During this program, you will progress through 3 phases/microcycles that modify your workouts by increasing the number of sets per exercise, and level of intensity:
● ● ●
As you will be performing exercises in both lower and higher rep ranges, it has been designed so that the workouts are separated into “power” days and “hypertrophy” days respectively. The rationale behind this is that you will get more ‘bang for your buck’ so to speak if you focus on lifting for either maximal strength or to induce muscular hypertrophy within a given training session.
On power days the focus will be on major “power” movements for your upper and lower body like Bent-Over Barbell Rows, Incline Dumbbell
Presses, Squats and Leg Press. The goal is to stay within 4-6 reps for all 3 sets (2 sets during Phase 1). Be sure to rest enough in-between sets to be ready for your next heavy set (it may take a good 3-4 minutes to completely recover between sets). Keep in mind, the purpose of these workouts is to move maximum weight! Your hypertrophy workouts will be quicker-paced and have shorter rest periods. On power days you need to have a STRENGTH mentality.
On your hypertrophy days you will be doing sets of higher repetitions with lighter loads. Emphasis will be placed on moving the weight through the concentric phase of the lift as quickly as
possible/explosively. Rest should be no longer than 90 seconds between each set. Make sure to stop a rep or two shy of failure on hypertrophy days or you will fatigue yourself too quickly.
This will help you maintain greater overall force production and volume during the workout and it will prevent neural fatigue and burnout.
TRAINING GUIDE
Failure is a tool and has to be used correctly and is not necessarily the goal of every set. Once you get adjusted to the volume and frequency then you can start adding in sets to failure for power movements and some of your explosive type training. Abstain from training to failure consistently for more than 6 weeks in a row without at least a brief hiatus. The reason this is recommended is because if you constantly train to failure it will impede your performance, strength, decrease the volume you are able to handle, and ultimately reduce your training capacity. There seems to be a notion out there that any set NOT taken to absolute failure is an exercise in futility, but that’s utter NONSENSE. There’s plenty of research that shows volume is the main dictator of how much muscle damage occurs.
Take note that overload is accumulated throughout your workout and adding more
volume is actually a way to induce more overload, not just by adding more weight/reps. Again, there is nothing wrong with taking some sets to failure once you are adapted to the routine, but it has to be properly periodized to avoid performance decrements and excessive central nervous system (CNS) fatigue.
Compound exercises are the bread and butter of muscle and strength building. They work multiple muscle groups and are the most challenging and rewarding lifts. They should always be performed first in your workout plan. Isolation exercises work only a single muscle group at a time. In general they utilize a lighter weight, and don't allow for as much progression as compound movements. Because isolation lifts are less taxing, they work better as finishing exercises, helping to work an already fatigued and taxed muscle. Because the focus of compound exercises is to tax several muscle groups, you should not worry as much about feeling the muscles work when using them.
Make sure to keep proper form at all times. Sloppy isolation exercises with too much weight quickly turn into mild, less-than-effective compound lifts.
TRAINING GUIDE
1. Don’t shy away from difficult, compound exercises; they are the best bang for your buck.
2. If you are unfamiliar with technical exercises like deadlifts and squats, it is imperative that you research proper form or have a
trainer/strength coach teach you.
During this program, you will progress through 3 phases/microcycles that modify your workouts by increasing the number of sets per exercise, and level of intensity:
● ● ●
The workouts are listed in on the next few pages and there is also a printable workout log included in this 12 Week Shred Transformation Pack which we highly recommended you use!
12 WEEK SHRED
Society has done a very good job of making us believe cardiovascular exercise paired with eating nothing but salad is the key to fat loss. In the context of optimizing body composition, cardio needs to be treated as a tool for fat loss more so than an
aggressive necessity.
Chapter 9 will discuss plateaus and how to break through them, but as a spoiler we usually have to decrease caloric intake and/or increase cardio expenditure.
Not only does nobody want to spend 2 hours of their day doing cardio, excessive cardio can interfere with the positive effects that come with weight/resistance training.
HIIT is a system of organizing cardiorespiratory training which calls for repeated bouts of short duration, high-intensity exercise intervals
intermingled with periods of lower-intensity intervals of active recovery.
HIIT lasts 20 minutes or less – resulting in a short workout time nearly anyone can integrate into their lifestyle.
HIIT can increase VO2 max for both high intensity and endurance athletes. VO2 max is the max amount of oxygen a person can use and transport during
exercise. You want this number to be high because it enables you to use more fat as fuel instead of glucose. Since our fat stores tend to be much higher than glycogen stores, it is preferential to be able to get the highest percentage of fuel from fat during exercise. While sprinting uses a high amount of glycogen
because it is such high intensity, the rate at which you change from fat burning to sugar burning is higher in individuals with a higher VO2 max.
HIIT increases EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) resulting in an elevated fat loss state for up to 24 hours after you finish your workout –
something you won’t get from lower intensity- exercise.
Cardio
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HIIT trains the body to effectively remove metabolic waste from the muscles between intervals. By quickly removing lactate and other by-products resulting from high intensity exercise, you enable the body to be primed and ready for another bout of high-intensity exercise with less rest.
You can do these workouts using tools, such as a jump rope, or simply doing jumping jacks, or sprinting, or working on a stationary cycle. Use your imagination. Just follow the work-to-rest intervals as indicated.
20 seconds: High-intensity exercise (E.g. Sprint)
60 seconds: Rest or low-intensity exercise (E.g. Walk)
Repeat another 10 times, followed by a final 20- second high-intensity blast.
CARDIO
Low-intensity cardio doesn’t have the acute metabolic benefits of high-intensity cardio, but it’s an easy way to chip away at calories
throughout the week without adversely affecting your time lifting weights. LISS is a bit like
spending money eating out. At the time, it doesn’t seem like much but at the end of the month it’s surprising how much you have spent.
The table below lists the calories burned by doing dozens of activities for 30 minutes and the numbers are based on an individual who weighs 185 pounds.