How I came up with my personal choice is mostly by trial and error. But before going throught what I currently do and why, here’s what I don’t do and why.

• Except for rare exceptions, I don’t do simple or single joint exercises, such as lateral raise, curl or extension. These exercises might be useful for bodybuilders working on symmetry and definition, but won’t give much to me.
• I don’t squat. Probably because of old knee/back injuries, squating was sometimes hurting me. I don’t do something if it hurts.
• I don’t bench press. Even if I have a power rack, so I could bench safely. I don’t bench because I don’t like it. What’s the point of doing something I dislike?
• I don’t do any over head press or pull behind neck. The reason is I get easily injured to my left shoulder… Again because of an old injury.

The list of what I don’t do is rather long. Is there anything left? Of course! Here’s what I do (please refer to this post for an example of a full program).

• I do deadlift. But not with a straight bar. I use a trap bar instead. Probably because of my leg vs torso ratio, it give my back some relief. And because I’m very careful with my knees, I do partial deadlift (I start a couple of inch above floor in my power rack).
• I do dip. Dip is a wonderful exercise. For me, much safer than bench press and no spotters required. It’s a real pleasure to push myself to failure -and beyond- on dip.
• I do chin or pull-up. Another wonderful exercise. Safe and easy to perform. I do chin with a simple pipe screwed on my basement ceiling. In order to limit discomfort to my wrists and forearms, I added a pair of Perfect Handles (Feb-24, 2010 update: it seems Perfectonline.com does not sell handles seperatly anymore. But as of this update, they were still available at some resellers on Amazon.com, for example).
• I do some “accessory” exercises. I do flat bench dumbbell fly; to “finish” my chest after dipping. I also do L-fly to help prevent shoulder injuries. Finally, I also do some abs work.

Until next post, Lift Consciously

Exercises

I have included only compound exercises that use many muscle groups simultaneously.

• Legs: Trapbar Deadlift, Calf Raise.
• Chest & Triceps: Dip, Flat Bench Dumbbell Fly.
• Back & Biceps: Chin-Up.

(That’s it!)

Workouts

I always do warm-up sets with roughly half the targeted poundage.

Workout #1

• Trapbar deadlift: 2 sets of 12 reps each.
• Calf raise: same as deadlift, after each deadlift rep.

I don’t go to failure for deadlift and calf. For some reason, I don’t see me dropping the bar half way through a lift…

Workout #2

• Dip: 2 sets of 10 reps each to failure.
• Flat bench dumbbell fly: usually 1 set of 12-18 reps.
• Dip again: 1 set of 10 negative reps.

For fly also, I don’t push myself to failure.

Workout #3

• Chin-up: 2 sets of 8 reps each to failure and 1 set of 8 negative reps.

Schedule

I do 2 training sessions per week. It is usually on Monday and Thursday. But I may move a day if I have a schedule conflict. If I train Legs on a Monday, I will not train them again before Thursday of the next week. So I train each muscle group every 10 days.

Each workout last about half an hour. I always train in the morning, after breakfast and taking care of the little family.

Until next post, Lift Consciously