WHEN YOU PURCHASED THIS BOOK, IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT YOU WANTED A SOLUTION. WHILE THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS FOCUS ON YOUR CORE, THIS CHAPTER IS DEVOTED TO ALL YOUR NON-CORE WORKOUTS AND THE HIGH-INTENSITY ACTIVITIES THAT WILL HAVE YOU HARNESSING YOUR CORE STRENGTH AND STABILITY THROUGHOUT.
First, we will walk you through some specific approaches for your total body workouts that you can perform in conjunction with your customized core plans. From there, we will give you some circuits for total body muscle growth, fat loss and cardiovascular improvement. After that, we will discuss cardio and how it fits into your solution for a better, healthier life—complete with short but effective challenge sessions for virtually any cardio activity. Finally, this chapter will give you a combination of both cardio and total body exercises with some unique multi-exercise mini circuits that can be done anywhere and can fit into even the tightest of schedules.
As you can see from the following charts (pages 149–151), we’ve designed a workout plan that consists of two workouts and a legend to track your progress and increased fitness level. Within each workout are three stages, progressing in difficulty, and three categories of exercises. Your goal, much like the core workouts in the previous chapters, is to work your way through each stage. Move on to Workout 2 once you’ve mastered the final stage of Workout 1. Perform four circuits every workout.
Some people just want to have a visible six-pack. Others just want to be healthier. The principles throughout this book are applicable to both, and this chapter is no different. If you want clearly defined abs, then you need to lessen your body fat. Resistance training at high intensity will yield those results. If you want to be healthier, fitter or a better athlete, or simply want to transform from overweight to average, then high-intensity resistance training has to be in your regime as well. These workouts achieve results because they test your limits on all planes of motion and are based on the high-intensity interval training and muscle confusion principles, which are proven results-generating philosophies for any fitness level.
LEVEL | BEGINNER |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | 1 :00 circuit followed by 1 :00 rest |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 8:00 |
LEVEL | INTERMEDIATE |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | 1 :20 circuit followed by 1 :00 rest |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 9:20 |
LEVEL | AVERAGE |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | 1 :40 circuit followed by 1 :00 rest |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 10:40 |
LEVEL | ADVANCED |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | 2 :00 circuit followed by 1 :00 rest |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 12:00 |
LEVEL | SUPERIOR |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | Each exercise is followed by 0:15 rest. Each circuit is followed by 2 :00 rest. |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 24:00 |
LEVEL | ELITE |
DURATION OF CIRCUIT (MIN/SEC) | Each exercise is followed by 0:20 second rest. Each circuit is followed by 2:00 rest. |
TOTAL TIME* (MIN/SEC) | 28:00 |
Perform each circuit 4 times. | |
| SQUATS |
STAGE 1 | Squat or air squat |
STAGE 2 | Cross-legged jump squat |
STAGE 3 | Squat and curl with resistance bands or dumbbells |
| PUSH-UPS |
STAGE 1 | Push-up on knees or wall push-up |
STAGE 2 | Push-up |
STAGE 3 | Push-up with alternating leg extension |
| LUNGES |
STAGE 1 | Stationary lunge (2 circuits for each leg) |
STAGE 2 | Walking lunge |
STAGE 3 | Jumping lunge |
| PRONE RETRACTIONS |
STAGE 1 | I-Y-T-W* |
STAGE 2 | I-Y-T-W* |
STAGE 3 | I-Y-T-W* |
*Do a different letter for each circuit. | |
| SPEED SKATERS |
STAGE 1 | Stepping speed skater (with hand to foot) |
STAGE 2 | Speed skater (with hand to foot and back leg landing) |
STAGE 3 | Advanced speed skater with only front leg landing (may add medicine ball) |
| PUSH-UPS |
STAGE 1 | Walk out push-up on knees (2 reps at each walkout) |
STAGE 2 | Walk out push-up |
STAGE 3 | Renegade walk out push-up (with alternate row) |
| LUNGES |
STAGE 1 | Stationary lunge with twist (2 circuits for each leg) |
STAGE 2 | Walking lunge with twist |
STAGE 3 | Walking lunge with twist and press |
| SINGLE LEG DEADLIFTS |
STAGE 1 | Assisted single leg deadlift |
STAGE 2 | Single leg deadlift |
STAGE 3 | Single leg deadlift with weight |
With your feet shoulder-width apart and a relaxed stance in your knees, drop your butt down to the floor until your hamstrings are parallel to the ground.
