Interesting Holiday Season Workout

[MarkMero]

I'm not sure how many of you have already seen this workout devised by Alwyn Cosgrove to fit in with peoples busy schedules over the holiday period:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=843024

Now there's no reason to slack off over the xmas period..

[quaribc]

that is one great article. it can also be used for people who have really busy schedule and can't make it to the gym all time.

[Ogedei]

Yeah, except that it takes bleeding forever in the gym once you're there.

5 sets with 3 minutes between them is 15 minutes of waiting right there.

4 more excercises with 4 sets and 1:30 between is 24 minutes of rest. So during workout one your hanging out for :45 before we add warm-ups, plate changes, etc. I was there for an hour and I dumped a bunch of stuff. It may get better as it goes along, but for me it really didn't fit into my busy schedule at all

Og.

[R]

The rest periods are just general guidelines. It mostly depends on neurological efficiency and personal ability to recover btwn sets. Cosgrove has mentioned this in posts in his "Locker Room" or at the end of a different article he's written at T-Mag. Basically, if you're feeling ready for the next set, say after 40 seconds of rest, then hit it.

[Blackjack]

FYI...Craig Balantyne has a workout designed to be quicker especially for the holiday's as well. His is only two supersetted exercises with some interval training afterward. Check that out.

Ted

[Trainer One]

Originally posted by Ogedei:
Yeah, except that it takes bleeding forever in the gym once you're there.

5 sets with 3 minutes between them is 15 minutes of waiting right there.

4 more excercises with 4 sets and 1:30 between is 24 minutes of rest. So during workout one your hanging out for :45 before we add warm-ups, plate changes, etc.

But your total reps for the workout is only 95 reps. At an average of 2-3 seconds per rep it's still only another 3-5 mins. WELL under an hour.
BTW - plate changes get done IN the rest period - so it's not any extra time.

I was there for an hour and I dumped a bunch of stuff. It may get better as it goes along, but for me it really didn't fit into my busy schedule at all

Og.

Well, you picked the longest workout of ALL the ones AC listed.

But let's do the math... [img]smile.gif[/img]
5 sets of 3 with 3 mins rest of explosive reps (let's say one second per rep) = 15 mins, 15 seconds

Four more exercises, 4 sets each of 5 reps (let's say 3s per rep, 90s rest = 105s per set, multiplied by four = 420s, multiplied by four exercises = 1680s (or 28 minutes).

Add that ALL up and (FOR THE LONGEST WORKOUT - the others have shorter rests)is...

43 minutes. This is too long? Even with "plate changes", etc it's still pretty short.

Most workouts even with warm ups are a little over an hour.

Alwyn's idea is to go heavy in the first workout - so the rest periods are a little longer than usual. But I'd guess if you can start a heavy set sooner then go for it.

BTW - workout two: 16 mins (3 sets of5, 4 x 2sets of 15)
Workout three (4 sets of 4, 4 x 3 sets of 10): 28 mins.

(I'm assuming my math isn't off too much).

[Trainer One]

Originally posted by R:
The rest periods are just general guidelines. It mostly depends on neurological efficiency and personal ability to recover btwn sets. Cosgrove has mentioned this in posts in his "Locker Room" or at the end of a different article he's written at T-Mag. Basically, if you're feeling ready for the next set, say after 40 seconds of rest, then hit it.

Very true. But I think if you only need 40s rest for some of those heavy sets, then you're going too light no?

[Trainer One]

OOPS - I did make a mistake on my math! [img]smile.gif[/img] (actually I missed the core stuff at the end)

In the first workout doing all the sets and reps and taking full rest periods the workout will take 55 mins.

Workout two: 21 mins
Workout three: 37 mins

Still VERY short and exactly what I'm looking for at this time of the year!

I'm actually going to do one less set of everything on the first workout to bring it down to about the 40 min mark.

[canuckguy]

Originally posted by Blackjack:
FYI...Craig Balantyne has a workout designed to be quicker especially for the holiday's as well. His is only two supersetted exercises with some interval training afterward. Check that out.

Ted

I'm doing that one right now too. It's his "Holiday Fat Loss" workout - available with his "All Access Pass" or possibly as a single purchase.

I'm in and out of the gym in 35 minutes, including HIIT. And it's a great workout - all 4 days are different - upper body; lower body; bodyweight only; and full body intervals.

