The Best Workout Routine Ever
I strongly believe this advice I have read in many Workout books, “The best workout routine is the one that you will do!” Many trends in the Health and Fitness world come and go. We are often ‘over-informed’ and ‘over-opinionated’, leading to ‘information constipation’ or a state where ‘fear’ or ‘perfectionism’ cripple us into a state of no action.
I am here to offer a workout routine that, so far, is the best workout routine ever that I have come across. It cuts through all the excuses, is scientifically backed up by multiple studies, aligns with longevity health, and strength, and is almost too easy to fit into all schedules.
Imagine this: A H.I.T. lifting workout - 5 lifts, 1 set each lasting 60–90 seconds with 30 seconds between each set; performed 1x per week. You are in and out of the gym in 12–15 min max. No need to perform any cardio during the week, in fact it is encouraged not to as you need to recover from this workout.
Overview — The Technique
This routine is a no-momentum routine. You move slowly during the lift anywhere from 5–10 seconds extension and another 5–10 seconds on the negative movement.
1x per week. As stated earlier studies show that there is no extra benefit in strength or muscle growth or strength by performing a 2nd or 3 set of lifting. All studies are referenced in the book (see link above to pick up a copy of the book)
1 set only per move. Studies show there is no added strength benefit for the 2nd and 3rd sets.
60–90 seconds for each set. Why? Our muscles are made up of fast and slow twitch muscles. These can be broken into 5 groups our brain calls in sequence to lift the load we are placing on the muscle groups. Yet our brain calls them in order and keeps the lower two groups in reserve to conserve energy. It takes 60 seconds of having the muscle under tension to exhaust the glycogen in these 3 groups. These groups can also recover within 30 seconds so you need to reach positive failure of the muscle between the 60–90 seconds window. On average this places your weight at 80% of your max.
Time Under Load (TUL) — this is the time your muscle is under the load of the weight. This should be somewhere in the 60–90 second window mentioned above. You need to be strict on keeping track of your TUL. You must never let the machine weight stack touch at the bottom or it reduces the load and lets the first 3 layers recover. You must also never fully extend placing the load on your joints and bone. This too will reduce the load and let the first 3 layers of muscle recover. The last 2 layers have much more glycogen stored in them compared to the first 3. You want to deplete these stores of energy through positive failure. This process is known as inroading which causes the ‘micro tears’ in the muscle tissue resulting in muscle and strength growth.
Positive Failure — failure in the extension or the push direction of an exercise to a point where your muscles can no longer move the weight. You are often pushing the weight and get stuck at some point along the movement.
Recovery — as you have probably never trained the lower 2 levels of muscle tissue and depleted their glycogen, you have never needed to allow these slow-recovering tissues to recover, repair, and grow stronger before. It will take a full week for this to happen, and additional recovery days may be needed in the future up to 14–21 days. You can still be active and live your life but you don't need to hit the cardio equipment. For some, this is the hardest part of the routine while for others you might gain 3+ hours of your gym life back into your day-to-day life.
The Big 5 Routine
Perform these in this order recording your TUL and LB for your single set each week. If your TUL is less than 60 seconds you picked too heavy of a weight. If your TUL is over 90 seconds you picked too light of a weight. Continue past 90 seconds until you reach positive failure, and increase the weight next week to one that will be within the 60–90 second window.
Use the basic machines for these lifts. There is a way to perform the Big 5 routine using free weights, that is for another post.
Remember to go as slow as possible in these movements but fast enough so it doesn't appear that you are starting and stopping the movement, it needs to be a smooth motion but lacking momentum. For most moves that is 5–10 seconds in each direction of the lift.
Seated Row — use a parallel grip (thumbs both point up), use a machine where the hands are separate grips if possible, do not arch your back, do not raise your shoulders
30-second rest — which is usually enough to get to the next machine, get setup, and then start lifting
Chest Press — position the seat so your hands are aligned with the height of your armpit, the starting position should be at 90 degrees of the elbow, and the shoulder should not extend beyond 90 degrees
30-second rest
Lat Pull Down — sit at the back edge of the seat, use an underhand grip (like a chin-up), use a machine where the hands are separate grips if possible, at the end of the pull motion perform a crunch and hold for 5 seconds and then release slowly back, remember to move slowly 5–10 seconds on the pull motion, 5-second crunch hold, and a 5–10 second negative-motion
30-second rest
Overhead Press — lower the seat so your arms start at a 90-degree angle, the machine should push up and away from your chest, do not arch your back off the back pad, and do not raise your shoulders
30-second rest
Leg Press — set up the seat to start below 90 degrees so that when you stop at about 90 you do not touch the stack, or pause at the top of the lift — create a very slow circular motion up and down not pausing at either end
Tracking the Big 5
Here is a basic Excel and or Numbers file you can keep on your phone to track your TUL and LBS for each lift each week for the Big 5. Some can stay on this for up to a year before they stop seeing gains in their lifts, others it will be shorter. Once that happens you can split the Big 5 into two lifts of 3 by adding one more exercise and you alternate lifts each week resulting in a 14-day recovery between exercises. Once you stop seeing gains there you go to a split 3 with 21 days recovery as you alternate through 3 lifts of 3 exercises. (Both these will be outlined in another post)
My Results
Here are my results after following the routine for 17 weeks. There were some struggles with some ‘sticking points’ mentioned in the book with certain lifts and certain machines. The dips in progress are often changes in machines or adjusting them differently as I was learning and tweaking things through my learning curve. I also had weekends where I wrecked my recovery with long days working in the yard, and it showed immediately on Tuesday (my lifting day).
I hope this routine is something that you can try and stick with as it can fit into most lifestyles. It is also fine if, after a while on the routine, you happen to take 2–3 months off as life happens. The studies in the book indicate that this is fine and there is little to no strength loss. Doug McGuff’s patients often treat the weekly visit like a Doctor's visit. It is what you do to maintain health and strength.
I have plans to do an official study of the TUL and LBS results of participants. If you want to participate please follow me on Medium for a future post on how to participate.