase speed
Increase muscle density
Improve anaerobic endurance
Improve aerobic endurance
Speed up metabolism for more than a day and a half
If you came to learn how to bench 700 lbs, you are better off reading Werewolf Training for Strength Gains. Although, truth to tell, you will get significantly stronger following this program.
Werewolf training is not designed to get you ripped or “toned” (::barfs::), or even super strong, but you will get stronger anyway. This is much more of a bodybuilding routine than anything else, but with great strength benefits.
Seemingly every month a new workout routine seems to go viral across social media. Recently, the spotlight has been on the 12-3-30 workout. Originally created by Lauren Giraldo, a YouTuber who was dissatisfied with the traditional workout routines commonly found online, this routine aims to be simple, straightforward, and easy to follow. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to decide for yourself if this workout is worth it.
There are about 8,675,309 workout routines that you can try. One of the most effective types of routines I have found in the first 14 years of my training career is total body training. A full-body workout will stimulate all of your muscle chains sufficiently to elicit a powerful physiological response.
The Principles of Total Body Training
Train every muscle group 3 times per week.
Select one exercise per muscle group, per day.
Hit each muscle group from a different angle or intensity in each workout.
Never go to absolute failure on any exercise; leave one rep in the bank, except sometimes on the last set.
Keep workouts under one hour, not counting warm-ups and stretching.
Change everything up after two months.
Why Might This Be the Most Effective Form of Training?
High frequency (how often you train any given muscle) means more chances to recover and grow stronger/bigger.
Low daily stimulus (# of exercises and sets per day for any given muscle) lowers your chances of overtraining.
Avoiding training to failure also lowers the chances of overtraining.
Hitting muscles from all angles each week strengthens stabilizers and is proactive injury prevention.
Avoid muscle adaptation by changing up the whole routine after 2 months.
Let’s take a few minutes to example one of the better full-body workout routines I’ve written. The next time you want to change up your routine, try this for a month or two.
Everyone wants a flat stomach but we don’t always get what we want, such is life: we have to hustle for the muscle. To get rid of excess body fat and lose unsightly belly fat, it is important to do both conditioning as well as weight training exercises. Stubborn belly fat cannot be targeted by spending extra time on ab exercises. Instead, you need to focus on how to strengthen your core and build up the supporting foundational blocks to influence the aesthetics of your v-shaped, chiseled midsection.
Of course, nutrition is responsible for 75% of your fat loss results, but you still need to strengthen your core by performing the exercises below. Perform all the exercises in a single day by pairing larger muscle groups (chest, back, legs) with smaller muscle groups (shoulders, triceps, biceps, abs), or spread them out across the week, adding additional exercises to further target a specific muscle group pairing each day, for example:
Now, let’s take a look at our 7 awesome exercises and variations for strengthening your core, and how to use them together in a circuit to bring out those six-pack abs.
It’s not surprising that sitting long hours causes some problems for our bodies. The research found that excessive sitting has been linked to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. While this doesn’t guarantee you won’t get heart disease if you work at a desk, sitting is not good for your health.
On top of the medical issues linked to inactivity, people who sit all day and don’t add regular exercise into their lifestyle, tend to suffer from a weak core, high hip flexors, back pain, neck pain, and sometimes wrist pain for those who type excessively. In order to alleviate these problems, it is recommended to participate in 30 minutes of intense exercise at least three times a week along with warm-ups and cool-downs with stretching.
Here are some tips along with a few great exercises you can do at home with minimal weight to help keep your body healthy and functional. As you read this piece, keep in mind it is proven to be beneficial to exercise with others in a group setting to leverage the community for accountability and sometimes even friendly competition.
Are you looking for tough new exercises to mix up your workout routine? If so, look no further. This article contains a list of some intense exercises that will push you to your limit. So, needless to say, these exercises are not for beginners. Without further ado, let’s get started.
As we are spending more time indoors in the wake of COVID-19, a lot of unexpected issues have started to arise. Today, this quarantine series post addresses the problems we might be facing with our partner as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle and close, cramped quarters. Most of us are quarantined with our spouse, and a common question of concern is how to deal with intimacy issues and maintain a healthy relationship with your partner during these challenging times.
