Immediate to Advanced training:
At this stage of your weight loss/ healthy living regime and hopefully with reading my blogs you have come to be in ok or good physical shape. With realizing and achieving those realistic mini goals each step along your journey, you might feel like you have reached that peak on the mountain. Well done I applaud you and go pat yourself on the shoulder for achieving your goals and feeling/ being better with your body.
However there would be some of you who probably haven’t met your expectations in terms of how you feel with your body or general well being. For these people I recommend to re asses your goals and find aspects of your daily routine that could hinder your progression. Most likely its little things you need to change or modify; it could be your diet, sleeping patterns, how hard you work out and the list could go on. In my later articles I will go into more detail on the finer aspects that could prevent or slow down your results in working out and being healthier; these include culture, body type, and stress to name a few.
For the rest of you out there you are probably stuck in a “RUT” or have hit that plateau stage of your journey. As long as you have been reading my articles and following it to some extent then your fitness levels should be decent enough to take it to the next step. Therefore the next 2 articles are concentrated in exercises and diet plans to reach AMESOMENESS.
1) Shorten up your workout times. Yes you read right, its time to throw the common misconception of walking/ jogging for 1 hour a day is the ONLY way to lose weight. More importantly walking, jogging or working out more than one hour to one hour and a half has been scientifically proven that it could be detrimental to fat loss and weight loss. Unless you’re a marathon runner or athlete where you train everyday 6 hours a day. Naturally your body’s testosterone levels will decrease after a certain period leading to an increase in cortisol (converting protein into glucose which leads to stored fat around gut). Old adage is true;WORKhard or go home!!!
2) Applying this shortened work out times, the next step would be to introduce some new exercises and modify existing ones.
- High Intensity training: Or namely HIT is a very effective workout routine you should introduce into your normal regime from now on. Results of HIT is an increase in production and release of several fat burning substances in your body such as growth hormone, adrenaline, testosterone (for the men), and lactic acid. There are many high intensity interval training HIT or even metabolic resistance training workouts that can be used to stimulate these substances to do their fat burning jobs.
- It is my personal opinion and experience and research, shuttle sprints is one of the most effective way to produce the best results. Traditionally, shuttle sprints are performed using a distance of 40m. Place two markers 40m apart and place 1 in the middle at the 20m mark. Start in the middle and sprint to the 40m marker, turn around and sprint to the 0 yard marker, turn around and sprint back to the starting point at the 20. MAKE SURE you are sprinting as fast as humanely possible for you!!!
- The best thing about shuttle running is all you need is your local field or some space with a flat piece of land and your GOOD to go. It’s a cheap way of doing it without going to the gym and it will definitely make you sweat and feel exhausted after it. Also living in a time poor society and with my previous workout plans that could be time consuming to the average person. SHUTTLE running takes about 20 to 25 mins max for the same effect as running 5km. Important to make sure you rest for a minute in between your sets. The KEY with shuttle running like other workouts is the constant improvement each week ranging from increasing sets, to the length of sprints to vary what type of sprints.
3) Circuit training: This is the second workout routine I am going to introduce into your program. Essentially circuit training works on the different sections in your body individually. Incorporating with HIT/ Shuttle training to achieve Maximum results towards that body you have always wanted. Circuit training will also give definition to your muscles and therefore you will look and feel like a movie star.
The main muscle groups and exercises with it are:
- Upper-body
- Press ups, Bench dips, Pull ups, Medicine ball chest pass, Bench lift, Inclined press up
- Core & trunk
- Sit ups (lower abdominals), Stomach crunch (upper abdominals), Back extension chest raise
- Lower-body
- Squat jumps, Compass jumps, Astride jumps, Step ups, Shuttle runs, Hopping shuttles, Bench squat
- Total-body
- Burpees, Treadmills, Squat thrusts, Skipping
6 Exercises
- Treadmills, Press ups, Squat Jumps (forward astride), Sit ups (bent knees feet on the ground), Squat Thrusts, Bench Dips
8 Exercises
- Treadmills, Press ups, Squat Jumps (forward astride), Sit ups (bent knees feet on the ground), Squat Thrusts, Bench Dips, Shuttle runs, Back extension chest raise
4) Duration
- 20 to 30 seconds work on each exercise with a 30 second recovery between each exercise
- 3 to 5sets with a 3 minute recovery between each set
- The duration can be based on time (e.g. 30 seconds) or set to half the number of repetitions of the exercise the athlete can complete in 60 seconds of 100% effort.
- If training is based on the number of repetitions then regular testing (e.g. every 4 weeks) will need to be carried out to determine the maximum number of repetitions that can be completed in 60 seconds for each exercise.
Training can be based on a four week cycle comprising of an easy week, medium week, hard week and test/recovery week. The workload can be varied by changing the number of exercises, duration, sets or repetitions and recovery time.
- the following table is a recommended training program to help you get started:
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | |
| Monday | Shuttle – 20mins | Cycle – 30 mins | REST | REST |
| Tuesday | REST | REST | Shuttle – 20mins | Shuttle – 30mins |
| Wednesday | Circuit – 45mins | Body Strength | Body Strength | REST |
| Thursday | REST | REST | REST | Body Strength |
| Friday | Shuttle – 20mins | Shuttle – 15mins | Cycle – 30mins | Shuttle – 15mins |
| Saturday | Body strength | REST | REST | REST |
| Sunday | REST | Circuit – 45mins | Circuit – 45mins | Circuit – 45mins |
* Notice that shuttle training stays constant at 20mins. This is because each week you either go faster or shorten up your lengths and go harder in between your runs. Meaning you can do more sets in the period of time and therefore achieve better results. Circuit training stays roughly the same time as it incorporates many different exercises and using different equipment.
* IMPORTANT: Remember to always improve each week you train to achieve better results. You will see better RESULTS with these type of workout plans as it shocks your system and therefore forces your body to lose fat faster and more effectively
* Next article coming soon: Immediate to Advanced, Diet part 2
