On most days you head to the gym and ‘do the right thing’. You take out your training log, follow the reps and sets, add a little more weight than last week and walk out the door feeling pretty darn good about yourself. Other days, you’re not quite ‘feeling it’ and you spend less time curling heavy weight and more time chatting up the hot chick. Hey, it happens.
Then there are some days you just walk into the gym feeling extra pumped and super focused. Sure you could bang out your regularly scheduled training program. Hell, the way you’re feeling you could probably hit a couple of PR’s. But, today, you’re same-old training program just won’t do. You want to tackle something tough. You want a challenge. You want to train so hard that you crawl out of the gym. You want to GET CRUSHED.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help. Each week we’ll give you a tough, one-off workout that you can try when you are looking for the ultimate training challenge of just feel like you need a break from your regular routine. But be warned, this training program will leave you totally CRUSHED.
This workout is instantly scalable as you are loading the bars with your bodyweight – so lighter lifters will use less weight and heavier lifts will be slapping more plates on the bar. You are going to perform the four exercises below within 5 minutes. Continue to add additional rounds until you can no longer complete all the exercises as prescribed within the 5 minute timeframe. If you finish before the 5 minute mark, use the additional time as rest.
This circuit challenges all the major muscle groups in your body – posterior chain with the deadlift, pecs, delts and triceps with the bench press, upper back and biceps with the pull-ups – along with your work capacity by adding the row. Remember, you must complete the round within 5 minutes to qualify to go again. Easier said than done.
The Workout
Deadlift 5 reps x bodyweight
Bench Press 8 reps x bodyweight
Pull-ups 10 reps
Rowing Machine 500 meters
Dan Trink is a personal trainer, strength coach and nutritional consultant based in New York City. To find out more about Dan visit www.trinkfitness.com.
