Power Through Pain

Hello Weaklings

Welcome

Introductions

Alright people. Are y’all wanting to size up, tone up, or just do something a little bit healthier? We can help you with that! Reading through our Power Through Pain article, you’ll start forming some ideas of what you want to do with your body. And hopefully after reading this workout series, you’ll have some ambitious goals for yourself!

What We're Planning

In this article, we’ll just focus on the main muscle groups that most people want worked out, the main courses, the show stoppers, the money makers. Someone call the vet, those pythons are sick as fuck! Stuff you’ll stare at in the mirror for. We’re going to be focusing on your chest, arms, back, and legs.

Look, we want everyone to do the best they can do, but it all depends on what you’re willing to do. If you stick through your workouts, you’ll no doubt be happier with yourself later down the line. We’ll be here for you!

Click our Achieving Your Goals article at the bottom for some extra guidance!

Power Through Pain Strength Training

Press any of the buttons to find a neat workout for that muscle group

Arm Workouts

By no means should you do all these exercises in one day! Pretty sure you'll be using your feet or mouth to open doors the next few days after!

Choose about 2-3 biceps, 2 triceps, and a forearm for a workout! 3 sets of 10 per exercise should do the trick. Don’t feel pressured to do 10, you can do 8. Forearms however need to be at least 2 sets of 40 reps!

Biceps

Bicep Curls – With a dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length. Keep your elbows close to your torso and rotate the palms of your hands until they are facing forward. Keeping the upper arms stationary, curl the weights. Raise the weights until your biceps are fully contracted and the dumbbells are at shoulder level.

Hammer Curls – With elbows close to the torso, palms facing your torso, curl the weight forward while contracting the biceps. Continue to raise the weight until the biceps are fully contracted and the dumbbell is at shoulder level.

Preacher Curls – You will need a preacher bench and an E-Z bar. With the upper arms positioned against the preacher bench pad and the chest against it, slowly lower the bar until your upper arm is extended and the biceps is fully stretched. Use the biceps to curl the weight up until your biceps is fully contracted and the bar is at shoulder height.

Incline Curls – Sit back on an incline bench and keep your elbows close to your torso. While holding the upper arm stationary, curl the weights forward while contracting the biceps. Only the forearms should move. Continue the movement until your biceps are fully contracted and the dumbbells are at shoulder level.

Triceps

Tricep Pulldowns – Attach a straight, rope, or V grip to a high pulley and grab hands facing down. Standing upright with the torso straight and a very small lean forward, bring the upper arms close to your body and perpendicular to the floor. Using the triceps, bring the bar down until it touches the front of your thighs and the arms are fully extended perpendicular to the floor. The upper arms should always remain stationary next to your torso and only the forearms should move.

Tricep Rope Extension – Attach a rope to the bottom pulley of the pulley machine. Grab and extend your arms with your hands directly above your head, palms facing each other. Your elbows should be in close to your head and the arms should be perpendicular to the floor with the knuckles aimed at the ceiling. Slowly lower the rope behind your head as you hold the upper arms stationary. Then back down.

anime Tricep Extention

Seated Tricep Press- Sit down on a bench with back support and grasp a dumbbell with both hands and hold it overhead. The resistance should be resting in the palms of your hands with your thumbs around it. The palm of the hand should be facing inward. With elbows in and perpendicular to the floor, lower the weight in a semi-circular motion behind your head until your forearms touch your biceps.

Forearms

Palm Up Wrist Curls – Lean forward and place your right forearm on top of your upper right thigh with your palm up. Lower the dumbbell as far as possible as you keep a tight grip on the dumbbell. Now curl the dumbbell as high as possible as you contract the forearms. *You can also flip your hands over for palm down curls.*

Wrist Curl

Rock Climbing is a sick way to get some ripped AF forearms. This’ll take some time but you can easily feel it within a couple of hours climbing. Find a climbing gym nearby and check it out!

Chest Workouts

Let's get some prison yard chest muscles! For a great chest workout, start with these dumbbell exercises.

3-4 sets of 10 per bench exercise should do the trick. Don’t feel pressured to do 10, you can do 8. Choose a weight thats comfortable and when you’re done with the exercise, don’t drop the weights! Do the pushups and dips at the end of the workout if you have energy. When we get stronger, we’ll move up to barbells.

Upper Chest

Incline Dumbbell Press – Lie back on an incline bench. The incline should 45 to 60 degrees. Then, using your thighs to help push the dumbbells up, lift the dumbbells one at a time so that you can hold them at shoulder width. Once you have the dumbbells raised to shoulder width, rotate your wrists forward so that the palms of your hands are facing away from you.
Be sure to keep full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then breathe out and push the dumbbells up with your chest. Lock your arms at the top, hold for a second, and then start slowly lowering the weight. Tip Ideally, lowering the weights should take about twice as long as raising them.
Pushups – Lie on the floor face down and place your hands about 36 inches apart while holding your torso up at arms length. Next, lower yourself downward until your chest almost touches the floor as you inhale. Now breathe out and press your upper body back up while squeezing your chest.

