Lifting After Lockdown: A Guide To Lifting Heavy After a Layoff

DISCLAIMER

All documents, files and information included are intellectual property of Vinay Bhambwani. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author or publisher. All violations will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Vinay Bhambwani is not a doctor or registered dietitian. The contents of this document should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem - nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician.

Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health. Use of the information in this program is strictly at your own risk. Vinay Bhambwani and/or any associated individuals or entities will not assume any liability for any direct or indirect losses or damages that may result including, but not limited to, economic loss, injury, illness or death.

Contents

1. Introduction 2. About The Author 3. Training Tempo & Terminology 4. Who Is This For & How Does It Work?

5. Getting Started 6. Why Warm Up 7. Old School vs New Science 8. The Ideal Warm Up (Routine) 9. Phase 1 10. Phase 2 11. Phase 3 12. Phase 4 13. Additional Resources 14. Good Luck!

INTRODUCTION

Crack. Snap. Brrrrk. These are noises I fear hearing at the gym. I’m used to hearing loud music and metal plates bang against each other, but you never really get used to hearing bones break If you keep up with gym culture on the internet, you’ve probably seen a few videos of people breaking their kneecaps on the leg press, smith machine or any similar equipment loaded up with heavy weight. There are hundreds of them out there and every few months one of them goes viral to become a cautionary tale of overreaching before your body is ready.

I get it. You're either back to training after a while, or new to training and want to see what your meat-suit is capable of. But whether you're driving a jeep or a Ferrari, you don't just go straight into 5th gear. Especially without making sure that your engine is warmed up, tires and breaks are serviced, and the machinery is oiled and fueled properly.

That's the purpose of this book. Your body is a machine, and this manual will help you do some servicing and maintenance before you get on the track and start racing again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vinay

Bhambwani

is

a

fitness

entrepreneur and nutrition expert.

He

holds

Stanford,

certifications American

from

Council

of

Exercise & The International Fitness Assoc.

His

coaching

portfolio

includes celebrities, athletes and businessmen.

He aims to share knowledge and the science

of

fitness,

and

create

awareness and education about the importance of well-being and living a better quality of life through fitness. With this vision he launched Muscle Manual, the world’s first completely free digital magazine. The magazine has featured some of the world’s most successful fitness influencers, Olympia winners, and world record holding athletes. Muscle Manual has been read by over 400,000 people in over 45 countries and is going to be relaunched in August 2020.

Vinay is also a 3rd generation chocolatier, and rebranded his family dessert company to Lush Healthy Chocolates. He lives in Mumbai where he continues to expand and share his knowledge in the field of nutrition and training.

TRAINING TEMPO & TERMINOLOGY

Throughout this program I want you to use this tempo: Take 1-2 seconds to lift the weight (exert/contract), and take 3-4 seconds on the negative (lowering the weight)

Here are some terms that you will come across in the next pages:

Reps: Reps is short for repetitions, or the number of times that you perform any given exercise in your workout Sets: Sets refers to how many times you will repeat a particular exercise for the set number of repetitions Supersets: A superset is 2 sets of exercises performed back to back without any rest in between.

Range of motion: The full movement potential of a joint, usually its range of flexion and extension. For example, a knee might lack 10 degrees of full extension due to an injury.

To Failure: Perform an exercise until you reach absolute exhaustion and cannot perform it with good form anymore.

WHO IS THIS FOR AND HOW DOES IT WORK? This program is for anybody who wants to start heavy weight training and lifting, regardless of your prior experience. This program can AND SHOULD be run by new trainees as well as experienced trainees. Whether to achieve a visual goal, or a performance goal, the prep to be done before heavy lifting is the same.

This program is divided into 4 phases Phase 1 –This is a full introductory phase that will kickstart the process of muscle stimulation and growth, and lay the foundation for the future phases. It will include circuit routines and also work on flexibility in case you’ve developed any stiffness during your time off.

Phase 2 –In this phase we’re going to start lifting a little heavier and challenge each muscle group a little harder. The circuits get tougher and you might start to feel some soreness.

