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Strong 30 Page �1 Masonfit.Com 10 Getting Started Here’s what you need to know before diving in: 1. It should always be fun. Consistency will be the most important factor in attaining the results you want. The best program is the one you can stick to. If you’re having trouble staying consistent because of an exercise you hate or some other reason in this program, change it and change it early on. 2. Make a schedule for the 3 training days in this program. The odds of you completing every workout in the 30 days go WAY up when you have all 12 workouts scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 PM. 3. Keep it simple and don’t overthink things. The rest of the information in this guide may get a little technical or heavy on the science. Remember that this fitness stuff is not that serious and we’re exercising to enhance our lives, not add stress. 4. This program is just an outline. If you have to modify it in any way DO NOT feel like you have failed in any way. I designed it with making modifications in mind so that I could give it to anyone at any level of fitness. 5. If you’re going from the couch to this program be sure that you’re warming up properly and have the prerequisite mobility to complete every exercise. If you don’t, I would love for you to take one week to ease into things. The exercises in this program should be challenging but never painful. So if you are experiencing pain it’s likely a user error. 6. A support system is a HUGE help in any program or lifestyle change. Feel free to send this program to a friend or family member and have them complete it with you. 7. Remember, increasing your activity level doesn’t mean you get to eat more. Unless your goal is weight gain. In that case, eat more. 8. Never hesitate to email me about any questions/comments/concerns throughout this program. 9. The gym is not as judgmental of a place as you may think. Sure, it can be a little intimidating at first but relax and before long you’ll feel right at home. If you’re struggling with this, see #6. STRONG 30 PAGE !1 MASONFIT.COM 10. You won’t need any fancy supplements here. Spend that money on better food choices, workout clothes, and maybe your potential support systems gym membership fee or something like that. 11. Don’t stop at 30 days. I’ve laid out how to proceed after the first month at the very end of this so no excuses. 12. Everything from this point forward may not be as riveting as Fifty Shades of Grey, but it is almost necessary reading. Within the next 10 minutes you’ll be a well educated, ready to exercise, ass kicking machine. Factors of Muscle Growth There are three main factors for stimulating muscle growth. They are, mechanical tension (the intensity or weight you are lifting), muscle damage (breaking down your muscles during training to rebuild muscle fibers stronger for next time), and metabolic stress (buildup of metabolic waste due to anaerobic training AKA the “burn”). All three play separate roles and are independent of one another for the most part. Meaning that just because you aren’t sore after a training session doesn’t mean you aren’t building muscle. I would say the most important of the three is mechanical tension, or the weight lifted and total training volume. This is why this program will focus on progressing week in and week out. (Progressive Overload) As we progress total work volume there is no doubt we are getting stronger, building muscle, and improving body composition. Remember, total volume is king. Exercise Variation You won’t find much variation in the exercises in this program. Even if the program was extended beyond 30 days, there wouldn’t be a ton of variation. The reasoning is once again, science. Exercise and strength training is a skill. You have to master a movement to really begin to reap the benefits. Most of any strength gain when beginning a new exercise is just neural adaptation, and although some muscle growth is occurring, it is minimal compared to after an exercise is mastered by the nervous system. Learning new exercises all the time is inefficient, and you should really aim to master every exercise in the program. Focus on the muscles you are aiming to work in each exercise. The only exception here would be if an exercise becomes too easy, and you have to scale up on an exercise. Try to see the bigger picture. Now, I’m a big believer in having fun with your training. After all, if you don’t enjoy it you’ll never stick with it. So play around with the accessory exercises at the end of workouts and activities outside of the gym. But improving your skills at the compound movements like pulling, pressing, and squatting will inevitably lead to less total time spent in the gym and greater results. Rep Ranges How high or low should you go with repetitions? Here’s a good rule of thumb. • 8-12 – primarily for muscle hypertrophy (building) – allows weight to be moderate enough to minimize injury while stimulating new muscle growth. This should be your sweet spot. • 15+ - primarily muscular endurance – though some accessory exercises like bicep curls or glute bridges may require higher rep schemes to properly stimulate hypertrophy STRONG 30 PAGE !2 MASONFIT.COM • 4-8 – a blend between strength/power training and muscle hypertrophy – as you become more advanced it is ok to lower rep schemes and experiment with heavier weights. • <4 – primarily strength/power development – a majority of the adaptation in this range will be nervous system related and less muscle hypertrophy. Lifting Tempo I’m not much of a stickler on super specific tempos, as long as you’re under control. You do the majority of muscle damage (essential for building muscle) on the eccentric portion of a lift, or the lowering of a weight. For this reason, a slow and controlled lowering of a weight should be your focus on each exercise. If it helps, count to two in your head during each eccentric phase. Your concentric phase, or the actual “lifting” portion should be as explosive as possible on each rep. Here are a few examples of the concentric and eccentric on a lift. • Squat o Eccentric – squatting down o Concentric – standing back up • Push Up o Eccentric – lowering to the floor o Concentric – pushing yourself back up • Bicep Curl o Eccentric – lowering the weight to your side o Concentric – curling the weight up Rest Periods Similar to lifting tempo, I’m a bit laissez-faire when it comes to rest periods. Depending on where you’re at in terms of cardiovascular fitness, this could range anywhere between 30 seconds to 3 minutes on exercises like squats. In general, your bigger compound movements like squats, presses, and pulls should require between 30-90 seconds rest between sets if you’re working in the 8-12 rep range. As long as you’re not on your phone for 5 minutes between sets you should be fine – catch your breath, shake ‘em out, and get back to work. On accessory exercises like curls, lateral raises, hamstring curls, etc. you may only need 30-60 seconds between sets. This could be a good opportunity to elicit more metabolic stress, which is good! Shorter rest periods as a whole are more effective at burning fat, getting stronger hormonal responses after training (better recovery), and improving cardiovascular health. So like I said, get off your phone. Scaling Exercises The exercises included in this program are relatively basic and picked primarily for their scalability and low barrier of entry. You can take the basic outline of the program and by simply tweaking the exercise difficulty, have an awesome progressive strength training program. Let’s run through a few examples. Lat Pulldown – Increase the difficulty by swapping these out for Pull Ups. STRONG 30 PAGE !3 MASONFIT.COM Goblet Squat – Increase the difficulty by going with a barbell back squat or front squat. Decrease the difficulty by going to a bodyweight squat or bench squat. Dumbbell Chest or Shoulder Press – Decrease the difficulty by moving to a machine press. Increase the difficulty by going to a barbell bench press to move more weight. Bench Dips – Increase the difficulty by moving to a traditional chest or tricep dip on parallel bars. You could also elevate your feet on a bench for more of a challenge. Sumo Dumbbell Squat – Increase the difficulty by moving to a sumo barbell deadlift or elevating your feet on two steps or bumper plates for greater range of motion. Rows – Read this. If you have any questions about exercise modification do not hesitate to ask me a question. Progressive Overload It’s not as complicated as it may sound. Progressive overload can be as simple as increasing the weight lifted from your previous session or even increasing the repetitions performed with the same weight. Total volume is a very important factor to progressive strength training. Example 1: A goblet squat performed with a 50lb dumbbell for 3 sets of 10 reps (30 total reps) = 1500 lbs total lifted for that exercise. Example 2: A goblet squat performed with a 50lb dumbbell for 2 sets of 15 reps (30 total reps) = 1500 lbs total lifted for that exercise. Example 3: A goblet squat performed with a 100lb dumbbell for 1 sets of 15 reps (15 total reps) = 1500 lbs total lifted for that exercise.
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