Middle Chest

Flat Dumbbell Press – Lie down on a flat bench. Using your thighs to help raise the dumbbells up, lift the dumbbells one at a time so that you can hold them in front of you at shoulder width.Once at shoulder width, rotate your wrists forward so that the palms of your hands are facing away from you. The dumbbells should be just to the sides of your chest, with your upper arm and forearm creating a 90 degree angle. Be sure to maintain full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then, as you breathe out, use your chest to push the dumbbells up. Lock your arms at the top of the lift and squeeze your chest, hold for a second and then begin coming down slowly.

Lower Chest

Decline Dumbbell Press – Lie back on a decline bench. Then, using your thighs to help push the dumbbells up, lift the dumbbells one at a time so that you can hold them at shoulder width. Once you have the dumbbells raised to shoulder width, rotate your wrists forward so that the palms of your hands are facing away from you. Be sure to keep full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then breathe out and push the dumbbells up with your chest. Lock your arms at the top, hold for a second, and then start slowly lowering the weight.

decline bench

Low Cable Crossover – Place the pulleys at the low position. Select the weight to be used and grasp a handle in each hand. Step forward, gaining tension in the pulleys. Your palms should be facing forward, hands below the waist, and your arms straight. This will be your starting position. With a slight bend in your arms, draw your hands upward and toward the midline of your body. Your hands should come together in front of your chest, palms facing up.

Back Workouts

Get your back to look like Baki Hanma's!

You definitely want to do the cable rows, 1 or 2 of the pull downs, and the raises! 3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise should do the trick. Shrugs can be done at the end if you want. The upright cable row can be done with the workout if you want more to do, but if you’re just starting, probably just want to do the shrugs for now. Choose a weight thats comfortable. When we get stronger, we’ll move up to barbells on some of these.

Middle Back

Seated Cable Rows – For this exercise you will need access to a low pulley row machine with a V-bar. First sit down on the machine and place your feet on the front platform or crossbar provided making sure that your knees are slightly bent and not locked.
Lean over as you keep the natural alignment of your back and grab the V-bar handles. With your arms extended pull back until your torso is at a 90-degree angle from your legs. Your back should be slightly arched and your chest should be sticking out. You should be feeling a nice stretch on your lats as you hold the bar in front of you. This is the starting position of the exercise. Keeping the torso stationary, pull the handles back towards your torso while keeping the arms close to it until you touch the abdominals. Breathe out as you perform that movement. At that point you should be squeezing your back muscles hard. Hold that contraction for a second and slowly go back to the original position while breathing in.
Bent Over Rows – DON’T DO THIS IF YOU HAVE BACK PROBLEMS!
Bend your knees slightly and bring your torso forward. Bend at the waist, keeping the back straight until it is almost parallel to the floor. NEVER round out your back when doing this exercise. Make sure that you keep the head up. The weights should hang directly in front of you as your arms hang perpendicular to the floor and your torso. While keeping the torso stationary, lift the dumbbells to your side as you breathe out, squeezing your shoulder blades together. On the top contracted position, squeeze the back muscles and hold for a second.

Lats

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – Sit down on a pull-down machine with a wide bar attached to the top pulley. Make sure that you adjust the knee pad of the machine to fit your height. These pads will prevent your body from being raised by the weights attached to the bar. For a wide grip, your hands need to be spaced out at a distance wider than shoulder width.
As you have both arms extended in front of you holding the bar at the chosen grip width, bring your torso back around 30 degrees or so while creating a curvature on your lower back and sticking your chest out.
As you breathe out, bring the bar down until it touches your upper chest by drawing the shoulders and the upper arms down and back. The upper torso should remain stationary and only the arms should move. The forearms should do no other work except for holding the bar; therefore do not try to pull down the bar using the forearms.After a second at the contracted position squeezing your shoulder blades together, slowly raise the bar back up when your arms are fully extended and the lats are fully stretched. Inhale during this portion of the movement.

wide grip lat pulldown

Close Grip Cable Pulldown – For a close grip, keep your hands at a distance smaller than your shoulder width, and do the same thing as the wide grip pull down.

