Shadowing Practice: My Morning Workout Routine - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey guys, it's Matt, and today I want to share with you my new 20 minute morning workout routine.
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It's something I've been working on over the past couple weeks.
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Excited to share it with you.
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Let's get into it.
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So in the past I've had a dedicated gym regimen most of the time going five days a week.
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But since lockdown I've done my best to try to adapt
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that to an at-home routine I've stuck with strength training exercises
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that replicate some of the exact exercises I do with my
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typical weight training I did experiment with a lot of the Instagram workout routine videos
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and they did have me build up a sweat But they weren't really my style
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And one and two and one and two and lift your leg, lift your leg and other leg, other leg and don't put the down, don't put the down, but stand up, stand up.
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So I primarily tried to focus on the things that I really enjoy out of a workout.
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I did get some gear to get me started including a yoga mat, a foam roller, and two resistance bands.
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You can probably get by with just one moderate band, which in this case is the blue one, but I got two because I wasn't really sure what the resistance would be.
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The only other piece of gear that I might add to this list is a pull-up bar, though I think my current setup will for sure get me through the next couple of months.
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As always, I include all the links to everything I mentioned in this video in the description.
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So first let's talk about motivation.
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This is probably one of the biggest things you're gonna struggle with as you start to adapt to an at-home workout routine.
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I know that's definitely true of myself.
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I found that one big change I've made is to prioritize my workouts in the morning.
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So 7 a.m.
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8 a.m a.m that's
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when I'm doing these workouts before I come up with all
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these excuses later on in the day before I'm too tired to want to even pull out
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that yoga mat and start my workout.
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The second thing, which I've already mentioned on this channel a few times before, is following the two-day rule.
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This is especially important now that I'm working out from home because I just don't feel as inspired lately,
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and so I will come up with more excuses and I will push off my workouts.
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But following the two-day rule, I allow myself to skip one day, I don't allow myself to skip two days.
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So this just It just allows me to continue to build that momentum with each workout and worst case scenario, I'm working out every other day, which is actually still pretty good.
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This video is sponsored by my friends at Audible.
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At the end of the video, I'm gonna share with you an audio book that's really helped bring a lot of perspective when it comes to motivation.
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So stick around at the end to check that out.
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All right, so I split these workouts into three different days.
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On day one, I work out biceps, back, and shoulders.
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On day two, I work out triceps and chest.
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And on day three, I work out legs.
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So let's get started with day one.
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All right, so the first muscle we're gonna work today is the most important muscle in the human body, the bicep
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and we're gonna use the bicep curls to start.
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So putting one or two feet on the resistance band, keeping your elbows tucked in, we're gonna bring these resistance bands up.
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So we'll probably just knock out like three or 400 of these and we'll be good.
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The key to all strength training is pushing yourself to failure.
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With a resistance band, this can be a little bit tricky, but there are a few different ways to get there.
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You can use a thicker band, shorter slack on the band, you can double the bands up, or you can just do much slower reps.
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Truthfully, I don't worry too much about the exact number of reps that I get in.
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I'm more concerned with trying to reach failure.
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All right, I'm done.
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I typically do three to four sets per exercise depending on how I'm feeling.
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Now, my rest time in between sets and exercises is typically one to two minutes.
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I go by my own personal feeling.
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If you need more discipline, you might wanna go with a more calculated approach.
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All right, so the next exercise targets three muscles for the day.
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It's gonna be your biceps, your shoulders, as well as your back.
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It looks weird.
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You're gonna laugh at me, but it actually works really well.
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Let's call these the floppies.
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So basically you hold the band just like this in front of your chest
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and you stretch it all the way back and activate your back.
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Just as important as bringing yourself to the point of failure is doing slow controlled reps.
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This will make sure that you get the most out of your workout without injuring yourself.
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And next up we're gonna do some standing shoulder flies.
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So again putting one foot or two feet on the band.
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I actually find
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that even the moderate resistance is a bit too much for me to get good form on these shoulder flies.
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So sometimes I even bend my legs just a little bit so the resistance isn't too much.
