Best Body Workout – 2013 – Week 1 – Day 3

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It’s the last workout for week #1 of our Best Body Transformation 2013 series. Just to re-cap one final time, these workouts are designed…

• to be performed at home (or the gym or outdoors)
• are the actual workouts I am using with my client

What I am attempting to do is create workouts that can be performed by a wide range of trainees – from beginners all the way to professional athletes. To do this, I am setting up a structure where…

• I am using exercises that aren’t very complicated
• weight/resistance is determined by the trainee’s level of ability
• intensity level is determined by the trainee’s level of ability

I have been beta-testing these workouts for months on a wide variety of people, and I am pretty darn satisfied with them. However, if you find any flaws, please please please shoot me a comment with your concerns.

[box type="note"]I have had a couple of questions about how to time these sets. Here’s what I do. Set your timer for 30 x 10 second intervals. This will give you a final beep at the end of the superset (300 seconds = 5 minutes). Re individual sets, all you need to do is count 3 beeps (3 x 10 sec = 30 sec)[/box]

THE WARM-UP

This is the same workout I use with most of my clients. The goal is to lubricate your joints, mentally get you in workout mode  and physically warm up your muscles – making them more elastic and ready to work.

Circles – Starting with the ankles and moving all the way up to your neck, gently make circles with all of your joints – 10 revolutions each joint in each direction

• video 1
• video 2

Dead Bug – Push your lower back into the floor and articulate your arms & legs as in the video. 1 set of as many reps as possible with your lower back pushed into the floor. When your back starts to arch…STOP

• video

1 Arm Swing Snatch - 25 reps per arm  – Dumbbell or kettlebell – choose a light weight – the goal is to warm-up

• video

THE WORKOUT

• We are going to use a series of 5 minute supersets…alternating body-parts to maximize recovery.
• We are also going to use some 1 minute HIIT supersets today as well
• Keep rest periods as short as YOUR fitness level will allow.
• No sitting while you’re resting – stretch a muscle while you’re catching your breath
• Don’t sacrifice good for for a few extra reps – watch the videos
• Push yourself as hard as YOU can. Pretend I am there…screaming at you!!!!

Superset #1 

1. Face the Wall Squats
2. Inch Worm

• 5 Minutes - Set your timer (for 30 x 10-second intervals) or watch a clock
• 30 seconds per exercise per set
• Perform as many reps as possible with proper form
• Minimize rest between sets
• No partial reps – full range of motion
• If you need to add resistance to the squats, hold onto 1 or 2 dumbbells/kettlebells

• Face the Wall Squats video
• Inch Worm video

Superset #2 

1. Step-Up Interval Sprints

This one is dead simple. 

• Step up and down on a single step as fast as you can for 10 seconds
• Rest 10 seconds
• Repeat for a full minute
• If you have cardio equipment (bike, elliptical, treadmill), feel free to substitute

• Stair Step-Up video

Superset #3

1. Push-Ups
2. Arms-Overhead Reverse Lunge

• 5 Minutes - Set your timer or watch a clock
• 30 seconds per exercise per set
• For Push-Ups, adopt a “normal” arm position
• I am showing a modified version of push-ups in the picture above. If you’re not strong enough for “normal” push-ups, I prefer not to do “girl” push-ups from the knees. Instead, use an implement (counter, chair, couch) to adopt a more vertical position.
• Perform as many reps as possible with proper form
• Minimize rest between sets
• No partial reps – full range of motion

• Push-Ups video
• Reverse Lunge video

Superset #4 

1. Step-Up Interval Sprints

This one is dead simple. 

• Step up and down on a single step as fast as you can for 10 seconds
• Rest 10 seconds
• Repeat for a full minute

• Stair Step-Up video

Superset #5

1. 2-Leg Hip Thrusts with changing leg widths
2. McGill Crunch

• 5 Minutes - Set your timer or watch a clock
• 30 seconds per exercise per set
• Perform as many reps as possible with proper form
• Minimize rest between sets
• No partial reps – full range of motion
• For the Hip Thrusts, change leg position from set to set. Start with feet together…moving to feet wide apart by the last set

• Hip Thrust video - ignore the barbell
• McGill Crunch video

For some of you, this is the end of the “workout” portion of the workout. If you’ve pushed yourself HARD, you might be running out of gas. If this is the case, it’s time to do the “cool down” portion of the workout and get on with the rest of your day.

For those of you who have built up more endurance, I want you to start repeating these supersets.

Let YOUR fitness level and recovery ability dictate how many more supersets you are going to perform. Ditch the ego…use some common sense.

Personally, I did 3 rounds of this workout last week – for a total of 9 supersets. It took me 58 minutes to do the 45 minutes of exercises. At the end, I was pooped and really sweaty.

Our guinea-pig client did 5 supersets the first time he tried this workout. He would have done more, but his form was failing and I made him stop.

THE COOL DOWN

For the cool down, I want you to take 15 minutes and do some physical therapy on the muscles that you just trained:

• Legs
• Chest
• Core

Grab a rope, band tennis ball, lacrosse ball, yoga ball, golf ball wrapped up in a sock or one of these and start mashing your muscles. Here are some “how-to” videos.

• Quad video
• Hamstring video 
• Glute/Hip video
• Pec/Shoulder muscle fix video
• Back video
• Hip Flexors / Pelvis / Core video

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