Traps

Shrugs- Standing with a dumbbell in each hand, arms extended on the sides. Lift the dumbbells by elevating the shoulders as high as possible while you exhale. Refrain from using the biceps to help lift the dumbbells. Only the shoulders should be moving up and down. This is literally a shrug.
Up Right Cable Row – Grasp a straight bar cable attachment that is attached to a low pulley. Grip with a slightly less than shoulder width grasp. The bar should be resting on top of your thighs. Your arms should be extended with a slight bend at the elbows and your back should be straight. Use your side shoulders to lift the cable bar as you exhale. The bar should be close to the body as you move it up. Continue to lift it until it nearly touches your chin. Your elbows should drive the motion. As you lift the bar, your elbows should always be higher than your forearms. Also, keep your torso stationary and pause for a second at the top of the movement. Lower the bar back down slowly. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement.
This exercise is a little form sensitive so be careful. Too much weight leads to bad form, which in turn can cause shoulder injury. Please no jerking, swinging and cheating! If you can’t, just don’t do this exercise then.

Shoulders

Lateral Raises – Pick a couple of dumbbells and stand with a straight torso and the dumbbells by your side at arms length with the palms of the hand facing you. While maintaining the torso in a stationary position (no swinging), lift the dumbbells to your side with a slight bend on the elbow and the hands slightly tilted forward as if pouring water in a glass. Continue to go up until you arms are parallel to the floor. Exhale as you execute this movement and pause for a second at the top. And repeat!

Leg Workouts

This is by definition, power through pain.

Leg day doesn’t exist for most people, but It will for you. Leg day is the worse day there is for a lot of people because of how sore their legs get afterwards, but its worth it. For legs, the workout will be your choice. You should choose 2-3 exercises for each muscle and do 3 sets of 10 reps on each. Calf raises should be like 2-3 sets of 25 reps.
If you’re wanting lighter, do 50 body weight squats and 200 feet of lunges a day will get you pretty strong within a few weeks.

Quads

Barbell Squat – This exercise is best performed inside a squat rack for safety purposes. To begin, first set the bar on a rack just above shoulder level. Once the correct height is chosen and the bar is loaded, step under the bar and place the back of your shoulders (slightly below the neck) across it. Hold on to the bar using both arms at each side and lift it off the rack by first pushing with your legs and at the same time straightening your torso.
Step away from the rack and position your legs using a shoulder-width medium stance with the toes slightly pointed out. Keep your head up at all times and maintain a straight back. This will be your starting position. Begin to slowly lower the bar by bending the knees and sitting back with your hips as you maintain a straight posture with the head up. Continue down until your hamstrings are on your calves. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement. Begin to raise the bar as you exhale by pushing the floor with the heel or middle of your foot as you straighten the legs and extend the hips to go back to the starting position. Non weighted squats are cool too!
Leg Extensions – For this exercise you will need to use a leg extension machine. First choose your weight and sit on the machine with your legs under the pad and the hands holding the side bars.
You will need to adjust the pad so that it falls on top of your lower leg (just above your feet). Also, make sure that your legs form a 90-degree angle between the lower and upper leg. If the angle is less than 90-degrees then that means the knee is over the toes which creates undue stress at the knee joint. If the machine is designed that way, either look for another machine or just make sure that when you start executing the exercise you stop going down once you hit the 90-degree angle. Using your quads, extend your legs to the maximum as you exhale. Ensure that the rest of the body remains stationary on the seat. Pause a second on the contracted position. Slowly lower the weight back to the original position as you inhale, ensuring that you do not go past the 90-degree angle limit
Leg Press – Using a leg press machine, sit down on the machine and place your legs on the platform directly in front of you at a medium (shoulder width) foot stance. Lower the safety bars holding the weighted platform in place and press the platform all the way up until your legs are fully extended in front of you. Make sure that you do not lock your knees. Your torso and the legs should make a perfect 90-degree angle.
As you inhale, slowly lower the platform until your upper and lower legs make a 90-degree angle. Pushing mainly with the heels of your feet and using the quadriceps go back to the starting position as you exhale. Repeat, and ensure to lock the safety pins properly once you are done. You do not want that platform falling on you fully loaded!

