I mentioned my gym/weightlifting circuit in the recent video about Zone 2 training, a few people reached out asking for more detail around what I do. This is my workout. Before getting to that, it’s important for me to say that I am not a physical trainer. There are a lot of ways to approach gym work. The best approach for you will depend on what your goals are. If you want to build enormous muscle mass, or focus on building strength over all other priorities, this is not the right approach for you. My goals are to build fatigue resistance and lean muscle mass. I do not want to build large amounts of bulk at the gym, 5lb would be nice though.
So with that out of the way. The idea is to use compound exercises to target multiple muscles and force muscles that are not the primary target to also work as they provide stability, and go from station-to-station with minimal downtime. This dramatically increases time efficiency, with a cost to peak build – i.e. you will get stronger, but you won’t get those super huge biceps.
The recovery between stations is just as long as it take for me to walk from one place to the next. No breaks between lifts. No breaks during the set. The only “recovery” is between sets and there it’s just a minute or two as I take a quick couple laps around the room.
Each activity should be done to 70-80% of failure (i.e. you feel like you only have 1-2 more reps before you would crash and burn), in the 10-20 rep range. If you can do more than 20 reps, increase weight. If you can’t do 10+, lower the weight. Be comfortable with being out of breath or experiencing mild nausea.
There are three sets. Each set takes ~20 minutes, with ~60 minutes of total time from start to finish. For the most part, the order doesn’t matter. Focus on continuing to drive fatigue up. You don’t want to stack pull after pull, or push after push. Use the leg exercises to put distance b/w upper body work. In a nutshell, try to interleave push/pull/leg to drive up general fatigue without cheating yourself by doing two exercises of the same time right after each other.
- Row:
I prefer both arms at the same time. I find it easier to work the lower back and core that way. Do one at a time if you find yourself cheating your non-dominate arm. - Rear Deltoid/Pectoral Fly:
Pectoral Fly then flip around and do Rear Deltoid. - Chest Press:
This should be easy for everyone. We all love the bench press :). - Shoulder Press:
Boring, but gotta do it. - Kick Back:
Heavy, fast, I want to be out of breath. I want my core to work. I want this to hurt more anything else I do. - External Hip Adduction:
Heavy, fast. I want to feel it, but not as much as the kick backs. Hip abduction helps with pelvic/hip stability. Not that important on the bike, but very important in life as you move, lift, try not to trip over things. - Internal Hip Adduction:
Heavy, fast. I want to feel it, but not as much as the kick backs. This is a good one for stability and injury prevention in life. - Hamstring Curls:
Interestingly, adding this helped with my sciatic pain. Guessing because it works the hamstring and lower back that it has a strength/stability and mobility benefit. Could also be placebo, but I don’t care why it worked. It’s a good exercise even if it hadn’t made a difference with that. - Weighted Back Extension:
Hug the plate just below the shoulders. Don’t cheat on the up or the down. Work the whole motion smoothly, don’t surge up or down. Be careful, especially if you have back issues. I discussed adding this one to my routine with my physical therapist during rehab from a microdiscectomy. That was her guidance. She thought it was a great idea. - Heavy (farmer) Carry:
Grab two barbells, the thicker the part you hold in your hand the better, this helps with grip strength. Take laps around the gym. I try to do 20x “rows”, 20x shoulder shrugs, 20x modified overhead press, and a lap of straight carry as I am moving. This should be hard, at least by the end. This is a great compound exercise that works the entire chain to build strength and stability. - Pull-up Negatives or Lat Pull-downs (I swapped this recently):
Everyone knows the pull-up. It’s crazy how many people own the positive (the going up part) and cheat the negative (letting yourself back down) by dropping. The negative matters. Go slow. Control it. If you’re swinging, you’re not in control. When you get to the bottom use the stool to push yourself back up to the top. Repeat. I do full pull-ups on alternate days at home, so I am getting that in as well. Just not at the gym. If you can’t do pull-ups (which are great compound exercises) on non-lifting days. You might try subbing them in here instead. But at least for me, I’m not able to do quality pull-ups given the fatigue load at this point.Update: I recently swapped these for a lat pull-down because the negatives were getting too easy. It had become a a cardio exercise more than strength with a cardio element. It’s also easier to integrate core work in on the lat machine. I still think this is good, especially as you work up to being able to get 10+ pull-up. But there might be more value in the lat pull-down. So try either and do the one you feel like you get the most benefit from.
- Quick walk around the gym. Let the HR get down a little. No more than a minute or two, then repeat.
