Garage Gym Chronicles: 02/22/2025 Workout of the Day
Warm up: 2 sets of dead bugs & single leg glute bridges
Block 1 (20 min strength circuit)
A1: single arm military press-5-10 reps per set
A2: pullups-5-10 reps per set
A3: 1 hand kettlebell swings-5-10 reps per set
Block 2 (the important stuff. Aka, bis, tris, & calves)
B1: incline dumbbell curls-3x8-15
B2: cable pushdown-3x8-15
B3: calf raises-3x8-15
Here's how it went for me.
Block 1 (20 min strength circuit)
A1: single arm kettlebell military press-4x5/5 (20 total reps per side)
A2: pullups-4x5 (20 total reps)
A3: 1 hand kettlebell swings-4x10/10 (40 total reps per side)
Block 2
B1: incline dumbbell curls-11,10,6
B2: cable pushdown-15,15,12
B3: offset kettlebell calf raises-12/12, 10/10, 10/10
Total time = 36 minutes
This is a fun way to train. You don't need to go close to failure each set in this workout. But you can if you want. I'm still getting back into things after a busy week of international travel followed by a busier week of training clients from all hours of the day (5:30am – 5:00pm) every day.
Just accumulate reps and rounds, rotate through the exercises while resting as much as you wish, and enjoy the movement and knowing that you're hitting every major muscle group in the body (legs were posterior chain today, so quads being the exception) and feeling good about it afterwards.
Move and groove.
I could have chosen to push my earlier sets harder during the 20 minute strength circuit, but I figured I'd stay static with 5 reps in anticipation that it'd be pretty difficult by the 4th round. I anticipated appropriately.
People over look this style of training – hitting an exercise for a few big movement patterns, rotating through at your own pace, leaving some reps in reserve, then blasting arms and calves. But as I said earlier, it's a very fun way to train and it's also very effective and time efficient for general health, strength, and muscle.
It won't be the best way to train for any of those qualities, but for generalists who thrive off consistency – it's a very good option.
Efficiency, consistency, and increasing reps, rounds, time (longer duration of strength circuit, such as 30 minutes), and increasing the weight over time will promote gains. But, you don't have to kill yourself to get stronger, bigger, and better conditioned. You can improve just by practicing regularly and adding an extra set here, an extra rep there, and, eventually, when 10 reps feels pretty doable, increase the weights by 5-10%. Again, I think it's an underrated method for getting bigger and stronger with less stress.
Plus, let's be honest — full body sessions are exhausting if you're trying to go close to failure on a push, a pull, and a compound leg exercise.
While the exact answers to how hypertrophy works are still unknown (according to the honest people that actually conduct research around exercise science) there are 2 ways that seem to build muscle for most normal people:
Way 1: high intensity, low-moderate volume.
Way 2: moderate-high volume, moderate intensity.
I like doing both. Today's workout is an example of "Way 2."
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