Weight Lifting Routine

Weight Lifting Routine

The correct weight lifting routine is probably the most important thing you have to worry about if you want results.  Upper – lower body splits, tri's and chest, bi's and back days are gone.

Not only are we busier and have less time to spend in a gym we are now smarter and realize we don't have to train each individual muscle group to get great results.  In fact training that way will lead to more overuse injuries.

A proper weight lifting routine should focus on the movements of the body not the actually body parts.

Their are 7 fundamental areas I like to focus on:

1. Horizontal pressing
2. Horizontal pulling
3. Vertical pressing
4. Vertical pulling
5. Knee dominant exercises
6. Hip dominant exercises
7. Core development/ anti-rotation

By focusing your routine around the 7 areas as opposed to the individual body parts you get a more balanced and complete functional workout.  Our muscles do not function in the real world in isolation so therefore we should not train them in isolation.

The movements can still be split up so you have control over how many days per week you do your weight training workout 2,3 and even 4 day splits are possible. 

It is also important to train both bilaterally and unilaterally.  Bilaterally meaning a barbell chest press where both sides are pushing together and unilaterally meaning an alternating dumbbell chest press where the arms are working independently of one another.  Again both of these can easily be put into a 2,3 or 4 day split.  If you always train with bilateral movements only you will never reach your full potential.  If one side of the body is stronger than the other, (which is usually the case) you will always be pushing/pulling harder with that side of the body.   Over time this unbalanced approach will lead to greater chance of over use injuries.

In my next post I will give you examples of some of my favorite horizontal pushing and pulling exercises.

Stay Motivated,

Karen

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