In short, you will look hard as nails and big as an APE, an awesome one, if that’s what you want.

Read on.

You want to be an Awesome Ape?

Exercises;

1a)Squat / Leg Press

1b)Deadlift

2a)Bench Press / Dip

2b)Standing Press

3a)Barbell Row

3b)Chin Up

Week 1

Mon + Fri choose the a) exercise of each (alternate exercises as you see fit where there are two listed)

Wed – choose the b) exercises of each

Week 2

Mon + Fri – choose the b) exercises

Wed -  choose the a) exercises.

Strength – lift your 5 rep max 15 times in total with plenty of rest as you go. Avoid fatigue.

Strength and Size – lift your 8 -10 rep max 25 times in as shorter period of time as possible. Rest only as long as you need to allow further reps, be it 1 or 5. Oh an eat lots too.

Simple.

Although the previous workouts mentioned;

Simply big and strong

Big and strong with variety

Simply strong and toned

Strong and toned with variety

Won’t directly enhance your agility in anything other than the agility needed to perform those movements contained within the workouts themselves, they will provide you with the structural strength and ability to be agile in other areas of life. Without adequate strength, nothing is possible. Strength is the key to all successful physical endeavours.

If  you have a specific sport that you need to be agile for then this page will provide you with little help – the best agility training you can do for your sport is…..the sport itself. Nothing more needs to be said about that.

If however you just want general agility in life then read on. These are some useful tools to have under your belt for everyday life.

Jumping – practice jumping, standing long jumps, jumping onto boxes of varying heights, one leg jumping, quiet landing jumps, jumping over things, onto objects, through objects, jumping to rolling, jumping to climbing etc. Use your imagination.

Climbing – pullups, clapping pullups, monkey bars, walls, trees, ropes and anything that challenges your mind and body. It’s that simple. A variety of tasks that require multiple movement planes and speeds.

Fighting – take some self defence classes, learn new movement patterns, become proficient at moving in as many different directions and ways as possible. Be confident in your ability to hit and to defend. Become an all round person.

Throw and Catch – Find an open space and a friend if possible, play catch, one handed, two handed, use different throwing and catching implements. Throw high, throw fast, slow, low, hard, soft. Make yourself and your buddy jump to catch, roll to catch – have fun and play. You will be surprised at how agile you can become with this alone.

Sets and reps? None, just play around for as long as you want – five minutes or 50 minutes matters not – enjoy your time doing this.

Agility is quite specific to your activity, play like a child and explore your full physical ability, not just in the weight room – get outside and play.

If you haven’t got a skipping rope out in years, do it. Haven’t played basketball since school, do it.

Express your body in as many ways as possible. Apes play as well you know. Now go wrestle with a friend or lover and become an Awesome Ape!

Epsom Personal Trainer

All that differs in this varied routine is the exercise selection.

The same rules apply. Lift heavy but avoid too much total volume and fatigue. Keep calories on the low side – you do not want a calorie surplus.

Understandably so, many get bored or lose motivation with the same group of exercises. I do. Besides which, variety can and most likely will in most cases allow for further future progress.

Some common sense is required with any programme, when switching out exercises for another. A bench press with a barbell is a pushing exercise, switch it for another same but different exercises like machine chest press or better yet a dip – same muscle groups used more or less but a different movement, which is refreshing for the mind and body.

7 main areas of the body to focus on;

Hips and thighs

Back

Chest

Shoulders

Arms

Abs

Neck

Exercises that cover those areas;

• Squat / Leg Press / Deadlift / Pistol / Squat jump / Front Squat

• Pull Up / Chin Up / Barbell Row / Machine Row / Clapping Pull Up / Shrug

• Barbell Bench Press / Machine Press / Incline Dumbbell / Dip / Dumbbell Bench / Incline Barbell Bench

• Military Press / Upright Row / Dumbbell Press / Machine Press / Armpit Row / Side Raise

• Barbell Bicep Curl / Incline Dumbbell Bicep Curl / Reverse Curl / Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Ext / Skull Crusher / Cable Pushdown

• Situp / Toes To Bar / Knees To Elbow / Broad Jumps / Frog Crunch / Windscreen Wipers

• Neck Flexion / Neck Extension / Next Lateral Flexion / Neck Rotation

Use one exercise from each of the seven sections (apart from arms – pick one for each biceps and triceps), abs and neck are optional areas as they get worked with all the other areas.

Work with the same rules laid out here – all that is different with this variety routine is the exercises selection.

