Author: D C

I get told all the time by trainers that weights are for bodybuilding and that it’s impossible to do conditioning with weights or to burn fat through weight training. The reason so few understand this is that they have never tried complexes.

Some definitions first. A circuit is a series of exercises done in sequence. You can take a break or not between them, you can use different weights, different equipment, etc. Circuits are very flexible.

Compounds are usually two movements that are done back to back with the same weight and the same equipment. The fact that they’re done with the same weight makes them different from supersets, which are usually done with different weights or even different equipment.

Here’s a compund exercise i like a lot — the barbell burpee. Just grab whatever you can pretty easily press and do a burpee with it, then a pseudo-clean and press, and repeat for whatever rep count you’re going for. Try this out and you’ll see that compounds already jack the demands up on the body over single movement exercises.

A complex is a step up from a compound. It’s a series of exercises done with the same weight, same equipment, in a back to back fashion. They’re very tiring and I highly suggest folks build up to them in this fashion:

circuits–>compounds–>complexes

The most famous coach for complexes is Javorek and I have his book. The man is crazy. 🙂 First of all, the book has almost no margins and uses like an 8 point font. It’s almost 300 pages long. You really get your money’s worth with Javorek. He has circuits and complexes for everything under the sun and has trained hundreds of athelets with these things. If you have any interest in complexes, make Google your friend and look him up. However, I have to say the reason I got his book is that the stuff you find on the Inet is a little confusing. But here are a few examples:

This is one of his barbell complexes. Notice there are 5-6 exercises and each exercise is done with the same barbell, same weight until you have completed all the reps. Finishing all that would count as one rep of the complex.

Now what the video doesn’t show is how exhausting these can be. Notice that the man held the barbell in his hands the whole time. Grip is a problem with most folks and complexes will fix that like quick. In fact, I used barbell complexes exclusively to prepare to study Olympic lifting in Singapore because I knew I’d be using the bare bar for two hours a day and I knew a) that my grip would give out if i didn’t improve it and b) that I needed to work my conditioning like crazy to make it through our 2 hour a day sessions. My coach there was very pleased that I had prepared so well since many others may have underestimated the challenge. So complexes can prepare you for any kind of long sessions you might face.

But they REALLY shine for fat loss!

Here’s a clip I did a long time ago (please ignore the crappy form, we’ve come a long way baby!) for fat loss clients who wanted to transition from kettlebells to barbells but wanted fat loss instead of muscle gain. don’t let the light weights on this fool you — this will fry you fast! Those rollouts get reaaaallllly hard after a few sets.

Complexes work so well for fat loss and conditioning because of the whole body demand of the exercises. This is about as far away from isolation/bodybuilding type weightlifting as you can get. You’re burning crazy calories because of the metabolic demands.

Complexes can be done for strength or other goals. This is the Klokov complex:
That’s a pretty awesome display of strength.

They can also be done with dummbells or kettlebells. Here’s the man himself teaching his dumbbell complex #2:

There’s a lot of ways to use complexes and they can make you strong and burn fat at the same time. I really wish people would look beyond what a lot of folks around them are doing and try out things like complexes and compounds because these tools are so much more efficient as far as time and results go. You can get a crazy workout doing this stuff in 20-30:00.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Love this pic of old school bodybuilder Rocky DeFerro. But what’s this? No Nike compression shirt? No weightlifting gloves? How in the hell did he get so big wearing a regular t-shirt? Must be steroids. 🙂

No shirt, sweatband, gloves, etc. replace hard work. Do the work and save the money for a good steak.

Very humbled by this. As a trainer, you plant the seeds wherever you can and hope they sprout but you can never really tell. Some places the seed takes, and in others it whithers. Below is a testimonial from our buddy Ray, someone that got it.Thanks, brother!

Looking back at my pics from 2012. Looking at my physical transformation is shocking. Thanks to Dave Chesser, Abram Chuang, Kerry Wu at Formosa Fitness in Taipei for everything. You gave me some great instruction and a foundation for fitness I can take with me the rest of my life. Not even close to where I want to be, but the slow steady approach with no shortcuts certainly works. I’m stronger than ever and I always get compliments on how I’ve changed. I can deadlift, squat, bench, clean, and overhead press ridiculous amounts of weight now. This is real strength that is useful in your everyday life. I’m thankful for it.

Unlike every other gym you’ve ever been to in your entire life, we have a suggested program for you to follow — an official workout, if you will. Most gyms don’t care enough about getting you results so they just rent you the equipment while you’re there. We’re different. We don’t do that.

Here’s the official Formosa Fitness workout if you don’t have a legitimate plan that you’re already following:
Feel free to enlarge that if you want.

I wrote it based on my years of training people, looking at what they needed, looking at what they wanted, and most importantly looking at what they were doing — which was mostly wasting time and effort. Far too many people are majoring in minor things or being led astray by things that look cool. Just because a women shows her breasts and has a six pack doesn’t make her a fitness expert and just because a guy takes off his shirt to show his tattoos while throwing a barbell around doesn’t make him a badass no matter how many Youtube videos they have.

The above workout is extremely flexible because I wrote it in a “choose your own adventure” format. Want to work out five days a week? Follow the plan as written. Want 4 days a week? Cut out day 3. Want 3 days a week? Then just pick any 3 days. Want two days a week? Do day 1 and day 5. Want to emphasize fat loss and conditioning? Do the daily one strength move and then skip down in each workout to the conditioning section. Want to emphasize strength? Do the daily strength lift and the assistance work but skip the conditioning. Want to look like a badass Crossfitter without puking or getting injured? Do the whole workouts as written.

There is a ton of meat in this program and you could follow it while making solid gains for years. So stop with the hour long dumbbell curl workouts and follow something like this that will get you solid results.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ighBClBRY&w=560&h=315]
How does John Cena really work out? This is one of my favorite clips. I know all kinds of guys that want to get big and what exercises do they do? Front raises, pec deck, preacher curls, etc. Talk about majoring in the minors.

Check out the training then look at the board Cena is writing on. What do you see? I see a PR board for deadlifts, squats, bench, clean, and snatch. I don’t see front raise, wrist curl, etc. Wonder why?

Just in case we need to make it even clearer, he’s another video on Cena’s training.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZifZb5n6w0&w=420&h=315]

Heavy squats, deadlift, bench, pullups — not the type of workout you see in the magazines, is it?

These are the lifts that need to be the foundation of any looking to get bigger and stronger. ANY time spent mastering these lifts will be reward you with results. And yet this is the kind of stuff we almost never see in the gym except for the bench. Heck, you can’t even do that kind of lifting in most gyms since they don’t have the equipment. So we do what Cena and others have done and start our own. These places are built around the basic lifts because they work.

Want to look like Cena? Then train like him!