20-20-20-20... you get the idea

20 minutes to complete the circuit below as many times as you can.  This style keeps something burning at all times.  Most of the time you are trying to catch your breath but the reps are high enough that your limbs are burning too.  Great workout to burn fat and increase cardio and strength endurance.

20 overhead walking lunges (total steps)
20 weighted situps (we held a 15# dumbbell)
20 imbalanced pushups (these are pushups using either one hand on a dumbbell or foam roller, we put both hands on the foam roller)
20 jumping pullups
20 1-arm dumbbell clean (look up "power clean" and do it with one dumbbell, 10 reps per arm)

This was really exhausting, everyone was gasping for breath.  Tay and I completed 4 rounds in 20 minutes.  Amalia nearly made it to 4 (she's tough!), Evan reduced the reps slightly (wore a 60# weight vest) and completed 3 1/2 rounds.

Progressive Resistance Bands - cheap and a whole lotta help

Pictured here are 41 inch Iron Woody Bands.  These bands are great for helping you in many facets of your workouts.  They are cheap, lightweight and provide progressive resistance to nearly any movement you try.

The rating you see in the picture (10 to 50 lbs) is the variable resistance they provide.  An Example: if you wrap them over a pull up bar, step into it, at the MAXIMUM stretch, it will give you 50 pounds of "help".  As you perform the exercise, the "help" will get less and less until it is only providing 10 pounds of help.

Need more?  Use both of them.  There are larger sizes that provide more help.  This pair can be purchased for $27 direct from Iron Woody's site (non-affiliate link).

You can also step into the bands, loop them over your shoulders and do progressive-resistance squats.   Search youtube for fitness bands or power bands and you'll get some more ideas.

Just 2 exercises

This is a no dumbbell, no weight, no pull-up bar technique to get a great workout and challenge yourself! On Thursday last week my crew did this set below.  I'm modifying it a bit because it was too easy when we started so we kept making it harder until we arrived at the solution below.   (If the below is too much to imagine doing, start with 5 pushups and 10 squats, or something similar.)

30 seconds to complete

10 pushups

20 squats

rest 45 seconds

Add one rep per exercise each round.  Stop when you can no longer complete both sets in the given 30 second time frame.

Your 2nd set would look like this: 11 pushups, 21 squats, rest 45 seconds.  Record the total number of rounds you do.

If you don't have an interval timer you can try this with a 30 or 60 second rest window.  

Tuesday AMRAP

AMRAP - what in the world is AMRAP? As Many Rounds As Possible in a given period of time. The idea behind it is simple: 2 people doing the same workout, one will complete it faster than another. The one who completes it faster is in better shape. Example - one runner can run a mile in 4 minutes, the other can run it in 10 minutes. Their bodies are quite different.

The same thing goes for any other exercise routine. This is what I did with the guys last night. You will see at the beginning is a triplet. You do this triplet 3 times before moving on to the next exercise, then the next. After you have finished all that, start over. Everyone said this workout was really tough but fun!

AMRAP SUPERSET:

three rounds of the triplet below

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 squats

then

3 deadlift 115# (barbell)

then

100m farmer carry (40# dumbbells)

Since above is 1 superset, complete as many supersets as possible in 20 minutes.

Taylor, Evan, Ryan and myself all completed 5 supersets in 20 minutes. Alex nearly got to 4 which is GREAT for him. He has been with us only a couple months and is making incredible gains and losing weight. Alex wants to lose another 20-30 pounds of excess body fat. He is always at the workouts tries very hard.

Thursday night chipper

A "chipper" workout is one that does not involve circuits, it is simply a group of exercises done straight through. It can be done with nearly any group. The key is, you want to have a serious amount of reps per exercise to make this hurt in just the right way. This time I wanted to put running between each set just because I seem to like pain. This is what we did:

50 pushups

run 300m (this is a lap around my block)

50 mountain climbers (count same leg not each leg)

run 300m

50 imbalanced dead lift (hold 40# dumbbell on one side for 25 reps, then switch sides for the next 25)

run 300m

50 explosive situps (you can substitute crunches here, this is basically a fast situp that doesn't come all the way up)

run 300m

50 lunges (count total steps, hold 25# plate)

run 300m

50 1-leg dead back extension (take the back extensions you normally see me do, but do them with 1 leg holding a 40# dumbbell)

I had the best time at 21:20. Ryan - 22:28, Evan 25:09, Alex 25:30 (did sets of 30), LT - 24:40 (also did sets of 30)

Tuesday Afternoon - Burst Circuit

A "Burst Circuit" is a technique to get you to push as hard as you can but only for a short period. It is a full body effort. It is followed by a 3:1 ratio of work/rest ratio and repeated 4 or 5 total times. When I do these, I feel so sore in different ways then on other days. It produces a lot of explosive power for building muscle.

In this example, we exercised for about a minute, then rested for 3 minutes performing a total of 5 circuits. The trick is, the faster you complete the set, the better your score and the longer you have to rest. The slower you complete the circuit the less you have to rest.

Have a timer that can ring every 4 minutes so you always start your circuit in the same period of time regardless of how long your sets take.

Time yourself to complete each set.

start timer

5 barbell thrusters #95. (or smaller dumbbells if necessary)

10 pullups

15 pushups

20 squats

rest remainder of 4 minutes

repeat above set 5 times.

Record times. Your score is lowest time.

My lowest of the 5 sets was 52 seconds. Taylor's lowest was 51. He did used 2x40# dumbbells for the thrusters.

MAKE YOUR OWN?

pick 4 exercises that use the whole body that total up to about 50-60 reps. You could do knee pushups, crunches, leg lifts, anything really. The key is to do them as fast as you can without hurting your self. If you are prone to injury - stick to simple movements like a bicep curl, tricep extension or leg extension rather than compound movements like I've done here. The fun part is setting up something your friends can do at the same time so you can compete on each set. If you do it correctly, by the 3rd or 4th round you should be very winded before you start the next set.

two dumbbells and a clock

I try to make workouts simple and sometimes I actually succeed :) Here is a great workout we did tonight that works the whole body in 15 minutes. It combines brief bouts of pushing hard with rest - but not nearly enough rest :)

Do the following circuit 5 times. Use 30 seconds of effort then 30 seconds of rest. During the rest period switch exercises. Add up your total number of reps for all exercises and circuits combined. This is your score. It's also easier to count than keeping track of different reps and sets.

Dumbbell squat with push press (also called thruster)

pushup with row

leg lift (hold one dumbell between your legs)

Taylor: 91 reps total

Brian: 121 reps total

(using 40#db on thruster, 30#db on pushup with row, 10#db on leg lift)