The Big-3 Exercises for Beginners Home Exercises Only

• Exercise is pointless unless you provide muscle with the building blocks to grow
• Research has shown only the EAAs are needed for protein synthesis after exercise¹. No carbs were needed and the non-essential amino acids (NEAAs) were not needed for protein synthesis to occur after exercise¹. Some studies have shown that adding carbohydrate can enhance protein synthesis² , however, this is at a cost of adding calories.
• L-Leucine is a critical amino acid for mTOR stimulation the driver of protein synthesis after exercise. Just 4 scoops of the Activ8Health Leucine-enriched EAA Blend will provide 3g of L-Leucine that maximises protein synthesis
• Exercise can be harmful without providing the building blocks for muscle growth as the exercised muscle needs additional resources to grow and repair. To get these resources like amino acids your body will ‘rob’ Peter to pay Paul i.e. the body will raid tissues like tendons, ligaments, organs and bone through the Triage Mechanism proposed by Professor Bruce Ames

Perform each exercise with the following: 

1. If you can go for a walk with a weighted vest prior to resistance training this will be a good aerobic warm-up with extra load
2. Keep the weighted vest on when performing the following home exercises to add more load but keep the vest off if you are a total beginner.
3. Warm up with 1 or 2 sets of 12 repetitions at a normal pace
4. Finish your routine with a SUPER-SLOW SET and try to do this to exhaustion i.e. where you just cannot finish another rep. This should be done with any gym or home exercise. To do a super-slow rep of say a chest dip, slowly move down while slowly counting to 10 where at 10 you are at the lowest point of the dip and then slowly count to 10 on your way up where 10 in this circumstance you have finished the move at the hightest point. You can do this for all exercises. Super-slow moves will build more lactic acid and time-under-tension (TUT) and ensures your eccentric component is not neglected. This is a great way to take momentum out of the equation as momentum simply makes the exercise easier. By doing super-slow moves, you exhaust the weakest fibres rapidly and move to the upper intermediates and Type-IIX’s (the strongest fibres) if you do the exercises very slowly and reach exhaustion. Reaching the Type-IIX’s is more likely with the added load of the weighted vest.

Big-3 Exercises for Home

Workout 1 Big-3 Exercises 

1. Pull Down (Machine; Back Muscles) or Home Version
2. Chest Press (Machine) or Home Version
3. Leg Press (Machine; Leg Muscles, Quads) or Home Version

Workout 2 Big-3 Exercises (See the Big-5 Exercises)

1. Seated Row
2. Overhead Press
3. Standing Calf Raise

Dumbbell Chest Flye

Perfect Fitness Dip Equipment (Big-W, Online)

This combines the Leg Press and Shoulder Press of the Big-5 in one compound move

Remembe to use a ‘Super-Slow’ set to finish to exhaustion

The Renegade Row 

1. Do a push-up first both hands down on the weight in the starting position
2. Then lift one weight
3. Do a push-up again then the other weight
4. Finish with a Super Slow move to exhaustion

The Alternative Renegade Row

Use Kettlebells or Free-Weights