30 days to lean and mean
How often do you come to the gym and repeat the same moves, lifts and routine? If you're saying "regularly" to yourself, then you're going to love this plan I've put together.
While having a routine helps, it also becomes a liability to building your body because when done long enough without enough change, it actually will hurt progress and create greater injury risk.
This plan is something that has taken me 15 years to learn, months to practice and more years to refine. But like everything that is incredible quality, it looks simple on the outside, but that doesn't mean it's easy.
An example of things looking simple on the outside is like in the recent Olympics, and specifically Michael Phelps. He makes it look so easy, but on the inside, tons of work, nuances and more work. Further on the point of simple, everything that is simple is actually very complex, because if it were simple, people would be doing it. Take the simple act of drinking enough water during the day.....every day. How often does that happen consistently? And yet hydration is fundamental to building great health and bodies.
So, now that you're about ready to ditch your old routine to try mine, consider your old routine 'the-way-to-where-you-are-physically' plan. It showed you some things to do to improve your body and health, but now it isn't delivering. This is simply because you need a new "rulebook" to get to the next level.
Old rules gave you what you have, new rules will get you to the next level, and so on. So once you get the rules learned for this plan below, it will be time for new rules. At the end of the article, I'll talk more about how to get a new 'rulebook' for the next level.
Training Plan Overview
I broke this plan into 3 days of total body work, and 3 days of recovery training. Yes, there is dedicated training for recovery and if current you're plan doesn't have that piece, then you are not going to get the those sought after, consistent results along with a guarantee that you will run into a health problem- injury, pain, plateauing, fatigue. It's just a matter of time. My clients understand that they choose their recovery days first, and then their workout days second when we a design a new plan. It's that crucial.
One day of the plan is a total body program and the other two programs split the body into lower and upper.
Workout A will be done on Monday, Workout B on Wednesday and Workout C on Friday.
Recovery training will be done on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Each week, the workouts will also rotate to improve progress and side-step things getting stagnant.
Something new for many in this program is called Tempo. This is speed of how you move during any exercise. Do not overlook this key ingredient.
See the week-by-week layout example below:
Week | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
1 | Off | W:A | R:A | W:B | R:B | W:C | R:C |
2 | Off | W:S | R:A | W:C | R:B | W:A | R:C |
3 | Off | W:C | R:A | W:A | R:B | W:B | R:C |
4 | Off | W:A | R:A | W:B | R:B | W:C | R:C |
Pre-workout warm up (before every workout). If you don't want to get hurt, then do not skip the pre-workout stretch and warm up. You'll pay the price at some point if you skip it.
More what to stretch at the end of article.
Workout A: There are six exercises with a movement in each direction to make sure you have balance in your program. It's total body and you'll do three sets of 10-15 reps per exercise. Do each exercise one after the other without much rest until you've done all six exercises. Rest for 1 minute and then do two more sets.
It's a quick workout, so if you finish it in under 30 minutes you did not do something wrong.
EXERCISE | TEMPO | VOLUME | % OF 1RM | REST | NOTES |
Plank Row | 1 sec. Up, 1 sec. down | 3 sets of 10 (per arm) | 60% | :00 | With dumbell |
Decline Push-Up | 1 sec. Up, 1 sec. down | 3 sets of 10 | n/a | :00 | Feet on 12" box |
Chin Up | 1 sec. Up, 5 sec. down | 3 sets of 5-10 | n/a | :00 | Jump from a box up, slow going down |
Single Leg Reverse Lunge | 1 sec. Up, 1 sec. down | 3 sets of 10 (per leg) | 60% | :00 | With single dumbell racked on shoulder |
Thruster | 1 sec. Up, 1 sec. down | 3 sets of 10 | 60% | 1:00 | Squat to 16" box, stand up, do a shoulder press, repeat |
Recovery Session A: Do 20 minutes of non-intense cardio, such as stationary bike, elliptical, stairmaster. It needs to be light intensity, so a heart rate of 65% of your target heart rate.
