Don't Need the Perfect Routine

[Off Road]

Just a thought after working on my son's in-season football routine...

One thing that used to be a lot more popular back when I first started than it is today is that your routine doesn't need to cover ALL the bases. During your lifting career you will do a wide variety of different routines, so they don't all have to be perfect. There is too much emphasis being put on finding the perfect routine these days. Believe it or not, you could get away with not doing any bench press (horizontal press) and just focus on the military presses (vertical press) for a while. I'm sure eventually you will use a routine that includes the bench press and it will then "catch back up." Same thing could be done by alternating squats and deadlifts if you are a person that has difficulty with recovery. Every routine doesn't need to cover all the angles or every joint function as long as they eventually get worked in for part of the year.

[abett07]

great post

does the perfect balanced routine actualy exist ?

and as a trainer advances beyond the beginer stage do they need to be more concernd about targeting specific muscles ?

[MikeM]

Hi, my name is Mike and I have a perfect routine mania. I want all planes of force from all angles all the time heaven forbid some motion got short changed. Yeah, been trying to figure that out for a couple years. It's my addiction.

I need to drop that ideal. As weights get heavier, recovery is brutal and more crucial. Finding ways and picking spots to hammer hard at the most important thing and yet keep other areas humming along is the way to go.

At least that what I'm thinking now.

[BendtheBar]

Sometimes I still twitch when I realize I am not training bodypart X, and have to talk myself off the ledge.

You're using 3 lifts, it's working, calm down. You aren't Mr. Olympia.

[Fazc]

Good stuff.

[Off Road]

Originally Posted by MikeM

Finding ways and picking spots to hammer hard at the most important thing and yet keep other areas humming along is the way to go.

Exactly, it's a good way to keep progress going. When you reach the end of a long cycle of workouts and your lifts are starting to stagnate, picking just a few things to work on (and dropping the rest) can kick-start some new progression. Another idea is to just go in and hit your main lifts (Wendler's Jack Sh*t template). There's a lot of ways to do it but the point of it is to just focus your recouperative powers on a select few lifts to see if you can make those lifts really special. It's not a long-term training plan and at some point you should return to a well-rounded routine.

I was helping a friend of mine with his workout when he was stalling on most every lift. After a really long cycle of really good progress on many different lifts, he was just hitting a wall and felt really wiped out. I asked him what his most treasured lift was, to which he replied, the Trap Bar Deadlift. Just for fun we dropped everything except the Trap Bar and some overhead pressing. He got rid of everything else and stretched out his progression for another two months. He ended up finishing the cycle with a huge PR on his Trap Bar Deadlifts and was absolutely excited. The best thing was he didn't lose all of his strength and muscle like he thought he would on such a limited routine.