Egyptian Warrior Training

Ok, first things first, this routine has absolutely nothing to do with Egyptian warriors, nope this routine is cheesily named because it is based around the pyramid principle and is ideally suited to weekend warriors and other propel who are limited on the days that they can train. The thing that I find intriguing about this method is that unlike many sytems that are hard for the last few sets of an exercise this one is pretty damn hard from the first set!

 

The routine is split into 2 workouts although this could be tweaked around to suit if possible, but for this example we lay things out like this: -

 

• Day 1 - Chest/Upper Back/Lower Back/Shoulders
• Day 2 - Biceps/Triceps/Quads/Hamstrings/Calves

Now down to the exercises, being geared more towards those with little training time we see a lot of basic compound movements, nothing fancy here at all although if you train alone use of a smith machine ore power rack is probably recommended on some exercises for safety.

 

Day 1 Looks like this:

 

• Incline bench press
• Lat Pulldowns or Bent rows
• Deadlifts
• Seated military press or Dumbbell press

 

Day 2 looks like this:

 

• Barbell or dumbbell curls
• close grip bench presses
• Squats or Hack squats
• Leg curls
• standing calf raises

 

Every single exercise you pyramid up in weight whilst reducing the reps, 5 sets in total per exercise. This is where this routine is unique though, normally when pyramiding you always leave a little in reserve on the first couple of sets and use them as a warm up - not here though, we are looking at 100% effort right from set 1, There should be no need to worry about injuries though as the reps are quite high - you start off with a 25 rep set.

 

Each and every set you must reach your target reps, if you do then you add 10lbs (or 5kg) for the next set, if you don't you only add 5lbs (2.5kg). Every week your goal is to start your 1st set with 5lbs (2.5kg) more weight and progress from there, so if you start out doing 100lbs for 25 reps you will start at 105lbs the next week. for Biceps and Triceps Halve the above numbers .

 

The rep scheme is simple 25/20/15/10/5 reps, to determine just where you start if you use this routine take the amount you currently lift for 5 reps and subtract 50lbs. For example if you bench press 315lbs for 5 reps your 1st set of 25 reps will be with 265lbs.

 

This routine is ridiculously simple on paper and to look at it you would honestly thing it would be a breeze, but believe me you will struggle, some exercise will seem easier but most will test you right from set 1, you may not get all the reps for the 1st few weeks but persevere, if you really struggle then hold back on increasing the starting weight, if you seem like you are coasting then feel free to add 10lbs to start instead of 5lbs.

 

In a nutshell this is about it, it's not rocket science but it is one hell of a good power-bodybuilding workout.

Big Calves The Rugby Player Way

Have you ever noticed that rugby players all seem to have impressive calf development? I bet you presume they get it from all the running, well you are wrong! if this were true runners, soccer players and other athletes who do a lot of running would have similar calf development but they don't.

I myself am a former rugby player and I know the secret. There is something that rugby players do a hell of a lot of both in games and training that really fries the calves. Take a look at the calf development of new IFBB Pro James "Flex" Lewis or Lee Priest, both of these guys played rugby as youngsters and both have great calves. I bet you want to know the secret? Well that little secret is running backwards!

It is said that once upon a time the legendary bodybuilder and actor Steve Reeves once gained one and a half inches on his calves in two months simply by running forwards and backwards on the beach for two miles every day!

Simply running backwards will help anyone bring up lagging calves, so if you have somewhere you can do this give it a try!

If you want a gym method then take a leaf out of Ronnie Coleman's book and head out to the parking lot with a set of dumbbells.and do the two following exercises.

First up is backwards strides, simply take long strides backwards whilst holding your heavy dumbbells try and cover 200 metres or more with this method.

The second exercise is the backwards farmers walk, here you walk briskly backwards carrying heavy dumbbells, depending on the size of your gym parking lot aim for 5-10 lengths at least.

Do these two exercises three times per week as a finisher to a standard calf workout, If your gym has an elliptical trainer machine that has a backwards program use that for cardio and also add some backwards track running if possible, then in a couple of months I guarantee you will be sporting much improved calves!

There is a very interesting PDF article you can download here

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