Three Ways to Structure Your Home Workouts for Maximal Metabolic Impact
February 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
Working out at home is an incredibly effective way to stay fit and burn body fat. There are so many benefits to it that include:
• Not having to travel back and forth from the gym
• Saving money on a gym membership
• Having more privacy while exercise (you can go off into your own world without lots of gym people around to distract you)
• Convenience, convenience, convenience!
But one problem that I keep getting from people is that they simply aren’t quite sure how to exercise at home. Sure there are lots of DVD’s and stuff like that but they are rarely on the “cutting edge” of what is going on in the fitness world today. So many workout at home DVD’s are structured more like an aerobics class. This is fine, but we want you to get the most “bang for your buck” and not just make your home workout a glorified cardio session without the machine.
A good home workout should do the following:
• Make your whole body stronger with resistance training exercise
• Increase your core strength
• Elevate your heart rate and challenge your cardiovascular system
• Be quick, effective, and fun
• Have an overall metabolic benefit so that you are burning calories long after you are finished exercising.
In this article we are going to take some simple exercises and show you how you can create three different workout structures with the same basic ingredients.
The exercises we are going to use are:
• Bodyweight squats
• Jumping jacks
• Band pulls
• Mountain climbers
These are all timed circuits, which means that we are going to use specific time structures for each workout. I recommend getting a stopwatch or just going to www.onlinestopwatch.com and using that to time yourself.
Here are three different ways to use those exercises and have three entirely different workouts.
TIMED CIRCUIT#1 = Tabata Intervals.
Tabata intervals are an incredibly effective way to get a great workout in a short amount of time. A tabata interval is a 4 minute workout that uses specific work to rest time ratios.
Beginners: Work 10 seconds and then rest for 20 seconds
Intermediate: Work for 15 seconds and rest for 15 seconds
Advanced: Work for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds
You simply use the work to rest ratios mentioned above and repeat them for 4 minutes.
Here is how you would use the exercises listed in a tabata interval. We are going to use the beginner in this example:
10 seconds: Bodyweight squats
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Jumping jacks
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Band pulls
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Mountain climbers
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Bodyweight squats
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Jumping jacks
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Band pulls
20 seconds: Rest
10 seconds: Mountain climbers
20 seconds: Rest
Total workout time: 4 minutes
Here is how it would look if we used the 15 second work/15 second rest tabata structure:
15 seconds: Bodyweight squats
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Jumping jacks
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Band pulls
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Mountain climbers
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Bodyweight squats
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Jumping jacks
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Band pulls
15 seconds: Rest
15 seconds: Mountain climbers
15 seconds: Rest
Total workout time: 4 minutes
The main difference is that we increased the work period and decreased the rest period. This gives you less recovery time while doing more work.
Finally, here is how the advanced tabata structure looks. We are going to use a 20 second work to 10 second rest ratio.
20 seconds: Bodyweight squats
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Jumping jacks
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Band pulls
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Mountain climbers
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Bodyweight squats
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Jumping jacks
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Band pulls
10 seconds: Rest
20 seconds: Mountain climbers
10 seconds: Rest
Total workout time: 4 minutes
Notice that we did not change the exercises or the exercise structure. We simply increased the work period even more and decreased the rest period again.
Try doing 4 sets using the appropriate tabata structure (resting 1 minute between each set) and you will see that you do NOT need to have a five thousand dollar treadmill in order to get a great workout at home.
TIMED CIRCUIT #2: Rounds
For this type of timed circuit we are going to use the concept of “rounds”. Get ready for a challenge!
We are going to take the same exercises and pair them up in a slightly different way.
With this type of workout we are not going to program specific rest period in ahead of time. You are going to complete as many “rounds” as you can in two 10 minute circuits and only rest when you need to. Ideally you will be pushing yourself the entire time so you don’t want to rest for more than you have to. We are also going to assign specific numbers of reps to each exercise. Here is what we are going to use:
15 bodyweight squats
25 jumping jacks
15 band rows
25 mountain climbers
Each time you complete all of the above exercises you have successfully completed 1 round.
Here is how you can structure this if you are at a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level:
Beginners: As many rounds as possible in two 7 minute time periods. Rest for 2 minutes in between the 7 minute work periods.
Intermediate: As many rounds as possible two 10 minute time periods. Rest for 2 minutes in between the 10 minute work periods.
Advanced: As many round as possible in 20 minutes – no rest periods in between!
