Got Exercises?
My long time friend and Mens Health editor Adam Campbell (who has spent many hours poring over the copy I turn in to the magazine, and many more hours trying to turn it into something readable) is releasing two new books today
Because most of our team at Results Fitness were contributors to part of the books, Adam sent us copies ahead of time.
The Mens Health Big Book of Exercises quickly became a staff favorite – the book has full-color photos of more than 600 exercises!
To give you an idea of how unusual this is, most fitness books have maybe 100 or so exercises. That makes sense, of course, because you don’t need a wide range of exercises for most workout plans.
But that’s just one of the reasons this book is special: Besides being an exercise encyclopedia, it has scores of workouts from dozens of different strength coaches, including Mike Boyle, Bill Hartman, Mike Robertson, Joe Dowdell, an 8 week bench press specialization program from Dave Tate, and a bunch of other great experts that you’ve probably heard of (and even if you haven’t – trust me – Adam has a very strict policy on who gets into the magazine).
And that’s just the Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises.
The Women’s Health version of the book has even more options from the top female trainers in the country. In fact, both books have contributions from a bunch of us here at Results Fitness, including me, Rachel, Mike Wunsch, and Craig Rasmussen. Seriously – any one of these programs alone would be worth the investment.
Craig actually designed a fat loss plan using the Results Fitness template. Which is pretty cool because it gives you an idea of how we put together a workout program for fat loss.
It works like this: Craig sets up the workout and gives you categories to choose from. You then select your exercises for each workout using the guidelines for each category. So you get to choose the exercises you want to do.
As Adam says in the book, “Think of it as DIY fat loss: Just plug-and-play—and watch your gut melt away.”
You can see below how the categories are set up. What’s more, you’ll see that you can also create your own warmup routine, using guidelines from Mike Wunsch here at Results.
All-in-all, you get a completely customizable (and highly effective) workout plan that literally gives you the ability to choose from hundreds of exercises. If you like this, you’ll love these books.
But aside from the workouts – 600+ exercises, fully illustrated and explained? No brainer.
If you’re a trainer and want to have a definitive guide for newer staff members as to how each exercise should be performed – this is a great resource. If you’re a trainee with just some questions on correct form – again – this is a smart investment. And if you just want to get some variety out of your routine – this book will provide a lot of alternatives to your current routine (there are more than 100 core exercises alone!)
At around $16, Adam’s book is available today and can be purchased on amazon.com
Here’s an excerpt:
Here’s how to perform this workout:
Alternate between Workout A and Workout B three days a week, resting at least a day between each session. So if you plan to lift on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you’d do Workout A on Monday, Workout B on Wednesday, and Workout A again on Friday. The next week, you’d do Workout B on Monday and Friday, and Workout A on Wednesday. Prior to each workout, complete the warmup. Do the exercises in the order shown. For each exercise, do 3 sets of 12 repetitions. Perform Exercise 1 as a straight set. That is, complete all of your sets of that movement before moving on to exercise 2A. Rest 60 seconds between each set. Perform Exercise 2A and 2B as a pair. Do one set of exercise 2A, rest for 60 seconds, then do one set of Exercise 2B. Rest for 60 seconds again, then repeat until you’ve completed all three sets of both exercises. Then move onto Exercise 3A. Perform Exercise 3A and 3B as a pair. Do one set of exercise 3A, rest for 60 seconds, then do one set of Exercise 3B. Rest for 60 seconds again, then repeat until you’ve completed all three sets of both exercises. Then move on to your Cardio workout. Do the Cardio Workout immediately after the Weight Workout.
Warmup
Use the “Create Your Own Warmup” guide (Chapter 12) to design your routine.
Workout A
Exercise 1: Core
Choose any Core exercise (Chapter 10) from the section labeled “Stability Exercises.” The plank, side plank, mountain climber, and Swiss-ball jackknife are all great choices.
Exercise 2A: Glutes and Hamstrings
Choose any Glute/Hamstring exercise (Chapter 9) in which you work one leg at a time. This might be a barbell single-leg, straight-leg deadlift, a single-leg hip raise, or a dumbbell stepup.
Exercise 2B: Upper Back
Choose any Back exercise (Chapter 5) from the section labeled “Upper Back.” So that’s any variation of the dumbbell row, barbell row, or cable row.
Exercise 3A. Quadriceps
Choose any Quadriceps exercise (Chapter 8 ) in which you work both legs at the same time. This will be a version of the squat, such as the dumbbell squat, goblet squat, or barbell front squat.
Exercise 3B. Chest
Choose any Chest exercise (Chapter 4). For example, you might choose a variation of the pushup, a dumbbell bench press, or a Swiss-ball dumbbell chest press.
Cardio: Choose any “Finisher” from the “Fastest Cardio Workouts Ever” (Chapter 14) or any of the cardio workouts that accompany other routines in this chapter.
Workout B
Exercise 1: Core
Choose any Core exercise (Chapter 10) from the section labeled “Stability Exercises.” The plank, side plank, mountain climber, and Swiss-ball jackknife are all great choices.
Exercise 2A: Quadriceps
Choose any Quadriceps exercise (Chapter 8 ) in which you work one leg at a time. This will be a dumbbell lunge, a barbell split squat, or a single-leg squat.
Exercise 2B: Lats
Choose any Back exercise (Chapter 5) from the section labeled “Lats.” For example, you could choose any version of the chinup, lat pulldown, or pullover.
Exercise 3A. Glutes and Hamstrings
Choose any Glute/Hamstring exercise (Chapter 9) in which you work both legs at the same time. This might be a barbell deadlift, a dumbbell straight-leg deadlift, or a Swiss-ball hip raise and leg curl.
Exercise 3B. Shoulders
Choose any Shoulder exercise (Chapter 6), such as the dumbbell shoulder press, lateral raise, or scaption and shrug.
Cardio: Choose any “Finisher” from the “Fastest Cardio Workouts Ever” (Chapter 14) or any of the cardio workouts that accompany other routines in this chapter.
–
AC
PS – Both the Mens Health and Womens Health versions of these books are available today at around $16 each, at amazon.com
