Get Ripped for Summer Workout Full body workouts are under rated. This is the routine I use for myself and For most of my clients, full body my clients when getting really lean is workouts, or modified full body the goal. workouts are the way to go. (A modified full body workout is one where you’ll work the entire body but put emphasis on one part or another). In fact, even for an advanced lifter who hits the gym 5 or 6 days a week a full body workout is often called for. In the case of the trainee who is already in pretty good shape and wants to get absolutely ripped for summer or some other event, I feel there is no better way than with frequent full body sessions separated by high intensity intervals. The purpose of this plan is to strip off fat as quickly as possible without compromising muscle size or tone (a big problem with most weight loss plans), but without requiring hours and hours spent wasting away on a treadmill, or horrible crash diets. This plan works best for people who are already in moderately good shape. By this I mean you should already have decent work capacity, and be able to lift reasonable weights for someone your size. You don’t have to be super stud athlete, but total beginners may find better results with a different plan. Itʹs also not intended for someone who needs to lose a lot of weight. If you need to lose 30 or more pounds, you need to look towards more long‐term change. Sorry, there are no quick fixes. This plan is intended for those of you who already look decent when fully clothed, but are feeling a little flabby for the beach. The last couple of pounds are always the hardest to lose, and quite often, if you just rely on severe dieting and cardio, you’ll end up losing a lot of muscle. So yes, you’ll look thinner, but no one will know you workout. Although there is a workout 5 or 6 days of the week (to keep your resting metabolic rate elevated 24/7), each workout can be completed in under 45 minutes, so total time in the gym is minimized. This is one of the BIG advantages of this plan: it burns maximum fat with the minimum amount of time in the gym. Unlike conventional cardio, this plan takes full advantage of Post Exercise Energy Expenditure. You’ll be burning most of your calories out of the gym not in. Itʹs a great lunchtime workout if you have a gym close to work. You should be able to get your workout in and get back to work in just over an hour. Some will be tempted to combine workout three with workout one or two, to minimize the number of times you have to drive to the gym. This is certainly doable if you just canʹt get to the gym that often, but will definitely compromise results. It does require you to have access to free weights. Body weight or band exercises are good for beginners or someone traveling, but in all honesty, a compromise from several perspectives. This plan consists of three workouts that will alternate along with a rest day. If you are reasonably fit, and have a good awareness of your body, you should do the following: Day1 – Workout 1 Day5 – Workout 2 Day2 – Workout 2 Day6 – Workout 3 Day3 – Workout 3 Day7 – Rest Day4 – Workout 1 Day8 ‐ Start Over If this is too much for you, put a rest day in after every three workouts. Workouts one and two are resistance training workouts, and three is an interval cardio workout. DO NOT add additional cardio into this plan other than basic walking. Anything more strenuous will simply compromise your recovery ability and hamper your body’s ability to burn real calories after your real workouts. Easy yoga may be a great addition, for both flexibility and relaxation (recovery), but nothing physically challenging. Each workout should be done at as fast a pace as possible. Your heart rate should remain comfortably elevated. Each set should not be done to failure, meaning you should finish the set with the energy to do a couple of more reps. You should move from exercise to exercise as quickly as possible. The order of the exercises are arranged in a specific order for a reason, but if a certain piece of equipment is occupied, just move on to the next exercise and come back. The pace of the workout is more important than the order. It helps if you pre‐plan some flexibility into the workout. Always be looking ahead to the next exercise, and have an alternative if it’s occupied. It is highly probable that you may have to add or subtract exercises. You should walk away from each workout feeling totally beat, but not sore enough anywhere that you canʹt go at it again the next day. The more you have previous experience with high intensity sports or interval work, the more you will be able to do, but contrary to what you may be thinking, the stronger you are the LESS you will probably be able to do. For instance, if all you can squat is your own body weight (deep knee bends), then that part of the workout is going to take a lot less out of you than if you can throw up sets with 300lbs on your back, and hence if you can do 300lb squats for sets of 10 reps, you’re lifting a lot more weight, burning a lot more calories, and even if you’re in great shape, you may not be able to do as many sets per workout as someone who is only able to do body weight. If you are in really good cardio shape but not particularly strong, you may need to do three sets of each of the first few exercises. Intensity is really the key here. If you are not feeling exhausted by these workouts, you are probably not using enough weight, or are taking too long to rest between sets. These are not strength based workouts. They are