Hamstrings

Lying Leg Curls – Adjust the machine lever to fit your height and lie face down on the leg curl machine with the pad of the lever on the back of your legs (just a few inches under the calves). Preferably use a leg curl machine that is angled as opposed to flat since an angled position is more favorable for the hamstrings. Keeping the torso flat on the bench, ensure your legs are fully stretched and grab the side handles of the machine. Position your toes straight. As you exhale, curl your legs up as far as possible without lifting the upper legs from the pad. Once you hit the fully contracted position, hold it for a second and slowly let it back down.
Lunges- Stand with your torso upright (weights optional). Step forward with your right leg around 2 feet or so from the foot being left stationary behind and lower your upper body down, while keeping the torso upright and maintaining balance. Inhale as you go down. As in the other exercises, do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down, as this will put undue stress on the knee joint. Make sure that you keep your front shin perpendicular to the ground. Using mainly the heel of your foot, push up and go back to the standing position as you exhale.
Deadlifts – Approach the bar so that it is centered over your feet. Your feet should be about hip-width apart. Bend at the hip to grip the bar at shoulder-width allowing your shoulder blades to protract. Typically, you would use an alternating grip. With your feet and your grip set, take a big breath and then lower your hips and flex the knees until your shins contact the bar. Look forward with your head. Keep your chest up and your back arched, and begin driving through the heels to move the weight upward. After the bar passes the knees aggressively pull the bar back, pulling your shoulder blades together as you drive your hips forward into the bar. Lower the bar by bending at the hips and guiding it to the floor.
Honestly guys, I would recommend having a friend who actually works out to do these deadlifts. This is really form intensive and we don’t want to see people getting hurt trying to live a healthier life. If you’re interested in still trying, here’s a link to an article: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/how-to-deadlift/

Calves

Seated Calf Raises – Sit on the machine and place your toes on the lower portion of the platform provided with the heels extending off. Choose the toe positioning of your choice. Place your lower thighs under the lever pad, which will need to be adjusted according to the height of your thighs. Now place your hands on top of the lever pad in order to prevent it from slipping forward. Lift the lever slightly by pushing your heels up and release the safety bar. Slowly lower your heels by bending at the ankles until the calves are fully stretched. Raise your heels by extending the ankles as high as possible as you contract the calves. And down, then repeat. This exercise motion happens pretty fast

How to Up Your Running Skills

We know not everyone likes to do cardio, but anybody can be a runner! It’s just a matter of easing in, slowly building up your endurance, and properly training

Start Slow

Don’t expect to run five miles on day one if it’s been a while. Making a schedule and sticking with it. Being consistent will help you to build up your endurance and make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.

Be kind to yourselves and look past the tough days. Some days will be great while others might suck, but as long as you have more good days, it will get easier!

Run With Proper Form

Don’t let your arms cross your body – You want to run like a T-rex, thumbs up, pinky down. Your hands should rest right above your hips. Arms should be relaxed at your side moving front to back, not swinging side to side or across the body.

Strike on the balls of your feet – Have a slight forward lean, and act as though you are griping the ground with your foot.

Start With a Run/Walk

Don’t just dive into an all-or-nothing running session. Start slow and mix running and walking! Start with two minutes on, five minutes off, and you gradually build yourself up to a five-minute jog and then two minutes off. Eventually this’ll will lead to you getting better at running for longer.

Following this type of program will help your body slowly develop cardiovascular conditioning, and will help you avoid injury from pushing too hard too soon.

Don’t Overexert Yourself

There’s no rhyme or reason to it, some days are just hard. The key is to keep going, but to also listen to your body and not push past your ability.

Sometimes slowing down or cutting a run short is what you really need during your workout. Listen to your body and avoid the ‘finish by any means’ mentality. Pushing yourself when you’re not ready is a recipe for injury!

Factor in recovery time. While training is key to becoming a better runner, it’s also important to take days off to relax both mentally and physically.

Mentally Prepare to Become a Runner

Mental training can tremendously improve your pavement-pounding performance.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t ― you’re right. The mind and body are connected and higher confidence levels leads to better performance! This mentality explains why athletes often perform better after visualizing a task, such as weightlifting, before executing it.

Self motivation and outside motivation are normally the main driving force for someone to keep at it! Just remember it takes time, but it will happen!

Work On Your Strength Training

In order to prevent injuries and excel at running, it’s important to keep your body strong! One of the best things you can do to become a better runner is to ensure you incorporate strength training exercises into your routine.

The knee is the most common injury site among runners, and poor hip strength is a primary cause. When your hips are weak, more stress will be on the knee.

In order to prevent injuries such as shin splints, do ankle extensions. Practice pointing and flexing or even just a simple hold where you pull your toes back and squeeze the front of your shins works as well.

Set a Tangible Goal

One of the best ways to ensure that you improve at running is to lock yourself into an upcoming entry-level race. Pick a cause that’s important to you, whether it’s raising money to fight breast cancer or AIDS, to just having fun dressing up or getting colored powder thrown in your face! Have a specific date, a very defined goal. Let people know you are doing it, commit yourself emotionally, sign yourself up, and raise funds. Michaels, who recently launched a beginners running training program on her app, noted that it’s entirely reasonable for a complete running novice to be ready for a 5,000-meter race in two months. Here’s a couch potato to 5k plan that works! If you need more time, that’s fine too, but keep in mind your goals!