Just before I went back to for my master, I decided to run for my life – put on an old t-shirt, short and a pair of dress shoes and hit the pavement.
It had been so long since the last time I jogged – I did not have a pair of running shoes!
After five minutes, I was petered out and mindfully shocked. Just a decade ago, the typical five miles run was a walk in the park – was this an inevitable loss due to the aging process? I was 30 at the moment.
I pressed on for another five minutes and walked home. As I slowly walked back, there was so much emotion that ran through me. All the dreams and aspirations in the early years seem to move a little further in distance – physically, I was falling behind faster than I had anticipated.
After a moment of despair, I decided that it was time for me to invest time in recovering the precious health I have been taken for granted.
I settled to return home after just 10 minutes run, but I was determined to execute a nonstop 15 minutes run the next day.
Using the incremental 5 minutes approach, after the first month – I was able to jog continuously for 45 minutes without the feeling that my heart was about to burst out my chest as on the first day.
In less than 2 months, I was able to log a 5 mile run in 1 hour – physically, I had found the 30 years old I needed to continue the journey of bringing my dream and aspiration into reality.
Few months later I joined the gym, rekindled with the hobby of natural bodybuilding – and rediscovered the benefits I have experienced in the early years.
Once I have educated myself on the Keep It Simple Diet, designing the Keep It Simple Workout was much easier.
Below is the anatomical illustration of the majors muscle groups.
The traditional workout split separated the upper and lower body structure. For the upper workout, chest and triceps are paired for day 1. Back and biceps are grouped for day 2 with lower body is worked on day 3 – rest 1 to 2 days and repeat the routine.
The Keep It Simple Workout routine will split the body into 5 workouts and rest 2 days –
- Day 1 – Chest
- Day 2 – Back
- Day 3 – Quadriceps, Gluteus, Hamstring and Calves
- Day 4 – Biceps and Triceps
- Day 5 – Trapezius and Shoulders
- Day 6 – Rest Day 1
- Day 7 – Rest Day 2
If you pay attention to the details, you will notice that I left out the core.
Each workout day is started with 2 miles jog on the treadmill. The jog is highly recommended to warm up the muscles group preparing them for the workout and jumpstart your body perspiration cycle.
Jogging is the simplest and an effective exercise for the core. As you get older, your five basic senses age and the jogging will help maintain your core at the optimal shape to compensate for the decline in sensory.
Moreover, your abdomen (core) is worked as secondary in all workout routine – just because it is part of the anatomy as a whole.
Let’s get on with Keep It Simple Workout – Day 1 Chest.
Time duration – 1 hour 20 minutes
- Warm up jog on the treadmill – 20 minutes
- Flat bench dumbbell press (5 sets @ 7 to 10 repetitions, 2 minutes rest) – 15 minutes
- Incline dumbbell press (5 sets @ 7 to 10 repetitions, 2 minutes rest) – 15 minutes
- Machine fly (5 sets @ 12 to 20 repetitions, 2 minutes rest) – 15 minutes
- Pushup 5 X 3 super sets – 15 minutes
- Set 1 – 20 to 50 pushups depending on your capability
- 8 seconds rest
- Set 2 – 5 to 10 pushups depending on your capability
- 8 seconds rest
- Set 3 – 5 to 10 pushups
- 2 minutes rest
- Repeat step a (5 times)
Chest day begins with 20 minutes jog on the treadmill. Return to the basic, most of us do remember our gym teacher always start the lesson with a warm up run around the field or the gymnasium – the jog will warm up your muscles and turn on the perspiration cycle for an effective workout.
To keep my body fat below 18 percents body fat, I run 2 miles at 10 minutes per mile pace.
If you just started out and would like to lose weight, I would split the workout time to two halves and devoted the first half on the treadmill. You will see the result much quicker than just working out with weights.
Once you have get your body fat down to 20 to 25 percents body fat by visually compare as instructed in Keep It Simple Diet – reduce your time on the treadmill back down to 20 minutes.
In the early days of chest workout, I had to compete for time on the barbell flat bench. It is the most popular chest exercise among gym enthusiasts.
At the lower weight press, it is effective and efficient. However at the higher weight of 225lb and greater, it is becoming a liability.
Because of the barbell rigid structure and the heavy weight, the left and right rotator cuff works against one another with each movement of the lift – overtime, the wear and tear becomes a liability.
The dumbbell flat bench is a much safer and more effective at allowing the left and right side of the body to work with their respective joints – without compromising additional weights to challenge the chest muscle.
The upper chest muscle is rarely used in the everyday activities – hence, it will not have any opportunity to develop and lose its mass as we get older. The incline dumbbell press will solve this problem.
When it comes to natural body building as a hobby, you can mentally think of yourself as an artist – and your body is the art work.
The amount of weight and the number of repetition determined the size of the big brush and the small brush – it is recommended that you start your workout with heavy weight and low repetition with the flat and incline dumb bell presses.
It is time for the small brush!
Machine fly is becoming a universally accepted in most gyms around the world because of its popularity. In the last six years of traveling around the world, I have yet found a gym that does not have equipped the fly machine for its members.
A common paranoia among the gym enthusiasts – we fall in love with a particular exercise machine when it is engineered with such finest that it flows flawlessly with the execution of the movement.
To get the best of out the fly machine, visualize you are about to give the love of your life the biggest bear hug – and repeat it to exhaustion.
Finally, we can wrap up the Keep It Simple Workout – Day 1 Chest with the old fashion push-ups.
The top three compounded exercises are – push-ups, pull-ups and squat. They get the most coverage for the majors muscle groups.
To execute push-ups effectively as a small brush, do it slow and control to the last repetition. For the gals and heavy individuals, rest your knees on the ground for the routine until your core is strengthen overtime.
Final note – an hour before workout, I consumed approximately 1 to 2 cups of plain oatmeal with a little of coffee to give it flavor and a banana – actually, the caffeine from the coffee helps nudge me up onto the treadmill.
During the year, when I feel like bulking up, I will have a scoop (20 grams) of whey protein shake right after working out – otherwise, I will just skip the shake and lose the calories to achieve the leaner look.
Have fun on chest day and please let me know if it works for you (continue with Keep It Simple Workout 2)
Let’s play the game of life!
