Workout of the Week #18

Welcome workout of the week number 18. This time we have 4-day week Upper-Lower Push-Pull to maximize strength and size.

So what’s the training goal?

I just said, maximizing strength and size, so maximizing strength and growing some muscle mass.

Let’s have a look at the training variables.

The training intensity, we have different training intensity zones. Training intensity zone number one is 87.5-92.5 of the 1 RM, zone number two is 77.5-87.5% of the 1 RM, and zone number three is 72.5-82.5% of the 1 RM.

The repetition ranges. We have 2 to 4 for the highest intensity zone 4 to 6 for the middle zone, and 6 to 8 for the lowest zone.

The training exertion is near-maximum to maximum, and the training effort is a maximum effort, as well as a repeated effort.

So let’s have a look at the exercises, we use compound movements and isolation movements. The exercise order goes from heavy compound to lighter isolation.

If we look at a few more training variables, it’s a four day a week, that’s the training frequency. The training organization, it’s a station training, and the training split is an Upper-Lower Push-Pull.

So what does that mean?

Just simply, we have upper and lower, and we have push and pull, so therefore we have an upper-body push, we have a lower-body push, we have an upper-body pull, and we have a lower-body pull. So these are basically our four workouts, upper-body push day, lower-body push day, upper-body pull day, and lower-body pull day.

How does it look?

We look at it right now, when we have a look inside the program, so let’s jump in.

So here we are inside of our program, if you download this you get an overview of the program, you see the table of content, and then you see the weekly overview, this is what we just discussed. So we have workout number one, lower-body push, then you have workout number two upper-body pull, then you have workout number three, an upper-body push, and workout number four a lower-body push.

I’ve outlined that in previous videos, push and pull is simply defined by pushing is where you move the object away from you, and pulling is where you move the object towards you. So think about a bench press, what is that? You move the bar away from you, think about the antagonistic movement, the row, that would be a pull, where you move the object towards you. A squat would be a push, because the object moves away from you, and a deadlift would be a pull, because the object moves towards you.

So let’s get started, lower-body push day, day number one. We have three exercises, exercise number four is optional. We do a front squat, we do a back squat, and we do a single-legged leg press, and if you want to torture yourself, you can do single-legged leg extensions. So here you can see the intensity zones, that I’ve outlined the first exercise the highest intensity zone, so we do 87.5%of the 1 RM for 4 repetitions, and this is done for 4 sets. The back squat, we do 4 sets of 6 repetitions with 77.5% of the 1 RM, and then we do our single-legged leg press, and then again even lower intensity, so 72.5% of the 1 RM for 8 repetitions, and also 4 sets. And if you feel like using even higher repetitions to finish off your training, the so-called finisher, then you have the option to do the leg extensions with 14 repetitions 60% of the 1 RM.

Let’s have a look at our workout number two, the upper-body pull, pulling again moving something towards you, or you moving towards something. A pull-up for example the bar is fixed, but you move towards something. So we start with a bench row, then we do pull-ups, then we do pull over and then we do for the arms the barbbell curls, and the dumbbell Scott Curls. And if you see again the first exercise the bench row, we have the highest intensity, 87.5% for 4 repetitions over 3 sets, the next exercise the pull-ups, we do 6 repetitions at 77.5% for three sets.

So again 77.5 % of what?

If you haven’t seen previous videos, it’s the system mass. The system mass refers to your body weight plus the external load. Again, so if I make it simple for myself, imagine you weigh 70 kilos and you can do one repetition with an additional 30 kilos that is 100 kilos, so your system mass is 100 kilos. You would do 77.5% of that, which is 77.5 kilos. Your body weight is 70 and you add an additional 7.5 kilos. So and then we go to our dumbbell pullover, we do 72.5% for 3 sets of 8 repetitions, and then we go to our barbbell curls, and we do 2 sets of six repetitions at 77.5%, and for our dumbbell Scott Curls we do 2 sets of 8 repetitions at 72.5%.

So now the question stands out “Why do we only do 2 sets per exercise for our biceps?” Which just 4 total sets?

All the exercises before, especially the first two have targeted the biceps as well, right? So the biceps was worked in these exercise as well, and therefore the training volume can be a bit lower.

So workout number three, the upper-body push. Here we have our incline bench press as the first exercise, then the we have the dumbbell bench press, then we have the dumbbell Flies, then we have weighted dips, and then we have dumbbell triceps overhead extension, similar to our upper-body pull, we do 4 sets of 4 reps with 87.5%, then we do 4 sets of 6 repetitions at 77.5%, then we do our flies, 2 sets of 8 with 72.5%, and then we do our weighted dips three 3 of 6 at 77.5%, and our triceps overhead extension, we do 2 sets of 8 at 72.5%.

And if we move to our last workout of this week, the lower-body pull, we start with a deadlift, followed by an RDL, followed by leg curls, and if you want to, you can optionally do single-legged leg curls. So again here we have 87.5% for the first exercise for 4 sets of 4 reps, then we do 77.5% for 3 sets of 6, then we do 3 sets of 8 with 72.5%, and then if you want to use the finisher, which is the single-legged leg curls, you can do 14 reps with 60%.

And if you look at the workout structure, you can see that there is an emphasis on developing strength with lower repetitions, and the size with moderate to higher repetitions. So that’s the idea of having this so-called strength and size approach, where we have intensities and reps that stimulate a little bit more the strength aspect and we have sets, reps and intensities that stimulate a little bit more the hypertrophy aspect.

So let’s move back and finish the presentation. We’re back what are the next steps?

Number one you can download this program, that we just looked at and follow it and let me know how it works.

Number two you join the membership, there you get the 4-week periodized program, this was just the first week of the four weeks. You get the four-week program when you go to the membership and download it.

And number three, you like and subscribe to the channel, and then you can watch the previous workout. Every week there will be a new workout. And I’ll see you next week with the next workout.