It’s never really easy to push yourself out of the comfort zone and start something new in your life. There’s always this ‘’starting from tomorrow’’ attitude and a plethora of other excuses we so masterfully come up with that stop us from exercising. It’s understandable. People are simply intimidated by all the different types of exercise they can choose from. Should it be yoga, regular gym or running around the block every day?
For around 1.5 decades, John Cena was the face of the WWE.
Although he is now slowly stepping back and taking on more of a part-time role for the company, he is still a very prominent figure in the squared circle.
If rumours are true, at this upcoming Wrestlemania event, he will be taking on The Undertaker, in one of the biggest matches of his career.
One thing that is instantly recognizable about John, is his amazing physique. At 6ft 2 and over 240 pounds of solid muscle, he is a physical specimen.
That’s why we’ll be taking a quick look at the John Cena workout routine, to help you train like a multiple-time WWE champ with one of the best physiques in the business.
Why Study the John Cena Workout Routine?
Those that have seen John Cena, will know how big and jacked he is. Cena is vascular, he is ripped, he is always in shape, and he’s a very, very big dude.
If you’ve seen him in the ring, or watched his workout vids online, you’ll also know that he’s very strong. In the ring, he throws 200, 300, even 400+ pound men around like rag dolls. He has lifted wrestlers like The Big Show, on his shoulders countless times before, which, considering at the time The Big Show was a legit 500 pounder, that’s pretty amazing. Who wouldn’t want that strength?!(more…)
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when attempting to gain muscle is to imitate your favorite professional bodybuilder.
If you’ve seen the magazines: Flex, Iron Man, Muscular Development, etc…, you’ve seen the pro bodybuilding routines. These guys train one body part a day, 10 exercises for each muscle group, 6 sets per exercise, 12-20 reps per set, and they put together brutal 6 days per week workout routines, sometimes with 2-a-days.
What they don’t tell you, is that routines written by professional bodybuilders are not going to work for you if you are not either a pro bodybuilder yourself, or an unemployed, juiced up, genetic freak. If you follow these routines, you will overtrain faster than Arnold shows his bare ass in a Terminator movie. At least you will learn how NOT to train, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
My Experience Training Like a Pro
I wish someone told me all these things before I started on some ridiculous pro routine when I was 16. This guy had me using ramps, training 6 days a week, once a day for two weeks then twice a day for four weeks, and focusing completely on machines, cables, and leg presses instead of squats.
What a complete waste of 6 months that was. When I finally confronted a personal trainer about my sore body and lack of progress, he ripped up my routine and set me straight. Thanks Ted!
Here are 10 reasons why you should not train like a professional bodybuilder:
Some people have difficulty getting six-packs, and others have trouble believing that abs are made in the kitchen and not the gym, but this doesn’t downplay the importance of exercising and strengthening the core. Having strong muscles in your abs and back make it easier for you to do everyday tasks; from lifting your kids (and pets) to carrying your groceries.
A solid core can also help you to maintain good posture and prevent back pain. As important as exercising the core is, crunches are boring. Keep reading to find out five great exercises you can use to strengthen your core.(more…)
If you’re looking to keep your cardio fitness levels running high throughout the year regardless of weather conditions or other hindrances, then the incline treadmill workout is the best training option.
Incline workouts offer many benefits.
For starters, it’ll help you simulate hill running, thus burn off colossal amounts of calories without having to go outside and stomach the bad weather. In addition, incline workouts are great boredom busters, hence if you dread indoor cardio training, use the incline to your advantage and make your workout more challenging and fun.
As a result, if you’re not doing an incline workout—at least once per week—then you’re doing yourself a big disservice.
This article is exclusively on the right exercises to improve the strength of motorcyclists and make them better riders. For the record, the exercises will yield other desirable results such as improved metabolic activities, improved body detoxing, reduced unwanted fat, improved sleeping orders, improved looks etc., but these are only peripheral perks. The sole essence is to improve the riding performance of the motorcyclists.
