This Up-and-Down Workout Gives You No Reason for Excuses

While the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has halted the cadence of everyday life for just about everyone, the world is now beginning to adjust. We’re all handling the challenges of social distancing and self-isolation differently—but that doesn’t mean that we have to go it completely alone in every sense.

At Men’s Health, we’re using this period as an opportunity to build up our community and share as much useful, positive information as possible. For everyone stuck missing their typical workout routines with gyms and fitness centers closed down, we’ve done our best to provide as many at-home workout options as possible. But that’s just the start. We’re also hosting live workout sessions on Instagram with some of our favorite trainers to fill the fitness class-shaped void in your daily routine.

Bobby Maximus, former UFC fighter, fitness personality, and author of the Men’s Health Maximus Body book, hosted the latest session. Maximus makes a point to train without equipment even when he has a fully-stocked gym at his disposal—so creating an accessible session for guys stuck at home without access to gear fits perfectly to his training style.

True to form, this session is focused on getting a workout in, no matter the circumstances. You’ll be working within a particular protocol to make the most of your time too–and you’ll challenge yourself in a few ways. “The format is everything,” Maximus says. “The format is often more important that the actual exercise, so don’t get hung up on the minutiae or the details.”

He’s referring to a digression-progression rep structure. That means you’ll perform a pair of exercises using a ladder format, with one of the moves descending from a set number of reps for each round, 10 in this case, while you work up from one rep in a ascending ladder for the other. But as Maximus explains, you can be even more targeted in selecting what types of exercises you place together.

He calls the first series a concentration set, which pairs two exercises that target the same muscle group–in this case, the legs. There other is complementary, which uses opposing or totally different muscle groups. That way, you’re able to rest one group while you’re actively working the other side.

Bobby Maximus’ No Excuses Digression-Progression Workout

Perform 10 reps of the first exercise, then 1 rep of the second. Then perform 9 reps of the first exercise, and 2 reps of the second. Continue using this structure until you’re at 1 rep and 10 reps.

Stay up to date with our workouts every single weekday at 12 p.m. ET. Want to keep up with the sessions you’ve missed? Check out the whole collection here.

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