Deal with it

Some people are generalists.
I'm not.
I have chosen to become good at three lifts. My goal is to improve those poundages. Losing weight, gaining weight or maintaing weight does not factor into my goal. Some people have no goals, whatsoever. Then they pickup Crossfit and start wearing Vibrams 5 fingers.
Bad idea.
Save yourself thousands of dollars and don't "drink the Kool-Aid."
Or they start looking into Men's/Women's Health/Fitness and find silly bullshit to do. The squat-to curl-to overhead press is not a total body movement... It is a travesty.

                                                               Dumbass.


The fitness industry thrives off of novelty. To keep these magazines running, writers do their best to combine, rework, complicate and add twists to the fundamental movements: pushing, pulling and squatting.
Do you really think a fitness magazine would last if every week they had this routine printed on every page?

      Overhead press
      Squat
      Deadlift (or clean if you know how to properly execute the movement)

      Sets: As many as you want.
      Reps: As many as you want.

Now, what if you don't care about being the most muscular or the strongest?
Well, all hope is not lost. The tool for becoming the strongest with a barbell is, surprise! A barbell.
If you're saying to yourself "I don't want/have a barbell! How will I become better than the vast majoritiy of everyone in America by not being a lazy, useless fatass?!"
Use what you have. That's how.

Scenario 1:
You have a barbell.
You don't need to read any further.

                                                              Awesome.




Scenario 2:
You have machine(s).
See scenario 4.


Scenario 3:
You have a dumbbell. Any dumbbell that is not adjustable is pretty useless for this scenario. You can't progress, therefore it will have to be relegated to assistance movements if desired.
Just do whatever you'd do with a barbell, but with a dumbbell.
An "all-round" program could include the dumbbell clean and press and either the single leg squat or the "Bulgarian" split squat.
If it were me, and I only had access to one dumbbell and one dumbbell only, I'd use the one arm dumbbell swing (not the idiotic kettlebell-type swing...)
This movement will be the topic of another blog post, but here's a video of the movement. (Personally, I'd go deeper into the split, but that's just me.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5Vcb8ICvc


Scenario 4:
You have nothing.
No weight training implements whatsoever.
Unless you're a bodybuilder, machines aren't that great.
They do have their applications but that is a topic for another post.

Use your own bodyweight. Pick a push, a pull and a squat and go nuts with them.
Personally, I'd choose the handstand pushup, the pullup and the single leg squat (pistol.)
You could pick any variation of those.
If you're a woman, something like pushups on an elevated surface (chair, counter, stairs, etc.)
negative pullups or rows of some kind and squats (lunges, reverse lunges, stepups, jump squats, Russian lunges, Bulgarian split squats, etc.)

 
As far as sets and reps, well that depends on your goals.
("Toning up" is not a real fucking goal, and even thinking that phrase makes you an idiot.)

A general rule is the harder the movement is, the more strength related it will be. If the movement is easy, it will build more endurance because of the amount of reps you can do. (i.e. handstand pushups for sets of 2 or 3 vs regular pushups for sets of 15-20.)


In the next post, I will discuss making your own weight training implements.