total body muscle and energy system workouts designed to maximize total body energy expenditure both during and ESPECIALLY after the workouts. You should log each workout with the weight and reps you are using to enable you to move quickly through subsequent workouts without guessing at the weights. You should aim for sets of 8‐12 reps with a weight that you could get 2 or 3 extra reps in. I like to alternate rep numbers on different days: For instance, I will use 8 reps for an exercise one day and 12 the next time I do that workout. Start each workout with a 3 to 5 minute warm‐up consisting of light cardio. Shooting hoops or a rowing machine is ideal because it will get your entire body moving. These workouts are intended for individuals who already know basic exercise form. If you do not know how to perform a basic squat or deadlift with good form, please seek instruction first. I have tried to keep most of the exercises to those that use common equipment and do not require a lot of setup between sets, but sometimes it just can’t be helped (there’s really no good substitute for good old squats with a barbell!) Sorry if thereʹs not a bunch of trendy new exercises that youʹve never seen before. Those are great for ʺoohs and aahs,” but the exercises that burn the most calories are the ones you can do the most weight with: the ones you are familiar with. You’ll notice more dependence on machines than with most of my programs. The intent is to keep the pace up wherever possible. This deficiency is made up for by the use of unilateral movements, and by the short duration of the program (a month or two). Workout 1 Workout 2 1 Cable Twist (Down to Up) 1 One arm Dumbbell Power Clean 2 Front Squat 2 Pull up or cable pull down 3 Dumbbell Bench Press 3 Squat 4 Cable Twist (Up to Down) 4 Pull up or cable pull down 5 Front Squat 5 Squat 6 Dumbbell Bench Press 6 One arm Dumbbell Power Clean 7 Single Leg Stiff leg DeadLift 7 Incline Press 8 Dumbbell Military Press 8 Split Squat 9 Single Leg Stiff leg DeadLift 9 Incline Press 10 Dumbbell Military Press 10 Split Squat 11 Lunge 11 Low Cable Row 1 12 Seated Row or Dumbbell Row 12 Leg curls 13 Lunge 13 Low Cable Row 1 14 Seated Row or Dumbbell Row 14 Leg curls 15 Abductor machine or side lunge 15 Cable Push Pull 16 Push Ups 16 Leg Hip Raise 17 Abductor machine or side lunge 17 Box Jump 18 Crunch 18 Push Ups 19 Verticle Depth Jump 19 Leg Hip Raise 20 Crunch 20 Cable Push Pull 21 Verticle Depth Jump 21 Box Jump 22 Bicep Curl 22 Scull Crusher 23 Tricep press down 23 Standing Curl 24 Crunch 24 Leg Hip Raise 1 – Low Cable Row is a standing cable row with the pulley in a low position (like starting a lawn mower) Workout 3 This is a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout. It should be 30 minutes in length, and truly high intensity with 30 sec to 1.5 minute bouts of maximum effort separated by 1 to 2 minutes at a slow recovery pace. Running sprints is my preferred interval training most of the time. Be careful if you’ve never done sprints before, as it’s easy to pull a hammy. Start out at a slow sprint where you are getting up onto your toes but not as fast as you can go. I will generally start each interval at a fast run, and go faster and faster until I am sprinting and cannot go further, then I walk until my heart rate has partially recovered. Most gym cardio equipment can be used, but I find most people do not use enough intensity in the gym. The only exception seems to be the stairstepper, but any type of cardio equipment will do as long as you are really doing high intensity intervals. Just as with the first two workouts, if youʹre not totally beat after 30 minutes, youʹre not using enough intensity. There is no magic to the exercise selection. The idea is to tax every muscle in the body throughout each of the two resistance workouts, but in a slightly different way each day. We’re trying to start with “big” exercises and work down to less challenging ones. The point is to constantly challenge every muscle as well as the energy and recovery systems of your body on a daily basis. You’ll gain work capacity and lose fat, but unless you’re a total beginner, you shouldn’t build any muscle. Besides, you probably won’t be using this plan for longer than a month. After a while, cumulative fatigue will set in, but until that happens, your body will be burning every calorie in sight to keep up with the demands. Nutrition: Using this workout, you should be able to shed pounds pretty fast without starving yourself, but it goes without saying that you’ll need to keep your diet clean to make real progress. I won’t get into proper diet here, but the less you eat, the more you’ll lose, obviously. Try to confine your carbs to before the workout. If you do a post workout recovery drink, try to up the protein and lower the carbs. Keep some chicken breast or other lean protein source in the fridge ready to eat: Waking up in the middle of the night, ravenously hungry, is not uncommon as your body searches for a source for the extra 1000‐2000 calories it’s burning to recover from your new workouts. Flexibility: Iʹm not going to touch on stretching here. Itʹs essential to overall fitness, and you should incorporate some sort of stretching in any workout plan. There you go, give it a try for a month. Iʹll typically drop a pound a week without having to reduce my calories consumption. If youʹre looking for more like 10‐15 lbs in a month, then youʹll need a pretty strict diet with all of your carbs coming from fruits or vegitables to go along with the workouts.