With this type of workout you can keep score and always try to get better. I love doing this type of workout because I can always see how much I improve from one workout to the next. I especially like to use this type of workout when I am in a fat burning phase. It burns a ton of calories and if you work hard enough if will really affect your metabolism afterwards too.
TIME STRUCTURE #3 = Interval Combos
Interval combos are going to again utilize the timed work to rest periods.
The goal here is to get as many reps as possible during the work period. We are going to extend the work period longer than with the tabatas but we are going to keep the rest period the same.
Here is how this structure is going to look:
Beginners: 30 seconds work followed by 30 seconds rest
Intermediate: 45 seconds work followed by 30 seconds rest
Advanced: 60 seconds work followed by 30 seconds rest
Now let’s fill in the exercises:
Beginners:
30 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
30 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
Total time for 1 round: 8 minutes
Rest for 2 minutes and the repeat the same workout again.
Total workout time: 18 minutes
Intermediate:
45 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
45 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
Total time for 1 round: 10 minutes
Rest for 2 minutes and then repeat the same workout again.
Total time for the workout: 22 minutes
Advanced:
60 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Bodyweight squats
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Jumping jacks
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Band pulls
30 seconds: Rest
60 seconds: Mountain climbers
30 seconds: Rest
Total time for 1 round = 12 minutes
Rest for 2 minutes and then repeat the same workout again.
Total time for the workout: 26 minutes
Conclusion
Notice how the ADVANCED version of this workout took 26 minutes. In comparison to the rest of the workouts we listed here that seems like a long time.
But think about what most people do when they go to the gym to lose fat. 30 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of doing the strength training machines followed by 10 minutes of crunches. The total workout time there is 60 minutes and that doesn’t even include the time it takes to get changed, drive to the gym, take a shower afterwards, drive home, and get situated again. The total time there could easily be 1-2 HOURS.
These workouts we listed in this article are all designed to do some things that are very appealing to many people such as:
• Shorten your workouts
• Cut out the need for the “round trip” workout time at the gym
• Give you the most “band for your buck”
• Make you stronger
• Elevate your heart rate
• Impact your resting metabolism
And of course there are many more reason.
The truth is that we are just beginning to scratch the surface for what is possible.
There are so many other workout structures that we can use. Not to mention there are also literally thousands of other exercises we didn’t even get into.
Just imagine if we incorporated things like:
• Superbands (they look like a big rubber band)
• Stability balls
• Dumbbells
• Balance pads
• JC bands (my favorite type of resistance band with handles)
• Medicine balls
• Kettlebells
• Body bars
• More bodyweight exercises
• More band exercises
There is so much that we can do that your workouts never have to get old, boring, and dull.
We are going to going much deeper in the whole concept of how to get better results by working out at home in less time with equipment that costs less than 50 bucks.
Stay tuned for more coming very soon.
Good luck and train hard,
Tom Gifford
The China Workout
December 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
Hey NNN Readers here is the first installment of ‘No Gym, No Problem”. I recently had a client that was going to China. He wanted to still workout but needed something that would require little to no equipment. He had super bands to use but if you could get away with using regular resistance bands.
Here’s the China Workout.
Warm up – 10 bodyweight squats, 30 seconds of regular planks. 3 rounds
CIRCUIT #1
- Work 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds (keep the work/rest periods honest)
- Do 2 rounds non stop, rest for 1 minute, then do 2 more rounds non stop
- Hook the 1 inch superband into the door of your hotel room at waist height
A1. 1 arm rows with a deep split squat (right arm)
A2. 1 arm rows with a deep split squat (left arm)
A3. Superband lunges
A4. Staggered stance superband presses
REST – 2-3 minutes
CIRCUIT #2
- Use the 1/2 inch superband (do not use the hook attachment or hook it into the door)
- Do 2 rounds non stop, then you are done.
B1. 1 leg squats (with superband around the shoulder)
B2. Squat and Y press
B3. Reverse planks (shoulders and feet off the ground)
Total workout time = 26 minutes
No Gym, No Problem – New Featured Area
October 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
No Gym, No Problem is another new area to the Naked Nutrition Network. This area will be headed up by a great trainer (and friend) – Tom Gifford. The focus of the No Gym, No Problem section is to give you options for fat loss, fitness, and metabolic training that are not limited to just being in a gym. These workouts will involve your bodyweight, kettlebells, bands, and all kinds of great stuff. I wanted to add this area to the site because I love this type of training. It is a great break from the normal “head to the gym to workout” mentality and it is just plain fun. Look for Tom’s first article in the upcoming week.
-Mike
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