Air squat: Perform this as previously described, but go up to the balls of your feet when returning to a standing position.
Cross-legged jump squat: Starting in a squat position, jump up and land with your legs crossed, quickly bouncing from the balls of your feet back out into a squat position.
Squat and curl: Perform a squat and curl two dumbbells or resistance bands after returning to a standing position.
Lie on the ground, making a straight line of your body, balancing yourself on your hands and toes. Press up so your arms are straight and return to the starting position.
Push-up on knees: Get into a typical push-up position, but rest your weight on your knees throughout the reps.
Wall push-up: Perform a push-up from a standing position, facing a wall.
Push-up with alternating leg extension: Perform the reps while lifting one leg off the ground, alternating legs with each rep.
Stationary lunge: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Step forward with one leg and bend forward on your knee until your forward leg’s hamstring makes a 90-degree angle with the floor. Your trailing leg is straight and making a 45-degree angle with the floor.
Walking lunge: Perform lunges, alternating legs on each rep so you move forward with each movement.
Jumping lunge: Instead of just stepping forward to lunge, jump up and switch legs in the air, landing with the opposite leg forward and in a lunge position.
With letter shapes: I, Y, T, and W: Lie face down with your toes pointed down to the floor. Squeeze your quads and glutes, which will cause your knees to lift off of the floor. While keeping a neutral spine and your head down facing the floor, lift your arms in an I-Y-T and squeeze into a W. Hold each position for 2 seconds. After the W, relax for two seconds and repeat.
Mimicking the stride of an ice hockey player, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and leap side to side, landing on alternating legs for each rep.
Stepping speed skater: This is similar to the speed skater, but do not leave the ground and rely on more of a shuffle to complete each rep. Touch your front foot with your opposite hand with your chest and head up, looking forward.
Advanced speed skater: Land only on your front leg and possibly hold a weight throughout your sets.
Walk out push-up: Perform a typical push-up and stride forward on your hands, alternating over two reps (so each hand is responsible for a stride forward). Return to a standing position, then back into a push-up to perform another set of two.
Walk out push-up on knees: As described above, but balance your weight on your knees.
Renegade walk out push-up: This is similar to the walk out push-up, but add an arm row after each forward stride.
Stationary (and walking) lunge with twist: Perform as previously directed in Workout 1, but add in a torso twist at the end of each rep.
Walking lunge with twist and press: Perform this move as previously described, but press up the weight you are holding after the twist.
Kicking back one leg, bend forward, creating a straight line with your torso and trailing leg. The arm on the side with your leg up falls in front of you. Repeat for both legs.
Assisted single leg deadlift: Perform a typical single leg deadlift, but brace yourself on either side to ensure you don’t fall.
Single leg deadlift with weight: Perform the single leg deadlift with a dumbbell in the hand on the side of the trailing leg.
The basis of this cardio plan is that you can perform this challenge while doing just about any timed cardiovascular activity, as long as you can maintain the intensity level dictated by the chart that follows. If the following cardio session is too demanding for you, do steady-state cardio for 45 minutes to an hour, but try to include some sprints in each session so you can grow accustomed to the intensity and eventually graduate to the following plan.
INTENSITY |
DURATION |
SPRINT |
1 minute |
JOG |
2 minutes |
Note: On days that you’re doing resistance training, perform 10 rounds of this interval (maxing out at 30 minutes). Do 15 rounds (maxing out at 45 minutes) if you’re only doing cardio on the day of training.
If you find yourself short on time and can’t seem to get through the workouts listed in this chapter, this section offers you two quick fixes. These are by no means intended to replace the workouts previously detailed, but if you really can’t get your workout in, performing one of these mini-circuits will keep you on track. Execution is really quite simple: Pick one of the two following quick fixes and perform them to failure without resting periods and at your highest intensity level. This means you’re moving quickly, with purpose, with good form and with focus on getting the most out of every single nuance of each step.
Holding two dumbbells, bend forward with a slight bend in your knees without arching or hunching your back.
Pull the dumbbells back so you create a 90-degree angle with your elbows
Jump up while allowing your arms to come to your sides.
Holding two dumbbells, squat down so your hamstrings are almost parallel to the floor and you have a slight arch in your lower back.
Lunge forward on one leg. Your trailing leg is bent at the knee and your knee is just off the ground.
Press the weights up with the palms of your hands facing outward.
