A workout that features short bouts of cardio and complex resistance movements is the fastest way to strip body fat and build a great physique…
You want to look like an Olympic champion? You’ve got to train like an Olympic champion. This is a high intensitycardio+complex resistance workout that is sure to transform your body into a well-oiled fitness machine. The key to doing this correctly is to keep the pace high. If the reps and/or cardio intervals are too high for you, just drop them down and work your way up.
By combining heavy lifts with short bursts of cardio, you are hitting your body from two extreme angles. Your muscles are faced with exercises they’ve never seen before and weights they’ve never felt before. Your cardiovascular system is pushed to the max as you are training in the 80-90% max heart rate range for a short period of time.
For this workout, you want to skip the isolation exercises like dumbbell curls or tricep kickbacks. Focus on complex movements that involve many muscle groups at once. The exercises listed below are just suggestions. Feel free to mix things up by using other exercises. Just be sure they are complex movements.
Shoot for no rest between each exercise group. Give yourself 60-90 seconds rest between groups.
To start, grab a bench and try this out:
- 10 Dumbbell Squats
- 20 Box or Bench Jumps
- 10 Military Dumbell Presses
At this point, grab a jump rope and get going. Try to jump rope 400 times in 4 minutes. If you can’t make it in 4 minutes, that’s okay. Just keep going until you hit 400. Next, find a little real estate in the gym, grab a barbell, and let’s get going…
- 10 T-rows
- 15 Wide grip pullups
- 15 Plyometric Pushups
Jump on the treadmill and set it for 10 mph. Get going and try to maintain this speed for 2 minutes.
Hop off the treadmill, grab a mat, and knock out these three bad boys as fast as possible (without losing form):
- Plank for 3 minutes, in as few sets as possible
- 15 Spider Planks
- 50 crunches
Fatigue should really be setting in at this point, but you’re almost there. Keep up the pace and finish strong.
- 1 minute of Burpees
- 1 minute of Mountain Climbers
- 1 minute of Squat Jumps
Grab a couple of dumbbells, and let’s get to it:
- 12 Snatches per arm
- 20 Shrugs
- 15 Bench Dips
To close things out, get back on the treadmill and sprint for 2 minutes at 10 mph.
This is the end of the workout. Something you should keep in mind; we mentioned using heavy weights earlier. As you notice, some of the reps for these exercises are rather high. You want to complete each rep, but if you need a break because the weight is too heavy, take it. If an exercise calls for 12 reps, and you can only do 4 before tiring, split it up and do 4, 4, 4. Keep in mind, these aren’t 3 sets of 4, rather, complete the total number of reps as fast as possible. Do 4, take a 10 second break, do 4 more, etc.
For beginners, going through this just one time will be brutal. As your fitness level increases, you should try to complete this cycle 2, 3, or 4 times. Following this high intensity, cardio+weight training workout will lead to advanced athletic development, a killer physique, and improved stamina. Due to the super high intensity of this workout, limit using it to once or twice a week to avoid overtraining the same muscles.
Matt
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