Posted on by Mark Linton

Workout Notes

I am one of those people who over thinks things. One way that quirk manifests itself is in an inherent need to understand how and why things are the way they are. Call it Zen if you must. I think I have decided that what I am doing is a three day per week, two day split upper/lower workout. This seems to be a good choice for a beginner to intermediate exercise routine, which is good for me, since I fall into those categories.

Before I go on, let me give a disclaimer: I do not know what I am doing. I am not a doctor, or a dietician, or a personal trainer. This is not advice. This is an effort on my part to figure out what I am doing and to see whether it makes sense.

Anyway, there were several components there in that statement of what I am doing. So first off, I am doing this because it is what I got out of Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill Phillips. That is not to say that I got it right. It is just what I got out of it.

Next — in no particular order — there was the two day “split” part. That means that there are actually two different workouts that I do on separate days. That gives me a chance to concentrate on one group of muscles without making the workout very long. It also gives each muscle group longer to recover between workouts, since the next workout will be on a different muscle group. That sounds like a good plan to me, so I am going to stick with it.

Then there was the upper/lower part. That just means that I decided to divide the two workouts into an upper body workout and a lower body workout. Other possibilities are push/pull, and torso/limbs. I find it pretty easy to get my mind around the concept of the upper body and lower body workout, so I am going to stick with it.

Finally there is the three day per week part. That is pretty easy. I am going to go work out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The only tricky bit comes because I actually have two workouts, so it will take two weeks to complete the pattern. Like this:

S M T W T F S S M T W T F S
U L U L U L

The upper body workout consists of exercises that focus on the shoulders, chest, back, and upper arms. The neck and forearms are notably absent from this list. There are exercises for them. Perhaps I will think about adding them at a later date. The lower body workout consists of exercises that focus on the thighs, calves, waist, and hips.

So to summarize:

  • Three days per week with at least one day off between workouts
  • Two day split workout exercising two muscle groups on two separate days
  • Upper body workout focusing on:

    1. Shoulders
    2. Chest
    3. Back
    4. Upper Arms
  • Lower body workout focusing on:

    1. Thighs
    2. Calves
    3. Waist
    4. Hips

An upper body workout that gives reasonable coverage might be:

  1. Vertical Chest

  2. Seated Dip

  3. Incline Shoulder Raise (Incline Press)

  4. Lateral Raise

  5. Front Lateral Raise

  6. Compound Row

  7. External Rotation

  8. Internal Rotation

  9. Cable Shrug

  10. Triceps Extension

  11. Biceps Curl

  12. Reverse Biceps Curl

Emphasized exercises are intended to pick up smaller muscles not worked by the other exercises.

I have not actually gotten around to doing the lower body workout yet, but I was thinking it would go something like this:

  1. Leg Press

  2. Leg Curl

  3. Seated Calf Extension

  4. Seated Crunch

  5. Back Extension

3 Replies to “Workout Notes”

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