Phase 3 – This phase brings us to what’s traditionally referred to as hypertrophy training. We're going to shift from circuit training to a split routine and dive deeper into providing each muscle group with more stimulation and challenge.

Phase 4 - By this point your muscles are stronger, and joints are fairly prepared for heavy lifts. Think of this phase as a 'trial' phase where we perform strength training routines with 60-80% of your maximum weight, to just assess whether you feel any discomfort in your joints, or you're ready to lift heavy.

GETTING STARTED If you're an absolute beginner and new to training, I recommend you run each phase for 2 weeks before advancing to the next (run them in order phase 1 - phase 4). I also recommend working out under the supervision of a qualified fitness professional.

If you're an experienced trainee who has taken a complete break from training for 1 month or longer, start with phase 1 and every week progress to the next phase.

If you have been doing bodyweight training at home in the last few weeks or months, you can skip phase 1 and start directly at phase 2.

If you have been training with moderate to heavy weight over the past few weeks, I recommend starting with phase 3 for a week, then phase 4 for a week and then you're body is ready for whatever program you wish to run.

WHY WARM UP? When if comes to issues like safety, mobility, injury prevention & long term well-being, the warm up is far more important than the workout itself. Before you start any form of exercise or fitness, I really want you to understand some science & value of warming up.

Performing a comprehensive warm up before your workout serves a number of purposes 1. To increase the core temperature of your body - this will prepare your body for challenging movements while minimizing the risk of injury. Your core temperature is at its lowest when you wake up, and

taking a few extra minutes to warm up thoroughly before you perform a morning workout will pay off in spades.

2. Preparing your joints, limbs, tendons and ligaments for heavy, challenging movements. How often have you heard of someone tearing their muscle in half? It happens, but it isn't half as common as sprains or pulls. Most gym injuries damage your ligaments, tendons and joints more than your muscles. This is why performing 1-2 light sets of bench press before going heavy might warm up your chest and other muscles, but it is not enough to prepare your elbow joints, rotator cuffs, and wrist and shoulder joints. To warm up these areas you have to take a few minutes to do some very light basic movements, which I will demonstrate in the next chapter.

3. Muscle activation - Anyone can pick up a barbell and lift it. But it takes awareness, and a developed mind-muscle connection to activate and stimulate your muscles while lifting the weight and get some results out of doing so. It's easy to use momentum, swing weight up and down and just go through the movements, but if you can't perform them with strict form, and activate and contract your muscles while doing so, you might as well quit, because you're not getting any results from lifting that way.

You can do 5-10 reps of rowing, but if you didn't feel your back muscles contract and execute the exercise properly, what did you gain from putting in that effort? A proper warm up includes 1-3 sets of each body part to allow your mind to feel the correct muscles contract and perform the work while lifting the weight. Starting your workout on this note will set the tone for how effective your performance is during the rest of the routine.

OLD SCHOOL VS NEW SCIENCE New science on training and nutrition comes out every day. Everyone has their own opinions and interpretations of these new developments. For the workout routines, we’re going to keep it simple and stick to the basics.

I don't want you to train like people did in the 60's or like your physical education teacher taught you to as a kid. Leave the old school where it belongs, and adopt a science-based approach at least for the important areas of your routine, which in the case of this entire guide is the warm up.

There are 2 approaches to warming up - static stretches, and dynamic movements.

Static stretches are stretches where you hold the pose for a few moments or more allowing your muscles to loosen up, resulting in an increase in range of motion.

Dynamic movements are active, movement-based stretches where you offer your muscles some motion to warm them up while (sometimes) giving them a mild stretch.

New studies and research has proven that dynamic movements are FAR MORE EFFECTIVE as a warm up strategy, and at reducing the changes of injury during a workout. Dynamic movements are superior to static stretches as a warm up strategy, and science has proven this over and over again. A quick Google search will corroborate what I'm saying.

To explain it in oversimplified terms, when you perform a bench press, let's assume the range of motion of the barbell is 10 inches.

Performing some static stretches before your workout could loosen your muscles up and increases that range of motion to 12 inches.

