Are You Stuck?

written by John Ashworth, Owner
The Fitness Nomad
www.TheFitnessNomad.com

The most common problem I find with people who don't work with a personal trainer on an on-going basis, but who are exercising regularly, is that they are often stuck. And ultimately frustrated, because they are not getting the results they feel they deserve for the work they are putting into their fitness program.

Most often, the problem is with their strength training program, which not only lacks the variability it needs, but also the creativity the body is starving for.

Here is a great way to rev up your fitness program, and ultimately your metabolism...

The Fitness Nomad Muscle Shaping and Endurance Strength System

There are two key concepts to this training strategy:

1. This is a Split Routine,

This means that you are training different parts of your body on different days. This allows you to increase the volume and intensity of your program without the risk of overtraining. In order to add volume and intensity without risk of overtraining we’re going to divide the muscle groups into two parts. You’ll work half of the major muscle groups one day, and the following day you’ll allow those muscles to rest and recuperate while you aggressively activate the remaining groups.

Because you’ll be working the muscles more intensely and with greater volume than you have thus far, you won’t need to work each muscle three times per week, but you’ll only target each group twice weekly. That allows for four resistance exercise sessions per week. Ideally you’ll work ½ the body on Monday, then half on Tuesday, devote Wednesday to cardio, and then repeat the Monday workout on Thursday followed by the Tuesday workout on Friday. Saturday would be another aerobic exercise day. In other words, it’s two days on, one day of aerobic active recuperation, two days on, another day of active aerobic recuperation, and on the seventh day.relax!

2. ISOLATION MOVEMENTS

Up until this point you’ve probably been performing multi-joint movements involving multiple muscle groups. For example, the squat has you bending from the knee joint and the hip joint recruiting the primary quadriceps muscles along with the gluteus. The chest press has you moving from the shoulder and elbow targeting the pectoral muscles but recruiting the muscles of the shoulder (deltoids) and triceps. With this program you’re still going to incorporate compound movements, but you’ll stagger them with isolation movements, movements which target a single muscle or muscle group and in most cases involves movement only at one joint. As an example, if you were to perform a lateral raise, where you are raising your arms to shoulder height with your elbows locked in one position, you would be isolating the shoulders.

By combining these two concepts, you will be surprised to find how much harder you will work, and how much more exhausted your muscles are when you're finished; and over the course of the next month, you might also be surprised to find new muscle groups popping out where you never noticed before.

Here is a sample routine:

Pushing Exercises (Front of the Body)

1. Lateral Raises - 8-12 RM
2. Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 6 - 10 RM
3. Chest Flys
4. Dbell Shoulder Press
5. Sliding Lunge
6. Dumbbell Squats
7. Rear Tricep Extesions
8. Dips
9. Seated Calf Raise
10. Standing Calf Raise

Pulling Exercises (Back of the Body)

1. Leg Curls
2. Bent Leg Deadlift
3. Rear Lateral Raise
4. Bent Over Row
5. Single Arm Lat Pulldown
6. Upright Rows
7. Concentration Curl
8. Barbell Curl
9. Wirst Curl (Flexion)
10. Reverse Curl

For a complete copy of the full Fitness Nomad Muscle Shaping and Endurance Training System, please visit www.TheFitnessNomad.com and click the link at the top of the page that directs you to the Channel 15 News Segment.

Or send an email request to: John@TheFitnessNomad.com

Good Luck and take care...

John