Weight Training 101 Course... Lesson 3

The final lesson here in the weight training course series... this is great for understanding workout routines and the overall plan of weight lifting programs... definitely a fun read!

Weight training is the ultimate form of exercise because the versatility of it is astounding. You can go from some hardcore crazy power workout to an intense cardio workout that builds muscle too.

What other form of exercise can do this... that's right... none of them.

So lets start going through some different weight training forms. This will be broken up into two or maybe three sections because there are so many great things to cover. By the time you finish reading all of these, you will see how hard it is for me to release the monthly routines... there is just so much to choose from.

What I call Normal

Yes that is the technical name. Alright not really, but normal is classified as a routine where you go from exercise to exercise and rest 0-90s in-between. Even here the possibilities are endless because of the resting variations and rep variations.

However, normal is just going form exercise to exercise with nothing really special going on. Probably 99% of people do some form of normal routines. I am surprised to learn how incomplete most routines are, but they always tend to be normal.

This is not bad, but you need to change things up to keep making progress. A normal routine pattern is great to use when...

• To restart before you begin a monthly series of special routines
• To experiment with new exercises
• For the beginner to get into the weight training lifestyle
• For rehab routines

Supersets

Now we are getting somewhere. Supersets are back to back exercises with little to no rest in-between. Technically, the exercises are supposed to be opposites... meaning that if you do lower body, you will move right into an upper body exercise. This does not always have to be the case.

I think that you need to evaluate the goals of the routine for this one. For example, lets say you are going to really concentrate on building your back and shoulders during a particular couple of weeks. While you still need to do a full body routines, adding back to back should exercises will push for extra muscle growth because of the intensity.

Supersets are really great and one of my favorite forms of weight training. You can even take supersets to the next level. This would be called giant sets. Giant sets are more than two exercises that you do back to back.

Typically, I like to do about 4 exercises. I also consider this an advanced form of weight training because you really need to build you body up to the level that can handle the intensity that is dished out.

Negatives

Talk about hardcore again. Negatives are to be used very sparingly; however, they are really great for building muscle. They are a really strong hypertrophy phase to enter into when you really want to pack it on.

Negatives are when you slowly lower the weight on the eccentric motion. That means when you are releasing or lowering the weight. For example... lets say you are doing dips. If you were doing just negatives, you would use your legs (for assistance) to put you at the top of the dip. Then very slowly you would lower yourself down and again use your legs to put you back up top.

The timing involved can vary greatly and the more time you take to lower, the more intense the workout is. One of my favorite weight lifting books, High Intensity Training, practices negatives all the time.

The reason you should not do these frequently again goes back to the intensity of them. The bottom line with intensity is... the more intense the exercise, the more rest you will need to fully recover.

You can get so intense with negatives that you will have to rest for 3 - 4 days before you workout again.

These are 3 of many forms of weight training... each part has a special role in the exercises to lose weight. This will have to be a 3 part series because there is a lot to really cover. Each one of these will be used in the coming months to make your routines work for you. Needless to say, you will get ripped like no other and have your dream body!

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