In fact, I’m going to give you my full strength and conditioning workout routine that I’m currently on. 

Who’s ready to get strong?

This is a 5-day workout routine and targets both strength and conditioning. It’s quite different from your typical bodybuilding workout.

The focus here is getting strong on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, overhead press, etc. And the other exercises in each workout are catered around helping you get stronger on these lifts.

But this isn’t a powerlifting workout either. You’re also gonna be doing some evil cardio! That’s part of the conditioning.

This strength and conditioning workout routine also has you doing enough sets and reps to build muscle mass. Volume is the key to making your muscles bigger, as volume is the key to getting that awesome tone from a tube amp!

What You Must Know About This Strength and Conditioning Workout

This strength and conditioning workout program calls for five workout days per week (you could get away with just four). The strength training part takes about an hour and I alternate two types of cardio after lifting weights. So the whole workout could be anywhere from a little over an hour to an hour and a half.

Also, this program is for both men and women. And I want to say upfront, it’s awesome to see more women in the gym hitting the weights and training hard.

And yes, I expect you to listen to my Heavy Metal Workout album series when you do this workout! Or at least have some of my songs in your metal workout playlist! I can live with that.

Monday Workout – Deadlifts and Core

Deadlifts: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Decline Sit-ups: 4 sets x 8 reps

Stiff-Leg Deadlifts: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Rope Crunches: 4 sets x 8 reps

Good Mornings: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Leg Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps

Cardio – 25-minute walk

Tuesday Workout – Back and Chest

Barbell Rows: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Bench Press: 4 sets x 8 reps

Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Incline Bench Press: 4 sets x 8 reps

Dumbbell Pullovers: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets x 10 reps

Cardio – 12 minute HIIT (high-intensity interval training)

Wednesday Workout – Arms and Calves (Optional Workout)

Rope Pressdowns: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 4 sets x 10 reps

Seated Overhead Dumbbell Extensions: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Barbell (or EZ Bar) Curls: 4 sets x 10 reps

Seated Calves Raises: 4 sets x 12 reps

Standing Calves Raises: 75’s (rest 10 seconds between sets until you hit 75 total reps…yes, this is like my song on Heavy Metal Workout II:  F’n’ Brutal!)

Cardio – 25-minute walk

Thursday Workout – Squats and Core

Squats: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Decline Sit-ups: 4 sets x 8 reps

Front Squats: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Rope Crunches: 4 sets x 8 reps

Good Mornings: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Leg Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps

Cardio – 12 minute HIIT

Friday Workout – Back and Shoulders

Reverse Grip Barbell Rows: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Standing Overhead Press: 4 sets x 8 reps

Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets x 8 reps-superset with
Seated Dumbbell Press: 4 sets x 8 reps

Weighted Pullups: 4 sets x 10 reps-superset with
Lateral Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps

Cardio – 12 minute HIIT (high-intensity interval training)

Weekends

*Saturdays and Sundays are typically rest days, though I often go to the gym with my wife on the weekends and I’ll hit a quick arm and calves workout followed by a HIIT cardio session. 

**If you wanted to make this a four-day program, you could throw in a little arms at the end of one or more of the other workouts. I may do that soon – that would grant me more time in the studio recording music! 

Favorite Exercise

What’s my favorite exercise? Well, it’s similar to the first track on my Heavy Metal Workout II album called Death Lift.

Yes, deadlifts. This ‘King of Exercises‘ is an overall size and strength builder. There’s no greater feeling than the aftermath of doing a few sets of heavy deads. You walk away feeling like you can conquer anything because you just conquered picking up raw weight off the floor.

I’m also a huge fan of weighted pull-ups. It may take you a while to get there but don’t let that discourage you. Keep pushing. If you have to start out with assisted pull-ups, that’s fine. You will get there, I promise!

How Supersets and Giant Sets Can Make You Stronger

You may be looking at this program and thinking that supersets don’t belong in any type of strength training workout routine. That’s what I would’ve thought too.

I took this concept from a Strongman title holder from Maryland, Brian Alsruhe. He has a 24-minute video out there explaining his linear progression program on strength and conditioning. And remember, this workout program is all about strength and conditioning. You can check out Brian on YouTube.

As I started doing this workout routine, I made changes to it that I thought would be best for my personal goals. And that’s what you have to do. I even say the same thing with the guitar videos I put out there on YouTube. Take what I’m giving you and use it as a guide to create your own.

Anyway, back to supersets. The idea is to perform an antagonist exercise, kind of like push-pull (or pull-push). So think of these as giant sets instead of supersets.

I don’t claim to know the science behind this, but I’ve been making some serious gains from this workout method. I’ve especially noticed gains in my barbell rows and bench press.

Prior to doing this strength and conditioning workout routine, I thought for sure doing a set of rows first would kill my bench press. It’s done just the opposite.

This type of workout is exhausting and I’ll admit it’s hard to wrap your head around the concept at first. But trust me; follow it for a few weeks, at least a month. It works. You just have to really push yourself.

Strength and Conditioning Workout

I want to briefly touch on the most hated task. Cardio. I would rather us use the word conditioning because that’s really what we’re doing with cardio exercise.

I’m alternating two types of cardio workouts here. One day is a short HIIT (high-intensity interval training) followed by a longer duration of moderate cardio the next day. This keeps the boredom down and integrating both will keep your body tight and your heart in check.

My HIIT cardio is usually down on the recumbent bike. I’ll go hard for about 30 seconds and back off to a slow pace for 30 seconds to a minute. And then I’ll repeat. I usually do this for 10-13 minutes.

The longer durations of cardio are just walking on the treadmill. I se the incline to about three and walk for 25-30 minutes at anywhere between 3.2 to 3.4 mph.

Heavy Metal Workout Workout

Well, that’s my new strength and conditioning workout routine. I’ve been on this plan for three weeks now. After four weeks I’ll go a little heavier on the compound lifts that I do in the beginning, and do 5 sets of 5 reps. But I’ll keep the reps at 8 and 10 for the other exercises else.

So what’s the best thing to listen to during these workouts? Metal! Of course, I listen to my own music but I also listen bands like…

• Amon Amarth
• Arch Enemy
• Exmortus
• Exodus
• Testament

…and several more bands of the like. I tend to listen to more death metal when I workout.

There’s no instrumental music out there for this genre, which is specifically why I wrote and recorded Heavy Metal Workout II. It’s more of a thrash metal meets death metal album, but it’s all instrumental.

I encourage you to try this strength training workout routine. Start this workout today!

Keep it Metal,

Jason

P.S. If you want to fuel your workouts with pure instrumental heavy metal music, then check out my Heavy Metal Workout album series!

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