These exercises are great for beginner riders and veteran riders alike. If you think you are not fit enough to ride your bike and you are not motivated enough to try to get into riding shape, you can always visit sellbike.com for quick valuation of your motorbike and then unsubscribe to Project Swole, because those without ambition might not bother wasting their time reading these posts.
Lower Body Conditioning
Your lower body and ‘core’ plays the most crucial role in establishing contact with your motorcycle and balancing you on it, as a rider. Therefore, these exercises will be focused on those parts of your body.
Exercising to improve those parts of your body is essential because, while riding, there’s a need to do a number of things, some of which are the need to shift the weight of your body between opposite pegs as your motorbike tilts from side to side when negotiating bends. There’s also a need to engage your legs as props and shock absorbers while doing an off road, and so on. (more…)
Being fit and achieving your goals is no easy feat, even if the basic idea is simple. Eat the right foods and push yourself. It doesn’t take a lot of time to figure these things out, especially with experts to guide you. It’s the execution where most people fail.
It’s hard to get fit, and it’s easy to skip that morning workout. It’s too cold, you need to go decompress after work, and the gym will be too crowded anyway… We make up a lot of excuses to get out of pushing ourselves. But the truth is, barring some serious circumstances, there isn’t an excuse.
While heavy gains require sticking to a fitness routine, if you really can’t make it to the gym, you can still maintain your fitness and be productive around the house. Homeowner projects provide plenty opportunities to maintain fitness, you just need to recognize that opportunity. (more…)
Looking back in my archives, I found this post from 2008; roughly 2 home relocations ago. About 8 years have passed, the ‘kids’ are teenagers now, the beach is in the backyard now instead of across the street, I still have those Powerblocks, and still love sprinting.
Today however it’s about 30°F out, 3 days before Christmas, and it’s snowing. Sprints will be much more difficult, biking is nearly impossible, and the unheated garage is freeeeeezing! I’ve been working diligently as a personal garage gym builder though, and now I also have a doorway pull up bar, push up equipment, an ab roller, springs, and big ole rubber tubes that work great for dynamic resistance training.
If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, read the follow piece that details my thoughts on active recovery in 2008 and what I accomplished on a warm sunny day in June. I still feel the same way about active recovery, and if you’re not using it on the occasional rest day you’re missing out on fun activities that can help engage your friends and family, burn extra calories, and improve the recovery process from your strenuous gym workouts.
Even medical journals documenting active recovery research have found that, “active recovery can be prescribed and still retain performance benefits over passive recoveries”. Don’t you miss out!
Here’s one for the ladies of Team Swole – a guest post by Emily of Body Shape 101
One of the biggest problems that women face is inner thigh fat. Flabby inner thighs that rub together while walking are not only a sore but irritating as well. Most people can relate as this quickly jogs their mind to painful friction burns especially when wearing a dress or skirt.
Besides this painful fact, inner thigh fat interferes with your figure and self-confidence as well. However, you’d be pleased to know that inner thigh flab is not chronic and that you can easily get rid of it through simple exercises. There are leg exercises and equipment purposely meant to curve and tone your legs, such as recumbent bikes, but you may need to indulge in some cardio exercises as well. 1. Cossack Squats This is a highly effective workout that targets your lower body. It will shape the glutes and thighs on all angles by burning the excess fat and in this case, inner thighs. (more…)
The results of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor workout are clear for all to see in the media. As the film and the actor remain subject to a great deal of interest, many news and entertainment outlets continue sharing the best traits of Thor. But how did the Australian achieve his impressive physique in time for his work on the fantasy-action film?
It was ex-Navy SEAL Duffy Gaver who trained Hemsworth, and pushed the actor to gain 20lb for the role. Gaver devised an eight week exercise plan, which he split into two.
During the first four weeks, there was a careful focus on helping Hemsworth gain the level of strength appropriate for the God of Sky and Thunder. The second four weeks were dedicated to fat loss…