Epsom Personal Trainer

All that differs is the total amount of work done per exercise and the amount of fatigue you build up.

The lesser work load and lesser fatigue allow for less damage/fraying to occur and thus less growth.

The tension the heavy weights put upon the muscle allows for strength to be gained and the muscle will therefore become very toned and tight. Awesome.

Oh one other thing – keeping your calories lower will also prevent growth to occur – so if you really are worried about getting too big, watch the amount you eat. Excess calories will allow muscle building to happen, without them, not alot of growth can occur even if you did stimulate it.

Movements;

Squat

Bench press

Barbell row

Armpit Row (pull dumbbells as high into your armpit as possible)

Over head dumbbell triceps extension

Barbell bicep curl

Situp

Workout;

Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Row, Sit Up, Armpit Row, Overhead Dumbbell Extension, Barbell Curl.

Select a weight that is your 5 rep max for each of the movements and complete a total of 5 reps of each exercise before you move onto the next (all 5 reps can be done with a rest between if you prefer – this allows for an even lesser build up fatigue but the cardio effect will be diminished). Do not rest between exercises – this will keep your heart rate high. Avoid fatiguing the muscle group working – the build up of fatigue  (structural – remember the rope?)and waste products is vital to the growth process – avoid it if size is not your goal. Once you have been though all the exercises once – do it one more time. By the time you return to the squat again (and all other moves too) the fatigue in your legs will have dissipated enough to reduce a large portion of the heat induced fatigue that allows for the growth inducing micro tears to occur.

This should take no longer than 30 minutes if you are pushing hard enough.

For week two use your 8-10 rep max and aim for a total of  2 circuits and in week three use your 10-12 rep max and aim for a total 2 circuits. Keep records if you need to.

KEEP LOCAL MUSCULAR FATIGUE LOW TO AVOID GROWTH. FEELING FATIGUED IN YOURSELF IS FINE – YOU’RE WORKING HARD! The circuit style of this helps fatigue management.

Repeat this cycle twice at most before you take a week off. Muscles will adapt, scar and stiffen and results will be hard to come by. Get a massage.

If you tire of these movements and need a change then see the routine;

Strong and toned with variety

Epsom Personal Trainer

Some common sense is required with any programme, when switching out exercises for another. A bench press with a barbell is a pushing exercise, switch it for another same but different exercises like machine chest press or better yet a dip – same muscle groups used more or less but a different movement, which is refreshing for the mind and body.

7 main areas of the body to focus on;

Hips and thighs

Back

Chest

Shoulders

Arms

Abs

Neck

Exercises that cover those areas;

• Squat / Leg Press / Deadlift / Pistol / Squat jump / Front Squat

• Pull Up / Chin Up / Barbell Row / Machine Row / Clapping Pull Up / Shrug

• Barbell Bench Press / Machine Press / Incline Dumbbell / Dip / Dumbbell Bench / Incline Barbell Bench

• Military Press / Upright Row / Dumbbell Press / Machine Press / Armpit Row / Side Raise

• Barbell Bicep Curl / Incline Dumbbell Bicep Curl / Reverse Curl / Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Ext / Skull Crusher / Cable Pushdown

• Situp / Toes To Bar / Knees To Elbow / Broad Jumps / Frog Crunch / Windscreen Wipers

• Neck Flexion / Neck Extension / Next Lateral Flexion / Neck Rotation

Use one exercise from each of the seven sections (apart from arms – pick one for each biceps and triceps), abs and neck are optional areas as they get worked with all the other areas.

So long as all the rules here are adhered to these will make you grow bigger and stronger.

For the best of both worlds (strength and cardio) you should superset two of these body sections where equipment allows – use your imagination and common sense. Don’t superset exercises that will cause the next lot to suffer i.e. squats and curls first would take away from back exercises that came after as the arms would be pre-fatigued. Be an Awesome Ape not a numbskull one. Think.

Work with same rules laid out here – all that is different with this variety routine is the exercises selection. The weights and reps should stay within the same guidelines as Simply BIG and strong

Epsom Personal Trainer

Lifts will cover all the main muscle groups of the body allowing for a full,developed figure.

Movements;

Squat

Bench press

Barbell row

Armpit Row (pull dumbbells as high into your armpit as possible)

Over head dumbbell triceps extension

Barbell bicep curl

Situp

Workout;

Superset – Squat and Bench press.

Superset – Barbell row and situp.

Superset – Armpit row, overhead dumbbell extension and barbell bicep curl.

