The Push-Pull Approach

Many days, I go into my gym with no idea what to do.

“Bench press sounds no fun today,” I’ll think. ”Pull-ups feel boring right now,” I’ll say aloud. And I just plain never want to do cleans anymore.

What happens to me and other gym fanatics on days like these is the worst possible outcome: nothing. If we can’t get excited about working out, we will either leave the weight room and not workout that day, or go through the motions so we can check it off our list. True, sometimes these are the days that make you better because you teach yourself to be disciplined. Working out shouldn’t always be fun, and often times it will be hard to make ourselves do it. We need to push through anyway.

But how?

The Push-Pull approach is what I most commonly resort to in such times. This approach pairs two types of movement: pushing and pulling (as if the name didn’t already give this away). In other words, constantly switching out between these two movements. After a set of a pushing movement, the next exercise will be a pull, then back to pushing, etc.

If you are like me, this is how I usually structure my workouts anyway. What makes the Push-Pull approach most effective is the freedom it allows. On days you have to force yourself go to the gym, its liberating to be able to decide on the fly which exercises you will perform. This takes off the pressure of having to be there. You no longer have to do anything - you are in complete control of your destiny from machine to machine, dumbbell to dumbbell.

Here is an example of a Push-Pull workout:

Dumbbell Overhead Press (Push)

Lat Pulls (Pull)

Plyometric Push-ups (Push)

Lawn-Mower Pulls (Pull)

Tricep Extensions (Push)

Bicep Curls (Pull)

Keep in mind, the most effective aspect to this type of training on days you don’t feel like training is the lack of limitation you place on yourself. Therefore, it is important to not write out a “plan” on these days. Just go to the gym, alternate the pushes and pulls for every lift,  and give yourself permission to do whichever lifts you want. The workout you come up with on the spur of the moment may not be as effective as the pre-determined, prescribed plan you probably pulled off the internet, but it keeps you in the weight room, wanting to be there.