Twelve minutes of high intensity intervals in the morning is not enough. We’re going to kill 10 lbs of fat in only four weeks*, so we’re going to have to turn it up! For three days a week, we’re going to do some muscle work. Remember that muscles on our body get rid of fat on their own so let’s build some good, lean, sexy muscle!

 

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we will do a variety of whole body exercises in a fast, high-rep manner with short rest periods. We need one day in between workouts to let our muscles rest and recover so they can be fully charged for the next workout. The workouts are only 45 minutes or less and they can be done at noon during your lunch break or in the PM but don’t do it too late to avoid becoming too energized and not being able to sleep. It’s important to get a good night’s sleep since not getting enough sleep makes you fat!

You should have a hard time getting to the specified number of reps but you should be able to do a couple more (we’re not going to absolute failure here). Still, it should be getting pretty damn hard toward the end. Therefore, choose a weight that will be challenging enough to meet this criteria. You’ll have to experiment at the beginning ’til you know your weight amount so it’s a good idea to keep a chart and jot things down.

Monday:
Starting off the week strong! We’re doing the biggest, baddest exercises today to get our body nice and tight after a potentially restful weekend.

1. Barbell Squat

Video 

Barbell Squats are the best exercise for building strong, sexy legs for both men and women. In fact, they’ll strengthen the upper body and core in addition to giving you a firm butt and upper legs.

With barbell squats, you need to tighten your abs to avoid topping over backwards and your back muscles to avoid leaning forward. To keep from falling to the sides, your obliques are engaged as well. And men, did you know that building the leg muscles raises your testosterone levels and helps increase your muscle mass in the rest of your body?

Because the leg muscles are so huge and take up such a big part of the body, building them up will control hormones allowing your testosterone to peak while keeping estrogen in control. This is not only good for men, but raising testosterone is good for women too!

Higher testosterone will help keep your body fat low while giving you lots of energy and strength to use throughout the day! And don’t worry ladies, higher testosterone will not get you too big or muscular. You’d need medical grade testosterone and hormonal treatment to become “man-like”. You can’t get that way by accident!

Now proper form and movement is important when doing squats.

Be sure to go all the way down—we’re not doing some sorry-ass half squats! This will help build your entire upper leg muscles, including the hamstrings in the back.

We don’t really want to do these on a Smith machine—those machines at gyms where the barbell is attached to vertical rails. Those machines limit your range of movement and will make for an unnatural form which is not the best. When you raise yourself from a squat, you don’t go straight up in a straight line. You move in an arc with the barbell slightly more forward at the beginning than when you finish the movement. So try to do them with a free barbell like in the pic.

If you don’t have access to a squat rack, choose a weight that you can easily lift over your head when done.

We’re not going for super heavy squats, especially if you don’t have a rack to safely put the barbell back down. This whole plan concentrates on high amount of repetitions and speed.

Proper form: Tighten your upper back and rear delts (shoulders) and flex them inward toward your spine. Place the barbell on your back so that the the barbell rests on your upper back muscles, NOT your neck bone. It should be a bit low on your back and your hands are only there to support your back. It should feel very light on your hands since all of the weight will be on your back.

If you have to pause before getting to 10 reps, it’s ok. Stop and hold the weight on your upper back for around 10 seconds. Then continue doing that if needed until you do all 10. If you absolutely cannot get to 10 reps for 3 sets, you’re lifting way too heavy. Lighten up for next set.

Reps:10
Rest between sets: 1 minute
Sets: 3
Pace: Go up in a fast, explosive 1 to 1.5 seconds, and without pausing at the top take 3 seconds to come back down.

The next 2 exercises are a superset, meaning that we’re working opposite muscles back to back, resting only after both sets are done. 

2. Pull Downs/Chest press superset

The next 2 exercises are a superset, meaning that we’re working opposite muscles back to back, resting only after both sets are done. You’ll do a set of Pulldowns for the back, then immediately do a set of Chest presses for the chest. Then rest.

2.a. Pulldowns

On the Seated Pulldown machine, use a wide bar as pictured. We’ll use three different grips.

Grips:
For Set 1: Full wide grip. Wider than shoulder width grip. Pronated (palms away from you, thumbs toward each other).
For Set 2: Narrow grip, one fist-width in between hands. Supinated (palms toward you, thumbs out).   
For Set 3: Shoulder width. Pronated grip (palms away from you, thumbs toward each other)

Pull the bar down until it’s pretty close to your chest. Really crunch the back! Hold for a second, then return slowly and controlled.

