Since my workout schedule went to the backburner this past month due to two weddings, a bachelor party, several birthday parties, and a personal bout of bronchitis, I’ve told myself it’s now time to get back on track with an intense home workout session. Fortunately, the last month and a half has actually primed my body for this type of intense workout. While I haven’t lost any fat during this time period, I haven’t really added any fat either. I was basically just trying to maintain my muscle and not gain any extra pounds during this time. Therefore, I can perform a more aggressive workout routine for the next month without worrying about my body breaking down.
First of all, the HIIT routine and strength training routine I’ve outlined below are not something you want to do on a regular basis. These routines are what I will incorporate every 3 or 4 months when I want to really blast the body fat. In addition, I will be using this routine for just the next month. If I went any longer I’d be at risk for over-training. Despite increasing my workout intensity, I don’t want to significantly increase the amount of time that I exercise either. Usually, I will work out 4 days each week, 45 minutes at a time. What I intend to do for the next 30 days is to work out 6 days each week, for 30 to 45 minutes at a time.
Since my goal is to have lean and really tight muscles, I keep my strength training routine to low reps and heavy weight training. I utilize supersets to create a more time efficient workout. Thursday, Sunday, and Tuesday will be the days I do the supersets. For each move, I will perform 3 reps for 3 sets. But with dips and pull ups, I will perform 5 reps slowly. I will end my regimen with kickboxing. On set number 1 for each movement, I will only use 75% of the weight as a warm up. I will do the warm up reps slowly in order to have additional time under tension. I will rest for 2 minutes between each set, but I will also be doing the other movement that makes up the superset. I do not train until I can no longer lift the weight.
Since I workout at home, some of these supersets were put together for practical reasons. As an illustration, so that I do not have to waste time getting new weights all the time, I put a dumbbell movement together with a barbell movement. To make sure I accelerate my heart rate when I finish my strength training routine, I end with a kickboxing workout. I’ve been involved in martial arts since a young age and enjoy this type of routine as well. I use ankle weights to increase tension for kicks and do punches with 10lb dumbbells. Adding weight to a aerobic exercise causes fat to drop dramatically. Overall, my strength training routine runs for about 30 to 35 minutes. Kickboxing last approximately five or ten minutes, and each superset lasts about six or seven minutes.
Another great option for getting extremely lean is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). On Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, I will do a HIIT workout. Due to how intense the HIIT workout will be, I do not do strength training for my legs. I start out the first section of my HIIT workout by doing a short interval of HIIT. I warm up for 2 minutes and then perform 8 sets that include 15 second all out sprints and 45 seconds of jogging on the elliptical. This exercise will put fatty acids into my blood, so after the HIIT regimen, I do 10 or 15 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike at a single speed and intensity. This also helps my legs recover.
Usually, I will complete my regimen with 10 minutes of HIIT long intervals which incorporates 1 minute of full running and 1 minute of jogging. However, now I intend to change my regimen a bit. Instead, I am incorporating a plyometrics regimen that will incorporate calf raises, broad jumps and step ups. It works out great because it’s like a longer routine time of HIIT, but only takes 10 minutes, and still works great for increasing the lactic acid, while reducing glycogen, which helps a significant fat burn when my workout is done. In addition, my legs end up being strengthened a lot more with plyometrics than regular cardio. Plus my total time for completing this workout is also about 30-35 minutes.
As this intense workout regimen is performed for the month, be sure to eat properly. I perform intermittent fasting twice per week but also clean up the rest of my diet. A lot of people do their strength workouts when they fast, but I am in favor of fasting on HIIT days, and eating more on the days I do my strength traingin. My designated days for fasting are Mondays and Fridays. I also do not eat breakfast Wednesday morning to provide yet another reduction in calories. During this month, I will also somewhat restrict calories on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I will eat whatever I want on Sunday in order to return my leptin levels to normal.
But, I will eat more properly than I would normally do. Monday’s dinner will consist of vegetables, a high quality protein, and dessert will be fruit. I will not eat sugar or saturated fat on Wednesday either. Even though I will reduce the number of calories I consume on every other day besides Sunday, I will give my self permission to eat a few reduced-calorie snacks. Anything goes Sunday which prevents my diet from dominating my lifestyle (I love to host BBQs in the summer).
While the above provides a very intense home workout for me, I like to stretch things a bit further for the final week or two. I will add a 10 minute circuit training workout to my strength training routine to further burn fat while preserving muscle. I will also add a Tabata workout (20 second sprint, 10 second rest for 8 sets; a total of 4 minutes) to my HIIT routine on Saturday and Wednesday (too intense to perform on Monday as well). Finally, I will create additional calorie restriction time by skipping breakfast on Tuesday and Thursday.
My expectation is that this HIIT routine and strength training routine will blast me through a fat loss plateau during the next month. After this time, I will lower how intense my regimen is to make sure I do not overwork my body.