Interval workout template - not sure where to start?

Below is a workout I set up for a friend of mine from High School.  He wanted to lose some weight and had enough time to do about 30 min of exercise a day.  He was simply walking on the treadmill for 20-30 min a day so I set this up for him to help him gain some lean muscle mass while still burning off a lot of fat.

Diet: He changed his eating to several small meals a day, made sure he was getting protein in each one as well as some vegetables at each meal.  He follows the high-intensity protocol and does not eat carbs for 2 hours after an interval workout.  This boosts his Human Growth Hormone which will aid fat loss and recovery.  He drinks 10 glasses of water a day and eats a lot of lean meat, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit, some starches, and healthy oils.  He's trying to get to about 2400 cals a day.

He's trying to lose a total of 90 pounds and is down 20 in the first month (a very UNsustainable pace but good for him because he's got his eating under control)

He is training on THIS tempo:

Monday: Interval bodyweight

Tuesday: Interval Cardio

Wednesday: Interval bodyweight

Thursday: Interval Cardio

Friday: Interval bodyweight

Saturday: Interval Cardio

Sunday: rest

or you can use this weekly tempo

Monday: Interval bodyweight

Tuesday: Interval Cardio

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: Interval bodyweight

Friday: Interval Cardio

Saturday: rest

Sunday: rest

Interval Bodyweight:

Use 60 seconds to attempt as many reps as you can at an exercise (listed below)

Rest for 60 seconds and move to a different movement.

Repeat 10 times for a total of approx 20 minutes (depending on your ability and time available).  Half of that time you will be resting.

Take your pick from these exercises:

Pushups/knee pushups

Squats

Arm Haulers (google it)

Situps/crunches

Lunges

Plank

Bridges (google it)

You should pick 2, 3 or 4 exercise to do each workout and rotate through them as a circuit.  Try different exercises each time you do it, or at least change the order you are doing them.

Pack as many reps into a 60 second window before you move on to another exercise (rest as you go along if you need to).  It’s okay to rest during that 60 seconds but keep your volume as high as you can. Then, during your 60 second rest period – record how many you did of the exercise.

Example

Minute 1: pushups for 60 seconds, record total reps

Minute 2: rest

Minute 3: situps for 60 seconds, record total reps

Minute 4: rest

Minute 5: squats for 60 seconds, record total reps

Minute 6: rest

Minute 7: pushups for 60 seconds, record total reps

…

Minute 17: squats for 60 seconds, record total reps

Minute 18: rest

Workout complete

Interval Cardio:

For 60 seconds run/sprint as fast as you can

For 60 seconds rest

Repeat 5-10 times

If you are ever to sore to do any Interval Cardio,  just walk/run for a 20-30 minutes “Steady state” or “easy pace”.  This will keep your tendons and ligaments stimulated and burn fat.

Product Spotlight - BCAA - bad taste, good function!

Bitter, but it builds :)

BCAA is one of my favorite supplements.  It has been around for years.  BCAA is short for Branched Chain Amino Acids.  Your muscles are made up mostly of water and proteins.  The proteins are primarily made of 3 key amino acids : L-Lucine, L-Valine, and L-Isolucine.  Those are called the Branced Chain Amino Acids.

A recent study showed giving these 3 amino acids to mice extended their lives.  I don't know if this transfers to humans but much research has shown it is safe and this study in particular suggests it might even be very good for you.

BCAA protects your muscles during workout and stimulates muscle repair afterwards.  It reduces muscle soreness, and speeds your recovery.  It contains NO calories so it's pure muscle-building goodness.  When you're trying to increase your metabolism, adding lean muscle tissue is your primary goal.

Did I mention it's cheap?

I have experimented with all kinds of protocols and times of day to take it.  The best time to take it in my experience is (1) take 10-15 grams before your workout and (2) put another10 grams in with 20 grams of whey protein after a workout.   All the other times of day I have used it have really done nothing but waste my money.

This particular brand is nice because it has more L-Lucine than other mixtures.  The justification for which I won't get in to.  Let's just say that's a good thing.  You can buy other mixtures that taste better but I just put this stuff on my tongue and drink it down with water.  If you mix with a good chocolate protein you'll be fine.

Brian, TheDailyFit

New Study - how to keep burning calories after exercise

Nice Hat

A very carefully designed study was just completed that shows how to continue burning calories after an exercise session.  It's not about what you do after, but what you do DURING your exercise session that counts.  Intensity is the key.

This is relatively new evidence and I am unsure how far you can extrapolate it.  The studies parameters were cycling (pretty hard) for 45 minutes.  This caused an initial 420 calories to be burned (during the cycling) and 37% more to be burned over the next 24 hours (without any other activity).  The secret of the "intensity" factor is that the participants were unable to carry on a conversation.  This is about 70% of VO2Max (for the technical folks)

Thought I find this interesting and noteworthy, I prefer to examine the other facts of weight loss and metabolism that show that 65%+ of all calories burned in a day are "resting" metabolism.  In order to increase your resting metabolism you need to be building lean muscle.  Lean muscle is built through resistance exercise, weights, bodyweight movements and also high-intensity intervals.  If you increase your lean muscle tissue you can have big effects on that 65%.  You'll burn more calories sleeping at night than you ever could during a workout.  But you'll have the benefits of burning calories while you worked out too!

Brian, TheDailyFit

Nothin' like CRUSHING a personal record

I am so fired up for my workout crew.  Tonight we ran "Murph" (see below) and everyone posted some seriously awesome gains.

Please keep in mind - these are people who are training hard 2-3 times a week.  Our sessions are about 30 minutes long.  I say that because some people think they have to train hours a day, 6 days a week to get fit.  Not true.  You just have to train smart!

These gains are awesome for me to see as a coach.  I also posted my own personal record.

"Murph" (in honor of Lt. Michael Murphy, USN SEAL)
Time yourself to complete:

run 1 mile
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
run 1 mile

You can partition the bodyweight exercises how you like.  We did 20 rounds of (5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats).  COMPARE these results to last time.  Impressive improvements.

My time: 30:30  (first time I tried it I scored 54 minutes)
Taylor: 31:00 (both Taylor and I posted 5+ minute improvements since August)
Evan: 34:30 (BEST IMPROVEMENT!)

Amalia: 34:00 Amalia did some jumping pullups but all-in-all a great "Murph" time for her first go at it.

Reflections on 8 months of training

Let me just say, if you only learn one thing from my experience it's this:

When you set a goal, don't merely work towards that goal, plot your course from where you are to where you are going.

I trained hard for nearly a year for this event and I was totally unprepared.  Why?

I did not train according to a defined goal.  Oh, I trained hard, but I didn't train according to the standards I would need to fulfill.  I trained in such a way that I could bring people along with me.  (that's not so bad, by the way but that's what I did).  When  took my first test I was completely unprepared for the format.  I had not trained that way, I had the tools but didn't push myself in the right way.  I had the Olympic bar but didn't use it often because I was busy training 12 other people.

It's not only about "beginning with the end in mind", it's about plotting a course from A to B.

This fact has completely revolutionized the way I am now going.  More on that in another post.

In the end, I accomplished my goal.  The goal was to try as hard as I could and not give up. I ended at the point I was disqualified for not being able to complete a single rep at the prescribed weight.   I could have tailored my training better but in the end, I only had 30-40 minutes a day to train and that would not produce the kind of athlete needed to compete in "the games".  I would have to ditch the people I was training with and go solo.

In the end, I think I would rather have relationships than status.

Get strong!
Brian