It's Cardio, But With Weights!

An Article About Training Complexes and Why You Need Them in Your Life.

In This Article

• A resistance training cardio method for the weight room fiend.

• Benefits of this cardio method.

• Suggested guidelines for this cardio method.

• Sample routines you can put to use today.

• Cake.

Do You Need Cardio?

Depending on the type of athlete you are, cardio is either a necessary evil or something you can’t live without. The typical muscle-bound weight room dweller is rarely seen running the mile for fun, but the distance athlete will voluntarily run miles because, strangely enough, they somehow love it. These two people have completely different goals in terms of how they want to look and what they want to be physically capable of.

But, they do have one thing in common, which is the fact that cardio helps both of them.

Whether Mr. Muscle wants to admit it or not, he’ll be able to train harder for longer if his cardiovascular system is stronger. An improved cardiovascular system will allow him to push to that 15th squat rep, where he would've failed at 12 with burning lungs and a pounding heart had he not put in some cardio work on the side. I’m no mathematician, but I do know that 15 is more than 12 and that extra training volume adds up over time. It adds up to more muscle, which is just what Mr. Muscle needs to keep him happy.

As for the endurance athlete, I don’t think we really need to talk about Mr. Marathon. The benefits of a strong cardiovascular system are obvious for his endurance-based goals. At the same time, he will actually improve his run times if he trains for muscle and strength in the gym too. Stronger muscles will carry his weight easier and allow him to power through challenging portions of his events, such as hills.

In a nutshell, Mr. Muscle and Mr. Marathon should both include weight training and cardio in their programs. They’ll just use different ratios of these two activities.

Since Mr. Marathon meets his cardio needs and more, and enjoys monotonous running, I’m going to speak to all of the Mr. Muscles out there from here on out. Cardio will help you be a better lifter, period. And since two realities can exist at once, traditional cardio also generally sucks.

I’m here to provide you with a less-sucky cardio method, which you can do with…wait for it…wait for it……weights. And guess what? It gives you a sweet pump too! Do I have your attention now?

What Are Complexes?

The cardio method I’m talking about is known as complexes.

A complex is a group of resistance training exercises performed in series, with little or no rest between exercises.

In fact, depending on the exercises you choose, you might not even let go of the weight when moving from one exercise to the next.

A complex does not need to focus on a single muscle group, or even just a few muscle groups. Complexes can vary in their areas of focus. They can hit the entire body or be zoned in on just upper or lower body muscle groups. Or, they can be dialed-in to one or two desired muscle groups for more precise targeting.

Exercises used to create complexes may use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, machines, or bodyweight. As you can see, equipment type isn’t specific, provided resistance is introduced to the equation (unless bodyweight is enough on it’s own).

Here’s a sample complex:

• Exercise 1 - Barbell Front Squat

• Exercise 2 - Bent Barbell Row

• Exercise 3 - Barbell Overhead Press

• Exercise 4 - Barbell Romanian Deadlift

This is a grouping of what I’d call classic barbell lifts. This complex targets the quads, glutes, hamstrings, back, biceps, shoulders, core, and triceps. It’s a great example of working nearly the entire body in a short series of exercises. You really can’t go wrong with this one.

Why Should We Do Complexes?

Why should we use complexes when we can just stick to classic cardio? In short, they’re much more fun and they provide benefits that classic cardio just can’t deliver.

When you break it down, traditional cardio is really just continued physical activity for a period of time. It’s a planned period of elevating your heart rate. Going for a brisk walk, riding a bike, moving on an elliptical, or climbing endlessly on the stair-stepper are all examples, and very common ones at that.

Let’s just say it; traditional cardio is really the most boring type of cardio you can do. The activity doesn’t change during the session and the pace usually stays about the same. It’s mindless and, because it’s so boring, seems to slow time to nearly a halt. Have you ever watched the clock while on the treadmill? It moves slower than the classroom clock on the day before summer vacation.

Why constantly subject yourself to the agony of traditional cardio when a method like complexes exists? With complexes, you get to stay in the fun part of the gym, you’ll do many different exercises per session, and your mind stays engaged at all times.

And, unlike traditional cardio, the clock moves quickly during complexes because time flies when you’re having fun!

This is reason enough for most of us, but let me expand on a handful of benefits you’ll experience with complexes.

Improve Exercise Form & Execution

Practice makes perfect, we all know this. Complexes give us opportunities to practice the exercises we’re choosing to use. Say you’d like to work on your squat; if you add squats to one of your complexes, and you do three rounds of 12 reps, that’s 36 reps and 36 opportunities to work on your squat form. Each of those opportunities is an opportunity you’ll never have on the treadmill.

Complexes deliver the prolonged heart rate elevation we’re after when cardio is our target, plus more. Traditional cardio will never provide us with opportunities to practice the exercises we love and want to improve.

Chalk up a win for complexes when it comes to this benefit!

Enhance & Improve Mind/Muscle Connections

This benefit has so much value and carryover to our primary resistance training days. Again, practice makes perfect. Anyone with highly developed mind/muscle connections will tell you it took time and practice to reach that heightened state of development.

Professional athletes are known for endless practice swings, shots, or throws. They know the value of high repetition practice and we can use this concept during complexes to improve our own training skills; the mind/muscle connection being one of those skills.

Mind/muscle connections are developed by focusing on working muscle groups during actual exercise repetitions. You need to be physically performing reps and feeling the working muscle groups to focus in and build the connections.

The more opportunities we have to practice, focus, and feel, the more we’ll improve; complexes give us an abundance of opportunities. Mark down another win for complexes!