While a higher range of motion is generally considered a good thing, it becomes dangerous when you haven't ever trained your muscles in that extra 2 inches of motion, and if the weight is heavy enough, you are sure to face some strain or injury due to that increased range of motion that your body isn't prepared for.

This doesn't mean that static stretches are bad in any way. It has its place in any fitness program. In this program, we're going to use static stretches AFTER every workout and on our off-training days to break through any stiffness and flexibility issues, and to also reap benefits like improved blood circulation and reduced muscle soreness.

THE IDEAL WARM UP (ROUTINE) Linked below are video demonstrations of dynamic movements that I want you to perform before each and every workout. The reps/time on each movement is listed in the video.

Pre Workout Routine In addition to that, you're going to do a few sets of each exercise to further warm up your muscles and be thorough. Perform as listed below – Bodyweight Squats - 8-15 reps Bodyweight Push Ups - 8-15 reps Plank - 30-45 seconds Once you've done the above bodyweight exercises, you're going to perform 2-3 sets of each compound exercise like squats, benchpress and rowing, starting with a light weight and increasing it each set until you're at 60-70% of the weight you use for your working sets during your actual workout.

So for example let's assume I can lift 100 kilos on squats, rowing and benchpress, once I do my dynamic movements and bodyweight exercises, I'm going to do the following to conclude my warm up and then move on to the actual workout:

Squat Warm Up Set 1 - 30 kilos x 10 reps Set 2 - 45 kilos x 10 reps Set 3 - 65 kilos x 10 reps Once I've performed the above my muscles and joints will be adequately warmed up to perform my usual 80-100 kilo squat. I'll also perform the same on benchpress and rowing before I perform my first heavy working sets.

PHASE 1 The Routine Remember to perform your full warm up routine before every workout. You need not warm up before stretching sessions. Perform all exercises one after another without any rest in circuit fashion.

Day 1 (Monday - Full Body Circuit) Squats - 10 reps Dumbbell Rowing - 10 reps Dumbbell Bench Press - 10 reps Side Shoulder Laterals - 12 reps Narrow Grip Benchpress/Diamond Push Ups - 10 reps Dumbbell Hammer Curls - 10 reps Plank To Failure Perform the entire circuit 3 times with 1-2 minutes rest in between.

Day 2 (Wednesday - Full Body Circuit) Walking lunges with dumbbells - 12 reps per leg Lat Pulldown - 10 reps Incline Bench Press - 10 reps Bent Over Shoulder Laterals - 12 reps

Tricep Cable Pushdowns - 10 reps Preacher/Cable Curls - 10 reps Leg Raises - 15 reps Perform the entire circuit 3 times with 1-2 minutes rest in between.

Day 3 (Friday - Full Body Circuit) Leg Press - 10 reps Pull Ups or Barbell Rowing - 10 reps Pec Deck or Barbell Benchpress - 10 reps Arnold Shoulder Press - 12 reps Tricep Extensions / Skullcrushers - 10 reps Barbell Curls - 10 reps Plank To Failure Perform the entire circuit 3 times with 1-2 minutes rest in between.

Perform the following static stretches after completing every workout, holding each stretch for 30 seconds: Post Workout Stretches Day 4 (Saturday - Upper Body Stretches) Follow-Along Video Demo Here Day 5 (Sunday - Lower Body Stretches) Follow-Along Video Demo Here

PHASE 2 Remember to perform your full warm up routine before every workout. You need not warm up before stretching sessions.

Perform all exercises one after another without any rest in circuit fashion.

Day 1 (Monday) Deadlifts - 8 reps Squats - 8-12 reps Benchpress - 8-10 reps Barbell Shoulder Press - 8 reps Cable Face Pulls - 12 reps Tricep Dips/Skullcrushers - 10 reps Reverse Grip Barbell Curls - 10 reps Ab Crunches - 15 reps Perform this circuit 3-4 times with 1 minute rest in between.

Day 2 (Wednesday) Leg Press - 8 reps Barbell Rowing 6-8 reps Incline Press 8-10 reps Side Shoulder Laterals - 12 reps

Tricep Extensions/Skullcrushers - 8 reps Barbell Bicep Curls - 6-8 reps Alternate/Scissor Leg Raises - 30 reps Perform this circuit 3-4 times with 1 minute rest in between.

