Rack Workouts Overview and Rack Workout #1

I'm not typically an all or nothing kind of guy. I see value in parts and understand you might get full eating an elephant, even if you do it one bite at a time. 

That being said, my colleague and good friend Matt Creech turned me on to a concept known as a "tap take down" whereby participants in this challenge visit a bar or restaurant and attempt to drink one beer from each tap on draft (and if you're feeling bold one of each type of bottle and can). 

In a similar vein, my other very good friend Sam Risley and I used to sneak into the Birdville ISD stadium and do "tour de stades" where we would run up and down every single flight of stairs in the complex.

I remember feeling a strong sense of accomplishment each time I'd complete a tour or tap take down. So I decided to apply that "one of everything" mentality to my workout design. 

Enter the Rack Workouts

rack workout (noun) a type of workout where you perform an exercise or strength movement using every single weight on the rack at least once. 

The First Rack Workout

I performed my first rack workout in Baltimore, MD at the Hilton Garden Inn. I knew I wanted to get a total body workout in and it was late (about 10pm) so I started warming up with the lightest weights on the rack (a set of 5 lb dumbells). I performed an exercise, then went up in weight. About 1/3 of the way through the workout, I realized that it wouldn't be that difficult to think of a challenging but doable exercise for each weight on the rack. I completed the workout in about 15 minutes and thought, I should do this every time I'm in a hotel. The concept was simple enough to execute and I repeated the next two days (with different exercises or variations on the weight/reps). Below you can find the weights, exercises, reps and sets I performed in that very first rack workout. Look for future rack workouts as I find the energy and time to do and write about them. 

5lbs set of 10 chest flys

10lbs set of 10 chest flys

15lbs set of 10 chest flys

20lbs set of 10 bent over rows

25lbs set of 10 bent over rows

30lbs set of 10 bent over rows

35lbs set of 10 shrugs

40lbs set of 10 shrugs

45lbs set of 10 shrugs

50lbs set of 10 dumbbell bench press