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By
Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems |
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Whenever you perform
a "workout," there are a number of possible objectives
that you might be trying to achieve.
You might wish to become stronger,
faster, more flexible, more agile, more muscular, or a better
technician in your chosen sport. You might be rehabiliting
an injury or "prehabbing" to avoid a future injury.
You might even use a workout as a stress-buster after a hectic
day at work.
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But of all the possible outcomes
you might be seeking, burning calories is the easiest.
After all, all you've got to do is
move until you become tired, and then move some more.
It doesn't really matter what the
movement entails, although difficult movement will make you tired
faster.
Nor does it matter how many exercises
you do, how you do them, or in what order they appear in the workout.
It makes no differnce how many reps
you do, or how many sets, or how long you rest between sets (although
if you rest too long, your caloric burn will gradually diminish)
No need to worry about knee alignment,
scapular control, lumbar posture, or breathing technique. As long
as you keep moving, you'll be burning calories
When you're only concerned about burning
calories, programming is a snap. In fact, periodization becomes
a non-concern. Paralysis by analysis? Not in your case! It's literally
impossible to make an error, as long as what you're doing makes
you tired, and preferrably as fast as possible. Here are a few quick
examples written off-the-cuff:
Workout #1
1) Run 3 miles
2) Do 50 pushups
3) Curl a pair of dumbbells until failure
4) Leg Press some weight until failure
Workout #2:
1) Swim 50 meters for (5) all-out
sprints with 1 minute rest between sprints
2) Towel off and do 100 squat thrusts
3) Do 10 sets of 10 chins, or as close to it as you can
Workout #3:
1) Bench Press 100 pounds for 10 reps,
90 pounds for 9 reps, 80 pounds for 8 reps, 70 pounds for 7 reps,
etc, until you get to 10 pounds x 1 rep
2) 10 sets of 10 pushups
3) 10 sets of 10 clapping pushups
4) Static pushup for 1 minute. Repeat 10 times
Workout #4:
1) 100 sit-ups
2) Bike for 30 minutes as hard as you can
3) Squat your bodyweight for as many reps as possible
4) Crab-walk 100 yards. Repeat 4 times
Workout #5 (I Like to call this the "Infomercial workout")
1) Do 7 minutes of 6 Minute Abs
2) Do 1000 reps with the Thighmaster
3) Do 30 minutes of P90X
4) Do 30 Minutes of Tae Bo
I could go on and on here, but I'm sure the point has been made.
No need to stress the details. If it makes you tired, it was a good
workout. How eay is that?!?!
Trouble-Shooting
Q: How do I know if my workout was effective?
A: If it made you tired, it was a
good workout. If you didn't get tired it wasn't a good workout.
Q: Is that it?
A: Yup, that's it!
Q: Well, what if I was tired but I didn't sweat a lot?
A: Some people sweat more than others.
Sweating is a good sign, but if you're REALLY tired and only sweat
a little, it's all good.
Q: Here's my question: My workouts are gassing me to the max, but
I have shoulder pain and I have numbness all down my arm. Is that
cool?
A: It's cool. If you can't feel your
arm, just do lower body stuff instead.
Q: I really love super-setting trap-bar reverse curls and rope climbs,
but I also wanna work on my six-pack. But how?
A: Easy- Just add crunches to your
superset
Q: What if I sweat a lot, but I'm not tired?
A: If you're sweating profusely, it'll
at least LOOK like you're tired. But if you're NOT tired, either
do more exercises, more sets, more reps, and reduce rests between
sets. At some point you WILL get tired.
Q: I've noticed that after several months of doing 20-rep bench
presses that I can bench 145 pounds x10, but my max is only 155
pounds. WTF?!?!
A: Do the 20-rep bench workouts make
you tired?
Q: Yeah, usually I puke afterwards.
A: OK then, you're burning calories,
PLUS puking out the calories you already ate- it's like a bonus!
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Q: Should I do 2-a-day's?
A: Yes.
Q: What about 3-a-day's?
A: That too
Q: What about...
A: Look, I know where this
is going. Stop.
Next Week:
In Part Two of this series,
I'll examine why losing weight is easy. No need for elaborate
formulas, nutritional credentials, or expensive grocery
bills. Losing weight is so simple, you'll wonder why you
didn't think of this yourself!
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Charles Staley's
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About The Author
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His colleagues call him an iconoclast,
a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The
Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches
miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled
in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’
methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious
results. His counter-intuitive approach and self-effacing
demeanor have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY
Show and The CBS Early Show.
Currently, Charles competes
in Olympic-style weightlifting on the master’s circuit,
with a 3-year goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
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