More Bang For Your Buck

With all the doom and gloom news about the economy I think a few tips on value and savings is in order.
But I am not talking about financial value and savings....I'm talking about training economy.


What exactly is training economy? I could be off a bit by what a textbook would tell us, but my version of training economy is getting the best bang for your buck when training.

I want to get bigger and stronger, Sally wants to lose fat and get leaner, and we both want to do it as fast as possible. We want results yesterday. So naturally Sally and I are going to choose the training plan, and exercises that yield the biggest results in the shortest possible time.

First I will tell you what is NOT a good "bang for your buck" exercise; (there are a lot of them)
Calf press
Wrist Curls
Crunches on a fitness ball
Triceps Kickbacks
Anything involving a bosu ball
Pedalling a recumbant bike
The list could go on for a while, but I think you get the point.

Here is my qualified opinion on what the most common and most effective "bang for your buck" exercises ARE:
Squats
Clean and Press
Deadlift
Bench Press (any variation of)
Chin-ups
push-ups
Sit-ups
Sprinting
Prowler Pushing or Sled drags
Rower Sprints

If I was heading to the gym and only had 30 minutes to train, I would choose 1 of the first 4 on the list and get to work. If you or me or Sally applied ourselves to working our asses off at any of these, or any combination of 2-3 of the listed exercises, there would be results on the way, without a doubt.

When you're in a hurry and/or just want to get results faster, pick a couple of the "bang for your buck" exercises and look the hell out. These are garaunteed to make the sweat drip from your face and have you crawling for the exit in no time.

The Aftermath (Recovering from the Safety Squat Bar)

Well, just as I expected the Safety Squat Bar blasted the crap out of my back, hips and quads.

Sometime around 3pm yesterday things really started to tighten up. The penguin walk was starting to develop from some seriously tight legs and man was my upper back tight.

Obviously if you want to get the most out of the next training session, not to mention be able to function at work the next day, you need to take some action on the recovery front.

Drum Roll Please!



If you haven't heard or used a foam roll, check it out here.


Now that we are on the same page, let me tell you why I feel the foam roll is so damn important to a quick recovery.

Because I've used it many times and it works!......DONE DEAL

I rolled out my quads (or I.T. Bands for those of you that like to get technical), my groin, my upper and lower back, I even rolled way up onto the traps. Standing up after the 10 minutes of restorative work, I can immediately feel the difference. My legs are still tender but I can move very freely and even drop into a deep oly squat position with ease.


So why are you still limping around for 2 days after your crazy squat session?

Grab a foam roll, recover faster and keep moving forward in the quest to be BIGGER AND STRONGER. (or in the case of most ladies just stronger and sexy looking)