Stop Wasting your Gym Time
There is so much wasted time in the gym doing small, single joint, isolation exercises… The Smyth Machine kickbacks you saw a fitness influencer do on TicTok did not grow her butt… and coming into the gym and going right into bicep curls is not the best way to grow your arms… there is a better way.
Mind you these lifts should be accessories to your main compound lifts, but we need to learn to prioritize and manage our gym time better. Now if you have 3+ hours a day to workout you can ignore this blog, but I’m telling you as a personal trainer who is in the gym 13+ hours a day. I do not have that much time to workout… nor do I want to. There is a hierarchy of exercises and I am about to give them to you for free. Prioritize these main lifts in your program and your gains will go through the roof, along with your free time.
Now after you warm up, you should start with something that not only hits compound muscle groups, but also awakens your CNS (central nervous system). Hitting the bigger “harder” lifts 1st will allow you to do more weight with them and create more tears and blood flow while we are fresher at the start of the workout. Let’s start with the biggest muscle grouping… Glutes
- Squat- Squatting will not only hit your major leg muscles (glutes, hamstrings & quads) it also forces you to brace your core against the bar and lights up your CNS. Making it one of the best and hardest lifts to start any workout. More on this with the next best starting exercise.
- Deadlifts- Heavy deadlifts are another way to awaken your senses and start that testosterone, Growth Hormone release. Also, the hinge movement lights up your core and requires a lot of oxygen to the muscles making you pump more blood, burn more calories and create big tears in your muscles forcing your body to work harder to repair them. You are not going to get DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness) from banded kickback!
- Pull-ups- The best Back & Biceps starter for many reasons. It can be weighted, multiple muscle groups (lats, rhomboids, traps, biceps & core) can be scaled (jumping, negatives, banded, machine assisted, but this one takes out the core stability) and gets your HR up and blood throughout the rest of your body to prime you for the rest of your workout.
- Bench or Shoulder Press- Staying stacked and bracing through the bench or floor is critical here. Make sure that you go heavy enough to force on stabilizer muscles and change angles (ie: degree of bench, standing/seated) and devices (ie: barbell, dumbbells, cables) Shoulders, Chest, Triceps & core all should be working here. Not as good as the 1st 3, but still your best pressing option unless you have a football press option in your squat cage?
- Power / Squat Cleans – My favorite prime movement. Total body from your toes to your traps. This is my go to movement and probably the exercise I would chose if I could only do 1 exercise for the rest of my life. Glutes, hamstrings in the start, energy transfer though the core and then again bracing though the catch and the squat. Amazing power output and Nervous system ingiter. Want to step it up even more? add a press, jerk or thruster to the end… Thank me later for the gains!
- Honorable Mentions- Glue Bridges, Lunges, Thrusters, Snatch… really anything that you can weight properly, is a compound movement (multiple joint/muscle groups) and generates total body blood flow.
Make sure that the exercise is hard and taxes your systems. You should be putting the hardest thing in your workout 1st when you have the most energy to expend on it. Please don’t be one of those people who waste their workout doing single joint movements or come to the gym just to say you went to the gym. You got here which is the hardest part, now put in the work and effort for the best return. Lift heavy weights, push your limits and you will get a good return on your time investment. Remember if it doesn’t challenge you, it’s not going to change you!
1% better everyday
Coach Murph