NOTE: These are my PERSONAL rules. I would NOT agree with all of these if I was writing a program for someone else.

My 13 Personal Training Rules

While my programing is a bit of a mess right now, I do still follow most of the same rules I've used for the past few years.

These rules apply to my own programing based on my goals and training history.

Goals: To not be a fat pig, to keep my vitals and blood work under control (health), to stay mobile, to not tear anything else off, to maintain or develop more LBM, to keep my weight in the 250 range, and to keep my mind sharp and stress controlled.

History: I've been a competitive powerlifter for over 20 years and learned a lot from my mistakes. I began training for meets in '83 and stopped in 2005. Many training related injuries and surgeries.

Aim: I love to train and train hard. I always have and always will. I'm not the type of person who can do one or two things and leave the gym. I want to leave the gym knowing and feeling like I did something. I also don't like taking any days off even though I know they are needed. This might not be the best from a programming standpoint, but this is who I am and what I love to do. My training rules are set up to allow me to keep doing this for the rest of my life. You might say this would hurt my progress, but that would depend on how you define it. I define it as...any day in the gym is a good day. My time in the gym keeps me sane, better at business, and makes me a better son, brother, husband and father.

My Rules:

1. To train each muscle from as many angles as possible using a full range of motion. This has been the BEST thing (by a mile) for my mobility and flexibility. I've tried all the prehab warm up stuff, foam roller, and everything else - and nothing has helped more than multi-angle full range of motion movements.

I no longer need any warm up routine and haven't needed one for close to a year. While they did help some, I got better results making my first movements big range of motion exercises such as a lat pull down. For my back work, I'd make this my first movement and perform four to six warm-up sets. The first couple sets are normal light warm up sets. After these, I will do a few more and really focus on expanding the ROM to get the biggest, deepest stretch I can. This is FAR better for me than one or two sets of a reach and roll.

2. I don't do sets under eight reps unless I happen to pick a weight that is too heavy. I really don't care about strength and get better results with reps between 10-15.

3. I cycle my sets by training either two reps shy of failure, to failure or past failure. This is now all done by feel, but in the past it was programed.

4. If a movement hurts I won't do it. When I quit powerlifting, there were a lot of movements I couldn't do because of ROM or pain issues. I remember stating there were more movements I couldn't do than ones I could. Some of these included:

Squats - can't get my shoulder to hold the bar on my back.

Bench Press - shoulder pain

Barbell Curls - wrist flexibility

Front Squats - hip flexibility

Lunges - hips

Shoulder Presses - shoulder pain

Dips - shoulder and elbow pain

I won't list them all as it would take too much time. I could sleep, walk or sit without pain.

Now my list is down to two movements - squats and overhead presses with a barbell. This is due to ROM issues - not pain. I can do modified versions (Yoke Bar Squats, Machine Presses) but it took years and a lot of work to gain these movements back.

5. Along the lines of No. 4 there is another rule. I know many lifters who have trained hard for over 20 years and they all have lists of movements they can no longer do. For most these include dips, extensions, overhead presses, bench press, squats (not due to knees, but shoulders), and chins. I WON'T do these unless modified in some way. If almost everyone I know who has trained hard for 20 years can't do these, but can do everything else then I see this as a clue to only do them in moderation. I'm not saying they are bad. All I'm saying is they are some of the first to go and I'm not willing to give up so easy.

6. I stretch the muscle I'm training after each movement. I do not think this is a great idea for strength, but I really don't care about that and it has made a huge difference in my flexibility and mobility.

7. As noted before I don't do a general warm up, but expanded my specific one. I do think the general warm up did help for some time, but then just became a waste. I also think it was fatiguing some of my stabilizers and made them more prone to injury when I did my heavier training later. Think about it. If your rotators are vulnerable to heavy benching why would you want to fatigue them before you bench? SOME warm up is good, but most people do way too much. Then again, it could also just be me.

8. I train alone. One session a week there are other people in the gym with me but for ALL my other sessions I'm in the gym alone. This is one reason why I will not let anyone train in the gym between 9AM and 5PM. This is my time to clear my head and also a great time for me to think. It may be the only time I have away from everything. This also lets me get my training done faster because there are zero distractions. My time gets very limited so I really don't have time to screw around and if I do have extra time I would rather it be with my family.

9. I rarely rest longer than 60 seconds between sets.

10. I train with a pretty high volume. Since I'm not lifting super heavy in the three to six rep range, I can do more sets.

11. I train 5-6 days per week.

12. I won't train unless I'm up and moving for at least three hours first.

13. I do cardio year around. At times this will be upwards to 6 hours per week and as low as one hour per week. This depends on my goals at the time but it is always there.

There might be a few I'm forgetting but this is the gist of it.

These rules have allowed me to regain mobility, flexibility, maintain and gain lean body mass while dropping body fat, stay injury free and regress many of the ones I used to be plagued with, look better and regain my health.