Training These Days
My training has changed a lot over the last decade, but the basic exercises and concepts remain the same. Recently, there have been days where I felt reborn and capable of lifting anything. Then there were other days where I pulled something and spent a week or two doing workouts where my only goal was to not hurt myself worse. My love for training has never wavered from the time I first got to lift in the high school weight room, and I still believe in going hard on the basics. I use a lot more variations of exercises now, and I’m lucky to have a home gym with different bars and equipment where I can mix up my training to accommodate or work around an injury. Switching exercises is also just really fun and lets me challenge myself in new ways every time I train. My exercise menu listed below provides an endless variety of options, and that’s not even counting all the ways one can play around with sets, reps, and rest periods. Although to be honest, most of my main lifts consists of nothing more then 1-5 sets of 3-6 reps. Boring, bland, but, at least to me, always fun and effective. The volume and weights I’m using have certainly decreased since I was in my late-20s and early-30s, but I’m still working hard and, let’s be honest, nobody gives a shit how much a guy in his 40s is lifting in his basement. I have kind of adopted the mantra, “My most important workout is tomorrow.” Meaning, my goal for today is to move some weight and feel good enough and injury-free to train again the next day.
Squat - back, front, goblet, double kettlebell, sandbag, box, cambered bar, safety squat bar, belt, zercher, split squats
Push Stuff Away From You - bench (flat, incline, axle, neutral grip, cambered neutral grip, dumbbell, kettlebell), overhead press (barbell, axle, kettlebell, dumbbell), dips, pushups, sandbag getups
Pick Stuff Up Off The Ground - barbell, axle, trap bar, block pulls of varying heights, sandbags, kettlebells (regular, staggered stance)
Pull Stuff Toward You - rows (barbell, axle, dumbbell, bands, sleds), chins
Carry Stuff - kettlebells, sandbags, farmer handles
Play With Kettlebells - swing (one-arm, two-arm, regular stance, staggered stance), clean, snatch, getup, squat (goblet, single, double)
Play With Sleds - push, drag (forward, backward), rows
Swing Stuff Around - maces (10-2s, 360s), rope flow
Cardio - walk, bike, rower, hike, MOVE!
Onward and upward.