Ripped Zipped

If there's a time of year for leaning and sharpening the body, the time is now; warm and healthful sunshine, blossoming gardens and hillsides, places to go, things to do and the accompanying high hopes. Life always offers a few good laughs but we smile on the inside during these long and fervent days... perfect for growing and healing and planning.

If you tuned in and read the last three elongated newsletters, you patiently traveled a circuitous course defining the features and guidelines of "getting ripped." Discussed in brief were:

When
The challenges, possibilities and options
Encouragement
What to eat and how
Compromises and sacrifices
Special elements of the training process
Vague promises of real workout schemes

I cautioned you early on that I shoot from the hip; be ready to duck. Your head and heart are in the right place, the menu is in order and the work is about to begin. Today we talk about exercise, pure exercise; lifting weights in various combinations with the accent on the exotics of form, focus and pace.

The aerobic exercise you include to compliment your training and serve your pursuit of fat loss and muscle defining should be of the style and variety that delights you most or displeases you least. Aerobics may be important but your gym floor workouts are superior. Remember too that your new weighted exercise routine will be of a more active nature, demanding a higher heart rate and providing increased cardio-respiratory advantages.

Snap quiz: What does the little letter "f" stand for? The little letter "f" stands for finesse, something you, as creative muscle builders, will come to depend on, starting with aerobics, how much and when.

Working on the muscle mass you've established over the many hours of hard training can be a gratifying experience. You are in the process of defining your accumulated muscles by reducing the fat and non-muscle bulk around them. You are also negotiating -- finessing -- to build additional muscle, density and shape. The latter is the wild card in the game and, contrary to the opinion of some experts, does come with the right amount of juggling and lots of gut toughness. Losing weight and gaining muscle size is no schnooze in da hammock, goils and boils.

Below I list routines and superset and multi-set exercise combinations from which to choose. Randomness in exercise performance is playful, can be a relief and might teach you a thing or two, but as a habit you will find your training progress and fulfillment compromised. I recommend order in your training and preciseness in your execution, and inventiveness and intelligent freedom in your routines -- not randomness.

The training goes like this: four to five workouts a week hit each muscle group two times, with aerobics on off days and workout days. I give you my exercise preferences, sets and repetitions. Midsection is worked four days a week as a warm-up to the workouts. Volume and no-race pace combined with moderate weight (8 to 10 reps) define the workouts. Permit yourself time to adapt to the novel training style trusting in its attributes. You'll fatigue in the beginning days until you adjust mentally and physically to the verve of ever-ready training. Persist. You're conditioning, leaning, hardening, getting physically fit and in shape -- you're getting ripped.

Two on, one off -- two on, two off.

Midsection is trained with any combination of the following movements:

10-degree incline crunches
Rope tucks
Hanging leg raises
Hyperextensions
Incline leg raises

Favorite one-day combos:

Incline crunches (front, left and right accents, some weighted) - 150 to 175 consecutive reps, followed by
Incline leg raise - 5 x 25 reps

Kneeling rope tuck - 4 x30 reps
Hanging leg raises - 4 x 12 - 20 reps
Hyperextensions - 4 x 12 -15 reps
Perform exercises in tri-set fashion, one after another for a total of four complete sets.

Hanging leg raise - 4 to 5 x 20 reps
Supersetted with (SS)
Incline leg raise - 4 to 5 x 20 reps

MONDAY WORKOUT
TORSO (CHEST, BACK AND SHOULDERS)

Repeat -- I give you my exercise preferences, sets and repetitions. I know not whom I address. Alter your workout according to your condition, needs and desires. Reducing the workload of sets to three and sometimes four might suit you just right. The added sets can overload the muscles and cause overtraining. Apply the whisper of finesse.

Bench press - 5 x 8 to 10 reps
(SS)
Bentover row - 5 x 8 to 10 reps

Steep incline dumbbell press - 4 to 5 sets x 8 to 10 reps
(SS)
Stiff-arm dumbbell pullover - 4 x 8 to 10 reps

Low incline dumbbell fly - 4 x 10 reps
(SS)
Wide grip pulldowns - 4 to 5 x 8, 10 or 12 reps
(SS)
Bent over lateral raise - 4 x 8 reps

Cable crossover - 4 x 10 reps

Lying sidearm Lateral raise - 4 x 10 reps

TUESDAY WORKOUT
(ARMS AND LEGS)

ARMS:

Wrist curls - 3 x 12 - 15 reps
(SS)
Reverse curls - 3 x 8 reps
(SS)
Triceps pulley pushdowns - 3 x 15 reps

standing barbell curl - 3, 4 x 8 reps
(SS)
Lying triceps ext - 3, 4 x 12 - 15 reps

Seated db alternates - 3, 4 x 8 reps
Machine dips - 3, 4 x 12 - 15 reps

LEGS:

Extensions - 4 x 12 to 15 reps
(SS)
Calves - 4 x 15 reps

Leg press - 4 x 15 reps
(SS)
Leg curls - 4 x 10 to 12 reps

Squats - 4 x 10 reps
(SS)
Calves - 4 x 15 reps

Repeat the above workouts on Thursday and Friday respectively, withdrawing one series of supersets from each workout, rotating the supersets over time.

Another arrangement of the above exercises is as follows:

Day 1 - Chest, back and shoulders

Day 2 - Arms

Day 3 - Legs

Day 4 - Rest

Day 5 - Your creative mix of torso and arms; substitute two supersets from torso day for two supersets from arm day. Presto-change-o!

Day 6 - Legs

Day 7 - Rest

Throw in some sets of moderate-weight deadlifts every 10 days in place of your midsection routine and hit a heavy weight workout every three weeks for power exposure and attitude. Vary the intensity of your workouts throughout the week and month to accommodate days of high energy or fatigue and workouts exhibiting symptoms of overtraining. Go with the flow.

The energy will soar and the strength will stabilize as you adjust and the muscle-building, fat-burning chemistry kicks in. This will vary from 10 days to three weeks, depending on your general condition, hormonal health, muscle density, muscle and fat ratio, genetic disposition, attitude and approach, training consistency, nutrition and accompanying lifestyle... age, stress, weather, moon-risings and tea leaf arrangements, finesseability and more.

Got doubts? That which does not kill you serves to make you stronger.

Warriors, like Bombers, live forever.

Dave

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