What makes a workout more Intense?
A few years ago, one of our members at Gym 21 approached me to ask why his workout wasn’t getting him results anymore. I asked him about his routine and advised him to add Intensity to a workout to see if it made a difference. Although he described a two day split routine, I will pool everything together – as if it was all done on one day. Here is his routine:
1. Chest – 4 sets of Bench Press; 4 Sets of Dumbbell Flies; 4 sets of Incline Bench Press; 4 sets of Pec Deck.
2. Back – 4 sets of Wide Grip Rowing; 4 Sets of Wide Grip Pull Downs; 4 sets of Dumbbell Rows; 4 sets of Narrow Grip Pulley Rows.
3. Shoulders – 4 sets of Press Behind the Neck; 4 sets of Side Deltoid Raises; 4 sets of Military Presses; 4 sets of Rear Deltoid Raises; 4 sets of Front Deltoid Raises.
4. Legs – 4 sets of Squats; 4 sets of Leg Presses; 4 sets of Leg Curls; 4 sets of Calf Raises; 4 sets of Hack Squats.
5. Biceps – 4 sets of Standing Bicep Curls; 4 sets of Preacher Curls; 4 sets of dumbbell curls; 4 sets of Peak Contraction Curls.
6. Triceps – 4 sets of Bench Dips; 4 sets of Narrow Grip Bench Press; 4 sets of Pulley Push Downs; 4 sets of Dumbbell Kick Backs.
All of this was taking him three hours per workout by the way!
Immediately I saw the guy’s problem and I asked him how much he was enjoying his workouts. He told me that he dreaded every workout and everything had become stale. He also said that he would be thinking about what he still had to do, instead of focusing on what he was doing at that moment.
After listening to our member’s reply, I told him that he was doing far too much, at a cost of any chance of intensity! He asked me for a solution and I told him to cut his workout by half and to put double the effort and intensity into it. I told him that it was more important to make the time count than to count the time. Less is more and his focused changed to getting everything done inside 90 minutes. Here’s what I suggested that he should do:
1. Chest – 4 sets of Bench Press; 4 sets of Pec Deck.
2. Back – 4 sets of Wide Grip Pull Downs; 4 sets of medium grip Rows.
3. Shoulders – 4 sets of Shoulder Presses; 4 sets of Side Deltoid Raises; 4 sets of Rear Deltoid Raises.
4. Legs – 4 sets of Leg Presses; 4 sets of Leg Curls; 4 sets of Calf Raises; 4 sets of Squats.
5. Biceps – 4 sets of Preacher Curls; 4 sets of Peak Contraction Dumbbell Curls.
6. Triceps – 4 sets of Bench Dips; 4 sets of Pulley Push Downs.
Our member was a bit unsure of my advice, but he took it onboard and agreed to give it his best shot. I reminded him that this new workout plan should be performed at the highest intensity and that the most important set was the one that he was currently doing!
A couple of weeks later, our Gym 21 member informed me that he felt so much fressher and more energetic – and that he really looked forward to coming to the gym now. I know for certain that he will make more gains with the new workout.
The morale of this story is – ‘Don’t count the time, but make the time count.’
Here’s a little treat from the King of Kings, talking about intensity in training.
