Sheri’s Workouts: Old School Strength Training

This set is for advanced exercisers with weight room experience –  it’s assumed you know the basics.  Talk to your coach, get a good book on weight training or hire a trainer if any of this doesn’t make sense to you, okay? This is serious stuff, weight training, and you don’t want to get hurt.

Cleans, Push-presses, Squats, Bench presses, and Deadlifts are some of the moves of ‘old school’, or Olympic lifting.  Strength training using Olympic lifts is the classic way to gain muscle strength and endurance. Olympic lifting requires a coach or trainer who is well-versed in the proper form necessary to execute these moves safely and effectively.  Many personal trainers today do not know or ‘get’ the compound, old school moves.  They are not in fashion, do not sell cool equipment, and require a great deal of skill that many trainers today do not spend the time to learn (most trainers today do not have backgrounds in bodybuilding).

These five exercises are OLD SCHOOL, Olympic moves – this means they are large, compound moves that direct your body to build strength, muscle and endurance.  Nothing – but nothing! – puts strength and muscle into your body faster than these old, die hard compound moves that the entire fitness industry has built on (most bodybuilding moves are actual components of these big old school Olympic moves).

IF YOU DON’T KNOW THESE MOVES GET SOME QUALIFIED HELP! IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOUR CORE IS ENGAGED AND YOUR ALIGNMENT IS PERFECT.   Your posture must be perfect for these moves to be effective and safe.  Using lighter weights until you have the moves ‘down’ will serve your body best.

Warm up with some light cardio (walking recommended) for at least 20 minutes for this routine.

OLD SCHOOL STRENGTH TRAINING (all body routine)

EXERCISE 1: (do three sets with 90 sec rests )

FARMERS WALK   (heavy dumbbells, 20 ft distance, walk SLOWLY with short steps and stay aligned; chest up!)  This move also works with your hand grip strength, which many women especially need to build for lifting.

EXERCISE 2: (do four sets of 8-12 reps with 90 sec rests )

SQUATS  (barbell at free standing squat rack.  Put a bench behind you so that when you come down, your butt touches it so you know you’re coming low enough.)

EXERCISE 3: (four sets to failure with 90 sec rests )

WIDE GRIP CHINS  (nothing builds a strong back faster.  practice.)

EXERCISE 4: (three sets of 6-10 reps)

BENCH PRESS  (heavy dumbells)

EXERCISE 5: (two to three sets of 6-10 reps)

DEADLIFTS  (barbell, med to heavy.  you won’t have much energy left by the time you get here.  use all you have left.  then go eat and take a nap.)