Increase Mental Engagement & Decrease Boredom

Many years ago, when I began working with clients and designing programming for people other than myself, I realized how important mental engagement is for training success. Essentially, if a person is bored with their training program, two things will happen:

1. They’ll put in less effort. People work harder on things they’re excited to do and enjoy doing. Boring activities don’t motivate people and their effort levels drop.

2. Eventually, they’ll transition from putting in less effort to putting in no effort. In short, they’ll quit altogether.

Mentally engaging programming is a shadow factor to gym success, which many people don’t consider when lining up their training day activities. With cardio being the activity that’s most commonly skipped in gyms everywhere, due to it’s monotony, complexes show up and save the day.

Instead of plodding along on the treadmill or riding the stationary bike to nowhere, complexes require constant thought and focus and provide many small wins in each session.

Every time you complete an exercise set, it’s a small win. You practiced form, you thought about your working muscle groups, you moved the weight, and you took a step towards the end of the workout.

These are all small wins of different types, which are fun and rewarding to achieve. This isn’t boring and it’s continually engaging.

You guessed it, another win for complexes!

More Benefits

Without expanding on them, here are some additional benefits you’ll receive from using complexes:

1. Increase blood and nutrient flow to working muscle groups, promoting recovery.

2. Actively stretch muscles through use of full range of motion during the exercises.

3. Increase heart rate and maintain an increase throughout the session.

4. Add variety to your programming.

How Should We Do Complexes?

To ensure you experience all of the above benefits, I recommend constructing your complexes with my personal list of guidelines in mind:

1. Perform two complexes per session.

2. Use four exercises per complex, maybe five if you’re feeling extra cardio-ish that day.

3. Complete three rounds of the first complex, sticking to 10-15 reps per exercise, per round. Once you’ve completed all three rounds of the first complex, tackle the second complex in the same manner.

4. Rest minimally between exercises as you work through each round.

5. Between rounds, rest/stretch until you’re recovered and ready to start the next round; generally 2-4 minutes.

6. When using complexes as cardio, use weight loads that keep you in the 5-7 range on the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale. Do not train to failure.

7. Following guidelines 1-6 should result in a 30-60 minute session, depending on chosen exercises and recovery times between rounds.

Sample Complexes

I’d like to provide you with a few complexes that I enjoy, as well as my clients. These examples will give you an idea of how I prefer to construct complexes and you can feel free to modify them and build your own.

Sample Complex 1

• Exercise 1 - Dumbbell Upright Row

• Exercise 2 - Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

• Exercise 3 - Bent Dumbbell Row

• Exercise 4 - Standing Dumbbell Oblique Crunch

Sample Complex 2

• Exercise 1 - Dumbbell Goblet Squat

• Exercise 2 - Flat Dumbbell Press or Pushup

• Exercise 3 - Pull-up or Pull-up Grip Lat Pulldown

• Exercise 4 - Hanging or Lying Leg Raise

Sample Complex 3

• Exercise 1 - Dips or Bench Dips

• Exercise 2 - Barbell Reverse Lunges

• Exercise 3 - Chin-up or Chin-up Grip Lat Pulldown

• Exercise 4 - Hands and Toes Plank

Sample Complex 4

• Exercise 1 - Standing Barbell Overhead Press

• Exercise 2 - Conventional Barbell Deadlift

• Exercise 3 - Bent Barbell Pendlay Row

• Exercise 4 - Situp

If you noticed a trend, I applaud you!

I prefer to use compound exercises and I aim to include an upper body press compound, an upper body pull compound, a lower body compound, and an exercise that works the abs/core.

You’ll see the inclusion of these four exercise types in all of the samples above.

Unless you have specific muscle groups you’d like to isolate during your complexes, I recommend compound exercises because they provide the biggest bang for your buck for the specific purpose we’re using complexes for.

Now that you’ve seen some of my complexes, let’s see you create some of your own!

My Personal Thoughts & Tips

Before you venture off into the world of complexes, here’s some ‘advices’ from me to you (btw, if you got the advices reference, we could be great friends in real life).

1. Complexes for cardio are not meant to hit as hard as your traditional weight training day exercises. Per this article, you’re using them for cardio, not a weight room beatdown.

2. Approach your complexes with a focus on feeling the exercises and using them to enhance your form and mind/muscle connections, while maintaining that intensity level of 5-7 on the RPE scale to elevate your heart rate.

3. Because I’m a huge proponent of balanced training, it is important to make sure that your complexes work upper (pressing and pulling) and lower body muscle groups, as well as the core.

4. Also, consider incorporating variations of, or your exact weight training day exercises, to maximize practice opportunities and improvement in the lifts that currently matter to you the most.

5. If you have any favorite exercises, complexes give you a great place to incorporate them so you can do them more often.

6. Last, but not least, have fun with your complexes! They’re a breath of fresh air on cardio days, I promise.

Conclusion

Before I go, I have just one more piece of advice and I think it’s important for me to mention this.

You don’t need to use complexes exclusively for your cardio needs. You are free to use them in conjunction with traditional cardio methods.

I wrote this article because I want you to have options.

While they may be uncommon, and you might not see anyone else using them in your gym, I know you will enjoy complexes because they are a nice mental and physical change from the monotonous traditional cardio you’re used to performing.

Their cardiovascular benefits, alone, are valuable, and the benefits that carry over to your main weight training days are delicious drippy icing on the cake. Mmmmm…cake.

Now, go ahead and line up a couple of your own complexes, head to the gym, and be excited for cardio days!

Why did the Uber driver cancel his gym membership? Because he didn’t even Lyft, bro.

Thanks for reading!