| If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 100 times: some of the best workouts appear almost too easy — but they can be an incredibly effective way to become stronger and transform your body. |
| To the untrained eye, workouts with lots of exercises, bells and whistles, and unique movements are the key to excellent results. |
| To the expert, a workout with fewer movements, more intensity and focus, and a planned progression gets the job done. |
| How it works |
| Each workout is just two exercises, one lower body and one upper body. But you’re not limited to a single movement; you can do variations of the exercises. (For example, Romanian deadlifts instead of deadlifts, single-leg squats instead of back squats, overhead presses instead of bench presses, etc.) |
| You’ll do three work-up sets, where you progressively add weight to prepare yourself for the working sets. You’ll do two work sets, with the last set being maximum effort and stopping about 1-rep short of failure. You’ll use longer rest between sets (2 to 3 minutes). You can do 3 to 4 weekly workouts and follow this pattern to get stronger on these four primary lifts. |
| Workout 1 |
| Exercise 1: Deadlift (rest 2-3 minutes between sets) |
| Set 1 (work-up/warmup): 8-10 reps |
| Set 2 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 6-8 reps |
| Set 3 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 2-4 reps |
| Set 4 (add weight): 5-8 reps |
| Set 5 (add weight): as many reps as you have left (stopping 1-rep short of failure) |
| Exercise 2: Bench press (rest 2-3 minutes between sets) |
| Set 1 (work-up/warmup): 8-10 reps |
| Set 2 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 6-8 reps |
| Set 3 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 2-4 reps |
| Set 4 (add weight): 5-8 reps |
| Set 5: (add weight): as many reps as you have left (stopping 1-rep short of failure) |
| Workout 2 |
| Exercise 1: Front or back squat (rest 2-3 minutes between sets) |
| Set 1 (work-up/warmup): 8-10 reps |
| Set 2 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 6-8 reps |
| Set 3 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 2-4 reps |
| Set 4 (add weight): 5-8 reps |
| Set 5: (add weight): as many reps as you have left (stopping 1-rep short of failure) |
| Exercise 2: Any row variation (rest 2-3 minutes between sets) |
| Set 1 (work-up/warmup): 8-10 reps |
| Set 2 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 6-8 reps |
| Set 3 (add weight, work-up/warmup): 2-4 reps |
| Set 4 (add weight): 5-8 reps |
| Set 5 (add weight): as many reps as you have left (stopping 1-rep short of failure) |
| Give it a try and start your week strong! |
