Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

So I just joined a gym and want to revamp my workout. So i'm looking for suggestions, mainly about:

Total body workout vs 3 day a wekk splits
How many exercises per muscle group
Best exercises to increase strength (not only which exercises but free weights vs. cable machines vs iso machines).

If you start in the gymn, do one exercise with three repaets with low weight for every muscle group. Everything other will give you big pain the other day:eek: But, just ask you trainer.

I do three-four days muscle training a week (with light weights, don't want to look like a steroid a§§ with no brain) and the other day cardio training like jogging, running or at the cardio mashines in the gymn. One, sometimes two days off training, it will be possible that you'll be overtrained and that you're unable to lift a weight you had no problems with the day before.

And, I have the lifesavers ring in the middle of my body. Weightlifting makes you stronger but it is no diet. For myself, I love good food and sometimes a few beer. That is the problem I have with the middle of my body:D

So I just joined a gym and want to revamp my workout. So i'm looking for suggestions, mainly about:

Total body workout vs 3 day a wekk splits
How many exercises per muscle group
Best exercises to increase strength (not only which exercises but free weights vs. cable machines vs iso machines).

to each their own. total body v. 3 or 4 day split is going to depend on your preference. one is not necessarily better than the other.

2-3 exercises for larger muscle groups in my humble opinion, 1-2 for smaller muscle groups that will get hit with compound exercises anyway (ie: bis, tris). rep range should vary, never cement your feet in a 'one rep range fits all' mentality. i'm not big into light weight lotta reps, but that's me (others swear by it).

strength exercises....all the big ones and some cable work. deads (conventional, romanian or sumo), squats (front or back), bb row (bb or db), bench press (decline, incline or flat), db press (db's are easier on the shoulders), shoulder press, lat pulldowns, etc.

Get a pair of bag gloves and beat the life out of the heavy bag. Take the jump rope that nobody uses off the wall and wear it out. Find the medicine ball and slam it into the ground over and over like you're trying to break it. Do standing broad jumps onto or over the weight benches. Do pushups off of the stability ball. Throw a rolled up towel over the chinup bar and do some pullups. Put a 100lb plate on the floor and push it around the room.

Vorpal seems to workout like I do. You don't need a whole lot of fancy machines to get a great workout. Go by a tractor or tire store in your area and ask them if they'll give you one of their old tires that is just lying around. Once you get the tire, go buy as heavy a sledgehammer as you can find and start hitting the tire with the sledgehammer. The towel pullups that Vorpal mentioned are great for your grip and forearms, much better than doing wrist curls like so many people do. Buy a duffle bag, fill it up with 100 pounds or so of pea gravel bags or bags of sand and do shoulder presses and clean presses with it. It's much harder than doing the same exercise with a barbell as it fights against you. I don't like to pick on the bodybuilders out there b/c they have a great deal of dedication to what they do and a few are actually in good shape but most of the real big bodybuilder types have very little functional strength b/c they spend a lot of time isolating muscles which rarely happens in real life unless you make them. One thing to remember about the punching bag is to make sure and buy quality heavy bag gloves (at a minimum 12 oz. but preferably 16oz. for the protection along with quality hand wraps). Always wrap your hands if your hitting the bag b/c you only have two of them and you don't want to suffer a fracture by being stupid and not protecting them.