The Importance of Strength Training for Health and Athletic Looks

The Strength Training Workout

This is a three days per week workout. Strength train on alternating days and, if you want to, perform some cardio and stretching on the days in between. Don’t overdo the cardio. If you need to lose some body fat, your diet is far more important. Save your energy for your strength training workouts.

To save time during the strength part of your workouts, primary exercises have been arranged in a superset. This means that, after completing exercise a), you move straight on to exercise b). Take the prescribed amount of rest and then repeat the pairing. To save more time, your core exercises are also arranged as a superset.

For the main, exercises you will be performing 5 sets of 5 repetitions. Increase the weight used on a set-by-set basis so that your last set is the hardest and you can only just complete the reps. Strive to increase the weight that you use on a week by week basis but not at the cost of good lifting technique.

Example

5 x 40kg
5 x 45kg
5 x 50kg
5 x 52.5kg
5 x 55kg (increase weight for next week if you complete all five reps in good form or leave it the same if you failed to get all five or found them especially hard to complete)

Warm up before each workout with some light cardio, dynamic stretches and a couple of light sets of the first two exercises. Cool down with more cardio and static stretches for muscles you have just worked.

Workout one – e.g. Monday

Workout two – e.g. Wednesday

AMRAP – As Many Repetitions As Possible

Workout three – e.g. Friday

By Patric Dale