My workout schedule
The supplement schedule will come later, but I wanted to post this prior to God’s Game beginning.
4-Day Cross Split: 6 Week Training Schedule
Week One
- Monday: Off
- Tuesday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Tuesday PM: Abs, Chest & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Hanging leg raises: 5 minutes; as many reps as possible; includes rest intervals
- Bodyweight dips: work up to 8x8 over time; start with 2x8
- Slight incline palms-in dumbbell press: work up to 8x8 over time; start with 2x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Wednesday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Wednesday PM: Back & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Chins; as many as possible for 1 set
- Wide-grip pulldowns /superset/ Narrow-grip pulldowns; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- Standing dumbbell rows; 3x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 18 minutes of weight training - Thursday: Off
- Friday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Friday PM: Abs, Delts & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Swiss ball crunches (Clark Bartram-style); 5 minutes
- Seated dumbbell presses (palms facing in); work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- Cable upright rows; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Saturday AM: Off
- Saturday PM: Legs
Rest intervals starting at 2-3 minutes, decreasing to 1 minute over time - Dumbbell step-ups: 3x8
- Leg extensions; 3x8
- Standing leg curls; 3x12
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Sunday AM: Off
- Sunday PM: Optional Cardio
- Light cardio session; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
Week Two
- Monday: Off
- Tuesday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Tuesday PM: Abs, Chest & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Hanging leg raises: 5 minutes; as many reps as possible; includes rest intervals
- Bodyweight dips: work up to 8x8 over time; start with 2x8
- Slight incline palms-in dumbbell press: work up to 8x8 over time; start with 2x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Wednesday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Wednesday PM: Abs, Delts & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Swiss ball crunches (Clark Bartram-style); 5 minutes
- Seated dumbbell presses (palms facing in); work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- Cable upright rows; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Thursday: Off
- Friday AM: Cardio
- Cardio fasting; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
- Friday PM: Back & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Chins; as many as possible for 1 set
- Wide-grip pulldowns /superset/ Narrow-grip pulldowns; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- Standing dumbbell rows; 3x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 18 minutes of weight training - Saturday AM: Off
- Saturday PM: Arms & Cardio
Rest intervals starting at 1 minute, decreasing to 15-20 seconds over time - Seated dumbbell curls /superset/ seated dumbbell tricep overhead press; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- Leaning cable curls /superset/ tricep pushdowns; work up to 8x8, start with 3x8
- 15-20 minutes intense cardio (treadmill or glider) at 160 heart rate
Total Time: Under 15 minutes of weight training - Sunday AM: Off
- Sunday PM: Optional Cardio
- Light cardio session; 20-60 minutes elliptical glider or Heavy Hands; low intensity (125 heart rate)
That’s the master plan folks. I will repeat week one again after week two, and so-on.
Digest and enjoy! {10}
Archived in Just Jon.
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Comments (18)
Alyson said:
Bingodam! you really only train your legs every-other week?? and only once per week, at that?
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 01:11 AM
Jon Benson said:
For this split, yes.
I normally train one body part a week. More than that (except for perhaps a 4-6 week part-blast) is just not necessary.
The legs and arms split is due to the fact that I’m still cranking up my training intensity, and the fact that my legs and arms respond via the other training.
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 01:41 AM
Tera said:
One of my current goals is to improve my cardiovascular fitness. I’ve been wanting a heart rate monitor so that I can chart my progress as well as make sure that I’m training within targeted zones. Does anyone out there know of a reliable HRM that doesn’t have rubber/elastic on the chest strap? I ride a bike and have to wear full-fingered gloves to protect myself, so the HRMs that use the finger clip/cups won’t work for me. Thanks in advance!
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 06:23 AM
Clare said:
Hey Jon,
Home for the night AND i did my weights. yep that’s smugness. Peter and I will be getting out of jail…Hospital on Thursday wooohoooo, and he will have a home drip of antibiotics as a backpack for another week.
Dispite being given the most ghastly food(or maybe because of it) the lack of activity got me this week and it looks like I gained back a pound,maybe two. C’est la vie. Leaving Peter in the hands of his nurses long enough to go for a ride etc just not an option. Crack of pre dawn this morning they were messing around with his picline,Who knows why.Can’t they at least wait until you’re coherent? And the funny thing is ,quite a few nurses agreed its a difficult disruptive life in hospital but watcha gonna do? Gees they work there. Couldn’t they work on normalising it? They managed to turn a very co operative brave little boy into a complete terror this week, starting up a howl and kick way before they got within touching distance.And if anyone else tells us ‘it won’t hurt a bit’ I think I’ll deck them.
