Welcome to practice on Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I’ll talk a bit about my training philosophy, explain a few exercises to you, and give you a free workout. As I mentioned before, by night I’m a Catholic writer and a nerd, but by day I’m a strength trainer, personal trainer, and strength athlete. I’ve been doing this as my full-time job since 2016, and part-time in one capacity or another since 2006. As always, you should consult a doctor before embarking on any exercise journey. If you have specific questions, you can ask them directly on my Facebook fitness page or on my Instagram fitness page.
The reason for this training Wednesday.
We will talk more about my debut in the future. But for now, let’s dwell for a moment on how I train people now. Muscle is the key to almost everything. Want healthier bones? You need stronger – and preferably thicker – muscles. Hey, buddy, wanna keep up with the youth band whippersnappers? I got it, fam. Get bigger, thicker and stronger muscles. All that kneeling and standing, kneeling and hugging had you huffing and huffing? Well, cardio will be your best bet. But stronger muscles make each rep less taxing.
Given all of this, I generally seek to strengthen my athletes’ and clients’ backs and abs first, then their hips and legs, then their upper body, and incorporate cardio where we need it. can. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do this week with a full body workout that can be done in or out of a gym.
There is, of course, a deeper why. Our capacity for charity changes in quality, if not in quantity, according to our physical condition. Moreover, Gnosticism was rejected as heresy – and it was good that it was. For our purposes here, the rejection of Gnostic heresies means that our bodies – and the physical world in general – are not evil. In fact, our bodies are gifts from God. And like any other gift from God (read: everything), we owe it to him. Plus, there’s this whole thing about using what we’ve been given.
The what of this training Wednesday.
But first, some conventions for those who may not know. You will need to understand that exercises are given in terms of “sets” and “repetitions” or “reps”. For example, “Goblet Squat 3×12” means performing a set (or group of reps) of Goblet Squats (which you can see this nice gentleman doing in the video above) 3 times. Each set will consist of 12 repetitions of goblet squats before resting. Unless otherwise specified, you should always warm up with a lighter weight and move to a heavier weight in 2-3 increments before you reach the “working sets” (in this case, the 3×12). Form is crucial. I’ll go over some of the more esoteric exercises I offer, but a great resource that I often refer clients to is www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory. I have yet to fundamentally disagree with any of their information.
Full Body Workout for a Healthy Beginner to Intermediate Weightlifter:
- Walk on a steeply inclined treadmill for 15 minutes. Do not hang on to railings unless necessary. In fact, if you need to hang on, reduce the incline. If you’re home without a treadmill, try walking in place with high knees, jumping jacks, or vigorous house cleaning (seriously) for 15 minutes. You obviously can’t do 15 minutes of jumping jacks, so if you choose that, do a few, then walk with your knees high, then a few jumping jacks…
- Goblet squat 3×12 (try to pick a weight that makes the 11th and 12th reps heavy enough that you have to concentrate to complete them)
- Push-ups 5×10 (if you can not do 10 in a row with good form, try starting with your hands on the counter, a barbell in a rack, the couch, or even some of the books you keep buying, swearing you’ll read them . If you box make 10 no problem, add a vest, a kid, a stack of weight plates, or your stepdad’s relentless pressure to chop down that old oak tree before it falls on the shed and destroys all the tools of garden you own… Yes. Just put something heavy on your back.)
- Back slit. Do a total of 30 (not in a row, but in as few sets as possible, and you count 1 repetition each time your right leg returns to the starting position)
- Clap arms above the head. Do a total of 100 (start with your palms up and arms extended out to your sides, parallel to the floor. Clap your hands over your head, then return to the start. This is one rep. Don’t let your hands drop any further lower than your shoulders. Obviously you can if you have to. But the goal is not to drop them)
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Superman 5×12 (some people can’t lift their feet and/or hands off the ground the first time they do this. That’s okay. Trying to do this still works the muscles in this case.)
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4x1minute dead bug (set a timer for this one)
If you have any available, hop on the stationary bike between each exercise and go for a quick mile (for you, whatever it is, not going to compare yourself to others. They could never be you, so why should you trying to be them?).
