A Return To The Classics

It has been a long time since I've posted on this blog.  I've just gone through the happiest moment, then the hardest month of my life.  I won't go into all the details, since if you know who I am, you already know the story and I don't need to tell it again.

As I tried to get back into a normal, daily routine, I have had a lot of support from my best friend in getting into a workout routine at the gym.  It also helped that there were new racks, platforms, and other new 'toys' at the gym, so this made it even more exciting to return to the gym and get after the classic programs I've done.  There is also something unique about it by doing a classic program, back at the college that helped you discover it's effectiveness, too.

After a while, you can't keep searching for new programs, you need to stick with the classics that have been around and have been shown to work if you stick to them.

Now, I still like finding new stuff and adding a classic tweak to it, but overall, it was time to return to a solid training plan of working out with the heavy metal, mixing it in with bodyweight exercises, and make it a total part of my overall training regimen of running and biking, too.

Since my best friend Mitchell and I are from Finley, ND, and we both ran our bikes through the legendary "Rats Alley" between the buildings of downtown, we decided to get on my Rats Alley Barbell Club Manual's program with the 4 week pattern of 3x5, 4x5, 10-8-6-4, and 5 x 3 for our bench press and deadlifts.

We then mix in dips and bodyweight rows with the Jungle Gym II straps, a basic suspension training tool that was made before TRX made it popular. Dips are done on the new gym power racks with a special attachment.

We'll round it out with some bent presses or windmills for the core and end the workout with some curls and press-down supersets.

Mitchell bikes more than I do, while I try to do a blend of both biking and running.  My left tendon in my calf has been bugging me this past week, so my runs have been short and sweet and I may have to give a whole week off just to get it back to healthy. I have gone on some short and longer rides, going 15 miles on Tuesday night after the workout and heading out for a fat bike cruise of 16.5 miles on Saturday morning, tackling the gravel out in the country for a majority of it.  It was a slow ride, but a great workout.

Overall, the RABC plan is short and sweet and pretty simple in its structure to follow. Line it up with the percentages of "Just the Chart", another one of my resources on Kindle to pair up with RABC, and you have a winning program for less than $2 total.

Find both guides at http://tinyurl.com/rkofp

Lift Strong, Go Strong!

Coach Rick Karboviak
http://asapworkouts.com