Why you might want to start working out

Pictured above: Steve Reeves, on of the golden era bodybuilders, moving on to Hollywood to be the main actor in the Hercules movies, long before Arnold hit the stage.

Why to start?

As we already learned, some of us the hard way, the most important feature to looking dapper/ dashing/ stylish or whatever is not buying a fancy brand or clothes that maybe men’s health advertises, it’s how the things you own will fit you. Now maybe you did hit the genetic lottery and have a very well developed physique from doing next to nothing but my guess is, there will be areas you want to improve no matter what. Who doesn’t dream from wide shoulders, thick arms and a narrow waist. If you grew up in the 80s/90s like me chances are your idols were Arnold, Sly, Bruce Willis and the likes, as well. And man had the characters in those blockbusters style back than, before a t-shirt and a pair of jeans or joggers became the official uniform for next to everybody.

But I’m derailing the article so back to hitting the (home-)gym.

Where to start

For health and wellness, as for the quest of building muscles the same principles are true as in fashion, less is often more and simple is most of the time more beneficial. So please just don’t show up in the next globogym or cleverfit or any other cheap franchise and do what the instructors are suggesting. You won’t need to train 5-6 times a week, you don’t need to do 365 different exercises for your biceps and stay away from machines, if you are healthy and somewhat flexible. Either write your own plan, or google starting strength, leangains method or Madcow’s 5by5, those are great low volume starting points that can transform you into your own marvel superhuman fantasy. If the ironbug really did hit your hard, check out the tan tight slacks of dezo ban, with enough resources from the golden-era and the old-timers, to keep you reading and evolving for serval years.

And now, just start

If you made it this far I want to give you some actionable things to start with, so first two workouts, I tend to always circle back to, when life gets busy (and it is most of the times).

The Powerlook, originally from John McCallum.

• Backsquat 3 sets of 3 repetitions into 3 sets of 1 single repetition progressing in weight from set to set after some warmup sets
• Benchpress sets and repetitions like above
• Bent-over barbell row 5 sets of 5 repetitions, start with the highest possible weight and then back down a bit, use momentum/drive
• Progressive Pulls
  • Powercleans 3 sets for 3 repetitions increasing in weight, when the weight get’s to heavy to clean it, switch to
  • High pulls another 3 sets for 3 repetitions, increasing weight from set to set & when the bar doesn’t move quickly enough, switch to
  • Deadlifts, 3 more sets of 3 repetitions, if you still got something left in your tank after that, do some singles

It’s recommended to do this workout on three non-consecutive days per week. For me this is too much volume to recover from, so I personally would suggest 2x a week, Maybe Monday/ Thusday, or Tuesday& Saturday, depending on your schedule.

Maurice Jones’ Supersetting

You will go back and forth between two exercises with close to no rest at all, after the second exercise you rest enough to catch you breath and continue with the next round. Do 3 rounds in total for the first to exercise bundles and keep the repetitions in a range you feel comfortable with, I would suggest 6 to 12.

• Military or behind the neck presses with a barbell
• Standing barbell curls

• Barbell benchpress
• Barbell bent-over row

Finish your workout with one set of squats, with a challenging weight for around 12 repetitions followed by one set of heavy stiff legged deadlifts also for 12 reps.

Do this workout on 3 days a week and you will not only feel great, but look great as well.

Conditioning & cardiovascular health

If you are starting out and are closer to 20 than you are to 50, don’t even bother with running, biking or anything else, you can get away without that and still have great health and enough cardiovascular capacity. Plus you can get & stay very lean with diet alone.

If you are closer to the second half of your life, run. Two to three times a week on days you are not weight-training. If you life close to the mountains go for a hike twice a week, but running might be the more cost efficient way. Don’t kill yourself, if you want to progress with weights and in muscular size and eat enough real food, skip the candy-bars and donuts.

As for most things in life, don’t expect magic to happen over night. Good things take time and for weightlifting and staying healthy the two key ingredients are patience and being consistent.