BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, CSCS
After months of training hard, it’s beach season, and you should get to enjoy it. And that means sliding away from chasing gains into maintenance mode, a training level many people don’t understand.
Pulling back from the constant pursuit of bigger weights and more reps gives your body a chance to recover from harder training blocks, letting tendons and bones recover. If you go your hardest all the time, you’re essentially never giving your body a chance to fully rebuild after your most vicious workouts – and it’s this rebuild process that sees you make the adaptations (building new muscle and stronger tissues) that translate to gains.
Summer marks the perfect time for a workout that makes you work without crushing you. That’s the idea behind this maintenance workout. Do it two or three times a week, and you’re hitting all the fundamentals you need for longevity, having fun – and getting out of the gym in about 20 minutes, too.
EXERCISE 1: Renegade Row
Every workout starts with a fundamental pulling exercise, which protects your shoulders and hones your posture. The renegade row does more than that, too, blasting abs and glutes, and revving your heart rate. It’s also priming your body for the moves to come, too. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
EXERCISE 2: Burpee to Overhead
No, burpees aren’t for every training block, but they are a great way to test basic athleticism. You’ll get that challenge here, while also getting to powerfully drive a weight overhead. That overhead action is something you absolutely must train. Stick to light dumbbells, and do reps for time, working for 40 seconds, then resting for 40 seconds. Do 3 sets.
EXERCISE 3: Lunge to Chop
Finish this session with a leg move, blasting quads and glutes with the reverse lunge. The chop adds a new challenge for your abs, challenging you to twist your torso, great for obliques and key for all those times you have to reach into the back seat of your car. Do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side.