Here are three more fitness finishers you can try for your workouts. As before, I’ve explained what elements are important in each workout so you can customise them to your needs and gym layouts.
If you missed the last post, I discussed my definitions for fitness and conditioning there. I also provided three other example workouts, so if you’re looking for more fitness inspiration you should check it out.
1. Push Press/Lateral Raise/Squat AMRAP
Format: Grab some dumbbells for pressing overhead, and some lighter ones for lateral raises. You may also want an additional weight for squatting. Perform 6 push presses, 6-10 lateral raises, and 6-10 squats. Repeat as many possible rounds in a given timeframe (5-15 minutes recommended).
Reasoning: This workout has enough carryover from exercise to exercise that you’ll build up some muscular fatigue in your legs and arms, but it shouldn’t ever be enough to force you to stop. The combination of dynamic push presses, isolated raises, and compound squats should ensure that your cardio fitness is taken through various highs and lows.
Important bits: Some people are prone to neck tightness when their shoulders get fatigued. If this is you, this may not be the ideal choice of exercises. If you decide to keep the push press in, ensure you are very comfortable and confident with your overhead position.
The main aim is to go from a upper body compound movement, to an isolated movement for a similar muscle group, then to a lower body compound movement. So you could do:
- Row > Curl > Squat
- Pressup > Tricep Press > Squat
2. Sled Drag/Lunge/Carry
Format: Place your sled and 2 kettlebells at one end of the track. Walking backwards, drag the sled to the end of the track (this can be made easier with the detachable part of a TRX). Once you’ve reached the end, perform walking lunges until you’re back by the kettlebells. Once you’re carrying them, perform the carry variation of your choice until you’re back by the sled. Rest 30-60 seconds, then repeat 3-5 times.
Reasoning: There’s something very satisfying about fitness work that still allows you to work against challenging resistance. If nothing else, it allows you to live out your strongman/woman fantasies. Both the sled dragging and the carrying exercises here can be loaded to a high relative weight, challenging you to produce high forces as well as manage fatigue.
Important bits: Due to the emphasis on dragging/carrying heavy weights, the lunges are not meant to be super-fatiguing. That being said, only you know your limits and if you feel like loading them up with more weight, go for it. The drag can be swapped for a sled push if you don’t have handles to attach to the sled.
You can also check out some additional carry variations here.
3. Pushup/Row EDT
Format: Set up with some floorspace and either a barbell in a rack or a TRX. Perform a number of pushups that leaves you with plenty in the tank (at least 5 reps from failure). Then immediately perform rows at a similar intensity. Tailor the difficulty of the rows to match a similar intensity to the pushups. Continue to move from one exercise to the other with minimal rest (this is Escalating Density Training). Repeat for 5-15 minutes).
Reasoning: This training is a fantastic way to accumulate a lot of reps of a given exercise without burning out – I used these during lockdown to improve my pushups – an exercise that I normally fatigue on quite quickly. Pairing them with the opposite movement ensures that you’re matching the work performed by each muscle group, which is great for maintaining a balanced programme.
Important bits: With the right exercise pairing, Escalating Density Training can be used to hit that sweet spot between a) doing high-volume, high-quality work and b) absolutely binning yourself or causing an overuse injury. No matter what exercises you use, make sure they don’t compete with one another – that’s a fast route to failure. Also, make sure you select a difficulty that leaves reps in the tank in the early stages.
You should also come up with a plan to quickly and easily reduce the difficulty of the exercise. For example, during lockdown I performed the pushups/rows with a weighted vest on. When fatigue settled in, it was easy for me to take the vest off.
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