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  • What's up, guys?

  • Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.

  • We're continuing the perfect workout series here today.

  • This time, by popular demand, with a total body workout.

  • Look, it's hard to declare perfection in a single workout when we're trying to hit our

  • entire body.

  • But I'm going to try and do my best and justify why we're selecting the exercises that we

  • do.

  • In additionthere's a little bit of a bonus – I'm going to make this the 'perfect

  • total body workouts', as in 'plural'.

  • I'm going to give you more than one.

  • To accomplish this goal, I'm going to give you guys a template that you can use, and

  • I want to make sure I'm doing that now.

  • Again, we're talking about two, singular workouts.

  • We have a complete plan called our Total BeaXt program at ATHLEANX.com, where we have a complete

  • workout, day by day, for 90 days, which is based around total body training.

  • I definitely suggest you check it out.

  • When we're talking about this, and always in our total body workouts, I always break

  • out the muscle markers.

  • As you can see, it's not going to be very practical for me to draw all over my damn

  • body to get the point across.

  • I'm going to apply something else that's going to be very helpful for you guys.

  • That is, instead of thinking about which particular exercises are going to accomplish what we're

  • trying to accomplish, I want you to think more in terms of movements.

  • We know if we can train the movements in a particular workout then we can incorporate

  • the muscles that achieve those movements.

  • So here, in these workouts, you're going to find something in common.

  • We want to train the squat pattern.

  • We want to train the lunge pattern.

  • We want to train the hingeparticularly the hip driven movement.

  • A push.

  • A pull.

  • Some sort of carry.

  • And of course, always a corrective exercise.

  • So, with that being said, I want to break down workout A. If you're going to do this

  • let's say you did the perfect chest workout and you just want to try it out.

  • This is the workout that I would give you.

  • Instead, if you want to break this down into a more appropriate plan where you can do a

  • Monday, Wednesday, Friday total body plan; you would use A and then I'm going to give

  • you workout B, and then you go back to A. You'll be alternating A, B; A, B; on a Monday,

  • Wednesday, Friday.

  • Some weeks it's A, B, A. On other weeks: B, A, B. The fact is, I want to point out why

  • we're selecting what we're selecting so you understand why, and you can gain some real

  • benefit from.

  • You ready?

  • Let's start breaking down workout A.

  • So, let's start breaking down our first workout here.

  • Workout A. Again, giving you the reasons why we're selecting what we're selecting.

  • It starts here with our warmup.

  • Our warmup is going to be that lunge pattern.

  • That overlooked athletic, irreplaceable movement pattern I think a lot of us overlook.

  • We use it here as a warmup because it does a couple things really effectively.

  • Number one: it gets us to move in multiple directions as you're going to see here with

  • our multidirectional lunge, and it helps us mobilize our hips in all three planes of movement.

  • At the same time, it's increasing our core temperature to make us feel warmer, and ready

  • to participate in this complete, total body workout.

  • You can see Antonio Brown, when we train together, we use this as a primary movement for all

  • his warmup.

  • His entire dynamic warmup consists of different variations of the lunge.

  • It's that effective for getting him ready to do what he has to do.

  • I believe it's going to do the same thing for you.

  • What we do is two to three rounds of 7, each direction, of this multidirectional lunge.

  • Two forward in the sagittal plane.

  • Two in the frontal plane, side to side.

  • Then two going back to the right and the left in this transverse plane opening up the hips.

  • Again, you're going to feel your hips start to mobilize, and feel loose, and ready to

  • go.

  • Two rounds might cut it for you.

  • Maybe you need an additional third.

  • That's up to you.

  • Now we move onto our key, foundational lower body movement pattern.

  • This is going to be our strengthening pattern.

  • This is our squat.

  • We're going to use the barbell squat to do this.

  • The key here is to make sure we're accommodating for some of this extra movement pattern focus

  • of what we're doing in this total body workout.

  • So instead of traditionally going five sets of 5 here, we're going to drop it down to

  • three sets of 5.

  • Again, to allow for some of the additional movement patterns we're going to attack here

  • in this overall workout.

  • The goal is still the same.

  • When you can perform all three sets of 5 repetitions using a particular weight, you want to increase

  • that weight over time, and continue to try to progress the overload, and get yourself

  • stronger in this base foundational movement.

  • From here we have to work the other side.

  • The other side of the chain, which is the posterior chain.

  • For me, we're looking at and focusing on the hinge.

  • Rather than go to a deadlift in this workoutyou will, if you're going to stick around

  • for workout B – here we want to focus on just working on that hinge.

  • More importantly, working on developing that overlooked aspect of glute participation in

  • a hinge.

  • People don’t get this right and we suffer from what we call 'glute amnesia', never driving

  • from the appropriate muscles to drive a hinge.

  • This exercise is one of the most overlooked when it comes to that.

  • It's the barbell hip thrust.

