550workoutprogram

Therapy Central's 5/50 Workout Program

Okay, here it is on something other than the back of a business card. We will include pictures very soon to make sure you see what we're talking about. If you have any questions please e-mail us at www.therapycentralofroundrock.com . Have a blast. Oh...
...before you start this or any exercise or diet program please consult with your physician to make sure you won't drop dead or get hurt while doing it! Really, it's better to be a couch potato, alive and uninjured than a good looking corpse or a patient at a rehab center!

- Military Press (Overhead Press) - 50 reps
(Make sure your knees are slightly bent, back straight. Use dumbbells with your arms positioned so that your elbows are tucked into your sides, palms facing each other. Don't hold your breath during exercise!)
- Lunges - 50 reps (each leg)
(Hold your dumbbells at your side, below your waist. Make sure to keep your head up and back straight. Don't hold your breath during exercise!)
- Bench Press - 50 reps
(Use an exercise ball or bench. Hold the dumbbells the same way you do with the military press...elbows tucked into your body with palms facing one another. Don't hold your breath during exercise!)
- Squats - 50 reps
(Head up, back straight. Like Lunges, have dumbbells below waist at your side. Don't hold your breath during exercise!)
- Bent Over Rows - 50 reps
(Knees bent, back straight at 45% angle to floor, head up pulling dumbbells up towards ceiling and back down towards floor with arms in same position as previous upper extremity exercises...with elbows tucked at sides and palms facing each other. Don't hold your breath during exercise!)

Do each exercise through a full range of motion as quickly as you can without being 'jerky'. No rest between exercises. Use as much weight as you can that you can do 50 times, fast. Once that weight/exercise gets 'easy', up the weight a little. Then if you can only get 40 reps moving quickly through the range of motion that's okay. Work up to 50. When that gets 'easy', up the weight a little.
(Hint... start with small weights!)

TO INCREASE POWER try this! Alternate your routine every other day by taking the amount of weight you use in the ‘fast' workout, double it and do as many repetitions as you can, through a full range of motion, as slow as possible. This may seem counterproductive but with this routine you actually activate more muscle fibers, both slow and fast twitch and increase power. As you increase the amount of weight used in your 'fast' workout, increase the amount in your 'slow' workout.

If you play golf you may also want to add a golf swing exercise using thera-bands/tubing. Make sure you do this going in each direction, left and right, to make sure you keep your back healthy. How many? How many swings do you take during a round of golf? Divided that up and do so many between your other exercises. If you take 100 swings divide by 4 and do 25 swings with the thera-tubing, each direction, after Military Press, Lunges, Bench Press, and Squats. Do all of these swings fast through the full range of motion of your swing.

If you play baseball and pitch you may want to add a couple of different exercises to your routine. You

could do the 5/50 Routine every other day and do these on days in between or do one in the morning and

one in the evening. This really depends on your schedule and how you feel after doing your workouts. Additional exercises: Say you are in high school and would like to pitch a complete game... 7 innings. Say you may throw somewhere around 20 pitches in an inning. How about TRAINING specifically to do THAT?! Do 7 sets of 20 repetitions of "pitching lunges"...each direction, left and right.

Hold your dumbbells together against your chest while doing these. (What is a pitching lung? Act like your coming from the 'stretch' pitching position... It's kind of a sideways lung. Pictures coming soon!) After each set of pitching lunges do 20 repetitions doing your throwing motion with thera-tubing resistance bands. What you are accomplishing here is actually training for what you do in the game...with more resistance/weight than you will use in a game. You won't fatigue as quickly or risk injury during your games once your body becomes acclimated to these additional exercises. Most injuries to pitchers happen when their legs get tired. They start keeping their lead leg straighter which forces them to overthrow using their arm/rotator muscles more causing fatigue, tightness and injury.

This should pretty much wear you out! Once your body acclimates to this routine you can up the intensity by doing more than one set of each exercise! Just use a lighter weight on the second, (or third), sets and make sure to keep up the pace. Drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout to keep your muscles hydrated and to flush the toxins out of them before they can cause muscle soreness/tightness!

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We will have specific exercises and programs for nearly every sport very soon. 5/50 is a BASE program that is meant to do several things:

- It is very tough cardiovascularly since you work upper body, then lower, then upper, etc.
- It is also aerobic since you are breathing the whole time and there are no breaks in the should cause you to produce much less lactic acid than you would normally produce while lifting weights. You should, once acclimated to the program, be a lot less stiff, tight and sore than with 'traditional' weight training programs.
- This program also puts much less stress on your joints because you are moving within a range of motion that is the natural way you work or pull heavy weight which makes your risk for injury extremely low.
- You are not isolating individual muscle groups which can lead to muscle imbalances which are the root cause of many injuries.
- There is never any need to MAX OUT because you are constantly adjusting your weight/resistance up as you feel the exercise getting easier!

If you are in middle or high school and are starting with 5 pound dumbbells don't be discouraged! Imagine what you will look and feel like by the time you're a senior and using 50 or 60 pound dumbbells, doing 50 repetitions, fast! I'd be willing to bet that nobody on your team will be able to keep up with you doing your workout!

Have a blast. If you have any questions or would like to give a testimonial about how this routine is working for you go to our Contact Us page and send it to us! If you haven't read the other articles about weight training go to the Coaches' Corner and cruise through the articles there to help you achieve your goals. Thanks!

Copyright 2004, 2008, Therapy Central of Round Rock, P.C.