**The Problem:** Our bodies adapt to the stress, or lack thereof, we subject them to. Therefore, living a physically unchallenging (sedentary) life makes both our overall health and physical body more fragile and less healthy. **The Solution:** Exercise is the solution, and exists in two forms: resistance training, like weight training, bodyweight exercises, and resistance band work (which forces our skeleton to become stronger, and muscles to become bigger, stronger, and more efficient), and cardiovascular (cardio) training, like running, biking and swimming (which forces our hearts, lungs, and blood vessels become stronger and more efficient). ## Definitions | **Term** | Definition | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Workout Split** | A structured plan to work muscle groups across different days (e.g. include full-body, upper/lower, or push/pull/legs splits. | | **Exercise Movement/Lift** | A movement that can be loaded with resistance, which targets a specific muscle/muscle group (e.g include squats, pull-ups, and overhead press). | | **Warmup Set** | A continuous group of repetitions of an exercise done at a weight/intensity meant to warm up the target muscle group and associated joint/joints. This set, or sets should be a moderate percentage (25-75%) of your working set. | | **Working Set** | A continuous group of repetitions of an exercise done at a weight/intensity meant to challenge the target muscle/muscle group. These sets are done until technical failure/task failure (meaning another repetition cannot be performed through the entire range of motion with correct form). Especially when starting out, you should never compromise form to complete a movement. | | **Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)** | The highest number of times your heart can beat in one minute. A common formula is 220 minus your age. | | **Eccentric/Concentric** | These are the lengthening and shortening (relative to the target muscle/muscle group) portions of a lift/exercise. A general rule of thumb is to do the eccentric portion of a lift/exercise slower and the concentric a bit faster. Both portions of the lift/exercise should be done at a comfortable speed. Below are the concentric and eccentric portions of a bicep curl. | ![[eccentricConcentric.jpg]] ## Practical Application of Resistance Training Let's first touch on resistance training, specifically weight training. This centers around utilizing workout splits, or plans for exercising muscle groups. The basic splits are: full-body (exercising all the big muscle groups every training day), upper/lower, and push/pull/legs. If you're relatively seasoned in the gym, feel free to do whatever split works for you. If you're new to the gym, I'd suggest doing the following 2-day full body split that looks like the following: ### Beginner 2-Day Resistance Training Full-Body Split For each of these exercises you should do at least 1 Warmup set, then do 2-3 working sets, and aim for about 10 reps on each set. When you get to the point where you can easily do more than 10 reps, incrementally (by 5lbs or 10lbs) go up in weight. Here's a [[Core 4 Exercises]] for all of the above below. | | Squat | Hinge | Pull | Push | | :-------: | :----------: | :----------------: | :-------------------: | :-----------------: | | **Day A** | Goblet Squat | Romanian Deadlift | Pull-up/Lat Pull Down | Incline Chest Press | | **Day B** | Leg Press | 45° Back Extension | Cable Row | Dips | Keep in mind this is a very basic split and doesn't include a lot of beneficial exercises. So when you've mastered these feel free to explore my [[Extensive Collection of Exercises]] (which is a constant work in progress). ### Exercise Naming Convention This is worth touching on, because it can be confusing. Heck, even I have to look up the names of exercises sometimes. Exercise names follows one of the following conventions (with ***Equipment - Movement*** being the most widely used): - Movement (e.g. Pull-up, Squat, Leg Press) - Equipment - Movement (e.g. Cable Row, Dumbbell Incline Chest Press) - Muscle Group - Movement (e.g. Lat Pulldown, Bicep Curl) - Position - Movement (e.g. Goblet Squat, Bent Over Row) - Who Popularized the Exercise - Movement (e.g. Romanian Deadlift, Bulgarian Split Squat) - Equipment - Muscle Group - Movement (e.g. Barbell Chest Press) ## Practical Application of Cardiovascular Training Cardiovascular (cardio) training forces our hearts, lungs, and blood vessels to become stronger and more efficient. It’s best to focus 80% of your cardio training on longer cardio (where you maintain 60-70% of your max heart rate) and 20% of your cardio on shorter more intense sessions (where you briefly elevate your heart rate to 80-90% of your max heart rate (220 - age). For a beginner, I would skip the higher/more intense cardio and do the following: 2 days of 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR). Once you've done this for a little while, it is beneficial to incorporate sprints (4-8 rounds of 10-20 second all out efforts) one day a weak. The most accessible version of sprinting is running sprints. ### Tracking Heart Rate Tracking heart rate is important. A lot of gym cardio equipment will have built in heart rate monitors, so you can grab on to them and see where you're at. If you're not using equipment that has them, you want to make sure you can speak in full sentences, but it's challenging at the same time. The most reliable forms of heart rate monitors are chest straps, like the [Polar H10](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PM54P4N?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1). If you'd like a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that improve Cardiovascular Fitness, check out [[Understanding Cardiovascular Fitness]]. ### Cardio Options (Different Cardio Modalities) A few of the different cardio exercise modalities are: - Running - Biking - Swimming - Rowing - Walking (you can walk at an incline) - Stair Stepper - Burpees ## Practical Application of Resistance & Cardio Training Combining resistance and cardio training builds a balanced, healthy body. Resistance training strengthens muscles and bones, while cardio boosts heart and lung health, together improving energy, mobility, and longevity. If I were a beginner, start with the below schedule. - Do days 1-4 in order, but on whatever days of the week you want (Mon: Day 1, Tues: Day 2, Wed: Day 3, Thurs: Day 4), or (Mon: Day 1, Wed: Day 2, Thurs: Day 3, Sat: Day 4). Day 1 is Resistance Training Day A and Day 2 is Resistance Training Day B. - I would do Day 1 and Day 2 exercises in the order shown, so for Day 1: First Goblet Squat, then Romanian Deadlift, then Pull-up/Lat Pull Down, and then Incline Chest Press. - Remember to do at least 1 warm up set for each resistance exercise (should be at 5-10 reps at 50-75% of your working sets' weight, ex. If for Goblet Squats I'm going to hold a 50lb dumbbell for my working sets, I might do a set of 10 body weight squats and then a set of 5 Goblet Squats with 25lbs). ### Beginner 4-Day Exercise Schedule | | Exercises | Working Reps-Sets (Per Exercise) | | :-------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------: | :------------------------------: | | **Day 1** | Goblet Squat, Romanian Deadlift, Pull-up/Lat Pull Down, Incline Chest Press | 10-2 | | **Day 2** | 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR) | | | **Day 3** | Leg Press, Cable Row, 45° Back Extension, Dips | 10-2 | | **Day 4** | 20-30 mins stationary bike (60-70% MHR) | |