I don't know about you, but right now I need a jolt. I need to go to the gym, get slammed around and deliberately remind myself of why I'm here. Time again to purchase some pain and endure the sore. This happens every year around now, and I'm not alone. A moldy, airborne apathy seeps into the gym, permeates my mood and workouts, has me hesitant, weak-footed and tentative. This is not tolerable. Upon reluctance nothing good is built, to falter is to fail.

The days are becoming shorter, colder and wetter. Leaves are falling, frost trims familiar places in the early morning, birds are restless and there are sales on tire chains and batteries, hooded sweatshirts and boots, season lift tickets where no snow has fallen and some nut down the street has illuminated his Christmas lights. We are instinctively weaving our cocoon. Most of us withdraw and busily prepare for hibernation until our shadows once again cast boldly before us.

Training energy commonly subsides with the summer's end, the fall's tranquil pre-storm softness and the anticipation of winter's black and white holiday-impregnated largeness. It is definitely the right time for a fall workout jolt; a charge to assist us in maintaining high energy and spirit, based on courage, adventure and a dauntless brow. A stray from routine to position us on higher ground: to pause, review and prepare our winter training strategy.

Let's cut loose over the next weeks with an occasional blast to vent our rebellious nature, make some space and ascertain the direction we should go this winter. By all means, let's keep going with spark and enthusiasm, nothing less.

Try this shoulder/back/lat combination that taps into the bis and tris as well. It's a giant set of 5 movements done as if they were one. This doesn't imply hurry or haste. This is not a complex, frantic, unconnected scramble. These carefully chosen exercises are cooperative and can be performed fluidly and powerfully if you know them and yourself well. Walk through the sequence in your mind to determine your path, to approximate the weight to be used and understand the logic of the muscular flow and reinforcement.

Choose a weight where ten reps per set can be performed on the first cycle. No rest between sets, only the comfortable time it takes to move from X to X, secure a grip, deep breath, focus and go. Between each giant set take a gulp of water, three deep breaths and move. Chances are you'll be energized, warmed up, psyched and ten reps per set will sustain through set two. Subsequent sets will see the reps drop as you soldier on. That's okay. It's all okay as long as you persist one hundred percent, seek intensity to near failure without sacrificing form - always form - and gratefully embrace the pump, scorn the burn.

Big breath - big psyche. Start with the Press Behind Neck, back supported with a belt and the seat back of a utility bench. Position yourself so the bar of a Smith Press grazes the back of your head without jutting your head forward. The reps should be performed with a sure pace and abbreviated range of motion; that is, complete only the mid-range of the pressing motion without maximum extension or contraction. This rep execution saturates the upper back ridges, full deltoid area and the outer triceps, giving you the sense of one continual breathless rep. High level pump and burn result. Low volume, throaty growls are fitting for both men and women. 

Slide over to the pulldown machine. Use a medium grip to match PBN hand position and situate yourself slightly forward of the overhead pulley. Now repeat a similar partial range of action to direct resistance to the upper back muscles, rear delt, biceps and lat. This is best achieved by deliberate isolation of this region by pretending you are onstage, before the judges and instructed to hit a back pose. Contract up and down smoothly, tightly, rhythmically. 8 to 10 reps, final burn and move on. 

The dumbbell shrug is for muscle weaving and posture restoration. Stand erect with dumbbells of an appealing, moderate weight, shoulders back, head high, lats flexed, gut in. Smile. Now, slightly bend the knees, stoop imperceptibly forward allowing the dumbbells to drop some four inches as you release your traps and softly round the back. Pull the dumbbells up high with all your might, shoulders to ears and roll them to the fully erect starting position. Confidently flex the entire system as if ready to salute. Repeat with flourish until the end. 

On to the straight arm pullover for relief, re-oxygenating and diverse muscle building. Stiff arm pullover - one of my all time favorites for the good feel of the big stretch. It's primarily a lat movement with a bit of peripheral minor pec, longitudinal bi & tri, shoulder rotation and abs. The pullover offers relief after a tough dumbbell incline or flat press, keeps pump/heart rate going, keeps you active, warmed and timed. Lay the length of the bench, head supported at the very end and the feet up.... starting position is DB straight overhead - slowly lowering with a tight negative to body-in-line position (plus a tad or two as you warm and stretch) and back overhead. Palms should be flat on the plate with DB handle snug against the web of the hands. 

Restored, you now stand before a pair of iron knuckle-busters. Greedily pull in some oxygen, wipe the sweat from your brow, bend over and firmly grasp the dumbbells. Bend your knees and rest your ribcage as best you can on your quads to protect fatiguing erectors from overload. Allow the dumbbells to hang palms facing each other and with the body tight, pull the dumbbells high and out to a position even with or above your flattened back. Contract the rear delts; concentrate on the negative return and repeat. Go two reps per one breath. Done.

This is tough and for men and women with hard hats only. No sheep, no turkeys. Surely a combination with its character and personality is well worth knowing.