Fitness Program

Here is a compilation of exercise things that have served me well. I’m hoping these tips can benefit you too 🏋🏾‍

The Vision

The core of exercising comes down to health and wellness. Do you ever want to feel lighter? Free? More flexible and mobile? Do you ever want to remove tension from your body and feel really alive and free? Do you want to feel less stuck in your own body?

Fitness is the way to really optimize for energy. Yes, it can make you feel better about your self-image. It can help you build self-esteem. It can help you feel lighter and cleaner. At the root of it all, physical exercise wakes up your body and gives you the proper activities you need to really use what your body was made for — movement!

Energy Management

Working out first thing in the morning is one of the best ways to really jumpstart your day. You get your blood pumping, make that mind-body connection, and feel good about doing something for yourself first thing in the morning.

Instead of worrying about fitting it into your evening schedules or lunch times, you can use the uninterrupted mornings to give yourself that energy boost for the entire day. Take advantage of that time because ultimately, how you start your morning is how you start your life — and what better way than to prioritize your health first? Moreover, jumpstarting your metabolism at the beginning of the day gives you the ability to be a fat burning furnace for the entire day! 🔥

Exercising every day also helps improve your sleep in the evenings because you’ve depleted your energy. If you love sleep, you’ll really love sleep after a full day of intense mental and physical work.

Exercise Foundations

Here I’ll lay out a program that is for anyone and everyone. The goal for this program bleeds into fat/weight loss, better body composition, functional movement, and strength building.

This program is simple and will only consist of compound exercises for a strong and healthy body. Compound exercises are multi-joint movements that work several muscles groups at one time. We want this because it activates more of the body for more of a metabolic response — and the higher the metabolic response, the higher the fat burn!

We also want to focus on compound movements and less so isolated movements because we want that full-body activation. Isolated movements become more important down the line when we want to focus on improving muscle composition or to really break down the muscle for size growth.

Ultimately, these moves are all functional or are actual moves you’d perform in the real world. Think of them as primal movements. Feel free to plug in whatever extra activities/movements you want for an even more challenging program.

The Moves

Squats

This is the most important movement of them all. Not only does it give you an incredible butt 🍑, but it is a full body exercise! (trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips and buttocks, quadriceps femoris muscle (vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius and rectus femoris), hamstrings, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body) 😲 Because it works the most muscles, it creates the highest metabolic response and surges hormones all over your body for that extra fat burning kick.

Bench Press

This exercise works out muscles in your chest, triceps, shoulders, and even your back muscles. Think of this as activating the front of your upper body.

Rows

This exercise works out all the muscles in your back, biceps, and even your core. Just as in rowing a boat, think of this as activating the back of your upper body.

Shoulder Press

This exercise works out your shoulder muscles, triceps, and upper chest. Think of it as working out the muscles from the shoulder up.

Core Movements

These are exercises that work out your abs and lower back. The core is extremely important because it is the center of gravity. If your core isn’t strong, then your movements can get really wobbly.

Sprints/HIIT

This is a primal movement! When is the last time you sprinted? Check this out:

Sprints stimulate the production of testosterone (important for libido and muscle building). They increase the secretion of growth hormone (crucial for fat-burning). They improve insulin sensitivity and increase endurance and develop fast-twitch muscle fibers (the muscle fibers that look impressive and allow us to make powerful, quick movements).

If sprinting sounds too intense for you, find a way to make it fun! Turn it into a game of tag with friends, play some sports that require you to sprint, or turn up the speed on the treadmill to sprint for your life. Just kidding about that last part. Alternatively, you can swap out sprinting for HIIT if you don’t feel ready for it yet. It can be hard on the joints if you’re not prepared for it.

And that’s it for the most part! These are the most critical exercises of any fitness program.

Fitness Programming

The objectives for the program I’m going to lay out now are 2 fold:

1. Lose body fat
2. Build lean muscle

Details

• 45 minutes. The strenuous exercise portion should take no longer than 45 minutes. If you can perform everything below that time limit great! That’s super intense. If you go over, that’s no bueno because we want to create the intensity that stimulates a faster heartbeat which means more fat burning. You also don’t want to extend over that time limit because it can bleed into overtraining which is a whole other mess you don’t want to get involved with i.e. muscle cannibalism etc. You’ll have to push yourself!
• Short rest times. Did I mention intensity? You’ll want to keep your rest time between sets at 30 seconds to 1 minute. Doing so keeps your heart rate up and muscles primed for more action. You’ll want a separate stopwatch on hand from your mobile phone to help prevent distraction. Focus is important here. And shorter rest times means higher intensity!
• Free weights. With this program, you’ll want to use free weights — in other words — dumbells and barbells. The reason is that these types of weights help you work on more muscles because more balance is required. When you use machines, you lose the extra balancing work to help you burn more fat and build a stronger body. However, machines can be great if you’re still building yourself up in certain areas (or could use assistance for physical therapy) and are generally recommended for use at the end of your training sessions.
• Track progress. You’ll want to create success metrics for yourself. Definitely track your weights and tally off your sets (every session). Depending on your goals, other metrics could be tracking weight loss, body fat percentage, performance time benchmarks(weekly).
• 3 months. Follow this program for 3 months religiously. Trust the process and measure progress. After the program is over you’ll want to switch it up because your body begins to adapt to the movements and frequency. You’ll begin to see a plateau because the human body is super smart.

