I decided to train shoulders and abs with a friend of mine that hits the gym right when it opens at 5:00 AM. I have been trying to reduce my resting periods in my exercise routines. For instance, if I am doing shoulder presses, I'll do my reps, then instead of sitting around for a moment like I used to, I will place a mat on the floor and I might do leg raises for thirty seconds to hit the abs, then get back in the chair and do another set of shoulder presses. This has helped me to condition myself without spending too much time doing cardio (not advocating people to skip cardio at all; I just prefer not to do it at the gym personally), and I am able to use my time at the gym more efficiently given my busy schedule.
Today was a bit different. My friend also likes to train without taking breaks in between sets, but rather than switching the targeted muscle like I do, he likes to train in a circuit, doing exercises that all hit the same muscle group back to back. Today, we did fours circuit of shoulder presses, shrugs, overhead dumbbell raises, lateral dumbbell raises, standing barbell rows, and cable raises. The only rest that we got was the time that it took to move on to the next station. About three-fourths of the way through the first circuit, I felt like I could not go on, but I pushed myself to at least do half of each set with no rest.
To finish things up, we did two circuits for abs. Each circuit consisted of thirty crunches, thirty leg raises, thirty flutter kicks, thirty bridges (also known as butt-raises), and thirty side twists with a ten-pound plate to hit the obliques. in these two circuit, I hit my three hundred reps that I like to do for abs during each workout, but since it was non-stop, it felt much more effective (or at least it made me feel sore much sooner).
I am certainly not at my friend's level yet, but maybe I will be with enough consistency. This type of workout plan seems excellent for building endurance as well as mental toughness, and will be of great value if and when I do get in the ring.
