Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Advanced Fat Burning Bodyweight Intervals

Cardio sucks and bodyweight exercises rule! If you want to sculpt your body, lose fat, build muscle, and get fit, forget the cardio and do this short bodyweight workout instead. It's a REAL workout.





This is a very unique program, but probably one of the toughest ones I've put together. However, please make sure you do this after a warmup of bodyweight squats, pushups, and lunges. You'll do this after your resistance training in any fat burning workout.

So, here is the order of exercises for the bodyweight intervals from workout A. You will start with jumps, and then move into calf jumps, followed by stability ball jackknives, and then Turkish get-ups to finish off the circuit.

For the jumps, you are going to do 10 regular squat jumps, rest 10 seconds, repeating 3 more times for a total of four sets of 10. As you are coming down, try to have a nice soft landing and absorb the contact with the floor and then right back up into the jump.

Once you've done the jumps, you are going to move on to the calf jumps. Again, four sets of 10, with a 10 second rest in between. To do this set of pogo calf jumps, as you land you will be bouncing up using the balls of your feet, and pointing your toes in the air every time.

After completing the first two exercises from the bodyweight intervals, you'll move on to the stability ball jackknives. Following the same structure as the previous two exercises, you will perform 4 sets of 10 reps, with a 10 second rest in between.

For this exercise, you can do it with either your hands on the floor or elbows on the bench. With your feet on the stability ball, bring your knees to your chest, keeping your back flat and then back out. If you want a little extra burn, however, you can 'rest' in the plank position.

For the Turkish Get-ups, you are going to do 5 repetitions per side, rest 10 seconds, and then perform one more set, for a total of 2 sets. In order to perform this exercise you will use either a dumbbell or a kettlebell and start by lying on the ground.

Now, with your arm extended up in the air, and the leg on the same side bent at 90 degrees, get up to a standing position. Once you are standing straight up, proceed to lie back down while keeping the DB or KB extended up in the air. Complete 5 repetitions per side and then switch.

This is a very difficult, advanced bodyweight interval training workout. Be sure to do this workout not on pavement or concrete, but instead on a relatively soft surface. Ideally, this workout would be done out on the grass.

However, if you aren't comfortable doing some of these exercises because you are worried about the impact or your technique, then you can easily substitute lower impact bodyweight exercises such as; squats or jumping jacks.

Train hard, but train safe. And have fun with this bodyweight interval training workout for fat loss. This program takes less time than long, slow, boring, ineffective cardio and you'll get more results from bodyweight exercises.
Stirring up the fat loss industry,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS - Get more FREE bodyweight workouts here:

=> Bodyweight Exercise Circuits for Fat Loss Workouts

2 comments:

Adam L. said...

Again, amazing stuff Craig my good lad. I prefer doing ballistic alternating bounce lunges instead of just jumps at the beginning. But still a good body shredder (Especially after a jump rope session!)

Naved said...

Thanks Craig, I love it!