  • This exercise gives us a hinge.

  • You can literally see that it's driven solely by a hinge, but whether or not you're doing

  • it correctly is the thing.

  • I don’t want you to load up super heavy here.

  • I don’t want you to try and get in the five-rep range because what we tend to do here is heave

  • our hips up with no real concentration, and effort, or focus on driving that with the

  • right muscles.

  • We want to drive this with the glutes.

  • Always.

  • So, we're going to drop the weight down to the 10 to 12 rep range, add an additional

  • set for three to four sets of this to really focus on driving this key movement, and doing

  • it the right way.

  • Now we move onto the upper body.

  • Again, we want to get that foundational lift for pushing.

  • For me, it's going to be the barbell bench-press.

  • Now, if you don’t feel adequately loose at this point from the other work you've already

  • done, you can certainly warmup with some additional sets of the bench-press.

  • But let's say you're ready to go.

  • Once again, you're going to attack this with three sets of 5, the way you're trying to

  • progressively overload from workout to workout, getting yourself to become stronger in this

  • movement.

  • Now we've got to go and hit the 'pull' aspect of it.

  • For me, I'm going to go with the weighted chin-up.

  • My loading parameter is going to be slightly different as well.

  • Again, I don’t go all the way down to the 3 to5 rep range because I find that people

  • really cheat those reps and they don’t initiate with the muscles they need to.

  • What I want you to do is lighten a big in the 6 to 10 range.

  • Give you a little bit wider range from which I want you to fail.

  • 'Fail' meaning, I want you to not be able to get yourself back up the bar without looking

  • really ugly or doing some kipping.

  • The weighted chin is one of those irreplaceable, great exercises that I think we could all

  • benefit from including.

  • So, you're going to do it here as well.

  • Finally, we're now going to incorporate the last two components.

  • The carry and the corrective.

  • These are two things that I think get overlooked.

  • Again, we are accruing additional volume.

  • This is not junk volume and this is not 'throw away'.

  • So, we need to make sure we've accommodated this by making some changes earlier in the

  • workout.

  • For the carry you're going to take half your bodyweight in each hand and you're going to

  • walk around whatever space you have for 50 steps.

  • I mention 50 steps as opposed to a distance because even if you have a limited amount

  • of space, you're going to be able to count your steps.

  • The goal here is to do a couple of things.

  • Number one: there is a conditioning effect from doing a carry, but more importantly,

  • you're building grip sustainability.

  • Not just overall force output, but sustainability of forced output, which is a critical component

  • that benefits all our bigger lifts very well.

  • I just did a video on this, on how important it is, and just talked about this in my live

  • event on how important grip sustainability is to your overall athleticism and performance.

  • So, we're going to use the carry to accomplish this.

  • Finally, we move onto the corrective.

  • Guys, you know that I'm a big fan of the corrective exercises because I feel like they're helpful

  • for preventing some things from going wrong, even before they do.

  • Or if you have already had some injuries, they're helpful for getting us back on track.

  • For me, I guess you could probably figure out that the one I was going to selectyou

  • can only do onewould be the face pull.

  • So here we're going to end this with two sets of 12 of a face pull.

  • Again, it's that mentality of how you're approaching this.

  • Think of it more like twelve sets of 1.

  • Then you do that again.

  • So you're doing 24 high quality, perfect repetitions in this perfect workout to make sure you're

  • recruiting the right muscles that are not only going to help you posturally, but they're

  • going to help you back in those overall lifts, and just feel better overall.

  • So, there's workout A. Like I said in the beginning, if you want to just try what the

  • perfect workout would feel like and you're even new to total body training, workout A

  • is where you'll focus your efforts.

  • You'll get some great benefits from doing it.

  • However, if you want to be more expansive about it and you want to start to lay out

  • a program, I would suggest that you move onto a second workout.

  • You give yourself an alternative that's going to fill in the gaps nicely, alongside workout

  • A. That's where workout B comes in.

  • How do we perform it?

  • Workout B is going to give you the same opportunities for warming up.

  • I feel like that 3D lunge pattern is so beneficial that it's going to warm us up for what we

  • have ahead in this workout as well.

  • We're going to perform that in the very same way and then move onto our first big exercise.

  • Here, the hinge becomes more of the focus.

  • The hinge becomes the overload.

  • In this case, the hinge becomes the deadlift.

  • We're going to have the opportunity, once again, to perform this in a 'three sets of

  • 5' fashion so we can overload, still accommodate some of the additional volume here.

  • And also take into consideration the fact that, neurologically, the deadlift is going

  • to be a little more taxing on the body than some of the other exercise options within

  • this total body framework.

  • So, we're going to do a three by 5 there again, with the goal being the same; to progressively

  • overload each time you encounter this Workout B variation.

  • From here, to finish up the lower body training we go back.

  • We have an option here.

