Body-part training is dead: it's time to lay your old-school, one-body-part-per-day workout routine to rest

Men's Fitness, August, 2004 by Joseph Arangio

Match sets. Do an equal number of sets for each movement pattern. As a general guideline, shoot for 6-12 sets for each movement pattern, performing the low end of the recommendation if you're a beginner and the high end if you've been lifting more than a year. Doing the same amount of work for each movement pattern helps eliminate weak links, the common cause of muscle-size and strength plateaus. Note that you'll only be doing one movement pattern on lower-body days, so you'll do fewer total sets (6-12) than on your upper-body days (12-24). That's acceptable because lower-body exercises such as squats are more physically demanding than upper-body movements.

Master energy efficiency. For a time-saving workout that doesn't sacrifice muscle gains, use an alternating-set technique during your upper-body workouts. That is, alternate between sets of opposite-movement patterns, resting 30 seconds between each set. For instance, alternate between sets of bench presses (horizontal push) and bent-over rows (horizontal pull), resting 30 seconds between each set until you've completed the planned number of sets for each. While your horizontal-pushing muscles work, your horizontal-pulling muscles rest, and vice versa. So your muscles are actually resting for 90-120 seconds before repeating a movement, since each set takes at least 30-60 seconds to perform. This cuts your workout time in half while allowing you to train both movements--and all the muscles involved--intensely.

THE FINAL DETAILS

You've probably noticed there is no direct arm work in this system. If you feel it's necessary, divide your arm exercises into elbow flexion, such as curls, where you bend your elbows to lift the weight, and elbow extension, such as lying triceps extensions, which require you to straighten your arms to lift the weight. Perform elbow-flexion exercises on the same day you do horizontal-push movements, and do elbow-extension exercises on the same day you perform vertical-pull movements. You can also perform calf exercises for your lower legs on either your quad-dominant or hip-dominant day. For all of these, do the detail exercises at the end of your workout. You won't need to work any of these movements much, though: 2-4 sets are plenty.

Joseph Arangio is the director of Peak Strength and Conditioning in Allentown, Penn. (peaksc.com).