Healthy Life Guide

Versa Gripps Pro and basic straps… on my bedroom floor. I’ve probably used traditional weight lifting straps for around 10 years or so. You know the type. You loop one end around your wrist and wrap the other end around the barbell, dumbbells, handles, etc., thus basically attaching the weight to your wrists/hands. Doing so improves your grip on the weight you’re holding and helps prevent it from sliding out of your hands during your set. If you’ve never used them before, they work extremely well. Versa Gripps ARE straps … just a slightly different version of them compared to the traditional type most of us already know and use. They exist for the same purpose (to improve your grip on the bar) and they’re used the same way (one end goes around your wrist, the other end is wrapped around the bar). It’s basically another form of the same training tool. The question is, are Versa Gripps any better or worse than regular weight lifting straps? Le...

If you’re reading this, then you are probably fairly new to weight training and looking for the best workouts and routines for beginners like yourself. Good, that is exactly what you should be doing, and I’m going to provide you with a few proven sample beginner workouts at the end of this post. However, before we get into the actual specifics of those routines, there are a few important things that you need to know about beginner workouts and beginners in general in order for your results to be as positive as possible. How To Tell If You’re A Beginner First, before you start looking for the best beginner workouts and routines, you need to make sure that you actually are a beginner. If you are, then a weight training plan that is geared towards beginners is definitely what will work best for you and it’s definitely what you should be using (as opposed to something more advanced, which would be terrible for you at this early training stage). But if it turns out...

If you’re reading this, then you should be past the beginner stage of weight training and in search of the best intermediate or advanced workouts and routines. If so, then you’re in luck. I’m going to provide you with a handful of the most proven and effective intermediate and advanced workout routines for various goals and situations. However, before we get into the actual specifics of those routines, there are a few important things that you need to know about intermediate/advanced workouts and intermediate/advanced trainees in general to ensure your results are as positive as can be. How To Tell If You’re An intermediate or Advanced Trainee Before you start looking for intermediate and advanced workouts, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you actually are an intermediate or advanced trainee. If you are, then these are the types of workout routines that will produce the best possible results for you. However, if you’re not truly at the in...

If you’ve been following the guide to creating The Ultimate Weight Training Workout Routine from the very beginning, then congrats… you just learned a ton! At this point you’ve figured out what your exact goal and training experience level is, found out how much frequency, intensity and volume is best for you, chose a workout schedule that is optimal for what you need, selected the exercises that are most ideal for you, learned the importance of progressive overload, and created a diet plan that will perfectly support it all. So, good luck putting your workout routine together and have a nice life. Wait… what? What’s that you say? You want sample workout routines and example weight training workouts ? Oh, ok. You got it! However, before we get the those sample workouts, there’s a few things that need to be said first about the pros and cons of sample workout routines. Why Sample Workout Routines Are Great Even though I’ve done my best to expla...

After you’ve selected the exercises you will perform in each of your workouts and put them in their ideal order , the next important step is to answer the following questions: How long should you rest between sets of an exercise? How long should you rest between different exercises? Simply put, if your rest periods are too long or too short, you’ll end up sacrificing the results you want to some degree. The goal is to find that sweet spot right in between resting too much or too little. When you find that, you’ll have found your optimal rest time . As it turns out, there’s primarily 3 major factors that influence what your ideal rest times should be: What intensity/rep range you are using for a given exercise. How demanding that exercise is on your body as a whole. Your primary goal (building muscle, increasing strength, losing fat, etc.). Based on these three factors, it’s quite common to see rest time recommendations of anywhere from 0 seconds to 5 minut...

As I’ve previously explained, the #1 key to getting positive results from your workout routine is progressive overload . Meaning, you must strive to increase the demands being placed on your body in some way over time. When you fully understand how big of a requirement this is, the next logical question is quite obvious… Exactly how and when should this progression take place? Well, in the specific context of weight training, there’s a bunch of ways it can be done, and some are more ideal for certain goals and experience levels than others. The most common methods of weight training progression that come to mind are: You can increase the weight being lifted. For example, if you are currently lifting 100lbs on some exercise, you can lift 105lbs the next time you perform that exercise. You can increase the number of reps a weight is being lifted for. For example, if you are lifting 100lbs on some exercises for 3 sets of 8 reps, you can do 3 sets of 9 reps with that sam...

Do I have your attention? I mean seriously… do I really have your attention? I ask because I’m about to explain the single most important factor in getting positive results from any type of workout or any form of exercise. Are you listening now? Good. When trying to create the most effective workout routine possible, your goal is to use the frequency , schedule , intensity , volume , and exercise selection that is as optimal as possible for you and your goal. If you do that correctly, you are quite much guaranteed to get the best results you can get. Unless of course you happen to leave out the one component that matters more than everything else. It’s the component that can turn the most perfect workout program into a useless waste of time and literally make or break your success. I’m talking about a little something called progressive overload , and it is the absolute key to getting the results you want from your workout routine. What Is Progressive Overload...