What Was I Thinking? - RGT
Posted by Joshua Carter on 20 Aug 2008 | Tagged as: Fat Loss
Note: It has been a while since I have posted an actual workout. Lest you all think I have lost my workout chops and am now nothing more than an amazingly clever and incredibly entertaining writer, I thought I would give you and idea of what I have been up to workout wise. Enjoy.
I should just start off by saying that I wasn’t thinking, not really. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, and there was no other reason- good, bad or as it turns out, evil.
I am talking about my most recent workouts.
I draw from all sorts of odd places for inspiration: other trainers, books, magazines movies, sometimes simple whims and occasionally the voices in my head.
A while back a colleague of mine, Craig Balantyne, made a bit of a splash with a “300″ workout- inspired by the film of the same name.
So the other day for some reason Craig’s workout popped into my head. I thought “Hey 300 is a really cool number.” Plus it was a cool movie too.
So I took Craig’s idea of completing 300 reps in a single workout, and then mixed that with Charles Staley’s EDT style of exercise pairings.
In EDT, or Escalating Density Training, you choose 2 exercises and alternate between the 2 for a given period of time. This is a huge oversimplification of how the EDT program works, but you get the idea. So instead of concentrating on number of reps per set, you are concentrating on completing as many reps as you can in the given time period. Each time you do the workout you try to get more reps completed in the same period of time thus increasing the “density” (get it? Escalating Density Training).
But that is not exactly what I did - I just wanted you to know where my head was. Insert your own joke here.
So my goal was to choose 2 exercise pairs (4 exercises total) and complete 75 reps per exercise for a total of… you guessed it 300 reps. I could do as many sets as it took and I did not put a time limit on it either. I would chose weight I thought would cause failure in the 8-10 range.
Now, whenever I create a workout for myself or others my basic philosophy is that if you can do it as prescribed then it was too easy.
Good news, this was not too easy. It was the opposite of easy. It was suck.
I just wanted to choose moves I that knew well and were not technically difficult to perform. Nothing fancy and like I said 300 reps just sounds so cool…
Here is the workout as I designed it:
A1: Deadlift
A2: Bench Press
B1: Kettle Bell Swing
B2: Cable Row
Remember 75 reps each, in as many sets as it takes. After I finish the “A” pairing, I move on to “B”. No problem.
Problem.
I finished “A” (barely) and thought I was going to die or puke or both. And I was not even sure of the order.
Then I only got 50 reps on each of the “B” moves and had to call it a day- well short of my goal which pissed me off. I was pretty much useless the rest of the evening and much of the following day.
Time to re-think things. So do you know what I thought for my next workout? 240 is a cool number too.
So I tweaked things a bit. For my next pairings I would go for 60 reps each. Much more plausible (at least for now) and would in all likelihood decrease the chances of me regurgitating in my own gym.
Here are some of my recent (mostly) completed “60’s” workouts:
Workout 1
Posterior Chain / Horz. Push-Pull
A1: Deadlift
A2: Bench Press
B1: Kettle Bell Swing
B2: Cable Row
Workout 2
Anterior Chain / Vert. Push-Pull
A1: Front Squat
A2: KB Pullover Decline Situp
B1: BB Thrusters
B2: Atomic Sit Up
Workout 3 (This one *REALLY* kicked my ass)
Posterior Chain / Horz. Push-Pull
A1: Tire Flip
A2: Dips (Full)
B1: Kettle Bell Swing
B2: Sledge Hammer Slam
Workout 4
Anterior Chain / Vert. Push-Pull
A1: KB Front Squat
A2: BB Clean & Press
B1: BB Thrusters
B2: Hanging Knee Raise (with pull up)
What you can take form this is that it does not take a rocket scientist to put together a cool and challenging workout. All I did was choose a few moves and set a (relatively random) rep goal. That’s it. Of course I made sure that there was balance- that I was pushing as much as I was pulling, and that I used the back of my legs as much as the front (basically).
Since I kinda came up with this, I will call this training style Rep Goal Training: RGT. (”RGT” also kinda looks like regurgitate, which makes it easy to remember)
All you need to do for RGT is pick a few big moves you know well, alternate between them for a challenging number of reps. Then give it all you got. If you can do the workout as you designed it, make it harder next time.
As for me I will revisit my new RGT foe the 75’s in the very near future. I’ll be damned if I will let a stupid randomly chosen number beat me. Next time I will be prepared.
Joshua Carter
http://carterfitness.com