To figure target heart rate, take 220 minus your age. Then take 65% of that number which will give you the heart rate range for this recovery cardio.
After the 20 minutes is over, follow the stretching for Recovery Session A (see at end of article).
Workout B: For this workout, you'll have a section of abs in the beginning. Do those four exercises in a row without rest. Then move on to the upper body part of the workout, doing two sets back to back (super-set), resting for 30 seconds and then repeating the set. After the second set, move onto the next part of the workout and so on.
EXERCISE | TEMPO | VOLUME | % OF 1RM | REST | NOTES |
Cheat Up | 1 sec. Up, 5 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | Hands at ears |
Knee Up |
3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | On floor, arms across chest |
Toe Touch | 1 sec. Up, 5 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | Feet on 12" bench, hands at forehead |
Lower Body Twist | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 1:00 | |
Incline DB Curl | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | Sitting on incline bench, palms up |
Incline DB Curl | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | Palms facing up |
Incline DB Curl | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 1:00 | Palms facing down |
Tricep Press Down | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | Using high cable, palms facing up |
Tricep Press Down | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | Palms facing in |
Tricep Press Down | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 1:00 | Palms facing down |
Pullover | Hold for 3 sec at Bottom | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | With dumbell, palms facing in |
Chest Fly | Hold for 3 sec at Bottom | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | With dumbell, palms facing in |
Seated Shoulder Front Raise | Hold for 3 sec at Top | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | With dumbell, palms facing in |
Back Fly | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 1:00 | With dumbell, palms facing in |
Chest Press | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | 60% | 0 | Flat bench, with dumbells |
Seated Row | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | 60% | 0 | With palms facing up |
Seated Shoulder Press | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | 60% | 0 | With dumbells, no seat back |
Lat Pulldown | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | 60% | 1:00 | With palms facing in |
Recovery Session B: Do 15 minutes of non-intense cardio, such as stationary bike, elliptical, stairmaster. It needs to be light intensity, so a heart rate of 65% of your target heart rate.
After the 20 minutes is over, follow Recovery Session B (see at end of article).
Workout C: In this lower body workout, you'll again start with abs. Do all four of the abs exercises in a row without rest, then move to the next part of the workout. For the lower body parts, do four exercises in a row without rest. Rest for 60 seconds, then repeat all four exercises for another set. Then move onto the next part of the workout, doing the same format you just followed.
EXERCISE | TEMPO | VOLUME | % OF 1RM | REST | NOTES |
Cheat Up | 1 sec. Up, 5 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | Hands at ears |
Knee Up |
3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | On floor, arms across chest |
Toe Touch | 1 sec. Up, 5 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 0 | Feet on 12" bench, hands at forehead |
Lower Body Twist | 3 sec. Up, 3 sec. down | 1 Set of 15 | n/a | 1:00 | |
Single Leg Extension | Hold for 3 sec. at top | 2 Sets of 12 (per leg) | 60% |
0 |
|
Single Leg Curl | Hold for 3 sec. at top | 2 Sets of 12 (per leg) | 60% |
0 |
|
Wall Sit | 1 sec. down, 2 sec. down | 2 Sets of 5 Drops | 60% | 0 | Start at the top, drop 3" every 10 sec. |
Lateral Lunge | Hold for 3 sec. at top | 1 Set of 12 (per leg) | 60% | 1:00 | One dumbbell on opp. side of stepping |
Leg Abduction | Hold for 3 sec. at top of range | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | |
Leg Abduction | Hold for 3 sec. at bottom of range | 1 Set of 12 | 60% | 0 | |
Single Leg Bridge | Hold for 3 sec. at top | 1 Set of 12 (per leg) | 60% | 0 | On floor |
Single Leg Deadlift | Hold for 3 sec. at bottom | 1 Set of 12 (per leg) | 60% | 1:00 | Stand near a wall |
Recovery Session C: Do 20 minutes of non-intense cardio, such as stationary bike, elliptical, stairmaster. It needs to be light intensity, so a heart rate of 65% of your target heart rate.
