Base your workout on what your goals are
Splitting training into body parts such as "chest day", "arm day" and "leg day" is ideal for body building, but for athletic training and weight loss its more efficient to focus on movement patterns.
Machines like the leg curl and leg extension are easier to use, so you can sit on Instagram, but for overall strength development theyre useless.
An easy way to think of a workout is to base it on one of three main movement patterns, says Mann. Youve got push-pull exercises, which are split into horizontal and vertical, such as a bench press/bent-over row [horizontal] and overhead press/pull up [vertical]. Then there are hinge exercises, such as a deadlift and squat exercises, which include a single-leg stance, a lunge or a carry.
Machines like the leg curl and leg extension are easier to use, so you can sit back on your phone checking Instagram, but in terms of overall strength development, theyre useless. If its actual results you're after, you can't go wrong with basic barbell movements, says Mann. He recommends swapping a leg-press machine for a barbell squat.
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Mann says that static stretching of muscles is more likely to hinder your performance than improve it. Instead, youll want to focus on increasing mobility and stability in the joints with a more dynamic approach, mimicking the movements youll be training.
If youre doing squats or deadlifts, get your hips and core fired up. Ask a trainer to walk you through the Andrew Lock Hip Big 3 and Shoulder Big 3, and the Stuart McGill Big 3.
If you start your workout and you still feel tired and sore, go back and warm up some more Mann advises.
If you go too high as a beginner youre going to have form breakdown, so keep it moderate. To play it safe you could start using barbells without any weight on at all to get used to the right movement, then start adding weight. Ultimately you want to be aiming for progressive overload: growing a muscle by forcing your body to adapt to a tension greater than what it has previously experienced.
To focus on a hinge movement, start out on a multi-joint compound exercise like a deadlift, with three sets of five reps. Then you can add supplementary exercises to complement your main one, says Mann. For instance, if you cant stabilise well through your lats you might choose to add in a rack pull to help strengthen the lats and the lower back. Then you might add some unilateral movement for symmetry, like some single-arm rows. Lastly, youd add some isolation movements, like a dumbbell pull-over to help strengthen your lats and increase thoracic extension [the longest region of your spine], or some Swiss ball leg-curls.
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Cardios great for keeping the heart healthy, but the idea that its the most effective weight-loss regime is a hangover from the '80s aerobics craze. Kudos to Jane Fonda, Jamie Lee Curtis et al for looking amazing in high-cut leotards, but Mann says that lifting is the most consistent way of burning fat.
With aerobics activity you may burn more calories during the workout, but unless its really high-intensity, once you stop training you stop burning calories, says Mann. With weight training you burn fewer during the workout but over the next 48 hours youll continue to burn them. Thats why after a heavy weight session you might feel hot the next day because your body is still burning calories.
He does concede that cardio exercise supplements this fat loss. Its best to do cardio post-weight-lifting workout, when youre in a state of depleted glycogen, as then youll burn more fat as fuel, he says. It doesnt need to be a 30-minute run. It might just be a high-incline walk for 20 minutes.
See more here:
Instead of simply copying Insta lifting routines, try this - Sydney Morning Herald