I e-mailed him after my first session, and asked if I was missing something, it was such a quick w/o. But that's the idea - keep it quick - but not too easy - over this busy Christmas season.

[Ogedei]

Originally posted by Trainer One:
OOPS - I did make a mistake on my math! [img]smile.gif[/img] (actually I missed the core stuff at the end)

In the first workout doing all the sets and reps and taking full rest periods the workout will take 55 mins.

Workout two: 21 mins
Workout three: 37 mins

Still VERY short and exactly what I'm looking for at this time of the year!

I'm actually going to do one less set of everything on the first workout to bring it down to about the 40 min mark.

55 minutes for the core of the workout minus warmups does not equal short in my books.

And of course these are all numbers, and sometimes racking the weights takes longer than the rest periods. Sometimes people are in the way. I just know I eliminated all the ab stuff, and 1 of the other sets and I was in there for close to an hour or just workouts.

The first day is very long.

I would however agree if you can recover in 40s from sets he has suggested 180s, you have gone to light.

Og.

[dos]

The 180sec. recovery is prescribed due to the nature of the exercises. There are many times when you might 'feel fine' in 60 or 90 sec. after doing a power exercise set yet this doesn't necessarily mean that you are actually ready to perform another set.

On the other 'paired' exercises, however, you can probably cut down the down time. You might even try doing almost zero rest between exercises and rest 90 sec. between paired sets (if that makes sense). You'll sacrifice some strength (depending on your fitness level of course) but since you are doing this workout to get in-n-out of the gym, you are probably better off.

[He-man]

I have started doing this workout and it is quite challenging. It does last about 55 minutes, and while it isn't short, it is a program you can do twice a week.

This will work better than 3 times a week for the holidays. I'm looking to complete this with some gains. I'll keep you all posted, but so far i like it because of the variety. You never do the same workout or sets and reps over again.

Variety, variety, variety....now if it would only warm up on my back porch that has not heat.

[Ogedei]

Yeah, I understand the two days a week thing, but unfortunately my workout is in the morning and a longer workout is not feasible for me.

I would be better set with a shorter more days a week type model.

Just me personally. But if I am strapped for time on the holidays it's length of time I have in a row [img]smile.gif[/img]

Og.

[duff beer]

If you want something short and fast for over the holidays, why not try something like this:

5 chinups/pullups, 10 pushups, 20 squats. Rest 30 seconds. Repeat. If you can manage 20 sets you will be done in less than 30 minutes.

I do that every now and then when my time is limited or when I want to mix it up a little bit.

[Lost Dog]

Originally posted by Ogedei:
Yeah, I understand the two days a week thing, but unfortunately my workout is in the morning and a longer workout is not feasible for me.

I would be better set with a shorter more days a week type model.

Just me personally. But if I am strapped for time on the holidays it's length of time I have in a row [img]smile.gif[/img]

Og.

A lot of people just can't make it to the gym three or four times in the week, while others can make it plenty of times, but only have a short time to spend there. Chocolate and vanilla...

For a lot of people, getting there, back, and showering add a lot of time to every workout, so minimizing the number of workouts works well for them.

I workout and shower on the way to work. Since I shower two to three times per week anyway, might as well do a short workout while I'm at it!

Someone mentioned CB's holiday workout program. Is that a "short duration" workout or a "minimize trips to the gym" workout?

[Lost Dog]

It was a while back, but someone asked about Alwyn's Complexes workout in Men's Fitness.

It seems to an alternate side of his Holiday Program philosophy with pretty short workout times and a goal of fat loss.

Here's the link...

The Holiday Survival Workout

[Trainer One]

Hi Og,

Most of my workouts this year have been about an hour, to an hour and fifteen minutes with warm ups etc.

sometimes racking the weights takes longer than the rest periods

Dude - you have 90s !!! Where do you rack your weights ... two blocks away? (just kidding)

Maybe try the same as I am going to (for the first workout - the rest are way shorter).

Reduce it to 4 sets of the heavy stuff and 3 sets of everything else. The whole thing will take under 40 mins.

[Blackjack]

Craig's Holiday TT workout is for a short duration workout. As someone said you can do it in 30-35 minutes - but it's 4 days a week I think.