CHANGE #10
Perform a 20-Minute Workout 3X a Week
SIMPLY PUT… I want you to do some form of a 20-minute full-body strength-training workout three times a week. As part of following this Change, you’ll stop doing Change #5 (doing 50 reps of two different exercises), but you’ll continue to walk 10,000 steps each day.
An actual conversation with my parents recently
ME: I put together a twenty-minute beginner workout for you two today.
DAD: I walked down the driveway to get the mail this morning and it took about five minutes so I only need another fifteen, right?
MOM: Well, if he’s only doing fifteen, then so am I. I brought that bag of clothes down from the attic, and that was heavy!
ME: Guys, guys!! “Existing” doesn’t count as exercise. Plus, this is a head-to-toe cardio and strength-training workout.
DAD: Strength training??? Your mother and I don’t want to bulk up.
I’ve had this same conversation with my parents half a dozen times. And while it always makes me laugh, it also frustrates me to no end. I can spend three hundred pages explaining the virtues of strength training, the importance of exercising, and the likelihood of bulking up from it (slim to zilch), but until you’re ready to take this next step, I can’t do much. That’s why we waited for you to get used to nine other Changes before your first workout. We’re easing into this so you understand it, feel comfortable with it (as comfortable as sweat can feel), and get excited about it. So let’s do this.
When it comes to building lean muscle tissue, boosting your metabolism, and burning more calories and overall body fat in the shortest amount of time, it takes a high-intensity, full-body plan that stimulates as many muscle fibers as possible. Since sticking with Change #5, you’ve been preparing your muscles for just such a routine.
And before you come up with an excuse as to why you can’t start today—or any day—I’ve made every workout in this book excuse-proof, so they can be done anywhere, anytime, with any amount of space or budget.
Don’t have any weights? Great! You won’t need a lick of equipment or a gym membership to pull off this program.
Don’t have much space? Fine. All you need (at most) is a 6 × 6 foot area to exercise in.
Don’t have tons of time? Really? You don’t have twenty minutes? That’s nothing, and I promise, you’ll accomplish more in twenty than most people manage to do working out for an hour.
My whole philosophy when it comes to strength training is to combine cardiovascular exercise and resistance training, along with moves that challenge your core, balance, and flexibility, in each workout. You’re already walking 10k steps a day and eating better, so let’s maximize the time you spend working out so you’re not wasting a minute of time. My goal is to try and utilize as many muscle groups as possible in as few moves as possible, using little bursts of exercises (or mini-circuits) that force you to push through an entire set before resting.
Moving from one exercise to the next with no rest in between will elevate your heart rate throughout the entire workout in the exact same way cardiovascular exercise does, letting you achieve the same fat-burning results. But better still—the less time you rest between exercises, the more you’ll rev up your metabolism and the longer it will stay that way after you exercise.
The Game Plan: This 20-minute full-body workout is composed of five quick circuits, each one a combination of several exercises that you’ll do back-to-back with no rest in between. After each mini-circuit, you’ll rest for sixty to ninety seconds, then move on to the next mini-circuit until you finish all five mini-circuits.
Depending on your skill and comfort level, you can choose to do the workout once through or try to get through it twice for a full 40-minute workout. Just like Change #5, there are no tips, there are no tricks—only a few rules I need you to stick with to get the most from the workout:
1. Before every workout, do a quick five-minute warm-up. It takes only a few minutes of light exercise at a low intensity to increase blood flow to your muscles and joints to make them looser, more pliable, and prepared for what’s ahead.
2. Any low-intensity activity will work—jogging in place, walking in place while pumping your arms back and forth, casually skipping rope (even pretending to skip will work), or if you have access to a piece of stationary equipment, exercising at a low level or gear.
3. Just remember the “five for five” rule of thumb. Once you’ve warmed up for five minutes, you have up to five minutes to start the workout. After that, blood can quickly get shuttled away from your muscles, so don’t let yourself be distracted.
4. Take one day off between sessions. No matter how hard you push your muscles, you’ll still need a full forty-eight hours’ recovery time to give them enough time to rest and rebuild between workouts.
5. Work out in the morning if possible. If you’ve ever heard that working out in the morning burns more body fat, there’s something to that theory. That’s because when you wake up, your body’s glycogen reserve—the stored carbohydrates it uses for energy—are depleted. This can cause your body to use a greater percentage of stored fat for energy when you work out.
My personal opinion: Get up, do it in the morning, get it over with, and it will be done for the day. If you leave it dangling at the bottom of your to-do list, it’s very easy to cancel.
But if you only have time to work out at night, then go for it. Find your peak time to push yourself, the time of day when you have the most energy, the most time, and the most focus. Do it when you can do it, when you want to do it, and when you feel good about doing it.
6. If you can exercise on an empty stomach, that’s fine—so long as it doesn’t keep you from giving it your all every time. Just know that as you begin performing longer workouts later on in the book, I’ll be insisting that you have a little something before every workout.
7. Don’t let your body trick you. Anytime you’re eager to achieve faster results, you’re more likely to cheat—whether you’re conscious of it or not. That might mean altering your posture to make some of the moves in this workout less difficult to perform. It’s just your body’s way of trying to make it easier for itself.
But not using proper form will only cheat certain muscles out of a great workout while placing unnecessary stress on other parts of your body. So pay attention as you go. If something that used to feel like a challenge suddenly feels much less demanding, you might be making adjustments to make the exercise easier to do.
