It happens to everyone. You are flying along on your diet, workout routine or both and all of a sudden life becomes too busy or stressful and something has give. For many the first thing on their list is being healthy. It is unfortunate but as I said it happens to everyone from time to time.
It is never a liner path from point A to B. It is more of a pendulum. You swing towards your goal but then you swing back away from it. The best you can hope for is that your forward swings have more momentum than your backward ones, and over the long run you continue to make progress.
I see it all the time. People go to the gym and kill themselves for an hour or more then as a reward to themselves they stop for ice cream on the way home. You might as well save yourself the time and money and just skip both. this is why weight loss = diet + exercise.
There have been several studies in the last few years stating that exercise isn’t effective for losing weight. Then came a flood of articles analyzing those studies and concluding that people’s body size is predestined (meaning if you are fat, then you are just meant to be fat). This obviously isn’t true. You only have to watch a season of “The Bigest Loser” to see that people can change their body types, and can make drastic changes with the help of exercise. Diet and exercise and weight loss are all connected.
The Studies weren’t wrong
The Studies didn’t get it wrong, they just had a very narrow focus.
There’s a principle called Pareto’s Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule. What it means in a nutshell is that 80% of your results comes from just 20% of your work. So for instance if you only had a few minutes a day to devote to your fitness, there would be a few exercises that could accomplish most of your workout. I’m not saying you should stop your full length routine for this one. But if you were pressed for time, these would be the best workout routine to do. By varying these three exercises, you can hit nearly every muscle group in your body.
Push Ups.
Push ups have been around for over 100 years, They have been used by the military since after World War II. It seems like Push ups are one of the first exercises people learn, but then they quickly forget.
What push ups work.
Push ups can effectively work the Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, and Abs.
How to do a standard push up.
Start on your hands and knees. Put your hands palms down on the floor directly under your shoulders. Extend your legs out with your feet together and your toes touching the ground. Keep your body as straight as possible. Bend your elbows and go down till your chest is an inch from the ground and push back up. This is a standard push up. It works both your chest and your triceps.
It seems there are quite a few ways to separate your weight training schedule over the week. For years I did the 3 day split of
Day 1 = Chest and triceps
Day 2 = Back and biceps
Day 3 = Legs and shoulders
Then when I wanted to bump up to 5 days a week I just looped the routine
Day 1 = Chest and triceps
Day 2 = Back and biceps
Day 3 = Legs and shoulders
Day 4 = Chest and triceps
Day 5 = Back and biceps
For the past 3 or 4 months I’ve been doing a 5 day routine that is similar but more targeted.
Day 1 = Chest and shoulders
Day 2 = Back and shrugs (other misc. exercises)
Day 3 = Legs and lower back
Day 4 = Triceps and abs
Day 5 = Biceps and forearms
The reason I do this split is because I always felt that my shoulders never really got a chance to rest. My shoulders would get hit some on chest days, then worked hard on leg days, then worked a bit more on triceps day. I would get sharp pains in my shoulders during my workouts. So now my shoulders get worked hard on day 1, and then worked a little on day 4 and that’s it.
The Dead Simple Advice: There is no right answer, pick a weight training schedule that fits your lifestyle.
So I’d like to tell you a story. This happened to me the other day and it really bothered me. As the weather is getting nicer I am wearing less bulky clothes. One of the ladies in the office asked me if I lost weight. That didn’t bother me obviously. I said yes, I dropped 20 lbs in 12 weeks. She then asked how I did it. I walked her through all the aspects of my diet plan and my exercise regiment. At the end of this long description she looked at me and said “Well you have a fast metabolism…” What!? In 5 words she discounted everything I explained, as well as belittled my 12 weeks of hard work. Now I’ know she didn’t mean anything by it, but it seems like such a dismissive statement.
6 Comments to Read 
