365 Metcons
How would you feel if I gave you an interval-based, high intensity, functional fitness style workout to do every single day of the year?
Well, I did just that: I came up with 365 metabolic conditioning workouts. That's a different workout every single day of the year. Workouts you can do with friends, in the gym, at home, or on the go. Workouts that can be scaled up or down to meet YOUR fitness needs. Workouts you can do over and over to compare your athletic abilities from one year to the next. Workouts that don't take hours to accomplish.
365 MetCons was designed with a few specifics in mind:
The workouts are quick. None should take longer than 40 minutes, most will be under 20.
The workouts are designed to help build muscle and make you stronger -- both physically and mentally.
The workouts are designed to help you burn fat, and fast. Interval style training is the best type of workout for fat burning and getting lean. The harder and more intense you work, the more fat you lose, quickly.
Each interval workout will help you burn roughly 500 extra calories per 24 hours within finishing the workout.
No workout is the same so you'll never be bored with exercise.
The workouts are easily scalable. You can make them easier by lessening the rounds or subbing in simpler movements as needed.
You can make the workouts harder by increasing the rounds or subbing in harder movements as needed.
You can mix up the workouts, pick and choose your favorites, and you can adjust them to do them in the gym or at home.
I've been designing workouts like these for years. I've used them on people of all ages and athletic abilities. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that people want to feel challenged but not scared of the workout. They want to feel accomplished at the end of the day, motivated to work harder the next day, and see results at the end of the week. And if the workouts are fun? That's a huge bonus.
Here are a few sample workouts from the book.
3 Rounds for Time:
400 meter Sprint
21 Kettlebell Swings
12 Push-ups
Here, you can sub a 500m row for the sprint. You can shorten the distance if 400m is too much for you right now. You can power walk if need be. You can perform Russian or American swings, sub out air squats if you don't have any equipment. Push-ups can be standard, handstand push-ups, or knees.
2-4 Rounds for Time of 90:30 (work:rest)
Kettlebell Swings
Double Unders
Thrusters (Barbell, Kettlebell, Dumbbell)
Burpees
With this workout, you have the option of going through the circuit two, three, or four times. This would take anywhere from 16-32 minutes. With each exercise, you're maxing out on what you can do for 90 seconds, followed by a 30 second break. If you don't have equipment, you could do air squats, plank holds, push-ups, and burpees. If you can't do double unders, you can do single jumps. Heck, you can sub out any four exercises and still follow the 90:30 format. This is about you and your workout--I'm just here to help motivate you to get it done!
15 Minutes As Many Rounds Possible:
30 Wall Balls
30 Overhead Lunges (Barbell, Kettlebells, Dumbbells)
Anytime you break from either exercise, you must perform 3 burpees
The goal is to do as few burpees as possible!
Man, this is a good one. 15 minutes of wall balls and lunges with burpees whenever you take a break. You can totally make this easier by shortening the time, doing goblet squats or medicine ball squats instead of wall balls. And you don't have to hold any weight while doing the lunges. You can make this workout harder by using a heavier ball for wall balls (as if they're not hard enough already) and holding a barbell overhead for the lunges. And obviously, the less you rest during the rounds, the less burpees you do...does that make the workout easier or harder?! :D
Complete for Time:
50 Toes to Bar (sub knees to chest or v-ups)
Then complete
12 down to 1 of Kettlebell Swings
1 up to 12 of Dips (Ring or stationary)
Then finish with
50 Box Jumps
Definitely a tough one. But you can make it easier by subbing out any abdominal exercise for the first 50 reps. You can sub push-ups or any other upper body exercise for the dips. You can do step-ups (one of my faves) instead of box jumps, and you can even do step-ups on your couch if you're doing this at home. You could make this workout harder by doing muscle ups instead of the dips.
As you can see, I wrote these keeping in mind that these are so easily customizable. You could do them all as written, or choose to look at these workouts as each one is the standard: will you make it easier or harder? Will you repeat them again next year and see how much stronger and faster you've become?
What do you say? Are you ready to be challenged in a fun way that will help you reach your goals in a short amount of time? Can you put aside roughly 20 minutes a day to better your health? To become tougher, leaner, stronger, and fitter? Are you ready to become the confident, self-assured, YOU that you've been wishing about?