Hi y’all. So I’m closing in on a full year at the gym. For the second time in my life I’m doing it, last time was 15-20 years ago. I’m down, I’m up and I’ve got the best/most fun body I’ve had in at least 15 years.
So naturally with a bit of retro- and instrospection I think of what is working for me. I go on loooots of classes, having someone tell me what to do and get energy from others around me is super-duper awesome. From spinning to strength-cardio and dance (I did not see my fondness for that a year ago). Working classes into my schedule often takes me to the gym 30-35 minutes early and I’ve been using that time doing “random” strength stuff.
But perhaps time for me to get some organization going for my self-guided pre- and/or post class workouts. And since I like moving my “new” body around I think of supersetting big(?) strength exercises with mobility work. For example squats with dead hang (or eccentric pull ups to dead hang).
So let me have your favorite mobility inserts into super sets!
Strength exercises I especially enjoy
- Squats (including sumo)
- Romanian deadlifts (including single leg variant)
- Overhead press
- Rows (barbell, alternating gorilla)
- Kettlebell ABCs (one KB, two KB) (I know not 100% a strength exercise)
Side note: Reading the list above makes me realize I need to find some arm and chest exercise variants to enjoy
It might be time for you to get organized with a real strength program! I’m a big fan of 5/3/1, here’s my elevator pitch / quick breakdown for it:
It’s fairly simple and straightforward, focussing on the compound exercises that you mentioned (Squat, bench, overhead press and deadlift) and you can get it done in 45 minutes, Including warm-up and accessory exercises. Typical day looks like this:
Main work: 3 sets of a big compound lift (light, medium, heavy)
Supplemental work: 5 lighter sets of the same compound lift
Accessories: This can be a wide variety of lighter work, focussing on mobility and hypertrophy type lifting. Dips, pull-ups, shrugs, hanging leg raises, rows, curls, whatever you wish. These can be supersetted with the main and supplemental work above
There are lots of different templates, you can do 2, 3, or 4 days per week depending on your schedule, and there are quite a few apps that will do the calculations and essentially tell you how much to lift each set. If you’re interested at all I can definitely help you get set up