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And bringing them all the way up.
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You can also swing your hands forward and up to target a different part of your shoulder.
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So the next workout is reverse bicep curls, and these are basically the same thing as your typical bicep curls,
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but you want to switch your wrists around to the other side.
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And again, slow and steady reps.
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Alright, so normally after my reverse bicep curls, I finish up the workout with some crunches.
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So let's do those.
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All right, so this is the new foam roller that I got.
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I typically rely on the ones at the gym, but as you know, can't go there.
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This is actually better than any one that I've used at the gym before.
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It is really, really firm.
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This thing really is super painful to use, so it's not for the faint of heart, but I definitely recommend it for those people who have a lot of tension
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and tightness in their backs and need to get those knots busted out.
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This has been a fantastic tool.
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All right, let's get to day two.
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Today we're working out triceps and chest and for me that always begins with push-ups.
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I usually do four to six sets of push-ups varying the width of my arms to target my chest,
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both my chest and my triceps, or just my triceps.
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Alright so I think the one thing, actually the two things that people get wrong when they do push-ups is one they don't fully extend their arms, they kind of half cock their arms
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and two is they don't have great posture with their back either their butt is really in the sky
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or it's concave and dipping towards the ground.
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The idea is to have a really straight back when you're doing push-ups.
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After that I do dips on my bench here.
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Slow controlled reps to failure.
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Three sets and we're done.
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Alright, so we're going to do another tricep workout here.
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This one is very similar.
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Target's very similar muscle group and a similar workout.
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But using the resistance band, I find that it's a different kind of tension and a different kind of difficulty.
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So it's a little bit silly, but you want to put the resistance bands underneath your ankles, letting your ankles hold them down.
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back behind and then pulling up.
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Try to keep the elbows in.
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You don't want the elbows to go out.
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You want the elbows to stay in nice and tight.
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Get as many reps as you can.
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If you guys can't tell already, I'm filming all of these workouts in one day.
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So that's why I'm fucking exhausted.
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And the last exercise I do is a reverse tricep curl.
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I hold the resistance band against my couch and yank back on the band with my other hand.
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This isolates a part of the tricep that doesn't get as much of a workout with those past two exercises.
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As always, I finish up with some crunches, phone rolling, wincing in agony, and we're off to day three.
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Day 3 is for legs.
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I start off with 3 sets of lunges, and I take these reps to failure, getting my knee as close to the yoga mat as possible without touching it.
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Sometimes I touch it.
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Then I do one leg deadlifts that target my hamstring.
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Again around 3 sets to failure.
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You can increase the difficulty here by holding a weight in your hand.
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I don't have any weights, so I just try to focus on slowing down my reps.
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And going to failure.
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After that, I finish up by hammering out a bunch of squats to failure.
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So when it comes to leg day, it's a little bit more freeform for me than the other days where the regimen is a little bit tighter.
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I basically just do as many of these squats and one-legged deadlifts as I can,
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pushing myself to failure, pushing myself to the point where I'm just exhausted, tired, and don't want to do it anymore.
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And that's usually when I call it quits.
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I finish up day three with a bunch of crunches, foam rolling, and writhing in agony.
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If you're somebody who struggles with motivation and self-discipline, I highly recommend listening to a great audiobook by David Goggins called Can't Hurt Me,
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Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds.
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His story of transformation is unreal.
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The audiobook details his story from poverty, depression, and poor health into an elite Navy SEAL and ultra-endurance athlete.
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It's absolutely inspiring.
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As a very slow reader, Audible allows me to read tons of audiobooks each year.
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to audiobooks while you're at home or while you're at home
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or maybe while you're at home start listening with a 30-day audible trial choose one audiobook
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and two audible originals absolutely free visit audible.com matt diavela
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or text matt diavela to 500 500 the links are in the description below all right guys
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that does it for this week's video thank you
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so much for watching hope you got some tips that'll help
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you build your own workout routine from home good luck and i'll see you next week.
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Alright, bye.
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About This Lesson
You're practicing English with "My Morning Workout Routine" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.
Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.