Workouts

Group A

Squats — Bench Press — Rows

• Warm Up. Start with a warm-up to get the blood flowing. Feel free to use a barbell (great for balanced muscle development) or dumbbells (great for isolated muscle development). To warm-up, start with an empty barbell or lighter weights just to practice good form and movement. Do 1 set of 20 repetitions.
• Exercise. Perform 5 sets of 8–10 repetitions for each exercise. For all these weighted exercises, choose a weight where you feel like the 10th repetition is that last rep that you can perform with good form.
• Rest times. Keep rest times between 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Group B

Squats — Shoulder Press — Core Movements

• Warm Up. Start with a warm-up to get the blood flowing. Feel free to use a barbell (great for balanced muscle development) or dumbbells (great for isolated muscle development). To warm-up, start with an empty barbell or lighter weights just to practice good form and movement. Do 1 set of 20 repetitions.
• Exercise. Perform 5 sets of 8–10 repetitions. For all the weighted exercises, choose a weight where you feel like the 10th repetition is that last rep that you can perform with good form.
• Rest times. Keep rest times between 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Core Movements. You’ll want to perform an ab circuit that will last you around 10 minutes. These are easy to do because you can whip out your phone and easily follow along.

Sprints/HIIT

• Sprints. The best way to sprint is outside on a track or in an open environment. However, if you have limited space — treadmills and Stairmasters work great too. If you decide to do these, you only have to do them once a week as intense as possible. That means warm yourself up with a jog for 3–4 minutes. Then you’ll want to do intervals of sprinting and active resting. Follow the structure of sprinting for 30 seconds as hard as you can then walking for 2–3 minutes. You should be completely out of breath. Do this for 5–6 repetitions.
• HIIT. These circuit works outs are great for in-between days of weight training because they’re full-body workouts and really get your heart pumping. Similar to the ab circuits, you can find a video online to easily follow along. They’re also great when your schedule gets wonky and you’re short on time and/or equipment.

Cardio/Dance

On active rest days, it’s important to continue your body movement in any shape or form. You’ll want to keep your blood flowing throughout your body as it will help with recovery. Go for a long walk outside, do medium intensity cardio at the gym on an elliptical, or dance!

Weekly Overview

Requirements

At the bare minimum, you’ll want to weight train at least 3x a week. Mon/Wed/Fri usually works great. With Tues/Thurs as active rest days. Saturday can be your sprint/HIIT day and Sunday being your rest day.

For weight training days, it’s as simple as alternating between Group A and B workouts.

Tracking your progress again is very important. If you find yourself completing an exercise in Group A/B easily — that means it’s time to move up in weight. As a general rule of thumb, strive to add a little bit of weight each session.

Example Weekly Plan

• Monday: Group A
• Tuesday: 45-minute walk, elliptical, or aerobic/dance class
• Wednesday: Group B
• Thursday: 45-minute walk, elliptical, or aerobic/dance class
• Friday: Group A
• Saturday: Sprint or HIIT
• Sunday: Take a break

And then during the next week starting Monday with Group B.

Tools

Here are the things I take with me to help with my training.

Stopwatch

This is a must to make sure you track your rest times carefully. It’s nice separating it from your phone so you don’t have to keep pulling your iPhone out and potentially dropping it.

Bluetooth Earphones

You don’t want wires getting in the way of your movement so these types of earphones are the best. You can search up workout playlists on Spotify or listen to motivational podcasts.

Notepad + Pen

This is very important so you can track your progress. Record the weights for that session, tally how many you completed, and any notes to help you plan for your next session.

Lock

If you want to stash your book bag or extra things in a locker, make sure to use a strong lock.

Extras

Sauna/Steam Room

After all my workouts in the gym, I like to hit the sauna or steam room for ~18 minutes. It helps with muscle soreness, detoxifying the body, and can help stimulate growth hormone. It’s a great way to relax and get some quiet meditation time. It’s also a great space to stretch after your workout because the heat makes your muscles more pliable.

Learn on active rest days

On active rest days, sometimes I jump on the elliptical for 45 minutes and turn on a documentary on Netflix/Youtube. I bring my iPad and watch something insightful. Other days I’ll listen to a podcast/audiobook.

Supersets

When my energy is really high, I like to create supersets.

A superset is a form of strength training in which you move quickly from one exercise to a separate exercise without taking a break for rest in between the two exercises.

For example, I will do my bench press set and then get down on the floor to do some mountain climbers. And then rest for 1 minute before repeating that superset 3–4 more times. It helps increase intensity and get more of a full-body workout. It’s up to you to get clever and pick accompanying workouts with your more major movements.

Foam rolling before bed

This is a fantastic way to get rid of the tension that sometimes builds up after lifting weights a lot. Your muscles get tight if you don’t properly stretch after your workouts. It’s great to do it before bed because while it can hurt, it’s also extremely relaxing and sets you up for an incredible sleep. It’s a self-massage really.

Conclusion

The most important thing is to figure out your success metrics outside of moving up in free weights. It might be hitting a weight loss goal, certain fat percentage, or clothing size. Find your accountability partner to report weekly progress updates to. It’s important to have that support.

At the end of it all, you will really thank yourself and feel good about all the energy you’re gaining. It’s amazing what the human body can do.