Strength workout plan

Remember: don’t need to increase weight if you don’t feel comfortable with it, rest well, eat
well, you’ll see good progress.

How the routine works

Every two weeks, the routine should change a bit, either by adding weight or making more
reps/series, if you don’t feel like it it’s okay, just when you feel ready (at some points it took
me almost two months to progress on weight)

So, divided in two circuits the first one is based on military press, row and lunges, the second
one is based on push-ups, pull-ups and squats. There should be about 30 seconds rest
between exercises, and 1 to 3 minutes when the circuit ends, once you are done with one
circuit, rest from 3 to 5 mins. (do not be lazy :p)

First circuit: (repeat from 3 to 4 times)

Military press -> row -> lunges (from 8 to 12 reps)

Second circuit: (repeat from 3 to 4 times)

Push-ups -> pull-ups -> squats (from 8 to 12 reps)

Start with 3 times/8 reps, then in two weeks try to go for the 4 times/12 reps, then go back to
3 times/8 reps but adding a bit of weight… And that’s how you progress.

Exercises
Militar press

Focused on shoulder/triceps, careful with your back, you can make it with a bar or with
dumbbells I recommend starting with dumbbells to gain stability.

Key points for DB militar press:

 Straight back
 Look forward
 Control the movement (don’t push with your feet)
 Neutral grip (like in the image below)

Example for DB:

Key points for barbell military press:

 Straight back
  Look forward
 Control the movement, do not bounce the barbell
 You can, and I recommend one foot with the knee a bit flexed, and the other foot back
for more stability

Row

Back focused exercise also, take care of your lower back if you make it with barbell, or care
with you shoulder if you make it with dumbbells, I, as a personal preference I like making it
with the bar, but just do it how you feel comfier.

Key points for barbell

 Straight back
 Neutral neck (evade any kind of stress on your neck)
 Flex your knees, and lean forward

Example for barbell: (two examples with different grips, use the one you like more)

Key points for DB row:

 Straight back
  Hit all the range of movement you can (do not exaggerate tho)
 Neutral neck
 Weight should go in a straight line

Example for DB row:

Lunges

Focused on the lower body, they hit pretty much every part of your legs. These can be made
either holding plates close to your body or with DB. I always preferred using DB cause is less
tension on the arms than holding the plate close to you. And if you cannot use weights is okay,
just do the movement.

Key points:

 Your foot should be flat during all the movement (the one that holds the weight, look
at the image)
 Straight back, do not lean forward or backwards, you’ll lose stability

Example:

Push-ups

They target chest, triceps and in some cases shoulder although is not recommended. You can
do push-ups with your own bodyweight, or if you cannot, support your knees on the floor,
when you fee like it, a good way to make it harder is putting your feet higher than ground level

Key points

 Hands at the height of your chest (a bit lower if you feel pain in elbow)
 Neutral hand position
  Hit all the range of movement, touch your chest with the floor, then go as high as you
can
 Straight back, do not bend your back or push your butt upwards

Example with knees:

Example without knees:

Example with higher ground feet:

Pull-ups/chin-ups (for me both are pull-ups)

So, pull-ups are focused pretty much on all the upper body (even abs), you can make them
with two grips, mix them because both work different parts of your back and arms. If you
cannot do pull-ups is okay, use something to get at a high level (chair, block or something) and
hang from the bar, and go down slowly, doing this you’ll get eventually to do pull-ups 😊 it
takes time though, so don’t get frustrated!

Key points:
  Mix the grips to hit all the upper body
 Careful with your elbows
 I like flexing my knees and bend them forward to work more my abs (don’t know if it’s
good, but it works)

Example of assisted pull-ups:

Example of pull-ups with different grips (no need to use such a wide grip like in the first image,
hands should be at the shoulder height):

Squats

Squats are one of my fav exercises, but also one of the hardest to make correctly, on what is
focused it depends on how you are going to make them, so, you should try deep squats, which
works almost all your leg (the squats vary on the bar position tho, the deep squat is for me, the
only real squat), probably you cannot do weighted squats, so at first you’ll improve your
technique by making them with low weight DB holding it up close to your body

I let you a video which helped me a lot: (this video is long, but it pretty much sums up all what
you need to know about squats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmNPOjaGrVE)

Key points:

 Straight back
 Before going down, hold your breath and strengthen your core (abs) (do not mistake it
with pushing, careful because a fart can scape there)
 Your feet should be in a 45 degrees angle (pointing a bit outside
 The bar should go straight all the movement, lean forward a bit, but not too much or
you can hurt your lower back.

If you use a DB same points applies to this, except for the last point which we will change for:

 Try to stick the DB close to you but not too close

Example with barbell:

Example with DB: