Men’s Health Full Body Dumbbell Blast is easy and effective.  Lately I haven’t had a lot of time to do my regular workouts.  In order to maintain what I’ve worked so hard to achieve I’ve been researching what I’m calling, short but sweat workouts.  Patrick Striet, owner of Force Fitness & Performance in Cincinnati Ohio came up with this lean mean fat burning workout.

This workout delivers and is easy to remember whether  you’re at home or in the gym.  All you need are some dumbbells and a bucket of will.

Check out Patrick’s gym if you live in Cincinnati.

I received numerous emails asking me to share, create or find a workout that doesn’t require the use of weights. Well here it is,  “The Kick Ass Bodyweight Workout”.
This workout will raise your heart rate and make you sweat.
It focuses on your core and burns fat, so make sure you’re in good condition to do this.  Monitoring your heart rate is important because if it’s too high you could pass out or have a heart attack.  If it’s too low you’re not burning calories.

Check out this link for calculating your heart rate and getting the most out of your training.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise-intensity/SM00113/NSECTIONGROUP=2

The Kick Ass Bodyweight Work is made up of eight exercises.
Some of the exercises you have seen before in the Spartacus workout.
They are just too good not to add to the routine.

Read the rest of this entry »

This workout was found in the December / Janaruay issue of Men’s Fitness.  Josh Koscheck featured in the workout and illustrates how the exercises are done.

Randy Couture admittedly has me beat on this one. He can get you into shape with just 10 minutes a day. Only draw back is you need Randy’s door gym, a product that I haven’t review yet. For Men’s Fitness Built for Battle MMA workout all you need is one weight, a kettbell or Dumbbell and 15 minutes. The work is intense and it is crucial to go all out within the time frame. If you muddle through this workout you won’t get any benefit from it.  When done right this routine will help you develop endurance, fighter specific strength and burn fat. I recently purchased a heart monitor that calculates the amount of calories burned when I workout. For this workout I burned about 300 calories that is a lot given the amount of time for this workout.

Here is the break down for the workout. Perform workout as a Circuit complete one set of each exercise then move on to the next exercise.
Perform each exercise for 25 seconds then rest for 5 seconds.
3 Circuits total

1. Kettlebell Swing
2. Shoulder-to-Shoulder Press
3. Single-Arm Bent Over Row (25 Seconds on each side)
4. Lunge with Rotation
5. Tight Core Rotation
6. Reverse Lunge with Knee Strike (25 Seconds on each side)
7. Fighter Push Up
8. Burpee to Boxer Guard

Perform this workout once or twice a week.

You may need more rest between circuits, that is fine ultimately you want to
get down to one minute between circuits.

Special thanks to Brad from coordinationbag.com for sending me these cool Muay Thai Shorts. Get your shorts here. Also check out my review on this unique martial arts product the coordination bag.

April 2010 Men’s Fitness Magazine has some great routines in it. Building a NFL neck, to staying lean with Jeffrey Donovan’s MMA Workout. The workout that made me push myself and feel the burn was the “Build Muscle! Burn Fat! workout.” Anything with that has build and burn in it’s name has to live up to it. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed.

Build Muscle! Burn Fat is a 5 star workout.

It focuses on contrast training which is executing a heavy exercise followed up by a light exercise. The heavier exercise makes you stronger and builds muscle. The lighter exercise works on your power. A nice combination that we can all use.

Frequency
Two times a week, resting at least a day between each session.

Takes about 45 minutes.

Execution:

Complete each exercise with in a sequence.
There are two sequence with in the total routine.

Sequence One:
Do each of these exercises right after the other.
Example of one set.
1a. Deadlift             4-6 Reps
1b. Deadlift Jump  4-6 Reps
1c. Bench Press    4-6 Reps
1d. Plyo Pushup    4-6 Reps
4-6 Sets

Sequence Two:
Do each of these exercises right after the other.
Example of one set.
2a. Dumbbell Reverse Lunge 5-8 Reps each leg
2b. Alternating Jumping Lunge 5-8 Reps each leg
2c. Chinup 4-6 Reps
2d. Medicine-Ball Slam 5-8 Reps
4-6 Sets.

Plate Chop  is to be done at the end of
both sequences.
Reps 8-10, Sets – 2-3

Men Fitness Dumbbell Workout By Steve Cotter  Review

I decided to do a video about on this routine because, as of late I have been putting a lot of long hours in at work. (15-17 hours) My time is limited. This routine gave me what I needed to maintain what I have worked so hard for. It can be found int the March 2010 issue of Men’s Fitness WWE Chris Jericho is on the cover, the issue also has  a really good chest routine. I gave it a four star rating because I felt it could have been a little bit more intense. However for a 30 minute workout it is solid.

The Dumbbell Workout -
Perform 3 times per week, rest a day between each session.
Time needed 30 minutes.
Exercises
Floor Press
Sets: 3 Reps: 10
Get Up Situp
Sets: 2 Reps: 5 (each side)
Renegade Row
Sets: 3 Reps: 10 (each side)
Goblet Squat
Sets: 3 Reps: 15
One Arm Push Press
Sets: 3 Reps: 15 (each side)
Single Leg Deadlift
Sets: 3 Reps: 8 (each side)
One Arm Swing
Sets: 3-5 Reps: 15 -20 (each side)

To increase the intensity for this workout shorten the rest between reps from 60 seconds, to 30 seconds or 15 seconds.