An interesting little workout I did the other day… it’s actually one of a multiple variations I’ve come up with for a routine I call, “Twisted PHA.” PHA stands for “Peripheral Heart Action.” It is a workout style developed by Bob Gadga, a champion bodybuilder from the ’60′s. It is essentially a style of circuit training based on burning fat by keeping blood flowing all around the body instead of pooling in one area. Therefore creating extended heart/lung work.
The original system called for doing repetition sets of 5 lifting exercises in a series and repeating them 5 times. Then you would move on to the next series, etc. Well…. my style is a little different.
Because we want to accomplish so many goals, yet still be time efficient I am mixing multiple different styles of exercise, levels of conditioning, types of movement, etc., within the basic framework of this workout. Within the original workout everything would have been done for 10 to 25 repetitions, because it was a conditioning based workout.
But we’re going to mix in more strength with the conditioning. For instance, in the workout I did the other day, I did low rep dumbbell presses, moderate to high rep rows, low rep partial squats, moderate to high rep bodyweight conditioning and low and high rep calf raises, all in a circuit. Adding weight to each exercise where it applied. So by the fifth set I’m at my heaviest weight on the dumbbell presses and partial squats. I’m still cranking out reps on the rows and bodyweight squats and I’ve worked from high reps with lighter weight to low reps with heavy weight on the calf raises.
In this way I use a max exercise, a partial exercise, a repetition exercise, a bodyweight exercise, all to ramp my conditioning up while building max strength at the same time. Do you see the “Twisted Conditioning” concept here? Combining all three levels of conditioning at the same time, in a time efficient workout for aerobic, and muscular endurance and high level strength at the same time.
Another quick exercise routine here might be to combine low rep full squats, tire flips, low rep rows, kettlebell swings and sit ups. Whole body covered, high reps, low reps, endurance, aerobic, and strength all together.