Everyone is busy. Everyone has responsibilities to live up to and places to be for pre-determined lengths of time. For many, this leaves working out as the final check mark for the day on a list of many things to accomplish. Unfortunately, though, that final check mark never gets ticked off and getting to the gym becomes a thing of the past. For those who are dedicated and will do anything to ensure they get at least a few training sessions in per week, I highly suggest the Push/Pull/Lower body approach to training. This strategy will ensure that you get to train your entire body over the course of a week and leave nothing neglected. Here’s how to set up this workout.
Push
For push day, the focus will be purely on the muscles responsible for pushing resistance away from the body; we’re talking the chest, shoulders, and triceps. I would set up the training session so that the largest of the three muscle groups (chest) gets hit first, followed by shoulders and then finally the smallest muscle group (triceps) to finish off the workout. By following this order, you ensure nothing interrupts the power needed to appropriately train each muscle group. When energy levels begin to dip towards the end of the workout, there’s only a couple exercises left to do to finish off that last muscle group due to the secondary work they’re already received via the training for the first two. Here are the exercises I would group together for an effective Push training session:
Chest: Flat barbell bench press/incline dumbbell press/parallel bar dips
Shoulders: Dumbbell lateral raises/reverse pec deck flyes/seated machine presses
Triceps: Cable push downs/skull crushers (lying triceps press)
Pull
Pull day is all about the back with the biceps thrown in to finish off the workout. Many people don’t even train biceps because they feel they get enough stimulation through hard and heavy back workouts but I like putting them on the schedule just to make sure. Anytime you pull resistance or weight towards your body you’re using either your back or biceps to do so. Secondary to those two muscle groups are the trapezius muscles which I always group in with back; so you’ll be training those on this day too. For training back, I like to start out with a pull-down movement or two, followed by a few rowing exercises and then finish things off with a stretching exercise. For traps, it’s all about the shrug, and for biceps, you curl, curl and curl some more changing the angles and wrist positioning of the movements to hit the biceps from top to bottom and side to side. Here are the exercises (again following largest to smallest muscle group) I would suggest for an awesome Pull day:
Back: Chin-ups/close grip pull downs/t-bar rows/one arm rows/cross bench dumbbell pullovers
Traps: Behind the back barbell shrugs
Biceps: Straight Barbell curls/alternate dumbbell curls/preacher curls or reverse grip barbell curls
Lower body
The infamous leg day; revered by many and embraced by only a few. Almost always referred to as the most difficult training day on the schedule, legs make your foundation, and you can’t build a house without them. Comprised of quads, hamstrings, and calves, leg day can be a very long and arduous task. If you’re a serious bodybuilder, then you know how much this day can take out of you, but it’s all worth it in the end. Before you start, you have to take stock of what your strengths and weaknesses are in the leg department and then go from there. For some, beginning the workout with calves may be the best option so you can initiate hypertrophy with more intensity when you’re fresh into the workout. For others, it may be hamstrings that need the work, but for this article, I’ll set up the workout with the muscle group most people begin leg day with and that’s the quads. Here’s a great exercise grouping for each area of your legs:
Quads: Seated leg extensions/squats/leg presses or walking lunges
Hamstrings: Lying hamstring curls/stiff legged deadlifts
Calves: Standing calf raises/seated calf raises
I’m here to tell you that you can fit everything into your day or week that you want and need to. With a little advanced planning and some sheer dedication and desire on your part, you can have it all. Let our products help you get through even the toughest of days and never end your week feeling unaccomplished ever again!