I’llbe looking up the meanings of your exercises Jon,some sound very exciting.I had to look up each and everyone of the 8 basic weight exercises from Tom Venuto’s book,so don’t be surprised. Think I had to clarify ‘dumbbell’ and ‘barbell’ as well. Who came up with those names anyway? Just can’t follow it. Oh and sorry to hear about your excitement. Glad your safe and sound. I must say I think adult nervous systems hold on to and feel the reaction well after the event. My kids will be singing on the way home after stitches without anaesthetic, whilst I’m green for hours,if not days.Amazing. Do we just overthink? or are we getting old? nahhhhh
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 07:36 AM
Kay said:
Jon,
Would you expand on the cardio information a bit? You listed “intense” at 160 HR and “low” at 125 HR. What percentages define intense and low?
Also just curious what is “heavy hands”?
Thanks!
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 08:58 AM
Alyson said:
Jon said….
“Also, there was an M-Powering Words series on addiction that you may have missed. I’ll post that as a blog if you guys are interested.”
I’m interested….apparently I’ve been missing out on the M-Powering Words feature. How often do you update that? And is there any way to access your past posts there?
Workout-wise: (anxiously awaiting 7 Minute Muscle, by the way) your workouts are a version of 8x8 volume training? When you start out with two or three sets of 8, are you starting with the max weight you can handle for those few sets? I’ve been working out using 8x8 protocol for a while now, but when I started, my understanding was to cut back on weight used in a more ‘standard’ routine, and jump right in with 8 sets of 8 and a weight I could comfortably handle. I have been progressing steadily albeit slowly with amount of weight used, focusing on decreasing rest intervals each workout. Should I be pushing more weight instead?
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 09:42 AM
Tammy said:
I missed those M-Powering Words on addiction too, and was also wondering if I could look up past ones. I love them and send them to friends and family and they enjoy them also.
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 12:10 PM
Tammy said:
Hi Clare, glad to see you back here and I am sorry about the difficulties with your son and his illness. Yes the hospital envrionment is intense and disruptive by the very nature of illness itself. I am a nurse and really try to have the family and child bring in any symbol of ‘normalcy’ or something familiar and comfortable whether it be a stuffed animal, toy, pictures, etc. I agree telling your son it won’t hurt a bit doesn’t work; I’m sure the nurses are trying not to work him up to expecting it to hurt even more? Depending upon the child’s age I have them do a type of role model where they can also ‘draw’ blood or listen to the ‘heart’ on a doll or stuffed animal and also try to have some type of distraction whether some music or a video, again depending upon their age. I don’t know if this helps or not but I wanted to offer my ideas and well wishes.
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 12:20 PM
anna said:
hello
It is nice to hear from everybody again, after a bit of abscence from the blog.
Wow jon - you really going at it - and twice a day too - impressive.
As for myself, not much change poundage wise but i am getting stronger in the gym - but i wish that my waist would start getting down a bit - i do not see any improvement in that area.
Yesterday i was preparing lunches for everybody at home and then all of a sudden i got this incredible pain in my lower back - i could litterally feel my muscles contract - the pain was awful and i couldn’t move my left leg.
Few years back i have hurt my back pretty bad and almost once a year the pain comes back usually if i lift something the wrong way but i was just standing at the counter and the contraction just occured - kind of scary….
so i will not go to the gym today and take it easy because i cannot really move much - maybe i should go and do the bike - what do you think?? and just be very carefull.
as for the god’s game - well Edmonton Eskimos won the grey cup in Vancuver just the other night - everybody is happy here!!
Great for us at least on the football field because our hocky team “oilers” sucks, and the soccer in Edmonton is non-existant (althought this is more of my sport)
have a great day everybody and if anybody would advice me if i should workout today or not that would be great. thanks in advance :)
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 12:39 PM
Lee said:
Tera, if I recall correctly you are extremely sensitive to plastic and/or rubber, right? There are (and all male readers, just butt out for a second here) exercise bras that hold a heart rate monitor strap possibly without having it touch your skin.
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 02:38 PM
Tera said:
Lee: Well hey! I had no idea such a thing existed. Thanks for the info - you may have given me a useable solution!
