Many people have inquired about adding weights to their workout regime. While I am a big proponent of weights, I strongly urge you to be careful as it is easy to hurt oneself and consequently lose all what you have gained. What I like about the workout below is that you don’t need aa lot of weight to get strong as well as endurance strong. Be sure to do exercises with good technique!!
The Marathon Bar (Weight Circuit Training)
Many of you workout with weights which is great. Weight training can be excellent for gaining overall strength specific to your sport. As helpful as it is, be sure to use proper technique and back off if you feel you have tweaked something. Heavy weights can be good, but again it seems to be the core of most people’s injuries.
With that said, I have a great circuit training regime that was developed by the Yale rowing team in the mid to late seventies. It alternates upper body with lower body giving both parts of the body a great strength and endurance workout. I promise you it will get you stronger and fitter for anything.
Take a weight bar of 15-45lbs, etc…without letting go of the bar, go through 10-20 reps of each exercise listed below. The idea is to do as many cycles of all 8 station of exercises (up to 4) as you can without dropping the bar. One can make it more difficult by using heavier weight for more strength training or less reps for endurance.
Below are the different stations:
1. Curls (Upper Body)
2. Squats (Legs)
3. Upright rows
4. One legged lunges
5. Military press
6. Dead lifts
7. Bent over rows
8. Cleans (from a squat to a lift to the chin)
This is an excellent way to keep muscularly strong and incorporate an aerobic element to your weekly workout schedule. I recommend starting with a weight that allows you to get through one rotation and see how you feel. Drop or increase the weight bar as you see fit. You ought to feel your heart at 85%-90% effort at the end of these.
Please post your response to share with the group on how it felt. I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts.
Cheers!