Looking for a way to increase your work capacity, lose fat, gain muscles, or become an absolute machine and crush some conditioning, look no further than the barbell/dumbbell complex. These brutal series of movements will add a bump in your program or exercise routine.
The metabolic demand that is placed on the body is an overload depending on the complex you will be under tension and compression for at least 60 seconds, you will be gasping for air once you put the weights down. It will put your heart rate up in the anaerobic zone and will drive Vo2 max up. Complex also allows you to perform high amounts of total volume in a short amount of time. Take for instance performing the complex below for fat loss at 6 reps per exercise with 95lbs you are performing 48 reps per set which is 4560 lbs total lifted and a painful heart rate. This allows us to perform a low amount of sets but get a lot of volume in.
Fat Loss
If you are looking to lose some weight and torch the body fat this is where you start. This will put a huge stress on the energy system to complete and will be your conditioning built in with the lift. The complex consists of 6-8 exercises that you can do with a barbell or dumbbell and perform them back to back to back until all the reps of the series are done then you can put the bar down. We hold reps between 6 and 8 per exercise. Rest 2-3 minutes and repeat and work up to four rounds of this.
Fat Loss Complex/ Conditioning (6 reps of each exercise)
-Hang Clean
-RDL
-Bent Over Row
-Front Squat
-Push Press
- Reverse Lunges
-Deadlift
For Strength
The goal here is to get strong and increase the weight, so we are keeping the reps on the lower side but still getting in the quality of work. I use 2-3 reps per exercise which allows you to get more quality sets in, instead of the 4 rounds we did with the Fat Loss/ Metabolic Conditioning this can increase to 6 sets. Plug and play with the biggest bang for you buck exercises here, squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, pulls, presses.
3 reps per exercise rest, and increase the weight when you feel you can perform 4 reps on your weakest lift of the complex.
Hang Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Hang Snatch
High Pull
Hang Clean
Snatch
Back Squat
Bent Over Row
My Favorite
Hang Snatch
RDL
Snatch High Pull
Hang Clean
Overhead Press
So if you are crunched for time and need to get a quick workout in, look no further than the complex to get the work done.