Day 3 (Friday) Walking Lunges - 15 reps on each leg Lat Pulldowns - 15 reps Pec Deck or Dumbbell Flys - 15 reps Side Shoulder Laterals - 20 reps Cable Face Pulls - 12 reps Diamond Push Ups / Cable Tricep Pushdown - 15 reps Preacher / Cable Curls - 15 reps Plank To Failure Perform this circuit 3-4 times with 1 minute rest in between.

Perform the following static stretches after completing every workout, holding each stretch for 30 seconds: Post Workout Stretches Day 4 & 5 (Saturday and Sunday Stretches) Perform the following stretching routine - hold each stretch for a whole minute: Full Body Stretch

PHASE 3 The Fun Begins Day 1 (Monday - Upper Body Split) Superset: Benchpress & Barbell Rowing - 3 sets of 10 reps each Superset: Lat Pulldown and Barbell Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 10 reps each Side Shoulder Laterals - 2 sets of 15-20 reps each Superset: Cable Tricep Pushdowns & Dumbbell Bicep Curls - 3 sets of 10 reps each End with Upper Body Stretches (30-60 seconds on each stretch) Day 2 (Wednesday - Lower Body Split) Squats - 3 sets of 8 reps Leg Press or Lunges - 3 sets of 12 reps Front Barbell Squat or Hack Squats - 3 sets of 15 reps Straight Leg Deadlift or any Machine Hamstring Curls - 3 sets of 10 reps End with Lower Body Stretches (30-60 seconds on each stretch)

Day 3 (Friday - Full Body Volume Training) Squats - 5 sets of 8-10 reps Barbell Rowing - 5 sets of 8-10 reps BenchPress - 5 sets of 8-10 reps TableTop Planks - 3 sets of 60 seconds each/to failure End with Full Body Stretches (30-60 seconds on each stretch)

PHASE 4 Day 1 Chest & Biceps Bench Press - 3 sets of 5 reps Incline Press - 3 sets of 10 reps Dumbbell Flys - 3 sets of 10 reps Pec Deck - 1 sets of 40 reps Hammer Curls - 3 sets of 5 reps Barbell Curls - 3 sets of 10 reps Cable Curls - 1 sets of 30 reps Full Body Stretching Day 2 Legs Squats - 3 sets of 5 reps Leg Press - 3 sets of 10 reps Hack Squat / Front Squat - 3 sets of 15 reps Straight Leg Deadlift - 3 sets of 6-8 reps Leg Press - 1 sets of 40 reps Leg & Hip Focused Stretches Day 3 Shoulders & Triceps Barbell Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 5 reps Side Shoulder Laterals - 3 sets of 10 reps

Cable Face Pulls - 3 sets of 10 reps Arnold Press - 1 sets of 30 reps Narrow Grip Benchpress - 3 sets of 5 reps Skullcrushers - 3 sets of 10 reps Diamond Push Ups/ Cable Push Downs - 1 set of 40 reps Full Body Stretching Day 4 Back, Calves & Abs Deadlift - 3 sets of 5 reps Barbell Rowing - 3 sets of 8 reps Lat Pulldown - 3 sets of 12 reps Calf Raises on any machine - 5 sets of 10 reps Centipedes/Caterpillars - 5 sets of 10 reps Full Body Stretching

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Many individuals that have had prior injuries, long layoffs or mobility/joint issues in the past may feel discomfort when resuming weightlifting. If this is you, please consult a physiotherapist.

Some of the most common issues I've come across while training my clients are knee issues, shoulder issues and wrist pain. While these aren't the only areas of trouble that exist, they are the most common, so I've linked mobility and strengthening routines for these areas below. If you face trouble in these areas, make good use of these routines.

Wrist Warm Up Shoulder Mobility Routine Knee Strengthening Routine

GOOD LUCK! Equipped with this program, you now have an exact plan to get back to where you were before in the gym, or to safely build up to a new peak. After completing this program, new results are just around the corner. I'll be rooting for your gains and success! Let’s get it!