Short Workout Bursts
In this article, I will address the use of high frequency short workout bursts. These workouts can be done with light to moderately heavy weights, or heavy weights according to your preference. The workouts that I am about to list are meant to be short, quick-paced workouts, with a minimum of rest between sets. How can this be accomplished without over fatiguing your muscles and turning the workout into a cardio session? The answer is to do sets using low reps, even if you are not lifting heavy weights. More explanation is needed.
The West Side Barbell Club uses what is referred to as dynamic speed training.This is done by doing about ten sets of three reps for basic exercises such as the bench press and squats. The weights are not heavy and consist of 50% to 60% of a lifter’s single rep max (although the Westside lifters usually employ extra band resistance or chain resistance to the bar). If you want to see a visual demonstration of this type of workout, click here to watch a video. This same concept of lighter weights for low reps can be used in order to do rapid paced, brief workouts that lasts about 15 minutes. These workouts should not produce a great deal of fatigue enabling you to do them on a frequent basis without overtraining. I will give an example of a short workout that is designed to be done often.
Just Two Exercises per workout
Select the bench press and squat for the two exercises that you are going to do for one workout. If you set up the weights ahead of time, you can quickly switch back and forth between squats and bench presses. Use about 60% of your single rep max and do six sets of five reps for both exercises. This means the whole workout consists of twelve sets. You should be able to easily do the whole workout within fifteen minutes if you switch back and forth between exercises from one set to the next. The workout should not be highly taxing, and you should not feel wiped out when you finish. Since it’s not a highly taxing workout, you can do it often. Three times a week is the minimum, and you can do it six days per week if you want to.
Of course you can vary the weight ranges, yet still keep the workouts simple and short. If I were going to give you a series of short workouts across a period of six consecutive days during a week, I would prescribe three workouts to be done twice each for a total of six workouts. This is the program I would prescribe:
Workout #1 to be done on Monday and Tuesday
Deadlifts and Bench press
5 sets of 5 reps using 65% of your single rep max
Workout #2 to be done on Wednesday and Thursday
Squat and Bench press
6 sets of 5 reps using 55% of your single rep max
Workout #3 to be done on Friday and Saturday
Either Deadlift or Squats, plus Bench press
Warm up Set #1: 10 reps using 40% or your single rep max
Warm up Set #2: 5 reps using 50% of your single rep max
One single rep using 60% of your single rep max
One single rep using 75% of your single rep max
One single rep using 90 to 100 percent of the maximum weight that you can lift using a smooth nonstop lifting motion with perfect form.
Fifteen Minutes per Workout – An Hour and one half per week
Once again, if you have the option of setting up two exercises in a manner that allows you to switch back and forth between the two exercises, do it. Give yourself only enough time to catch your breath so that you are not breathing heavily when you start a set, but don’t wait any longer than you need to. All of these workouts should be done within fifteen minutes. The total workout time per week should be no more than one hour and thirty minutes. You can get stronger without spending a lifetime in the gym if you do these workouts right. Best of training to you.