Unfortunately, I can react to rubber without having to touch it (how stupid is that?), especially if I’m being exposed to other rubber. Since I want to be able to use an HRM with my road bike (a strange thing for someone like me to have, I realize, but one has to live), my search for a non-rubber or low-rubber HRM is still on. Anyone else have any recommendations?
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 07:15 PM
Elisa said:
Tera. I have a heart rate monitor from Polar (It’s the higher end model. The lower end models were ALL rubber strapped).
The strap is elastic but doesn’t use rubber unless there is rubber in the elastic and that’s what you mean. There are two small vinyl pads to take your heart rate. If this wouldn’t work and you are looking for Lee’s bra (sorry Lee, I know you aren’t wearing it ;-)) you can find them at www.trisports.com. You can buy the heart rate monitor there too if I am not mistaken.
Good luck!
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 07:41 PM
Dr Janet said:
Hey Bingo,
I’m curious regarding your workouts with weights: do you go for the burn? Do you try to do your reps so that you have continuous tension on the muscle? Or you’re going for volume with the 8x8 sets?
I’ve been doing so called “x-reps” or extended reps (www.x-rep.com) and I have gotten very good results. The idea is to stress the muscle at the point where it can generate the most force which, many times, is in the “middle” of the stroke. So, one does a regular set to failure (ouch) and then “pulses” in the sweet spot for as many partial reps one can get. I’m 43, fixin’ to be 44 this Friday, and I am quiet impressed with my gains. I’ve been incorporating x-reps into my workouts for about 2 months now. I really can tell the difference in terms of muscle density. As an aside, I also ate more food the two days after Thanksgiving and I STILL got leaner! 1.6 lbs more of fat-buh-bye! Have you heard of x-reps? Now, at the web site, they will be pushing supplements (whatever) but there is good science behind all this, and you know me, I’m geeky even for workouts. I thought that I would pass my experience with this method on to y’all.
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 07:53 PM
Dr Janet said:
One other thing I wanted to mention about x-reps is that the workouts are short. One can do chest, back, triceps and biceps (like I did today) in 40 min. I workout for less time and have been getting much better results, but you knew that, Bingo, you smart thing, you ;)
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 08:03 PM
Lissa!!! said:
Day 2 for me!!!
Jon…thanks for posting your workout!!! …..its nice to see what works for you and I like the fact that you accomplish the weights in such a short period of time.
Im gonna start doing the fasting cardio
Posted on Nov 29, 2005 08:07 PM
Lee at work said:
Tera and Elisa
I wanted to check if my exercise bra actually holds the heart rate monitor without touching the skin, but alas, I cannot find it. Must have lent it to Jon a while back…
Posted on Nov 30, 2005 05:40 AM
Tera said:
Elisa and Lee: Thanks so much for your help! Most elastics rage war on me, but I’ve become rather talented at adapting things. Perhaps I can extract a Polar HRM from the elastic band and with help from Lee’s suggested type of exercise bra (or some sort of idea based on that), I’ll have a workable get-up. :) Thanks again!
Posted on Nov 30, 2005 02:34 PM
Jon Benson said:
To Tera:
Nothing reliable unless others know of something reliable. : ) The Polar works the best for me.
To Clare:
You rock…totally. Glad to hear that Peter is free as a bird now. Keep us all posted.
As for age…I don’t understand the question as I do not age. : )
To Kay:
Sure thing: check out today’s blog!
To Alyson:
1. We’re working on cataloging all the M-Powering Words. That will be done in a few weeks. LOTS is the answer to how many.
2. 7 Minute Muscle will be out this year, or so I keep saying. : )
3. You start with 50-55% of your normal 8-rep weight; never with your max 8-rep weight unless you want to do standard sets. The key to 8x8 is volume and speed.
4. Work on getting rest intervals down to literally 10-15 seconds. At that point, increase the weight.
To Tammy:
Thanks! See above…
To Anna:
Twice a day is norm for me, but the first workout is really easy.
Good deal for Edmonton. My code mokey Ray lives near there.
To Dr. Janet:
Kinda all the above…more volume, but each set is very focused. I cannot work too much on TUL unless I’m already near the peak of my 8x8 cycle, as the weights will become too heavy very quickly. The goal is to exhaust the muscle at the end of the 8x8.
X reps and sweet spots are both very good techniques; just go easy on them as they can impair recovery.
More work in less time cannot help but equal greater gains!
To Lisa:
Rock on! Keep us posted.
Posted on Nov 30, 2005 07:45 PM
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