Select a weight that is your 5 rep max for each of the movements and move between the two movements until you have completed 15 – 20 reps of each in total. Push hard each time you attend the bar, rest only as long as needed to allow you to lift, even if it is only one rep at a time. This is important. The build up of fatigue  (structural – remember the rope?)and waste products is vital to the growth process. This should take no longer than 30 minutes if you are pushing hard enough.

If you cant use two barbells at once then use your common sense and dumbbells, cables or machines in place or even body weight exercises. So long as the four points discussed here are being adhered to you will grow.

For week 2 use your 8-10 rep max and aim for a total of  20-25 reps and in week three use your 10-12 rep max and aim for a total of 25-30 reps. Keep records if you need to.

Repeat this cycle twice at most before you take a week off. Muscles will adapt, scar and stiffen and results will be hard to come by. Get a massage.

If you are a rank beginner the total reps may be too much for you to start with, reduce them to 10-2o reps in total for all rep ranges. Also you may want to start week one as your 10-12 rep max, week 2 as your 8-10 rep max and the final week as your 5 rep max.

If you tire of these movements and need a change then see the routine;

Simply big and strong with variety

Epsom Personal Trainer

Big and Strong - Awesome Ape

There are four things that cause muscle growth;

1)Muscle damage – microtears. This is a hugely important part – if not THE most important part of the muscle building process.

2)Tension across the fibres – heavy weight. Heavy weight is a relative term and will vary with each individual. Judge heavy by your ability not by someone elses.

3)Progression – getting stronger/producing more force. If you never produce any more force than you do today you won’t grow much more.

4)Building materials – food. If you want to grow bigger and stronger you have to provide building materials for your body to work with.

To put this all together in relation to training you need to see what these all mean in the field.

1) is equal to the volume of your workload. One repetition will not make you grow (unless you’re a freak). Some will grow off 10 heavy reps and some need 50 heavy reps. That is dependant on your experience and current state of your tissues (the more elastic,pliable and healthy they are the better, an overused muscle is almost scarred and very resistant to change).

How you cause muscle damage and what it does;

Think of your muscle fibres as ropes. To damage the rope you must apply a decent tension (heavy weight). Imagine that rope being pulled back and forth over a brick wall (equivalent to contractile elements running past each other during contraction and relaxation). Each additional repetition adds to the damage affects much like fraying.

The amount of “fraying” that is needed is hard to say, we cannot see inside our muscles during a workout to see what damage has been done.

Fraying of fibres happens best when the muscle/rope is heat fatigued. Imagine if you will, pulling the rope over the wall 30 times – once per hour for 29 hours. Now imagine pulling the rope over the wall with the exact same force, 30 times put over the much lesser period of 5 minutes. Which do you suppose will cause the most damage/fraying to the fibres? The latter method will due to the build up of heat induced fatigued, try the rope experiment and see for yourself.

The damaging of the fibres causes cells called satellite cells to proliferate into the muscle and attach to the damaged fibres – growing them bigger and stronger.

2) allows for 1) to happen. Without high levels of force/tension across the fibre then very little fraying/damage will actually occur. Force/high tension can happen in many ways. The most common is through heavy weights in the region of 70-80% of a persons one rep max (the biggest amount of weight you can lift one time). Another way is to accelerate a weight at high speed. A pressup can put a high level of tension across muscle fibres if it is a)near your maximum strength or b)moved very quickly with maximum effort. The force should be at least 60% of you maximum effort and preferably more.

3)allows 2) to happen. If you consciously stop progressing your force production(weight used) then eventually the percentage of your maximum it becomes will no longer suffice to create enough tension to allow for the damage mentioned in point 1 to occur. Clear? Good.

4)provides the building materials and energy required for the chemical process of laying down more protein elements to the muscle fibres. This is tough process on the body and requires alot of energy. An apple a day just wont do it. An addition of a litre or two of milk might though. Drink it. It is the only supplement you need.

So to recap if your still with me;

Lift a heavy weight enough times to damage the fibres through heat induced fatigue and eat enough extra calories per day to provide the materials needed for growth. Oh and finally sleep well, more than you do now most likely to allow recovery to take place – may the growth process begin.

Workout no more than 3 days per week, two will work well too.

For routines see (all of these routines will enhance your cardiovascular strength if performed as written);

Simply big and strong

Big and strong with variety

Simply strong and toned

Strong and toned with variety

Agility

Epsom Personal Trainer