Training Methods
All about Push, Pull, Legs
You can spend a lot of time searching for the perfect workout split to suit your goals, when the reality is, there really isn’t one. That’s not to say however, that there isn’t one workout split that will suit the majority of lifters. The split I’m talking about is of course, push, pull legs.
Which style of training is best for fat-loss?
Fat loss is the goal for most of us in our fitness journeys. Across all ability levels, sports and training styles, most of us want to reduce our body-fat percentage, whether it's for health reasons, aesthetics or for our own happiness. If you're new to training often the goal is to lose fat to look more healthy, and even competitive athletes like Bodybuilders need to lose fat before they get on stage. Fighters need to lose fat to make weight for their competitions and others need to manage their body-fat in order to perform at their best. But what is the best way to reduce our body-fat? And what is the best way to assess successful loss of body-fat? There are methods of burning fat which work very quickly, but perhaps aren't fantastic in the long term, and methods which may take a long time but produce long-lasting results. Let's discuss...
How to optimise your recovery
Over the past few years I have seen a growing interest into the importance of recovery and training.
When I first started training (like many of you reading this I assume) I thought that more was better in the gym. If I do more reps, more sets and train twice a day then surely I must be building more muscle right? I wasn’t sleeping that bad and I was eating a tonne of calories so surely, surely I am gaining muscle? Well, guess what, in hindsight, I wasn’t and my physique hardly changed, but why? I wasn’t optimising my recovery properly. Sure, I had heard that saying ‘you grow when you rest’ but I didn’t really take note of how important it was.
Are you warming up correctly?
There is no doubt that warming up is boring. It's not the process that’s actually going to make you stronger, lose more fat or build any more muscle. But it can certainly contribute towards it.
You probably know if you are warming up correctly or not but just to clarify, coming in and doing 5 minutes on the treadmill and a few stretches isn’t really going to kick it. Sure, it is getting some blood pumping around the body, but it isn’t really benefiting you in anyway.
Should you track your workouts?
The need to track your workouts seems to be split right down the middle when it comes to deciding if it helps, hinders or does nothing at all in terms of helping you reach your goal faster and more effectively.
In this article I will discuss what exactly tracking your workouts may look like, the methods used to do so, the pros, cons and also help you decide if you should be tracking your own workouts.
So what does tracking your workout look like?
Time off. What really happens?
Time off, it happens to all of us. Whether it be because of an injury, holiday or an unforeseen circumstance, we all end up having it at some point in our life.
Time away from the weights used to be my worst nightmare. I had worked so hard to get to where I was, all the hours, sessions planned, meals prepped. Getting injured or going on holiday just felt like I had wasted all that effort and let’s be honest, our bodies lose what we have a lot faster than the time it takes to get it. Thankfully though, it’s not actually as fast as you may think.
Example of a Push Pull Legs Routine
There are many different training splits to choose from, but perhaps the most popular of all is Push Pull Legs. The push/pull/legs split is a weight training schedule that revolves around splitting the body up into 3 groups: upper body pushing muscles, upper body pulling muscles and legs. ... The “legs” workout would train the entire lower body. This primarily includes Quads, Hamstrings and Calves.
Try these training splits for muscle growth
Choosing a training split is one of the more exciting parts of the fitness lifestyle. You know your goal, all you need to do now is choose ( or create ) a split that suits them, carry out the split with impeccable consistency and a diet that aligns with your goal and you’ll be on your way to reaching it in no time. However, with that many splits to choose from out there, and if you lack the proper knowledge to create your own, it can be quite confusing to choose the right one for you.
The best workout for natural lifters
When you are thinking of starting a new training program, there are essentially 5 things that you need to decide upon before starting. These are the volume, intensity and frequency of the program as well as how well you can recover from each session and the end goal you want it to achieve.
Which Workout split should I do?
There are lots of different ways to break down your training, and it seems like each reputable athlete uses a different split to the next! How on earth are you supposed to know which split to choose to achieve your goals? For the purpose of this post I'm going to assume the objective is some kind of muscle growth, whether that means strictly Muscular hypertrophy (Muscle Growth), strength increase or developing muscle tone. I'm going to assess each of the most common workout splits and their suitability to these results.