I hope you are doing great wherever you are right this moment!
I know that many of you visit this page for perhaps your favourite workout you love to revisit, or are currently somewhere along within a program, or are joining me in the currently ongoing Intent Program on the CGX platform! But no matter how, when, why and what you are training, I want to thank you for the support you have shown. By joining me in my home, it has led to the organic growth of this channel. This is represented by the continuing number of views on each workout, the continued growth of UA-cam, the CGX app celebrating its first anniversary and the incredible place that is the Facebook private community which today has over 225k members! Wow! And this is all because of you.
Here, we are 3 million people who enjoy variety alongside the fundamentals, who feel strong through highlighting weakness, seek out the challenge as opposed to the easy path as it relates to lifting, and continue to learn the power of delayed gratification, are looking to progress, not seeking perfection and are simply trying their best every day in their own way. At the end of the day, we are all just trying to find our way.
I am proud to be part of this and I have said before, but the fact that you join me from all across the globe to my wee home, my living room…that you choose to train alongside me as I show my vulnerability and weaknesses, I am genuinely honoured so thank you.
I hope you enjoy exploring this workout, use it to practice certain movement patterns, work to help improve mobility, increase your mind to muscle awareness, heighten your alignment & spacial awareness and bring the tension to those muscles! And it is this tension and reaching the point where you can do no more quality reps (or ‘close to’) that send the signal to grow…this makes sense as we can build muscle in many ways.
But really? At-home workouts build muscle?
Yes! Once you learn the principles of hypertrophy, these can be applied to a vast range of training methods and movements.
Let’s compare; bench pressing one’s own body weight and a pushup? One single bodyweight push-up is not equal to having our bodyweight in kgs on the bar… when we perform a push-up, we aren't pushing ALL of our bodyweight up. How much am I pushing up? A study (1) measuring different push-ups showed that regular push-ups equal approx 65% of our bodyweight…if you weigh 70kg this amounts to approx 46kg of actual load being pushed up…meaning applying an additional load of 24kg to equal total bodyweight…. Or manipulate angle to floor to increase load.
A push-up will require more abdominal recruitment and more retraction & protraction (great for shoulder health). However, the limitations are that it may be impractical/risky to attempt the same load of bench press in a weighted push-up due to load distribution across the back.
And with all things equal, such as ROM, etc, they both can build muscle the same! This has been shown in studies and it makes sense…mechanical tension is the main driver for hypertrophy. We can build muscle dumbbell bicep curling in our living room or standing in a gym, or even deficit push-ups in our living room compared to benching in a gym..so long as the intensity is there and even up to approx 30 reps!
If lower body, I tend to favour unilateral movements to increase the tension. Targeting the back & biceps is challenging without equipment, i.e. a pull-up bar or bands.
Rest day from the weights! Psychologically perhaps easier… but physiologically not necessarily any easier and, in my experience, sometimes more challenging in its own way!
EQUIPMENT:
BENCH / CHAIR
MAT
GLUTE BAND
HAMSTRING BALL / SLIDERS /TRX HAMSTRING CURLS
YOGA BLOCK*
WEDGES*
*Optional
TIMER:
The timer will be set for a longer set, followed by shorter cluster sets following the straight set! The cluster sets will generally be a slight variation from the straight set that was performed prior.
I hope you feel amazing after these 60 minutes and are proud of what your body and mind can do. Sure there is plenty we can’t do. We all have things we can’t do…but we can change our focus to what we CAN do.
Cx
You can visit web.cgx.tv to see my web platform, along with more information and support! Also available on iOS & Android.
I would recommend taking advantage of the 14-day trial to see how it fits into your lifestyle and how you like to train! There are over 350 different workouts to explore!
1. Ebben, William P1; Wurm, Bradley2; VanderZanden, Tyler L2; Spadavecchia, Mark L2; Durocher, John J2; Bickham, Curtis T1; Petushek, Erich J4. Kinetic Analysis of Several Variations of Push-Ups. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 25(10):p 2891-2894, October 2011. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31820c8587