Best Fitness Plan (Part 2)

THE SHRED-DOWN TRAINING PLAN

Over the course of the next 21 days, you will be exercising almost every day, with only a few days of rest. The program will begin (Days 1–7) by attacking the entire body with full-body, fast paced workouts every other day with brief interval workouts, ab circuits, and longer duration, low-intensity cardio being alternated for non-lifting days. The next phase will include traditional, old school, bodybuilding-style splits (Days 9–14). The final phase of the program will revert back to the original full-body workouts, but with an increased work capacity. You will have a total of three days “off” during the program. Days 8, 11, and 13 will serve as complete recovery days.

Days 6 and 17 will consist of a unique fat-burning and endurance/conditioning challenge.

KICKING INTO GEAR IN THE AM:

The Morning Grinder Workouts

The key to melting off fat is being active as much as possible, and these workouts produce short bursts of moderate to intense work that will help speed up the fat burning process. It’s true, 21 days is not a lot of time, but it’s doable with some extra effort, and these Morning Grinder sessions are brief, effective ways to jump-start your metabolism each day. Here are three sample workouts; switch and swap them, but do one every morning in a fasted state i.e., before breakfast. Is it a pain to have to work out every morning? Yes, but if you want it bad enough, you’ll do it.

GRINDER 1
JUMP ROPE – 1 MINUTE
BODY-WEIGHT SQUAT – 30 SECONDS
PLANK – 1 MINUTE
MOUNTAIN CLIMBER – 30 SECONDS
REST – 30 SECONDS
COMPLETE 3 SETS

GRINDER 2
MEDICINE BALL RUSSIAN TWIST – 30 REPS
> SUPER-SET WITH: MEDICINE BALL V-UP – AS MANY AS POSSIBLE
REST – 30 SECONDS
COMPLETE 4 SETS

GRINDER 3
DUMBBELL PUSH-UP WITH ROW – 15 REPS
> SUPER-SET WITH: PRISONER SQUAT – 15 REPS
REST – 30 SECONDS

COMPLETE 3 SETS

TRAINING BENCHMARKS:
Power Hours

One of the most popular workout series’ on the Men’s Fitness social media streams are the Power Hour sessions. On Day 6, you will complete a salablez Jump Rope and Run workout measured by time. On Day 17 you will complete another easily adjustable workout referred to as a Muscle Run. This workout will consist of running and various body-weight exercises at checkpoints.

DAY 1 Full Body

Full-body workouts sound like they would take a long time. But when you boil down the exercises you need to perform in order to cover every area, there are only three types you need to be concerned with a push, a pull, and a squat. This is the ultimate in minimalism and works superbly for beginners or people who are short on time. 

HOW IT WORKS Any kind of pressing exercise will train your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Any pulling movement (a row or chinup variation) recruits your back, rear delts, biceps, and forearms. Squatting movements (and deadlifts, which aren’t quite a squat but require all the same muscles) take care of the quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Even your calves get some stimulation as they help to stabilize your squat. Your abs, of course, get worked on all these movement patterns, provided they’re done with free weights rather than machines; also work to brace your spine throughout. The following workout, done with heavy weights, contains everything you need to put on size fast a squat, press, and pullup and you should be able to wrap it up within 45 minutes.

DIRECTIONS Complete all five sets for the squat and then perform the overhead press and weighted pullup in alternating fashion. That is, complete a set of the press, rest, then do a set of the pull-up, rest again, and repeat until you’ve finished all five sets for each.