After your first set, immediately go to the next exercise:

2.b. Chest Press

On the Seated Chest Press machine, push the handles out away from your chest until your arms are extended but do not lock the arms; maintain a slight bend at full extension. Hold for a second, then return slowly without returning so far that the handles stop and are resting. Take a deep breath when the handles are near your chest, then exhale as you push for another rep.

Reps: 10 each exercise
Sets: 3
Rest: 45 seconds
Pace: 1 second to lift the weight, crunch it 1 second, 3 seconds to return the weight

3. Squat, Curl and Press

Now that we’ve covered legs, back, and chest, we’re going to combine squatting, biceps, triceps and shoulders in a lighter, faster exercise for maximum fat burn! Grab a pair of light dumbbells.

A 10in30 exclusive! Now that we’ve covered legs, back, and chest, we’re going to combine squatting, biceps, triceps and shoulders in a lighter, faster exercise for maximum fat burn! Grab a pair of light dumbbells.

Video

How to do it!

1. Stand holding light dumbbells at your thighs. Women use 3-5 pounds, Men: 10 pounds. Adjust as necessary.
2. Lower yourself to a squat position while curling the dumbbells.
3. HOLD the squat to where your upper legs are parallel to the ground or at least 45°, do not rest your elbows on your thighs, don’t sit on your ankles.
4. Extend your arms and rotate the wrists so that your arms are at a 45° angle to the floor, palms facing down.
5. Still holding the squat, bring the dumbbells right back to your shoulders.
6. Now stand back up slowly and controlled while uncurling your arms
7. Right back to standing position, dumbbells at your thighs.

REPEAT!

No stalling, no pit stops. Each rep should consist of four 1-second moves (or faster. one second is a bit slow).

This exercise will concentrate on speed and getting your heart rate up, thus burning a ton of fat while maintaining muscle! This isn’t meant for you to grow some huge shoulders, quads, or biceps or you’d be lifting real heavy for failure at around 6 reps. You’re still working on those muscles, but the fast, non-stop movements will ensure major fat burning throughout!

Reps: 10
Sets: 3
Rest: 30 seconds
Pace: steady 1 second per move or faster x4 moves per rep

4. Lower Abs: Leg raises

On the Vertical Knee Raise station, you will lift your straightened legs until they are parallel to the floor, then curl your lower torso so that your lower back is actually lifted away from the back rest for a brief second.

Many people make the big mistake of solely lifting the legs to parallel repeatedly which is only exercising the leg flexors—small, fragile muscles that are responsible for lifting the leg at the hips and easily get over worked.

To really target the lower abs, be sure to curl your body just under the ribs, lifting your lower back from the back rest when the legs go up. If you can get your legs to go higher than parallel, even better.

To make these easier yet more effective, we are going to swing a little, meaning that after the legs go down, use momentum to lift the legs and curl your torso, then hold at the top for 1 second before lowering them slowly. Don’t just let them drop with no resistance! The effectiveness of this exercise is in the hold at the top with curled torso, and in slowly lowering the legs.

On the last set, do a double set. After finishing the extended leg raises, rest for 10 seconds, then do 10 bent-knee raises (this time your legs are not straight, only lift the knees), again curling the torso and lifting the lower back.

Reps: 10
Sets: 3
Rest: 30 seconds
Pace: 1 second up, 1 second hold, 1 second down

5. Run

Since we already worked our muscles, it is time for cardio.

We will run for only 20 minutes, steady pace at around 70% effort, not too strenuous.

You should be able to have a conversation, not be so out of breath that you can’t talk.

We are not doing prolonged cardio for an hour or more like you see many people doing at the gyms. If you notice, they are usually not very fit. This is not the 10in30 way.

If you do too much cardio, you will signal to your body that you must retain body fat and begin to lose muscle to survive. You are basically training your body to get rid of muscle since you don’t need much muscle to run long distances or for a long time.

You can do 30 minutes max if you want, but do not go past that. But 20 is fine.

That’s it for Monday! See? Not too bad, eh? We don’t want to kill ourselves and not be able to work out tomorrow and the next day. I can’t stress this enough: Consistency trumps intensity!

You will rest from weights tomorrow Tuesday but still do the 12 minute daily HIIT morning workout and preferably a 20 minute jog in the evening.

This is only ONE DAY out of three gym workout days! You need to cover all muscle groups with different exercises and different intensities from body weight to machines to free weights and compound movements in order to really get the body you want.

Get the rest of the workouts for Wednesday and Friday! Purchase the official 10in30 ebook now!

Go to Workout Day 2 –>