THE WORKOUT
Mini-Circuit #1
(Do this circuit once)
• 20 apple pickers
• 20 jogs in place
• 16 apple pickers
• 16 jogs in place
• 12 apple pickers
• 12 jogs in place
• 8 apple pickers
• 8 jogs in place
• 4 apple pickers
• 4 jogs in place
Mini-Circuit #2
(Do this circuit 2 times in a row)
• 50 shoulder circles (forward)
• 10 jumping jacks
• 50 shoulder circles (backward)
• 10 jumping jacks
• 100 reverse claps
• 10 jumping jacks
• 50 reverse claps
• 10 jumping jacks
Mini-Circuit #3
(Do this circuit 3 times in a row)
• 50 hip raises
• 15 supine finger-to-toe touches
Mini-Circuit #4
(Do this circuit 2 times in a row)
• 20 upper cuts
• 20 quad drops
• 20 wide-leg shuffles in place
Mini-Circuit #5
• 10 front kicks (left leg, right leg = 1 rep), immediately followed by 10 squats
• 9 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 9 squats
• 8 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 8 squats
• 7 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 7 squats
• 6 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 6 squats
• 5 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 5 squats
• 4 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 4 squats
• 3 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 3 squats
• 2 front kicks (each leg), immediately followed by 2 squats
• 1 front kick (each leg), immediately followed by 1 squat
THE EXERCISES
Apple Pickers (see here)
Jogs in Place
THE MOTION: Stand straight and begin running in place at a pace that has your feet touching the floor at about 60 steps a minute. As you go, swing your arms back and forth (elbows bent at a 90-degree angle) and keep your head up—don’t look down at your feet.
Shoulder Circles (Forward and Backward)
SETUP: Stand straight with your feet together and your arms extended straight out from your sides, palms facing out—you should look like the letter T.
THE MOTION (FORWARD): Keeping your arms straight, make small clockwise circles with your arms. One small circle equals 1 rep.
THE MOTION (BACKWARD): Keeping your arms straight, make small counterclockwise circles with your arms. One small circle equals 1 rep.
Jumping Jacks
SETUP: Stand straight with your arms at your sides and your feet and legs together.
THE MOTION: Quickly sweep your arms out from your sides and up above your head as you simultaneously jump high enough to spread your feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Quickly reverse the motion by hopping back into the setup position. (That’s 1 rep.)
THE MOTION: Keeping your arms straight (or as straight as possible because of the angle), quickly move your arms in and out toward each other as if you were applauding, but don’t let your hands touch each other. Instead, try to get them as close as possible without touching. Bringing your arms in and pulling them out equals 1 rep.
Note: The higher you can raise your arms as you go, the more you’ll work the back of your arms—but don’t hunch over or look down.
Hip Raises (see here)
Supine Finger-to-Toe Touches
SETUP: Lie flat on your back on a mat (or carpeted floor) with your arms extended out from your sides and your feet wider than shoulder-width apart.
THE MOTION: Slowly raise your right leg and reach your left hand to touch your toes (or reach as close to your toes as you can). Your left shoulder should come up off the floor as you curl up. Lower yourself back down to the floor and repeat, this time by touching your right hand to your left foot. (That’s 1 rep.)
Upper Cuts
SETUP: Stand with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Bring your fists up by your chin, palms facing in toward your face, elbows pointing down.
THE MOTION: Keeping your fists in close to your body, quickly punch your right fist straight up directly in front of your face as you simultaneously pull your left fist down. Reverse the motion by quickly punching your left fist straight up directly in front of your face as you simultaneously pull your right fist down. (That’s 1 rep.)
Quad Drops
SETUP: Get down on all fours so that your knees are directly under your hips and your wrists directly under your shoulders. Instead of letting the tops of your feet rest on the floor, curl your toes toward your knees so the bottom of your toes is touching the floor. Finally, raise your knees up so they are suspended off the floor an inch or two.
THE MOTION: Keeping your hands flat and toes planted, quickly raise your knees up off the floor about a foot, then bring them down to the floor without letting them touch down. (That’s 1 rep.) Continue to bounce your knees up and down without letting them touch the floor.
Wide-Leg Shuffles
SETUP: Stand straight with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart, toes angled slightly outward. Extend your arms in front of you, palms pressed firmly together.
THE MOTION: Keeping your arms extended and palms pressed, raise your heels off the floor (so that you’re balanced only on your toes and the balls of your feet) and quickly shift your weight from foot to foot as fast as possible. Imagine the floor is red hot—so hot that you have to keep your feet from touching the floor for more than a split second. Shifting your weight from your left foot to your right, then from your right foot to your left, counts as 1 rep.
Note: Don’t look down at your feet, but focus on keeping your toes angled slightly out as you go.
Front Kicks
SETUP: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bring your fists up by your chin, palms facing each other, with your elbows pointing down.
THE MOTION: In one motion, shift your weight to your left foot as you raise your right knee straight up in front of you, then extend your foot forward. Draw your right foot back in, then lower your right leg back to the setup position. Repeat the move with your left leg. (That’s 1 rep.)
Note: If you’re having problems staying balanced, stand with your knees slightly bent and feet shoulder-width apart in a staggered stance. (That means one foot should be a small step in front of the other.) Kick out whichever leg is forward, then quickly switch positions to put the opposite leg forward, then kick again using the opposite leg. Continue to quickly switch positions throughout the set.
Squats (see here)
The “So You Know” Science
I’m not the only one who preaches strength training. In fact, there are actual recommendations on the quantity and quality of exercise you should be getting. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, the average adult should train each major muscle group two or three days each week, waiting at least forty-eight hours between strength-training sessions.
That type of training doesn’t have to mean lifting weights. Strength training is by definition any exercise that forces your muscles to contract under some form of resistance. That resistance can come from almost anyplace: dumbbells, a barbell, an exercise machine, a stretch cord, or even your own bodyweight (which is the only thing you’ll need for every routine in my book).