Have you ever wondered if there is one single best workout that could be used by you, your family and/or your circle of friends? A workout that gives good results in a minimum amount of time, but can be used for a lifetime? There is such a program and in this article I'm going to give it to you.

My false sense of modesty prevents me from calling this the perfect program, or the best program or the ultimate universally effective program. But it's close.

This is the best all-around strength training program that I've come up with after 35 years of work in the field.

Let's call this the essential program, because it is the 'essence' of sound strength training principles distilled fom my own experience, great advice from other experts as well as past and present advances in exercise physiology and biomechanics. Some of my friends have asked me if the advice that I give today is markedly different from the advice I gave in my first book. I always say that the same general principles still apply but the difference is in the details.

"What book?" you say. Here's the story in brief. In 1978, Arco Publishing Company published my WORKING OUT WITH WEIGHTS. They printed several thousand hardbacks that were marketed to school libraries and several thousand paperbacks that were sold in bookstores. A few more printings later, Arco was bought by
Prentice-Hall, a company with vastly greater marketing resources. I still have a press release from the early 1980's that was sent out when the book passed 100,000 copies sold. It was my understanding that even when it reached its peak sales, the book never reached higher than #2 in fitness book sales. A certain current governor of California usually had one of his books at number 1. At any rate, several printings were made until 1995, when I was notified that it was being taken out of production.

The program that I'm providing for you below is centered around
two to three exercises per major muscle group and three sets of 10 repetitions of each of those exercises. This program will meet the needs of an overwhelming number of people who take up weight training. As you shall see in later articles, it can easily be adapted for sports-specific training,for advanced bodybuilding or for simple tightening and toning of the muscles. So get ready for a program
that has elements as old as the dawn of exercise science and as fresh as the latest published research from the professional journals.

EXERCISE SETS REPETITIONS

1.Flat Bench Press 3 10

2.Incline Bench Press or 3 10
Close-Grip Bench Press

3.Dumbbell Flys 3 10

4.Upright Rows 3 10

5.Alternate Dumbbell Press 3 10

6.Lat Machine Pull Downs or 3 10
Bent Over Rows

7.Curls 3 10

8.Triceps Pressdowns or 3 10
Lying Triceps Extensions

9.Half-Squats or 3 10
Thigh Extensions

10.Thigh Curls 3 10

11.Calf Raises 3 10

The following guidelines will help you maximize the usefulness of
this program:

1.Talk to your family doctor or a sports medicine doctor before using this or any weight training program. This is particularly true if you haven't worked out in years or there are some medical or injury issues (past or present) that need to be addressed.

2.If you are middle-aged or a senior, you might want to do only one or two sets of each exercise for the first several workouts. Tendons and ligaments, more so than muscles, take longer to condition to the workload past 40.

3.Do this entire workout 2-3 times per week. Allow a 48 hour recovery period after each workout. Each workout should take about an hour if you do all three sets.

4.Rest one and a half to two minutes between each exercise.
Drink water or sports drinks before, during and after the workout.

5.Use one or more of these methods to warm-up for your workout:
do several traditional stretches for the upper and lower body, do 5-10 minutes of 'cardio' prior to the workout, do a very light warm-up set of each of the exercises.

6.For the first month or two, you'll be using the same weight for each set of a given exercise. Pick a weight to use that makes the third set difficult to complete.

In two weeks, my next article will cover more details of the essential
program. If you have questions or comments before then, you may
e-mail me at: stevej@vei.net.