A typical day of training
BULK HACKERS INTERVIEW, January 2020
I’m training almost every day, most of the time Monday to Saturday. I’m saying most of the time because sometimes I’m a bit flexible when I’m on my holidays or out of the country, but never inactive for sure. Three days without training and I’m feeling like I’ll go crazy and miss something big in my life. Gains for sure, what else, right?
Usually, I have a split training plan that covers two muscle groups of the body. My philosophy, in the beginning, was to train big muscle groups (legs, chest, and back) first half of the week while I’m fresh after the rest day (Sunday) and smaller ones (shoulders, arms, and abs) second half of the wee.
Now I’m training each muscle group twice per week. Until now I tried many different approaches from hypertrophy training, strength training, supersets, tri-sets, and even Giga sets, GVT, descending and ascending pyramid when it comes to reps and sets, single muscle group per day, etc. Nowadays I’m putting the focus on proper form with low and high sets/reps/weights approach.
Most of the year looks like this:
-
- MONDAY – legs and shoulders (heavier weights, hypertrophy, and strength)
- TUESDAY – chest, bicep, and abs (lighter weights, fewer sets, more reps – volume)
- WEDNESDAY – back and tricep (heavier weights, hypertrophy, and strength)
- THURSDAY – legs and shoulders (lighter weights, fewer sets, more reps – volume)
- FRIDAY – chest bicep and abs (heavier weights, higher volume)
- SATURDAY – back and tricep (lighter weights, fewer sets, more reps, volume)
- SUNDAY – active rest
Of course, sometimes I’m changing my training plans, days of training, and approach. It all depends on my goals and some other things and activities in my life.
I had days where I had just 35-40 minutes for my training, but sometimes I was in the gym for two hours or even more.
My days sometimes lasted long and they were really dynamic, sometimes even too much if you ask a regular person. I had 15 high paced minutes of cycling to my job, then four to five sessions of group training, looking after the gym floor and moving all the light and heavy plates, dumbbells, and other equipment, following by 15 minutes of pedaling back home, all divided in 7 hours.
Then I’m at home resting, eating, and cycling back to the gym for two to four sessions of personal training followed by two hours of my own training and again pedaling home 15 minutes. Sounds crazy, right?
It all came to that I was strong, lean, and mean and I could eat almost whatever without gaining almost any fat. Of course, I needed to be careful with a calorie surplus and all the macros on longer stages in connection to all the other benefits.
Training is something that makes me feel extremely happy and excited. That pump, that tightness, reflect in the mirror. It’s nice when you know that hard work pays off, and not just you, but everyone else will see the results you got and you’re getting even more motivated.
I’m the guy who loves to train everywhere and with new people. That way we are sharing experience and knowledge that just can be helpful because I was collecting it past 16 years and not just reading someone else’s.
I was always ready and glad to train with someone better than myself because I wanted to see or hear some good advice, a new way to activate wanted muscle better, how to upgrade my squat, how to get bigger and deeper back, or how to recover faster.
All ” how-to”, “try this” or even “do” and “don’t’s“ were always welcome but, of course, with firm facts and arguments supported from side of fitness science.
A very important thing when it comes to exercising is to MINIMIZE the RISK OF INJURIES. Don’t train with your ego but with your brain.
Now I want to explain this approach through the proper warmup, execution, and cool down. A lot of people skip that part and come to the gym just to do their session, forgetting the main thing, to prepare for the activity.
If you’re not prepared well you could injure yourself and even suffer serious pain longer period due to some pulled muscle or tendon. That’s what should be a part of every training, A PROPER WARMUP. Take yourself at least 10 to 20 minutes, and prepare your body for an upcoming activity. There is a similar approach to any other sport.
If you want to avoid the negative effects of exercising like soreness or tiredness, you should give your body what it needs. Stretch your muscles after a workout, hydrate them and give them food. That’s a minimum you should provide for proper results.
In my gym bag, you’ll always find knee straps, lifting belts, elastic straps, even some chains, and foam rollers. I just love to be ready without searching for all needed and losing my precious time.
I’m not a big fan of new fancy diets and general ways of training. All need to be logical but orientated on an individual approach.
Seven billion people on Earth = seven billion different body weights, years, heights, body compositions, hormone levels, habits, possible injuries, intolerances, and allergies. So we all can’t have the same program.
When it comes to food it usually looks like this:
-
-
- BREAKFAST – Eggs and veggies with some integral bread and hummus
- SNACK – Smoothie made with bananas, oats, cocoa powder, walnuts, cranberries stevia, and cottage cheese
- LUNCH – Pasta, rice or potato with grilled/steamed veggies and salmon/tuna/mackerel/chicken and/or olive oil, pumpkin oil, coconut oil
- SNACK – A salad with some quality proteins and fat
- DINNER –Pasta, rice or potato with grilled/steamed veggies and salmon/tuna/mackerel/chicken or/and olive oil, pumpkin oil or coconut oil
- SNACK – Cottage cheese and nuts
-
It’s all simplified here due to an easier understanding of the concept. But when it comes to macros, I’m always after that and having my hierarchy.
For example, I’ll rather eat fish than meat, but when eating meat than rather chicken/turkey than beef and not so often, or more brown rice/pasta than white, or olive oil/almonds/avocado than sunflower oil or bacon, mayonnaise. OK, it happens sometimes when I’m on my low carb.
You should be aware of the fact that the human body is 70% water and that’s why you should take big care of getting it. Still, water and green tea are my first choices. There is also water I’m getting from a food of course.
Water can’t be replaced by any other liquid like soup, coffee juices, or whatever. It should be pure and with no additives.
Water is important because it’s filtrating our blood, dissolve vitamins, hydrate our cells, skin, hair, and nails, prevents blood thickening, speeds up metabolism, lubricates our joints, keeps us better concentrated and happier, aids in recovery and sleep prevents of heart attack and strokes, regulates body temperature, prevents inflammations, assist in flushing waste and much more.
People in general should drink at least two to three liters per day, depending on their body needs. Besides air, we need water to survive and it’s important for many functions in our bodies. There are many ways and reasons for how and why we are losing water. It is important to keeps our bodies healthy and functional. Water is the elixir of life, don’t forget that. DRINK WATER!
When it comes to supplements, I made mistakes back in days spending big sums of money believing it will help me to achieve goals much faster and guess what? I WAS WRONG by believing in those stories. Later I decided to cut off all of that and to eat a balanced diet. Nothing can replace real food. There is no magic powder.
Bodybuilding is not for everyone maybe but should be in the real meaning of the word. „Getting big like Ronnie Coleman“, or „shredded as Helmut Strebl“, or even „athlete like The Rock“ is just how half of the people still explain and understand their goals, which is good but not so good in the same time. I’ll rather explain it like the level of physical ability to perform given tasks in everyday life.
We all have different goals either in physique, body fat, strength, weight management, or something else when there are possible health problems. That’s what we should be focused on, HEALTH! That’s the word we like to mention so often, that actually is not always first, unfortunately right.
We should take the biggest care of our bodies, the only that’s actually ours and unique, the only thing that matters and keeps us alive, the only transport, machine, and house we have to live in.
Health is not always „just given“, It’s something that we gradually work on and not a race with someone. It’s a race against ourselves and our bad habits trying to leave just good ones and elevate on higher levels, both physically and psychologically. Read more…
