A Fool-Proof Strength Prescription
Here is a simple guide to create your own effective strength and muscle building program.
In this edition of Momentum you’ll learn how to program your own strength and muscle building workouts to make sure you’re meeting, and hopefully exceeding, the current physical activity guidelines. I’ll also give you two mad-libs style workouts so you can easily reach these goals.
Last week we covered A Fool-Proof Cardio Prescription to ensure we are meeting the weekly physical activity guidelines for conditioning.
For many years, strength training recommendations were omitted from these international guidelines.
But no more!
Strength training is vital to health and anybody with muscles that attach to bones should be doing it.
But how much should we be doing each week? How hard does it need to be? What body parts should be focused on? Are some exercise choices better than others?
Let’s take a look…
The Current Physical Activity Guidelines
The physical activity guidelines for adults set by the World Health Organization give us a minimum exercise goal to achieve good health.
These minimum guidelines for cardio that we covered last week are:
150-300 minutes per week of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise OR
75-150 minutes per week of vigorous intensity cardiovascular exercise OR
An equivalent combination of both moderate and vigorous intensity cardiovascular exercise
The minimum guidelines for strength training are:
2 days per week of muscle strengthening exercise that work all of the major muscle groups of the body
Sadly, only 24.2% of Americans currently meet these guidelines.
For this post, we are focusing on how to achieve the strength training and muscle building weekly minimums, so let’s look at those a little more.
Meeting & Exceeding Physical Activity Guidelines
Now, remember that these are minimum guidelines and more would certainly be better.
The muscular guidelines aren’t as specific as the cardio guidelines. There really isn’t any mention of intensity, specific exercises, muscle groups, or really anything outside of just do it twice a week for the major muscle groups of the body.
If I worked for the WHO, oh boy we’d all be in trouble.
We’d be jacked, but still in trouble.
Anyway, here is my strength prescription to get you healthy, strong, and jacked.
Dr. Nick’s Strength Prescription
Meeting the Minimum: 2 days per week of muscle strengthening
Two Day/Week - Full Body Routine
Day 1 and Day 2
Lower Body Squat Movement [squat, lunge, leg press]
Upper Body Pulling Movement [pull-ups, lat pulldowns, rows]
Lower Body Hinge Movement [deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, hip thrusts]
Upper Body Pushing Movement [push-ups, bench presses, chest press machines]
+Extra Movement for your specific goals [whatever you want to work on for your specific goals]
Each workout you should use different exercises and do between 2-4 sets of 6-20 reps on each exercise with a focus on progressive overload from workout to workout and week to week and making the last few reps of any exercise a challenge.
Exceeding the Minimum: 3 days per week of muscle strengthening
Three Day/Week - Full Body Routine
Day 1
Lower Body Squat Movement [squats, leg presses]
Upper Body Vertical Push Movement [overhead press, shoulder press machine]
Lower Body Lunge Movement [walking lunges, reverse lunges, step-ups]
Upper Body Vertical Pull Movement [pullups, chinups, lat pulldowns]
+Extra Movement for your specific goals [whatever you want to work on for your specific goals]
Day 2
Lower Body Hinge Movement [deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, hip thrusts]
Upper Body Horizontal Push Movement [push-ups, chest press machine, bench press]
Lower Body Knee Flexion Movement [seated/prone hamstring curls, hamstring slides]
Upper Body Horizontal Pull Movement [db rows, machine rows, cable rows]
+Extra Movement for your specific goals [whatever you want to work on for your specific goals]
Day 3
Lower Body Squat Movement [squat, lunge, leg press]
Upper Body Pulling Movement [pull-ups, lat pulldowns, rows]
Lower Body Hinge Movement [deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, hip thrusts]
Upper Body Pushing Movement [push-ups, bench presses, chest press machines]
+Extra Movement for your specific goals [whatever you want to work on for your specific goals]
Each workout you should use different exercises and do between 2-4 sets of 6-20 reps on each exercise with a focus on progressive overload from workout to workout and week to week and making the last few reps of any exercise a challenge.
Go Lift Some Weights
Not every type of strength training is created equal.
You can use bands, calisthenics, machines, or free weights to achieve these guidelines.
If you are pushing within close proximity to muscular failure you will achieve the adaptations you’re looking for.
Strength, however, is specific.
Don’t expect to get a stronger bench press by only doing push-ups.
If your goal is to be able to walk up the stairs carrying your grandkids then maybe dumbbell step ups are a good exercise choice for you.
The key components to building strength and gaining muscle are:
Progressive overload
Training close to failure, within 5 reps
Consistency
I covered a lot about muscle building science in this 3 part series: check out parts I, II, and III.
Wrapping Up
Make sure you’re meeting the current physical activity guidelines for both strength and cardio. For cardio, try to log between 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity cardio at a heart rate of between 64-76% of max OR 75-150 minutes of vigorous intensity cardio at a heart rate of between 76-93% of max OR a combination of the two while also doing at least 2 days of muscle strengthening work.