Cambridge Fitness Barbell Complex

 

Barbell complexes are one of my favorite training methods. Well, I’ll be honest. I freakin’ hate them when I’m actually doing them because they’re hard as hell but the benefits and the feeling when you’re done is pretty incredible.

What is a barbell complex?

A complex in short is a series of exercises (anything between 3 and 8 works well) that are done in succession without putting the bar down. So you would do all the prescribed repetitions for exercise #1 and then move to exercise #2 and so on.

The goal of a barbell complex is to choose exercises that flow well together and will challenge multiple muscle groups so you can get an effective full body training session by the time you’re done.

Here’s one of my favorite barbell complexes for bad-ass strength, conditioning and overall fitness.

5 Rounds x 5 Reps

Exercise #1- Hang Clean
Exercise #2- Front Squat
Exercise #3- Push Press
Exercise #4- Back Squat
Exercise #5- Romanian Dead Lift (RDL)

After 1 round I’ll rest 60 to 90 seconds (the rest gets longer for the later sets) and boom, I’m done.

Check out the video I made of this training session.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni8pZAWXrng[/youtube]