Muscle Up Top, Hustle Down Below

This program involves training four times per week, with no more than two consecutive training days to allow for rest and recovery. There are a number of possible ways to split this up:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

This program doesn't involve training more than four times per week because it assumes you're a recreational athlete or weekend warrior and are regularly (once or twice a week) playing or practicing a sport.

That means you should be spending less time in the gym than the guy who's just interested in working out because you also have to account for recovering from the physical demands of your sport.

This program consists of four different workouts, each with a different training focus and theme split:

• Day 1: Lower Body – Strength and Power
• Day 2: Chest and Back – Bodybuilding
• Day 3: Lower Body – Power/Endurance
• Day 4: Arms and Shoulders – Bodybuilding

Here's a sample workout, followed by an explanation of the finer points.

Perform B, C, and E exercises as tri-sets and perform D and F exercises as paired sets. Perform all indicated sets and reps in a given tri-set or paired set before moving on to the next set. If necessary, rest a bit longer than indicated between sets to complete the designated number of reps with good control.

Day 1: Lower-Body – Strength and Power

Coaching Notes

• For the sprints, jog up to the start cone and then sprint back as fast as you can. I recommend jogging up to the starting point to reduce the potential risk of injury, such as a hamstring strain, that can come from quick starts.
• B2 and B3 and C2 and C3 are what's known as contrast sets. On the heavy-lift portion (the first exercise in each contrast pair), perform the concentric lifting portion of each rep as forcefully as you can while maintaining optimal technique. Maintain good control during the eccentric (lowering) portion as well. Use a weight that allows you to do the indicated number of reps.
• Perform the explosive portion (the second exercise in each contrast pair) as powerfully and as fast as you can. If the exercise involves jumping, land as quietly as possible.
• Refer to Dynamic Training for Abs and Obliques for instructions on how to do exercises F1 and F2 (the horizontal cable chops variation).

Day Two: Chest and Back (Bodybuilding)

Coaching Notes

• Focus on the working muscles in each exercise and maintain strict form without cheating. Perform the concentric (lifting) portion of each rep at a normal tempo and maintain control during the eccentric (lowering) portion.
• Use a weight that allows you to hit the indicated number of reps in each set but no more.
• On the 1.5 feet on bench push-up, go down all the way, come up half-way, go all the way back down, and come up all the way. That's one rep!

Day 3: Lower Body – Power/Endurance

Coaching Notes

• On the 300-yard shuttle, place two cones 25 yards apart. Jog up to the start cone and then sprint as fast as you can back and forth between the cones. On each reversal of direction, touch the cone, alternating hands from one touch to the next. Six round-trips equals 300 yards.
• Refer to 7 Triple Threat Protocols for an Awesome Burn for instructions on how do the stability-ball hamstring complex and the ab complex.

Day 4: Arms and Shoulders (Bodybuilding)

Coaching Notes: Same as Day 2.

Every training day in the workout uses exercises strategically to develop what I call "full-range strength." But I have separate philosophies regarding the lower-body and upper-body workouts.

Lower-Body Workouts

Both lower-body workouts also incorporate abdominal training. The day 1 lower-body workout has a strength and power theme that not only involves some basic plyometrics, but also uses an old training concept referred to as contrast training.

You start with a set of fairly heavy lifts (4-6 reps) and follow it up about 45 seconds later with an unloaded explosive exercise using the same movement pattern and roughly the same number of reps. You might have done the same thing in the past by doing loaded squats and then following them up with bodyweight squats.

The heavier the load you're working against, the slower your movement is forced to become. But to improve your explosive power, you don't just do exercises that involve moving against high loads (strength exercises). You also do exercises that require you to move at high speeds.

As such, contrast training gives you a simple way to train strength (capability to produce force) and power (rate of force development) simultaneously. In addition, the increased work volume can improve your overall work capacity beyond what you'd get with simple strength training.

Keep in mind, though, this program is for recreational athletes who aren't training to be powerlifters, which is why it doesn't just copy what powerlifters do. The principles of specificity dictates that different training goals require different training approaches, and no one training approach is best for all goals. That's why this is a hybrid training program.

And while the strength and power training methods utilized in day 1 are great for improving your strength and explosiveness in short bursts, they're not so great for improving your power endurance (the capacity to produce the same level of power for a longer time, i.e., the length of competition).

In other words, traditional strength and power training methods don't prepare you fully to go five rounds or beat your opponent to the ball at the end of the fourth quarter. However, the training methods in the day 3 workout do help increase your power-endurance because they require you to perform a high amount of effort for extended periods of time, which is exactly what power endurance is.

Upper-Body Workouts

Both upper-body workouts are more like traditional bodybuilding. They're more volume oriented and the exercises involve a weight that allows you to perform about 9-15 reps per set. So, they're more about getting a great muscle pump.