To figure target heart rate, take 220 minus your age. Then take 65% of that number which will give you the heart rate range for this recovery cardio.
After the 20 minutes is over, follow the stretching video for Recovery Session C.
Nutrition Plan Overview
The nutrition part of the plan coincides with your workouts, so that they work in tandem, giving consistency with your results. Too ofter do people make the mistake of not lining up their eating with their training on a long term scale. For example, drinking a protein shake after each workout is short term focused, but the long term will become a problem since the body will require that after each workout and protein shakes will cause inflammation at some point. No bueno for the body and six pack.
If you want your testosterone flowing and your muscle-wasting hormones low, then you have to make sure your digestive system (gut) is working right.
If it doesn't work right, then you can all the protein shakes in the world and not only will it not help, it will make things worse for your body, health and results.
So for Week 1, you're nutrition guidelines are to drinking enough water, drink hot water right after you wake up and after each meal. As for meals, you're going to pick 2-3 meals per day (starting with just 2 meals) and make sure you have more green, cruciferous veggies than you do protein or carb. Good luck with that one, because I have clients where it's taken them two months to master that. But once they did, their results spoke for themselves.
See green veggies list below:
FREE VEGETABLES
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These veggies can be eaten anytime and added to any meal. Veggies should be added to at least three meals daily.
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Week 2 you'll continue doing what you did the first week, but every meal will have more veggies than protein or carb. Having the veggies like this along with drinking enough water and it being hot gets the digestive system not only working, but working better.
See carb and protein list below.
PROTEINS
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Beef | Poultry | Pork and Lamb | Shellfish | Fish | Eggs and Dairy |
Brisket Chuck Roast Dried Beef Eye Round Filet Mignon Flank Steak Ground Beef 95% Lean New York Strip Rib Eye Sirloin Skirt Steak |
Chicken, Breast Chicken, Leg Chicken, Thigh Chicken, Wing Turkey, Breast Turkey, Leg Turkey, Sausage |
Canadian Bacon Ham, Fresh 95% Lean Lamb, Leg, Chop Pork Chop, Sirloin Pork Loin Pork Tenderloin |
Clams Crab Lobster Oysters Scallops Shrimp |
Anchovy Bluefish Cod Flounder Haddock Halibut Herring Mackeral Orange Roughy Salmon Sea Bass Snapper Swordfish Tilapia Tuna |
Egg White Cottage Cheese Mozzarella Cheese Protein Powder Whole Egg |
LOW-GI/GL CARBS
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Legumes | Fruits | Veggies | Other Grains |
Black Beans Black-Eyed Peas Chickpeas Green Peas Kidney Beans Lentils Lima Beans Navy Beans Pinto Beans White Beans |
Apple Apricot Blackberries Blueberries Cherries Cranberries Grapefruit Grapes Honeydew Kiwi Mango Orange Peach Pear Pineapple Plum Raspberries Rhubarb Strawberries Watermelon |
Artichoke Beets Carrots Pumpkin Rutabaga Squash Sweet Potato Yam |
Barley Buckwheat Cream of Rice Oat Bran Oatmeal Quinoa Rice: Brown, Jasmine or White |
Week 3, you'll continue with Week 2 targets.
Week 4, you'll carry all the prior week targets with you and eat from the carb list below.
Closing notes- take this program slowly and don't skip or rush anything. I never skipped anything when I developed my training methods and never skipped anything my mentors taught me. It pays for itself.
You can download this whole program into a PDF (below).
Will Maloney is is a men's healthy lifestyle blogger who writes about building a reliable, healthy body. He's a nationally-ranked Equinox trainer, a former strength and conditioning coach at Stanford, and founder of Metabolic Kitchen.