Working man's easy fitness guide
121: Workouts from my time in NCAA to get stronger quicker
So we all just had a long weekend of eating too much, boozing too much, and being a complete thanksgiving degenerate.
Did you just slug on your LuLu work pants and Charles Tyrwhitt shirt to go back to the office?
Pants feeling snug? Trader belly forming?
Maybe your IT bands are just tight as hell from sitting all day or walking on concrete in dress shoes.
When I first got out of college athletics and started to work in the real world, I noticed the pounds melt right off and I got super lean - no doubt this was from the momentum and caloric burning from years of heavy lifting and working out.
But soon as with most former athletes I suspect, I couldn’t get away with eating whatever I wanted and drinking whatever I wanted without it showing.
The stress of work, my first role in trading, the constant going out, etc. started to wear on me and I fell out of shape relative to when I first got out of school and was eating less, moving more, and still lifting. The infamous trader belly appeared due to slutty lunches at the trading desk, nights out in clubs in Manhattan, and Sunday morning seamless.
So I have found myself returning to some of my college roots to get back into better shape and get leaner with some of the same exercises I used to become a feral beast many moons ago. All it took was some modifications to weights and rep cadences.
Now before we get into December is the best time to supercharge your lifting and workout routine.
This is meant to be a complete no bullshit guide to staying in shape, remaining strong, and getting leaner while working with not much free time.
I’ve outlined my background in athletics and fitness below to give you an idea of where I am coming from.
If you want to be bigger, stronger, and more explosive in 2 months, this is for you. If you want to remain frail and soy and continue being below average as a man that’s fine as well.
This is the only rough regimen that I feel comfortable prescribing to anyone looking to just cut the shit and get stronger quickly without having 2-3 hours a day in the gym.
These were lifts and regimens I used at the highest level of NCAA strength training.
We threw together this guide for the following people to benefit from:
New to working out/lifting
Working a busy job in finance, tech, or other industries and want more effective and to the point workouts to do because of less free time
Hoping to get in better shape before the end of the year.
That resolution BS crowd! Just tell yourself - just get started now!
Former athletes who have let fitness fall to the wayside
This is merely my point of view on the matter based on my experience and I am not an expert in fitness in general — but I did learn quite a bit about how to get very strong, fast, and explosive in my time in college.
So there will be different opinions, stances, and advice from others — but this is just a quick easy to swallow broad pill on the topic — which will likely be one of the only pieces we do on fitness/lifting etc.
When deep in work and hustle it can be difficult to find the will and time to grind it out in the gym.
So when planning workouts these days I like to keep 3 things in consideration:
Speed
Intensity
Muscle groups — preferably working several throughout any given workout
Given the short time we have we will focus on all 3 of these components to craft the most effective workout we can.
There’s also much more to working out consistently than just the health benefits.
The weight room will never let you down in that it will never lie to you. The weight is always the same regardless of how you’re feeling that day. Maybe you got passed up for a promotion, maybe you got dumped, or a business deal didn’t work out.
That’s okay.
Go humble yourself in the iron asylum and kick your own ass as well.
People vastly underestimate how good the gym is for you mentally.
Imagine you just lifted 290 for 5 reps at the gym and you walk into the office to a pissed off client. You think you’re going to care?
One things for sure - you’ll 100% be better suited to deal with that problem since you just almost got crushed by metal.
It’s good for the soul. Good for your mind young king.
In a world of woke values, feminine men, and growing condemnation of aggression, fitness, directness, and strength — weight lifting is truly one of the last saviors for young men.
In some ways I loved being forced to get up in college to lift with practice and another workout later that day. If you were late you’d be running hill sprints, staying late to rack all weights or doing push ups and sit ups through an entire deck of cards to completion.
Forced discipline.
Forming and maintaining some sense of discipline in regards to your workouts is key.
Without it results will be slow to come and fast to fade.
I, like some of my online mentors and friends like BowTiedOx (who we interviewed recently) believe that there is a strong relationship between success in business and life and the effort you put into lifting.
Lifting is one of the best activities in life for your health, mentality, strength, and general drive.
I used to hate getting up for 4 years at 5am to go lift 300/400 pounds in the weight room. But I did it long enough to that it formed the basis for life for my build, my strength, and my resolve.
So let’s change your life by moving to get you started in simple workouts that work.
No BS or vegan dieting required to make this work. Just your will and focus and 40 minutes to an hour a day.
So let’s dive in — this post includes:
My Backstory in athletics
Basic Mentality to have while working out and working a full time job
The best exercise to get stronger, more explosive, and more powerful with less time suck
Gear to have if you’re seriously going to start lifting/working out and sitting at work all day
Several workouts/regimens you could use later today at the gym
After getting a bunch of questions on what workouts we recommend we finally decided to just cover it all here.
We took the time to compile all of this information and seek out some of the harder to find guides and complexes so this is an Arb Letter premium post. We have over 75+ paid articles in our grand archive and over 122 total. Thousands of our subs pay $5 a month for all access to our deep dives and focus pieces.
If you’re up to it consider the upgrade — this post alone is worth more than $100 and that, as the kids are saying, is no cap.
So before we talk about these specific lifts and complexes that can get you jacked in a short amount of time, let’s talk about how they fit into simply being a better athlete.