  • You can either squat again in this workout or you can do something different.

  • You can do the reverse barbell lunge.

  • Now, if you're going to squat, I want to see you lighten the load here.

  • This is not going to fall into the same framework of the three sets of 5.

  • Here, I'm trying to de-load you a little bit, realizing how taxing the deadlift itself can

  • be.

  • But if we do have an opportunity here and you want to try something different, I would

  • highly suggest that you try to do the reverse barbell lunge.

  • This is going to give you a chance to do something different.

  • To load yourself in an exercise you probably haven't loaded yourself fairly heavy in.

  • We're still in this 10-rep range.

  • That's a fairly heavy load.

  • But whichever choice you make, realize that the main focus, lower body-wise, is to deliver

  • most of your efforts into that hinge.

  • In this case, the deadlift, for those three sets of 5.

  • But now we go back up to the upper body.

  • The upper body is not necessarily the bench-press, but it's still a press.

  • It's going to be an overhead press.

  • Once again, this is our foundational pushing pattern here.

  • This time in the vertical, as opposed to the horizontal.

  • But still, the same goal being to progressively overload and build your strength in this movement

  • over time.

  • Realizing that, yes, it can be challenging to continue to press overhead with more, and

  • more, and more weight.

  • The fact is, we still want to apply the same principle of wanting to overload here and

  • strengthening in this exercise.

  • So, we do our three sets of 5 on the overhead press.

  • We now go back to the pull and here we're going to do the row.

  • Contrary to what some might say, in terms of the loading pattern for the row, I still

  • like to keep this a little bit on the higher side.

  • 10 to 12 reps.

  • Why?

  • The same idea and concept applied to the barbell hip thrust would be applying here as well.

  • I think that just heaving the weight up and down is going to make us susceptible to a

  • couple of things.

  • Number one: there might be some lower back fatigue, having done the deadlifts earlier

  • in this session that could come into play and rear their ugly head if you're just heaving

  • the weight around on a lower rep focus.

  • So, the 10 to 12 is going to allow me to be a little more conscientious of the weight

  • I'm lifting and the way I'm lifting the weight.

  • More importantly, I also find that getting back engagement, and lat engagement is a little

  • bit easier when you lighten the weight and focus on how you're lifting the weight.

  • So, the barbell row is slightly adjusted to be a little more accommodating to that.

  • To allow us to get better form, better contraction, and again, without overloading the lower back.

  • Again, we wrap up the workout one more time with our carry and our corrective.

  • This time, instead of carrying down at our sides, we're going to lift those arms up overhead.

  • A much different experience, and a much lighter experience if you haven't already tried this.

  • Here, we're going to go with a quarter of your bodyweight in each hand and try to accomplish

  • those same 50 steps around the gym, or around your apartment, or whatever workout facility

  • you're training in.

  • The fact is, you're going to feel a lot of postural engagement.

  • You're going to feel a lot of challenges to keeping your arms as upright and straight

  • as possible.

  • And you're going to feel that mid and lower trap area really work overtime to try and

  • keep you in this position.

  • All good indicators that this is something you should probably be doing a lot more of.

  • Finally, from a corrective standpoint, if you want to face pull again, you'd be making

  • me happy.

  • But there are some other options.

  • Particularly in the lower body.

  • You can utilize the hip band mini ladder that you're seeing here.

  • Or you can utilize some other things like band pull aparts, or even basic external rotation

  • for your rotator cuff.

  • There you have it, guys.

  • The perfect total body workout.

  • Again, covering Workout A and B and depending upon what your individual training goals are

  • right now, whether you just want to experiment with one, or whether you want to try and incorporate

  • it more into a plan; they're both going to benefit you substantially.

  • The fact is, if you're looking for a complete program, as I've said, there are limitations

  • when you're coming up with a perfect workout.

  • A singular workout.

  • Especially when it comes to total body.

  • We designed an entire plan, which is our Total BeaXt program, which is over at ATHLEANX.com.

  • I mentioned it before.

  • It's not just a couple of workouts.

  • It's a 90-day plan, step by step, incorporating many more correctives than are here.

  • Athletic training and conditioning drills as well, making you exactly that: a Total

  • Beast.

  • Not just a one-dimensional strength athlete, but somebody that could do a lot more than

  • that.

  • It's all laid out for you step by step at ATHLEANX.com.

  • In the meantime, if you've found the video helpful make sure you leave your comments

  • and thumbs up below.

  • I know if you like the perfect series you've been asking for more.

  • Make sure to leave your comments below and check out the other ones in this series.

  • To do that, you're going to want to make sure you subscribe and turn on your notifications,

  • so you never miss a new video when we put one out, guys.

  • I listen to what it is that you want, and I do my best to cover those in all the videos

  • we do.

  • I hope you're finding them helpful.

  • I'll be back here again in a couple of days.

  • See ya.

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